It doesn't have to be gaming culture. People are obsessive about their own thing. Doesn't even have to be niche. Popular things get obsessed over too. For games, consoles, etc., go ahead and fill in sports, music, books, shows and so on. It happens. Fanhood over things goes back for as long as entertainment has. Hell, Shakespeare had people who loved him and people who hated him, and endless debates on the matter. Fairly-certain some people wanted him dead, though, so awkward there, but the point of the matter is...Recusant said:Snip
Unless somebody in all these arguments is actually planning to do something overt to affect the subject matter they are obsessing over, their debate over what is better, if it's good or not, and any other disagreement with people who disagree with them is just an act of being disagreeable. People who have chosen, have chosen. These wars do not usually change other people, certainly not to a great extent. It isn't the people on the other side of the line that woo anyone who's entrenched and ready for battle. Only the makers of the product can truly entice en masse. It's their job and goal to do so. (This excludes ringers that pay people to shout nice things about their product.)
The masses do not overtly affect the masses who oppose them to a great extent, not when they are decidedly against the thing that the first masses stand for. This is how wars of the very real kind start, ideaologies and ways of life clash and people die. The argument one just has alot less bloodshed, but happens for roughly the same reasons, because people want to be right. Unfortunately, debates like this are not really solved by the masses. The masses can only change what their side has by trying to get them to understand what they want in their product. 'The Enemy' can't tell your side how to run their product into the ground and expect that to work.
Somehow, this post about arguments became about business and economics. I apologize for that.