Mark Cuban tackles fanboys
Dot-com darling and Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, is stirring up the pot again with a recent blog post. This time Mark isn't attacking the NBA or YouTube. This time he has his sights on the Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft fanboys of the world. The bottom-line? Fanboys don't fight "the man," fanboys have become "the man"... fanboys are just corporate shills, blindly defending a particular console to the death for no good reason. Mark even quotes his preferred definition of "fanboy" from the Urban Dictionary:
"Another annoying feature of a fanboy is that if he is loyal to a console, he usually goes to rival console forums and spams the place up with inlets about how his console is 'better'. They take the 'console war' very seriously, as if it's a real war.
Sony Fanboy: omg n00b nintendo is teh suckx0rz becasue its games are for kids because they dont have 100% violence! etc. etc.
Nintendo Fanboy: STFU N00B NINTENDO |2O><0RS SONY, TAKE AWAY GTA AND YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING! NINTENDO ISN'T FOR KIDS BECAUSE NINTENDO HAVE BEEN GOING FOR 100 YEARS+ etc. etc.
XBOX Fanboy: STFU BOTH U N00BS! XBOX is owned by microsoft the richest company in the world, you both suck!
Neutral Fanboy: OMG I DIED ON COUNTERSTRIKE WHILE I WAS MACROING! I MUST HAVE BEEN HACKED! I'M REPORTING TO GAMEMASTER!
All fanboys: OMFG U WERE MACROING N00B IM TELLING GAMEMASTER!"
I think Mark is making a gross over-exaggeration with his remarks and supporting data. And certainly not every fanboy fits this mold. I own all three "next-gen" consoles and am both a fan and critic of each. If you look at our own comments section here on PS3 Fanboy, you don't see Nintendo fanboys attacking Sony and Microsoft. And you don't see too many Sony fanboys on the offesnsve against either Nintendo or Sony. The only time Mark's theory shows any signs of accuracy is when the Xbox 360 fanboys get involved. ;)
In the end, what Mark is missing is the perspective that fanboys put themselves in when talking about their favorite console. It's not a corporate thing, it's a competitive thing. And shame on Mark for that, because it is absolutely no different than being a fan (or owner) of a professional sports team. It's about being the best, rooting for your fave and wanting to win the "big game" and come out on top. To many fanboys, their console is no different than their favorite team.... we'll yell and scream and act irrational. Sort of like you do, Mark, except that we rarely get fined by the league or make the national news for our on-court antics and accusations. Mark Cuban, you are one of the biggest fanboys there ever was. Embrace it.
What do you think of Mark's post?
[Thanks Haja101]
