Support NeoGAF

[NervousXtian]

Why do we root for anything, be a sports team, root for a TV show or movie, or whatever.

It's just something about human nature to choose sides and be an idiot about it I guess.

 

[perfectsil]

I don't even know what criteria to use to decide which one "wins". This is not sports that has only one winner. Is it just number of units sold? Why not profits, or company's stock price?

If ms or Nintendo spend billions giving consoles away do they "win"?

 

[Jeronimo Jones]

Well, having all platform actually gives you one thing you can't have staying with a single one: freedom of choice.

And yes, in this world and age, freedom comes with money.

And you don't really need every single platform, if you know which games you like.

But saying that you can find ALL games you could like on a single platform is being delusional. It's a harsh world, I know.

Yeah it is harsh for some but not having multiple platforms is a first world problem. I have several consoles/handhelds along with savings in the bank, which is even more freedom, but that doesn't make a person unbiased.

 

[yyr]

#teamkatana

BWAHAHAHAHAHA this is exactly how I felt for the first year or two of the PS2

Are we talking about last gen console war?
Because the current Gen already has a clear winner by far right?

It's not about the sales leader, it's about wanting to shit on other people's feelings because they bought the "wrong" console. It's just like how bullies enjoy pushing around the kids that don't fight back. They already know that they're physically superior, but they want to use that to hurt other people's feelings.

Example: Not saying "Sunset Overdrive is awesome, it deserved higher sales" or "I wonder how SO would have sold on PS4," but instead saying "well duh of course nobody bought sunset overdrive cuz nobody has a shitty xbone"
A lot of people get off on saying things like that. They feel validated. Heck, I love my X1 and play it every day, and I prefer it to my PS4, but it kinda sorta felt good to type that utter bullshit because, deep down, that dark side (that most of us have to some degree) knows that someone, somewhere would be irked by it.

Why do you think console wars exist?

Because people give in to that dark side. Or, they straight up REPRESENT that dark side.

 

[Aters]

Sega started it.

 

[TGO]

You can't define Console Wars because it's a mixture of many things and it exist because we're human, everybody has that Zealous nature in them with something they like.
And owning All platforms makes Zero difference.

 

[reson8or]

Because fuck those other guys.

 

[cakely]

EDIT: Beaten to death

 

[sora87]

Some people just like to argue, some people like to defend their choices and feel committed into an eco-system and some people are just bat shit insane like crapgamer and the other twitter guy.

 

[Ushay]

No idea, but as humans we tend to flock to 'teams' to justify our own beliefs, ideologies, enjoyment etc

There are those of us that walk the line between all these and get the best of both worlds!

 

[Jon Carter]

It's not about justifying purchases since plenty of people own more than one competing system and have bad things to say about some of them.

It's about helping the good or bad word of mouth depending on whether you like a system or not and want it to succeed.

 

[potatohead]

Because fuck those other guys.

.

 

[Clear]

Rather consumer culture. This "war" thing exists in every industry were a few top dogs exists. Canon vs Nikon, Audi vs BMW vs BMW, in Smartphones Apple, Samsung, Google etc.

Its nowhere near as endemic in those fields as it is in gaming. Not even close.

In gaming culture everything and anything that can be turned into a juvenile pissing-contest will be.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Its nowhere near as endemic in those fields as it is in gaming. Not even close.

In gaming culture everything and anything that can be turned into a juvenile pissing-contest will be.

What are you talking about? iOS vs Android is way bigger than gaming console wars...lots of them are. You're just more engaged in gaming, but it's pure tunnel vision. It's just as endemic in other fields

 

[poodaddy]

Because people tend to be militaristic, tribal morons by nature and that backwards, primal mentality even leaks into our hobbies. It's truly pointless and truly stupid, and yes I feel the same way about sports fans. People just love to believe they chose the right side and they really enjoy being an insufferable ass to others on an "opposing", I think that's how the morons see it, side.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

Brands dude. People have preferences. People turn into fanatics. Internet worsens it ten fold

 

[JayWood2010]

No two people have to agree, and we all have opinions. What is concerning is the lack of respect for differing opinions.

Its fine to prefer a product, after all its human nature to prefer different things, but its not fine attacking others for not agreeing. The lack of growth from the community of gamers, and the media that panders to such immaturity for clicks.

I do feel there is like minded people though. I do feel there is people who would rather get away from the console wars, but would still like to have a forum to talk on without all the stealth trolling and propaganda. Though they get stomped out as people focus on the negativity more.

 

[Panthers]

I read the title as Colony Wars and got waaay too excited

 

[Ol No Bones]

Fort Near San Francisco California
March 17 2016


My Dear Amanda,
It has been a long time since I had an opportunity of writing to you, and I gladly avail myself of the present opportunity. I am not certain that I will have a chance of sending this but I will write a few lines any how and try and get it off to let you know that I am among the living.

We have been on a raid into GDC but I have not time to give you the particulars of our trip. I will write in a few days if I can get a chance to send it and write you a long one. I just came off of Twitter discussion and found the boys all writing to send by a man that has been discharged who is going to start home this morning. I was quite sick three or four days while in San Francisco but have entirely recovered. We captured a good many prisoners while in Redmond and killed a good many. We fought them nearly all day at the Cape on Sunday two weeks ago today. The fanboys boasted that we would never get back to Conference but they were badly mistaken, for we are back again and have sustained but very light loss, we never lost a man out of our company and only one or two out of the regt. I wish I had time to give you a full description of our trip. It would be very interesting to you I know; but you will have to put up with this little scrawl for the present. I am in hopes that I will get a whole package of letters from you in a few days. I never wanted to see you half as bad in all my life as I do now. I would give anything in the world to see you and the children. I have no idea when I will have that pleasure. We can't get any news here as there is a very poor wifi signal- do not know what is going on in the outside world. The boys will all write as soon as they get a chance to send them off.

We will remain in this vicinity, I expect for some time to recruit our 3rd party partnerships. Our internal studios are sadly worsted. We found plenty VR sets to try on in San Francisco but hardly even had time to feed or eat as we traveled almost insesantly night and day. We could get any amount of Sushi of the very best kind at 10 cts and every thing else in proportion.

I must close for fear I do not get to send my letter off. Write offten I will get them some time. I will write every chance, do not be uneasy when you do not get letters, for when we are scouting around as we have been it is impossible to write or to send them off if we did write. Give my love to the old Lady and all the friends. My love and a thousand kisses to my own sweet Amanda and our little boys. How my heart yearns for thou that are so near and dear to me. Goodbye my own sweet wife, for the present. Direct to Redmond as ---.


As ever your devoted and loving Husband, Philip Spencer.


Mrs. A.N. Spencer.

 

[diffusionx]

Just wait until VR gets going.

 

[Meesh]

Console wars exist because fan boys will always exist... Fanboys exist to validate an opinion they expressly equate to being personal, not objective.
Imagine if people were just honest with themselves and secure in their beliefs, where a persons identity wasn't tied to a team sport, video game, favorite movie series, comic book hero. It's just silly.

In the games arena I just follow the titles I love, sometimes discovering new ones and adopting new hardware for that. It's simple.

For sports I'm a bed shitting Canucks fan, yes they're doing abysmally, but I'll watch them anyway. Some people are genuinely bothered I wear their swag, I couldn't care less.

I love Star Wars. Really wretch at the prequels but truly enjoy the original three, the Empire Strikes Back was best in the series, my opinion.

I guess I'm just trying to say being honest with oneself and your passions or hobbies doesn't require you to validate your belief, it just requires you to genuinely love what you do because that's what's keeping us afloat in this day and age. It's more liberating when a persons pallete for their interests is wider and more diverse, stifling and narrow minded when we're less accepting. And when it comes to expressing a point of view, often it's enough to be understood and heard instead of being in the "right".

/Jerrysfinalthought.gif.

 

[anddo0]

Wasn't aware this was still a thing.

Console wars were always about exclusive games (to me). Now that the line has been blurred, and console are PC-hybrids. I don't see the point. The games are pretty much split, the hardware difference (when applied to actual games) isn't orders of magnitudes. Online, comes down to preference for the most part.. I haven't acknowledged, much less used the words "console wars" in almost a decade.

 

[Clear]

What are you talking about? iOS vs Android is way bigger than gaming console wars...lots of them are. You're just more engaged in gaming, but it's pure tunnel vision. It's just as endemic in other fields

Do people not play games on iOS and Android? Why are you segregating them from the rest of gaming culture?

 

[Ol No Bones]

War never changes.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Justifying a purchase aka post-purchase rationalization. It's not exclusive to consoles. Look up car forums. Same there with BMW vs. Audi.

Every time I don't see clashing between factions within a subculture, I assume it's because I don't know enough about that subculture.

 

[Tadpole]

Whatever is going on these days, it ain't the early 90s. Wild West, those days.

 

[BlastProcessing]

Freud noted this phenomenon and called it "The Narcissism of Small Differences".

It's basically a way to assert our individuality. The original observation is that near the border of two countries or regions the people on both sides are actually quite similar/ Language, customs, way of life, these things tend to be geographical. With these natural similarities, people work hard to create distinctions between groups. You end up with a situation where people who share 99% in common draw such hard lines around the remaining 1% that they will claim up and down that they are nothing alike.

To the outside observer the difference between two video game fans is nil. So we feel a deep need to assert our individuality through tribalism.

 

[Jingo]

Cause we humans are proud people and like to think we made the better choices!

 

[Aeana]

Because people want to make my life worse.

Ps I love these threads where some people act like they're above console wars while also simultaneously engaging in them in other threads

 

[nynt9]

Some people buy into transparent PR by big companies that is designed to make them think they're their buddies.

 

[Twix]

Because parents could only offer 1 choice for their kids therefore the kids must justify that choice.

 

[Movalpolos]

PC elitist shit is worse than console wars tbh.
This is coming from a person with an OR on preorder. Love PC gaming. Can't stand most of the "culture" surrounding it.

 

[Videoneon]

Stupid nerd tribalism

There's a line between people having spirited disagreements (they can be pretty fun, I like them when they're with the right people), and people getting pissed with each other and wanting to construct hierarchies and wars and shit

 

[Megatron]

Its not because people need validation, its because the better the system sells the more likely it gets exclusives. The worse it sells the more likely it is prematurely abandoned (wiiu). Also for multiplayer, better selling = larger player pool.

 

[Ol No Bones]

It's because not everybody enjoys what I enjoy but they should.

 

[Vital Tundra]

Gotta validate that purchase. It's kinda funny though because despite being able to have whatever console I want, I'll still fight someone to the death of they shit talk Nintendo hardware. Nintendo fanboy fo life!

 

[TalonJH]

To justify their purchase and feel like they belong to some "cool" group. To be fair, it's not just consoles. It's phone wars, format wars, sports teams, etc.

People just get too attached. Some don't even realize how attached they are. There's nothing wrong with having a preference but when you make it your mission to downplay the other it gets silly.

 

[Bookman]

Freud noted this phenomenon and called it "The Narcissism of Small Differences".

It's basically a way to assert our individuality. The original observation is that near the border of two countries or regions the people on both sides are actually quite similar/ Language, customs, way of life, these things tend to be geographical. With these natural similarities, people work hard to create distinctions between groups. You end up with a situation where people who share 99% in common draw such hard lines around the remaining 1% that they will claim up and down that they are nothing alike.

To the outside observer the difference between two video game fans is nil. So we feel a deep need to assert our individuality through tribalism.

This is really interesting. Great post.

 

[Gono]

Even when you have all systems, somehow you'll have a favorite.
I'm a retrogamer and collector. I have around 60 systems complete in box. And even though I have like 6 Super Nintendos, I prefer the Megadrive. XD
IMHO, it's just matter of tastes.

 

[Aeana]

Even when you have all systems, somehow you'll have a favorite.
I'm a retrogamer and collector. I have around 60 systems complete in box. And even though I have like 6 Super Nintendos, I prefer the Megadrive. XD
IMHO, it's just matter of tastes.

I don't have a favorite. They're all just machines that play games. Without the games, they don't do anything interesting. I turn on the one that plays the game I want to play at any given moment and that's always been it for me.

 

[Meesh]

I don't have a favorite. They're all just machines that play games. Without the games, they don't do anything interesting. I turn on the one that plays the game I want to play at any given moment and that's always been it for me.

~ultimate gaming zen.

Seriously you should change your tag to "Mega Zen Princess Almighty" or something

 

[_Spr_Drnk]

Competition is good, and necessary. Not everyone can afford every console, and need to feel their choice is the 'right one'.

 

[JobenNC]

Summed up nicely. I also think it has something to do with the whole marketing war Sega and Nintendo were locked into in the early 90s. I planted the seeds for what we know today as console wars

Haha, I think this is true. I also think it's about making yourself feel better about the games you don't get to play. I'm only just now playing some of the classic Genesis games. Gonna try out 3D Gunstar Heroes tonight.

Spoiler

What are the other best 3D classics?

 

[score01]

For the same reason as East coast vs West coast or <insert your football team here> vs <insert your football team here>.

Humans by their nature are tribal.

 

[KillerDark]

Because people are insecure and want to be validated by a toy they bought and other people on the internet



At least that is what it feels like

Pretty much this.

 

[orochi91]

Sports team analogy.

Gotta root for someone, lol

Because you must always choose a side.

PS4 or Xbone
PC or Consoles
Nvidia or AMD
Marvel or DC
Cats or Dogs
etc

+1

 

[DeepEnigma]

Competition is good, and necessary. Not everyone can afford every console, and need to feel their choice is the 'right one'.

Competition is only good if it benefits the end user (consumer), when it impedes progress (like politics or any human growth), then becomes an issue.

Marketing, etc., has us so drilled that 'competition is good and necessary' people are forgetting to work together on a lot of important issues that can progress us faster and better as a whole.

The evils of Capitalism have taught us that the products we purchase and consume from multinational companies are somehow tied to our identity and self-worth as human beings.

Which also taught us the 'illusion of choice', red vs. blue. We act like we have choices, but when looking at everything as a whole, it usually is 'just two' more often than not, on a lot of things.

 

[Donos]

Its nowhere near as endemic in those fields as it is in gaming. Not even close.

In gaming culture everything and anything that can be turned into a juvenile pissing-contest will be.

I'm not sure that this is true. For a lot of people here on gaf gaming is a pretty big part of their daily life, so these "wars" seem pretty vile and worse than others.

For a friend of mine, who is a photographer, who also roams 3-4 different photgraphy forums, the "war" between Canon and Nikon (+Sony and Leica) fanboys seems like the worst he has seen but he is not a gamer. Another friend is a hardcore Apple follower who laughs at newest Samsung flagship smartphones like they are worth 10 &#8364; and could debate this online 24/7.

Thread here has already lots of examples from different industries / sports / hobbies and their forums all have their own heated brand wars.

I think what adds to consolewars is that the partipitians are on average a bit younger then people debating about cars.

 

[SoundPulse]

They're fun enough until people take them too seriously.

Because you must always choose a side.

PS4 or Xbone
PC or Consoles
Nvidia or AMD
Marvel or DC
Cats or Dogs
etc

#teamcats

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

The evils of Capitalism have taught us that the products we purchase and consume from multinational companies are somehow tied to our identity and self-worth as human beings.