Have Gamers Lost The Ability To Express Opinion?
Category: Pop Culture
Tags: email, fanboy, have gamers lost the ability to express opinion, internet
I sent an email to the GiantBomb team the other day regarding the problem that seems to be devouring Internet culture of late. It’s not solo to games — I’ve seen it happen in music and movie forums. It seems that across the Internet people are constantly getting put down for their opinions.
The word “fanboy” has just been put in the dictionary and literally means “an individual who is devoted to a single fannish subject, or to a single point of view”.
I find the word really derogatory and downright irritating - difference of opinion should be challenged and discussed but the other party should never be put down. Whatever your hobby or interest you should never have to worry about your opinion being degraded because it conflicts with the views of others.
Here is my original email:
“I speak to you after observing some rather hostile threads regarding Guerilla’s Killzone 2. Given the nature of the game (being a PS3 exclusive) many gamers flocked to the threads to talk about how much better Gears Of War 2 (360 exclusive) looks or vice versa. Now regardless of the relevence of this kind of discussion I must pose to you the question: have gamers finally lost their opinion?
It seems to me that throughout the Internet (and in some cases even the real-world now) no one is “allowed” to have an opinion for fear of their views being relegated to “fanboy” material.
I see so many threads from people who sugarcoat their opinions in order to save themselves from a backlash and, hell, even journalists are not spared. If one particular journalist (hypothetically) rates Killzone 2 higher than (for example) a Gears Of War 2 he “must be a PS3 fanboy” — regardless of this being his honest and subjective opinion.
It’s certainly not something that’s going to keep me up at night but it worries me that people are seeing it necessary to adapt their opinion’s to make them seem more credible.
Do you think the term “fanboy” has destroyed our ability to share without fear our honest opinion on video games (or any other field of life) due to instantly being discredited as “ignorant” because it conflicts with another’s views?”
Thoughts?
