Opinion
Things are getting pretty intense in the gaming industry lately as it continues to grow. Not really sure who this is for, aside from being pretty therapeutic to write, but things have gotten pretty toxic amongst video game ‘fanboys’, more so than usual. I guess this is kind of aimed at redirecting the contempt for one another and attempt to and raise awareness of the manipulation involved, so we can move past it to help the industry continue to grow faster, and generally enjoy our entertainment better.
Firstly, this is not about throwing shade at ‘victims’ of ‘fanboyism’ as it is the result that businesses and marketers ultimately want to achieve. Understanding what is happening is the key to recognising and stopping the in-fighting, so we can work together to ask for more from our favourite entertainment mediums…
Since the inception of global financial markets, shareholders and owners of various commodities that are subject to price increase/decrease such as Forex, Stocks, ETFs and more recently, Crypto Currencies; corporate fanboys have existed. Psychologically speaking it makes sense, people who have a vested financial interest in a commodity potentially affecting their own personal/family wellbeing. They want to shout and cheer it on because it they have a vested interest in its performance, but also this could help bring in more retail buyers to drive up the price. But in more recent years, and with the rise of social media, cancel culture and the ‘celebratisation’ of billionaires, the world now appears to be rife with toxic rows between delusional corporate ‘fanboys’ with no vested interest in a company’s stock. This occurs almost if not everywhere; but in this piece (as you would expect) we are going to home in on the video games industry, as we look at what a ‘fanboy’ is and how we have ended up here, what the mentality is (or seems to be) and why it is damaging to YOU as a consumer.
Fanboyism – How did we get here?
‘Fanboyism’ is a form of tribalism, historically a normal human behaviour that formed as a way of protection from external threats back in ancient hunter-gatherer times. As time has moved on and civilisations have developed, we have witnessed tribalism continue to occur everywhere in various different ways, with varying degrees of severity and toxicity. Mostly nowadays seen in politics, business and even in sports and entertainment. The simplest and probably one of the earliest examples of its existence in entertainment is sports. Dating back to the old Gladiators in the Colosseum and the ancient Olympics.
Source: Xbox
It is quite cleverly done really. The creators of our societies world-wide take the natural instinct we have as humans to be tribal in our approach to one-another that would potentially see tribes of human-beings war and kill one-another and redirect that tribal instinct towards pretty much everything else. From Steve and Bill keyboard warring, toxically debating Liberals vs Conservatives on Twitter, to Amanda and Phyllis having a punch-up down Sesame Street about who the biggest muppet is. Take a human instinct/behaviour and modernise it in a way that fits society now. Similar has been done with religion over the years. Taking traditions and practices from ancient religions and including it within the larger religions. A good example of this is decorating of the Christmas tree.
So, creators or developers of human civilisations have taken potential behavioural obstacles that would inhibit the progression of civilisation, changed and redirected the ways we experience them in a way that either minimises the impact on development and in a lot of cases nowadays, fuels the growth of civilisation.
Gambling, Sports teams and the apparent merge with corporate fanboyism
Slowly, we have managed to move on from just cheering on things which affect our own wellbeing, be that financial, health or otherwise, to cheering on things which are there purely for entertainment value giving us nothing but the feelings of euphoria or depression. Enter sports teams. Sports teams, if you take away the gambling element from it, is ultimately just fanfare. Probably tapping into things like the tribal nature of where we are from or things we have emotional connections to, hence many sports teams are named after places. As we experience the thrill of watching our team play, score and win with friends and family, we forge these emotional connections to these teams without the need for any personal gain.
source: compoundingpennies.com
Since broadcasting began, but much more so since cable TV rights came to sports. Millions, even billions of dollars are spent to acquire the exclusive rights to broadcast these in various territories. Yes, the NFL the EPL whatever sport and whatever top league it is, it’s a business and interest and engagement from as many people as possible is what they want. Are you starting to see where I am heading with this?
Marketers and businesses, particularly those in the entertainment industry, have witnessed and seen the value in our emotional reactions and connections to our entertainment experiences and have obviously done quite an amazing job at selling them to us, as we see the growth in big-tech driven by their growth into the entertainment sector. This coupled with the parabolic growth of sports over the last few decades.
Video Game Fanboys
So now we can see where it all stems from… From sport and other big money entertainment. Big business figured out they could generate long term customer support and growth by connecting themselves to our positive emotional responses. In gaming, the ability to share our experiences with others over the internet has only increased this narrative. This has allowed for them to not always be objectively the best offering and enables them to extract more money out of their consumer. Clever.
Social Media has a lot to answer for. Social Media and search engine algorithms are tailored towards controversy, negativity, envy and jealousy. “Shadow of greed, that is” – Yoda. People showing how much they are enjoying a game, a system whatever. It all feeds into your ‘feed’ to try and invoke an emotional response.
Witnessing the blind worship from ‘fanboys’ who cannot see past their own bias to objective facts can be infuriating to see and worse if you have to deal with it. But try not to let them wind you up too much, after all that is what these companies want us to do DESPITE what they may tell you.
Over the years, people have said they think of it like they think of sports. That is the endgame of these companies and marketers. Creating a brand loyal following. The problem with this for us is that A, sports have, and in many ways continue to have ‘ultras’ or hooligans who actively engage in anger and violence. B, It doesn’t cost you anything to support a team. Okay, you might buy merch or pay to watch a game, but you don’t have to. These things can be done for free too. Engaging in ‘supporting’ a video game system provider like a sports team is actually nonsensical. Giving blind support to someone you are actively paying regularly? Really think about that.
Corporate and indeed ‘fanboyism’ in general is exactly 0% beneficial to consumers. If it gets too out of hand will result in paying more, getting less, less innovation, more corporate greed, less competition and a smaller industry. So, how do we avoid letting this happen?
The Fanboy Solution
Self-awareness. I don’t mean this in the sense of be ‘self-aware because you are behaving like a spoilt child’, but self-aware of our emotions when buying into a company’s products, services and eco-system. Yes, sadly it falls on us, the consumer, to exercise discipline and try to fight our natural instincts that corporations are actively trying to play upon. People are always going to have their preferences, that’s normal. But being able to recognise your emotional state and therefore any attachment to such things will enable us to make better purchasing decisions, but also to be happier people.
They work for us; we definitely do not work for them. It’s okay to like products and services from competing areas to our preferred product, service/ecosystem. One of the Social Media benefits is that you communicate feedback to these companies. With enough customer feedback and looking at the other companies’ financial data, changes will come, competition will increase, there will be a better market offering.
Voting with your wallet. What these companies pay attention to most is money. Either with sales or engagement figures. The best way to get change is by changing our spending habits. Often the hardest to do, but definitely the most effective.
