The Big Picture: Fair Game

[Irony's Acolyte]

Well I don't think that the oppression of fairness is a bad as you think, but I can see your point. People do throw around fanboy like some sort of insult whenever anyone shows real enthusiasm for something without giving a nod to another similar thing as well.

Of course I'm just a Big Picture Fanboy, so what do I know?

Moviebob is teh greetest video maker ever! Of all time!

 

[Donald L]

I feel that if you like something, it does not mean you have to hate any would be rivals.

However, if your picture is an Xbox Live Avatar, and you post on a Sony, Nintendo or Apple related subject your picture is going to betray you.

 

[Shjade]

I like the way The Escapist's various contributors and admins and so on don't all agree with one another or follow the same lines of behavior. Two weeks ago Shamus chimes in on a thread to call people fanboys for having a negative reaction to an article, this week Bob points out how extremely productive that sort of commentary is. Hooray diversity.

 

[Nimzar]

Just popping in to confirm that I am indeed a biased "Big Picture" fanboy. Thanks, Bob!

 

[Denizen]

The first thing that came to mind was the recent wave of anti-valve people who for whatever reason will put down anyone or anything that supports steam/valve/half-life/teamfortress2 etc. Since then reports, threads, etc now mind their tone about including Valve in any sort of praise.

Out of all the big picture segments, this one seems to touch deep into things that really are affecting not just the escapist but for any discussions on the internet itself and about damn time it comes up to.

Thanks Bob, we need more awareness of this.

 

[Supp]

What's even worse is how people actually ATTACK other people's opinions. For the best example, see FF XIII. Apparently, because I enjoyed the game, I'm a bad person and no, I did not actually enjoy the game and neither did anyone else, the jRPG genre is dead and SquareEnix should stop making games because everything they've ever done was crap that no one liked.

I mean, wtf?

 

[OtherSideofSky]

That was a very interesting point and I agree with you completely. Finding people on the internet capable of any meaningful discussion is hard enough without this bullshit flying around. I believe that "fan boy/girl" is a necessary insult which needs to exist for calling out people who have taken their obsessive love of a thing beyond the point of tolerating any actual discussion or criticism of it, but if everyone throws the word around like they do now it loses all potency and meaning. As such it is often necessary to merely say that someone is a "horrible person", but this doesn't carry nearly the same level of specificity that the other term ought to. The lengths people will go to to establish these bizarre false dichotomies in internet fandom is also sometimes alarming. Unfortunately, I don't think these problems will ever be solved until we find a way to punch people in the face over the internet.

 

[MisterLillie]

Great Video this week Bob!

 

[EAS_Suit]

See, I consider "fanboy" to be a term like nerd: A person calling you one is like saying "You know this stuff and therefore you are more educated on the subject matter than I."

 

[Giest4life]

What is an objective opinion?

What that guy said.

Also, I'm presuming Bob has been on this website enough to know that the fanboyist 'counterarguements' are by no means universal. If it's 4chan he's thinking of, then he should know better than to go there seeking a reasoned debate. In either case, I've not seen many examples of all this above the usual level of ignorance that would berate your life choices anyway.

But, then again, this won't be the first time I've thought Bob pulled something out of his arse.

Precisely. I've no idea what Movie Bob is talking about, at least on the Escapist anyways. This is the only forum that I frequent and the only reason I've ever held back is because of those retarded peculiar forum rules that we have. And as a previous poster so adeptly pointed out, didn't Movie Bob declare the failure of Scott Pilgrim (in the Box Office, at least) due to the very existence of the Expendables?

 

[LoorTheDarkElf]

I'm very curious on when Fanboy became an insult... I mean, most words gain an insulting reputation because someone, or several someones, took offence at being called it. I'm quite proud of being a Fanboy over several things; internet videos, games, stringing stuffed toys up on my ceiling... sure it addresses my obsessive behavior, but I really concider it more of a pin on my chest than a whack on the wrist.

Bah, either way, MovieBob once again makes a wonderful video that I agreed with.

And another curiosity, is it just me or is Fanboy becoming a general and asexual term? Fangirl doesn't have the same ring to it without bringing a highly overweight goth chick to mind who has daddy issues... And annoyingly obesseses over Yaoi fanfiction. I think Fanboy and my brain goes: Gamer, obsessive, reculsive. I think Fangirl and I think: Loud, Obnoxious, Annoying.... and I've seen both terms jump over the gender line to follow the stereotype.

 

[Stevepinto3]

This is kind of similar to issues on specific game's forums. On the World of Warcraft forum's for instance (WoW fanboy) people will call you out simply for playing a given class.

Mention that you think Hunter's damage is to low? You're just bad and have to "learn2play".
Ask about a gap closing mechanic for Paladins? You get the time-honored response of "Bubble, Plate, Heals".
Play a Mage? Say anything and get insulted.

It's like a large portion of the forum community is more interested in just shutting down discussion rather than creating it.

 

[Scrythe]

When I watch Escape to the Movies, there's a 50/50 chance that I'll agree with MovieBob's opinion on the movie he's reviewing.

But on Big Picture, I've agreed with everything he's said so far. So yeah, I'm a Big Picture fanboy.

Speaking of which, I remember way back on this very site during one of my many arguments about Bungie's Marathon series being marginally much better than Halo and some asshole said that based on that opinion, I'm not only a Mac fanboy, but a console hater.

Another one that pissed me off was a few jackasses who demanded that I bring forth non-googled evidence to back up my opinions. On an internet forum. This would be like if I told the guy walking his dog outside my house to bring me meteorologic evidence and at least a 100 person poll to back up his opinion that "it's rather cold outside".

Seriously, fuck some people.

 

[Chinnygan]

I love these videos!

The problem with the internet is that opinion is, more than often, stated as fact.

e.g.

The Xbox has the Halo series, therefore it is better.

Should really be:

The Xbox has the Halo series, therefore it is better for me.

 

[Mechanix]

All this stuff does happen, but maybe I just haven't been around the internet enough, because I don't see it happen as much as Bob described. Well, at least on respected sites, I'm sure an xbox or ps3 forum is littered with this stuff.

 

[DannibalG36]

Bob, you undermined your entire case by lamenting the repression of "objective opinion."

FUCK YEAH WE'LL REPRESS OXYMORONS!

 

[370999]

Fanboy to me, means not just "I like product X" but "product X is the work of the divine and only an idiot would dare have the audacity to criticise it". And yes that is a position I actively resent and work against. I don't know what forums you are one where people have timids discussions, the one I are on could do with people actually considering maybe the opposition has some type of point (this ranges from everything from opinions on Obama, to what the best gaming platform is). So in that regards anything that creates a culture of maybe considering other viewpoints is good.

And yes the Scott Pilgrim point is true. Bob was guilty of engaging in creating a fictious dualing partner for Scott Pilgrim which he could blame it's commerical failure on. I liked Scott Pilgrim (and didn't see the Expendables so I can't really judge it) but to act as if the Expendables was the big bad villian that ruined Scott Pilgrim's chance is silly and angaging in that dualing fantasy as well as creating a boogeyman. Could scott Pilgrim's failure be due to it's own marketing staff?

 

[Aerodyamic]

THIS is why I like coming the escapist. We're better than this "fair play" bullshit.
And Yes, that DOES mean I'm Anti 4chan.
BIG PICTURE FAN-BOYS UNITE!

Boy, I say boy, I think we're starting to communicate here.

 

[ProzacMan]

If someone says they like Killzone and someone trolls them for liking killzone, then the person need only tell the troll that they are a moron and that person can like or dislike whatever they want.

Bob's point is he shouldn't have to. Unfortunately some times you can't just ignore the trolls either. The right ones or enough of them go unchallenged they can do some damage. But part of the problem is that it's not just trolls any more. The "If you like A then you must not like B" presupposition is becoming a pervasive unquestioned mind set of our society.