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Discussion Were you ever a Nintendo (or maybe other company) fanboy?

Were you ever a fanboy?

  • I was but not anymore

    Votes: 41 33.9%

  • I was and still am

    Votes: 53 43.8%

  • I was never a fanboy

    Votes: 27 22.3%
  • Total voters
    121
Enpsty

Enpsty

Bob-omb
After having a gaming discussion with my 13 yo nephew I found out he's a crazy fanboy when it comes to his favourite franchises/companies. At first I was kind of soured on him, but then I remembered that I was a fanboy in his age as well.
I was definitely a Nintendo fanboy and had some hyperbolic opinions that I cringe just by thinking of them now.
Today I consider myself a Nintendo fan instead of a fanboy. I love this company, but I can still criticise it and I also enjoy games from competitive companies. Having said that sometimes I can still see glimpses of fanboyism in some of my reactions.
How about you?
 
i-still-am-jane-noury.gif
 
I remember the playground Nintendo/Sega warz back in the early 90s, and even then I was less a fanboy of companies and particular hardware, and more one of series. I thought Streets of Rage was better than Final Fight but preferred Mario to Sonic. I think I maybe leaned slightly towards the SNES but that was more a general preference for the library than the name on the box.

I got more flak for generally preferring portables, but even now I just like them, no matter who makes them. If Sony made another standalone or hybrid one tomorrow I’d pick it up in a heartbeat.
 
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Yes, to the point of getting angry about the Gamespot Twilight Princess review.

To some extent I still am, although nowadays it's strictly about liking them even when they're dumb rather than thinking that everyone that doesn't always like what they do is wrong.
 
Based on the OP I'm not quite sure where you'd draw the line. I'd consider myself a Nintendo fanboy, but not to the point of them being above criticism or being the only games I enjoy. But they're the company responsible for the games I've most consistently enjoyed over the last 35+ years, I generally like the way they do things, I hang around on a Nintendo enthusiast forum... it's levels beyond many other things I consider myself a fan of.
 
What even is the difference between “fanboy” and “fan”, anyway? From what I gather, “fanboy” is usually used to describe people who have a console war-like mentality when it comes to the stuff they love; in other words, they tend to have ignorant opinions about the competition just as much as—if not more than—their love for the thing of which they’re a fanboy. I used to be more like this as a kid, though that was mostly brought about by me being bullied constantly and never finding any friends who I could truly relate to when it came to my love for Nintendo games, so I became spiteful towards Xbox and PlayStation as a result. Of course, I’ve long since grown past that and now it’s just normal disinterest in non-Nintendo stuff.

Yet people will still call me a “fanboy” based on my love for Nintendo (plus the fact that I don’t agree with or feel the need to repeat a lot of common criticism) even today, so does that label even have any meaning? “Fanboy” is associated with ignorance, and if people are calling me ignorant just because I genuinely love Nintendo games and I like to be positive about them and enjoy everything from Nintendo that I can…fuck you, I guess? Like, part of me wants to wear the “fanboy” label with pride because people will call me that regardless, so I may as well own it, right? But I also entirely reject the notion that there’s anything inherently ignorant about my love for Nintendo. It’s all 100% genuine interest and passion. There’s also the fact that Nintendo games have significantly influenced my life (and saved it, honestly), but most people don’t seem to be able to understand that context.

So yeah, I dunno. I definitely was more of a “fanboy” as the term is commonly understood when I was a kid, but I dunno if I’d used that term today or not. Certainly not in the negative way that the term is often used, at least. Honestly, I don’t even like calling myself a “Nintendo fan” or “Nintendo enthusiast” much because I feel that I generally can’t even relate much at all to most other people who call themselves those things—my relationship with Nintendo honestly goes much deeper and wider than is typically seen, and I’m not really sure how to put that into words that can be accurately understood, while also not drawing negative connotations.

Regardless, I guess “fanboy” (or “fangirl” for that matter) isn’t really an accurate label for me, anyway, because I’m non-binary, lol. Call me a “fantanuki” if anything, I guess. 🤷 lol
 
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Tye said:
What even is the difference between “fanboy” and “fan”, anyway? From what I gather, “fanboy” is usually used to describe people who have a console war-like mentality when it comes to the stuff they love; in other words, they tend to have ignorant opinions about the competition just as much as—if not more than—their love for the thing of which they’re a fanboy.
Click to expand...
Basically this. War mentality, ignorant opinions, supporting blindly every decision of their favourite brand while insulting every game of other companies even when it's obvious they never played any of them etc.

For me fan is someone who loves a certain company/franchise/platform without acting in a child like manner and trying to put the opposite side down to feel superior.
 
No.

To the point that I didn't even follow the same company buying consoles

It went something like this

Mega drive
Playstation
Dreamcast
GBA
PS2
Gamecube
Xbox 360
Wii

If anything I regret not getting the Sega Saturn back in the day.
 
Ignoring the term “fanboy” because I don’t like it, no.

I’ve been posting on Nintendo message boards since like 1998 yet never felt the company was beyond criticism. Just like any other company, I exchange money for goods and services, and I’ll continue to do so until I no longer get what I want/need. We’re not friends.

While Nintendo has long been my favorite developer and I’ve always had Nintendo consoles and handhelds, I still wanted other consoles and games. As a former unemployed freeloader living in my parents’ house, I didn’t get to branch out that much until the mid-2000s. I still feel pretty confident that my enjoyment/preference for Nintendo things never became toxic, unfair etc.
 
So basically this is a thread where you air out that you used to, or I guess still have, embarrassing and overwrought opinions about video games? Then I guess my answer is no. I just played the stuff I thought was fun. Nintendo just happens to make a lot of games that I think are fun.
 
I used to buy pretty much solely Nintendo games out of familiarity, but I didn't love all of them or passionately defend them, so that's about as far as it went. I remember getting into a sort-of argument at school about Metroid and Halo once I guess?
 
0
No.

My preference in gaming are Nintendo games tho, but I like to play all games and some of the best aren’t available on Nintendo consoles. Especially when I was growing up.
 
0
PlayStation fanboy when I was in my teenage years however console is just a box nowadays and their first party has been lacking compared to PS4.
 
0
Yes, and it was a rollercoaster.

In the 80s and early 90s I was pretty fanboyish about Nintendo (assuming by "fanboy" you mean like the overly-hyped, overly-personal type of fan) but somewhere in the mid-90s I shifted pretty hard to Sega. And it was the works, schoolyard arguments and such, had to "rep my team" kind of thing. Not flattering. 😅

I was gung-ho about Sega up to and including the Dreamcast going out of production, after which point I shifted to Xbox because of Shenmue, Panzer Dragoon, and other Sega stuff going in that direction. Add that to a pretty serious dose of social influence (the cool kids were into Xbox at that point) and I ended up becoming an insufferable Xbox fan (I'm not calling Xbox fans insufferable, I'm saying some of my friends were telling me I was becoming insufferable with my Xbox fanboyism 😅). I became all about the big action games, the graphics, other systems were blah, all that stuff.

And that lasted until I saw an ad for Skyward Sword.

The 1-to-1 sword control looked awesome to me, I thought it'd be a Zelda game that would speak to me after the GC-era Zelda's failed to catch my interest, so I snagged a Wii and SS on black Friday and it seriously changed everything. I loved Skyward Sword so so so much that I went back to see what I had been missing out on. Found Twilight Princess for Wii, and Mario Galaxy, and DKCR, and then I heard about this RPG called Xenoblade with great word-of-mouth and picked it up too. At the time I didn't realize the significance of being able to find a copy of Xenoblade in its original case at a store for retail price, but I had a buddy who worked at GameStop at the time and in hindsight that's the only reason why I was able to. 🤣

Xenoblade was so incredible that it changed my whole perspective on the "must have gud grafficks" and shit, reminded me why I loved RPGs as a kid, gave me Chrono Trigger feels like I hadn't felt in forever (blew my mind years later when I found out it was a lot of the same team), and fully hooked me back into the Nintendo ecosystem. By that time I already had ahold of a Wii U in preparation for whatever the next Zelda game would be, and with the lineup of games on that console I think I had pretty much just put my Xbox away as of like 2012 or 2013.

Then with the Directs and the NOA skits and the Reggie/Miyamoto/Iwata trinity, I was really fully back into loving Nintendo. Was an absolute goober about how amazing Nintendo was, gushing about them at work, all that shit, just like when I was a kid. Only recently with the sanitization of Directs and the pulling away of developers from public-facing stuff have I sorta softened back into simply being a normal fan. And honestly I dunno if I could fanboy out over any company anymore, because there's been too many situations where things change, teams change, scandals and the like pop up, and I think now I look at what they do as simply products I like, as opposed to me being head-over-heels for the company.

Which is healthier, I think.

Now any sort of factor of these games or systems being part of my personality is more about my own memories with them than it is about me loving the company in an almost parasocial way. Dunno if that's due to age or due to how much my tastes have shifted towards indies or what, but I'm a lot more chill about it all now.

Granted if Sega comes back with a new console I might fall back into old patterns 👀
 
Was once a Nintendo Fanboy when I was like 12-14 years old. Then with the last years of Wii I started hating Nintendo and start my playstation era. Then with the switch I came back to Nintendo and it became my favorite console of all time.
 
0
I loved Sega a lot back in the day but Nintendo has always took the lead thanks to Game boy line.
 
0
I don't consider myself a fanboy and I don't think I ever was. I always praise any company for whatever they do well, and at the same time shit on them for whatever they do bad.
 
No I went from mostly Nintendo to Playstation 1/2 to Xbox 360 to primarily on PC with some console gaming sprinkled in, never had a strong preference, I just go where my friends are then pick up platforms along the way when I can afford to do so and they interest me.
 
0
Not really, since growing up I jumped between companies a lot. Like, I got all the systems eventually, but going from gen to gen I would start with Nintendo, go to SEGA, go to Sony, then round back and at some point Xbox happened... and PC + emulation was always there, of course. So I was playing all kinds of weird stuff, including ancient games from before my time. Spread my gaming experiences out a little too much to lock me in to any one or the other as "the best," even as a little kid.

For Nintendo specifically, in spite of them being my go-to console manufacturer for the forseeable future because I love their games, I feel like they get way too much credit. Kinda like Disney. They do a cool thing and it's "magic," "soul," or whatever else even if they're building off someone else's idea or straight up copying shit that was done before. So it's kinda hard for me to get overly excited for them in any way similar to a fanboy-y nature.
 
0
I've been called a "Nintendo fanboy" because I've usually been more active on Nintendo forums or the Nintendo subsection of general gaming forums, but that's console war talk to me - yes, I do have certain preferences when it comes to games and Nintendo tends to frequently scratch a particular itch that I haven't gotten from either Sony or Microsoft in a while - if ever. Part of it was probably that in my younger years I was only ever allowed one console and I usually picked the Nintendo system.

Platform-wise, I've called myself "platform agnostic" for a good while and whilst I do lean more on certain makers than others - Microsoft is, for the most part, "too Western" for my tastes - I think the last time I thought a platform was unduly bashed was the Wii, partly because I DID like Nintendo's path more than the other's (although the Wii U has soured my opinion of the Wii quite considerably).

So yeah, I do me. If people want to call me a fanboy that's their prerogative - I don't care enough about the opinions of assholes any more to try and make an effort to correct them.
 
0
hell yeah. I'm riding with Nintendo and Microsoft until I'm six feet under

3cb.jpg


This gonna be me when Sony and Valve leave the market
sadly I think the latter is untouchable and will outlast all the platform holders
 
I used to be, in the strictest sense of what everyone envisions a fanboi is. I'm not that any longer, and haven't been for a long time.

I love Nintendo, but there aren't any hills I'll be dying on for them any time soon. I'm long done with console warring.
 
0
Not me, but I had friend in highschool that ended our friendship when he discovered at my birthday party that I bought a PS2 instead of a gamecube. Dude was like:

hmZf1Ft.gif


Funny thing I later learned he became a xbox fanboy, his wedding cake was xbox thematic (to the displeasure of his wife) and he named his 3 yo spencer (the second name) in Phil's honor
 
0
Always have been, always will be.
(Seriously though, I'd be lying if I said that I'm not partial to Nintendo in particular, and Japanese games in general. The most important thing is to stay aware of one's own bias and reflecting critically upon them where necessary.)
 
0
Still am I guess. I like handhelds, and besides Sony's brief success with the PSP, that's basically just Nintendo.

But, as I get older, I tend to be less interested in Nintendo software proper.
 
0
I was 100% a Nintendo fanboy. Now, I prefer Nintendo stuff, but I am not married to them that I can't just enjoy 3rd party games and other systems.

But for a while I would only swear by them. Then the Wii U happened to snap me out of that.
 
Sure was. Then the likes of Mega Man, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy and other stuff I loved growing up migrated towards other pastures, while I was left holding a N64 that got little, if any of that, and I quickly realized that being entirely loyal to Nintendo already had diminishing returns.

I'll often still openly prefer how Nintendo does things versus their competitors, but to say that I had to adapt as my favorites jumped around is an understatement.
 
I've always been a Nintendo fan, but when I was a teen I was a fanboy.

I started playing with the NES and even though I knew of and/or played the Master System/TG16/Genesis, I wasn't really interested in them because the games I liked were on Nintendo systems. But I didn't have any animosity towards those consoles.

It wasn't until the publicity stunt known as the "console wars" that I became radicalized. I sided with the SNES and for me, everything else was shit. That's when I became a fanboy.

It's funny, I see the same parallels with modern politics. Companies like Fox "news" feeding known bullshit to their fans, who in turn become fanboys and amplify their message.

Anyway, my fanboyism continued until the N64. When 3rd parties abandoned Nintendo that's when I realized I was was now on the other side of fence looking from the outside in.

I still continued playing Nintendo consoles, of course. But I was no longer a rabid fanboy that thought anything other than Nintendo was crap.

When I got a PC in the late 90s, I discovered emulation and I was able to experience all those games from other consoles that I never played due to not having access to them or due to me being a fanboy. That helped me a lot with changing my ways.

And today, I'm a Nintendo fan that loves Nintendo, but doesn't dislike other consoles.

One thing I'll never budge though: the SNES' sound is superior to the Genesis'. Barring some exceptions, sometimes I have to mute Genesis games because its sound effects grate my ear drums.

:devilish:
 
N64 was definitely the end of me caring too much about Nintendo for a while. In the NES/GB/SNES years I soaked up every bit of info I could find and never ran out of games to play, the problem was I couldn’t afford them. N64 was about the time I started working and had at least more money in my pocket than I did previously, but it left me wondering whether the next £50 3D game would actually be any good, with all the magazines covering Nintendo stuff here now half their former size and trying desperately every other month to find something to talk about. At that point FF and a pile of other Square RPGs on PSOne finally released here and I was happy to head over to PlayStation as that’s where the games I wanted were, in addition to pretty much every major third party title. I was always happy with Nintendo in the 2D era but I cared about games, not consoles or brands.

By the time the DS/Wii rolled around, I was happy to pick up Nintendo consoles again, due to the variety on them, the Wii VC and backwards compatibility with the GC and GBA that I had skipped.
 
0
I remember back in high school I was big on Apple products, I had three iPods of varying sizes and tried to get the school to switch to Macs. 😅
 
0
I grew up in the 2000s with nintendo only, and as such I was ironically a die hard fanboy of both Nintendo and Sega as I played all the sonic games on nintendo consoles. I lived and breathed Nintendo from early gamecube to the very start of the Wii U generation where I finally branched out to more consoles because all my friends were playing stuff like gta and skyrim. Nintendo is still my number one but I can't say I have the same overbearing passion as I had when I was younger lol. Consoles wars were life and death to me back then but that feeling is long gone now as my tastes have diversified and I've got a deeper grasp on how this industry and community works.

I am a diehard Pokemon Fanboy though, there is no escaping that for me. I will be one until the day I die.
 
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When I was younger, yeah, primarily for Nintendo’s products. While I still prefer the Switch over the other major platforms due to the pure convenience of it, I pretty much only really like three Nintendo franchises at this point (mainline Mario, Metroid, and Fire Emblem) and have become much more interested in other series and franchises over the last few years.

Pretty much the only game brand I’ve developed a much stronger dislike for lately is Xbox, due to their recent M&As of the likes of Zenimax and Activision and devaluing games via Game Pass, alongside all the other baggage surrounding Microsoft.
 
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I like and play most of their major releases but as a company/business I greatly dislike the way they do things much of the time. I enjoy Nintendo, the Creative Entity, and not Nintendo, the Company. They have legendary franchises and a ton of talent, and they fill an important gap in the gaming scene. They are, however, behind in a lot of key ways as well, including quality of life, accessibility, pricing, etc. Many of my favourite games are Nintendo games, and I do follow their hardware more closely than Sony and Microsoft, but I would say the vast majority of games I play are on PC at this point with the Switch as a supplementary console.

So, no, I am not a Nintendo fanboy, but I do love a lot of their video games and I respect a lot of their creatives.

When I was much younger I was definitely closer to what could be considered a Nintendo fanboy, but even back then I owned and played games on other platforms when I could afford to. It's all video games to me, variety is an important part of a "gaming diet" in the same way it is more enriching to enjoy a variety of different movies, books, etc. It's hard to consider oneself a video game enthusiast if you let fanboyism win imo, it is good to diversify and enjoy new things.
 
0
Definitely still mainly a Nintendo player, but I wouldn't say I'm a fanboy. They do loads of stuff that I think is not great and you won't see me defend that...

That said back in the Wii/DS days I would get way weirdly defensive about Nintendo, I'm kinda glad a lot of the forums I posted on back in the days are likely lost in the ether. I remember getting in an argument with my friend who was mostly into Sony to the point we got into a huge argument on the phone and she hung up yelling "I hope your Wii catches on fire" or something like that lol... we apologized almost immediately at least once we realized how stupid it was to argue and get mad at each other over video games.

Today I can't even imagine getting mad at someone to that extend over video game. Even if they told me like every game I like is stupid and bad. I wouldn't care because I don't need the outward validation as an adult I was seeking as a teenager.
 
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I still jokingly reproduce my fanboy days with friends but the Wii U days of defending the company are over. But I don't really have "fanboy" as that bad of a term. I prefer "console warrior" which makes more sense. I basically 70% of the time play Nintendo games... I'm a fanboy.
 
In high school, maybe? My more hardcore gaming friends made fun of the Wii and I would always defend it as a solid platform. But I believe I was right so not sure if that counts as fangirling lmao
 
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I doubt I would be in this forum if I didn’t care about Nintendo so much in my earlier years.

Over time that bias has mellowed as not all the games Nintendo makes are of my liking, and I’ve learned to enjoy games outside of their platforms. But definitely was a Nintendo fanboy as a teenager.
 
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