There’s a ‘popular’ opinion that crops up in comments sections around the Internet; its familiar inflection repeating, like an annoying ringtone in a cinema. It’s the sound of one set of fanboys making ridiculous claims against another set. While there are many examples of this in the gaming world, this one stands head and shoulders above them as a shining example of how a biased mind perceives the world differently. I am of course talking about the incredibly ‘witty’ (on par with “IGNorant” lol) term... “N4PS3G”.
Before I go any further I’d like to point out that I’m not singling any one set of fanboys out over another, they’re both equally moronic, thanks.
“N4PS3G”, what does it mean? Let’s break it down. Basically, it’s the crude squashing-together of two abbreviations, N4G (News for gamers) and PS3 (Playstation 3). Its purpose is to suggest that N4G is so oversaturated with PS3 fanboys that it is somehow affiliated with them and should be re-named accordingly. So, in essence, what we are dealing with is a conspiracy theory and, like all theories, it needs to be put to the test. In which case, what better way to get to the truth than with ‘science’ (since it worked so well in my last blogs ^_^)?
So here are the terms of the test:
I will pick two positive and two negative articles aimed at both PS3 and 360, so a total of 8 articles will be scienced.
The comments section will be scoured with a fine, scientific, troll catching comb and trolls from both sides will be tallied. Only the first page will be used and only comments marked for trolling.
After all trolls are tallied from both positive and negative articles we should get a small picture of the culture here at N4G.
Here are the articles:
Positive PS3
http://n4g.com/news/787231/... 1 xbox troll
http://n4g.com/news/762850/... 1 xbox troll
Negative PS3
http://n4g.com/news/761938/... 1 xbox troll
http://n4g.com/news/760207/... 2 xbox trolls
Positive X360
http://n4g.com/news/806512/... 3 PS3 trolls, 2 xbox trolls
http://n4g.com/news/805911/... 3 PS3 trolls, 5 xbox trolls
Negative X360
http://n4g.com/news/806058/... 1 xbox troll
http://n4g.com/news/805962/... 1 PS3 troll, 1 xbox troll, 1 guy raging at both consoles lol
Total
14 xbox trolls, 7 PS3 trolls
So there you have it, if it really is “N4PS3G” then why would there seem to be twice as many xbox trolls?
OK, OK, so that whole test is fundamentally flawed and I’ve probably just wasted your time (and my own) on a bad joke but, in all seriousness, there is an underlining point to what I just did. You see, because I went through and ‘cherry-picked’ the articles, I’m demonstrating the very same behaviour I’m trying to dispel. When a person ‘likes’ something it becomes a part of their identity, what size a part is up to the individual but my point is that you recognise, more prominently, negative opinions towards things you ‘are’. It’s a natural evolutionary tactic used to predict attacks based on peers attitude toward you personally. Trolls are trolls because they have taken their system of choice as a part of themselves and, naturally, they highlight negative aspects in the opinions of others as possible personal threats. This means that they tend to go through comments sections and ‘cherry-pick’ all the opinions that they disagree with, which means they never get an accurate picture of both sides of the story. When you take something like a console as part of your personal identity all you will see is negativity and so it would appear the world is against you, which breeds paranoia, which leads to comments like “now watch all the xxxx fanboys come in here and tear this apart”.
Right, I think I gotten my message out there, remember...
When you say that one set of fanboys are worse or outnumber another set, what you are really saying is that because you have taken your console of choice as a part of yourself, you are afraid that the negativity you have perceived will result in a personal attack... in other words you are scared and paranoid.
Thanks for reading
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I think members of the site would rather write off news clips by saying "lol! N4PS3G! lolololol!" instead of engaging in actual analysis and discussion. It's easier, after all.
Plus, people here have a habit of only analyzing things when it suits them (for instance, the recent 500k NPD sales of the 360 gets praised, but then we ignore worldwide sales).
This was entertaining to read, and I hope nobody takes it personal as they do the console attacks.
@dedicatedtogamers - Some people on this site believes the US is the center of the Earth as people used to believe that the Earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around it. Despite the many Copernicus telling folks this is not so, Worldwide numbers are whisked away as if they were meaningless. People on N4G only recognize facts that help their arguments or make them feel better. It is similar to people who choose to only read certain scriptures out of the bible.
Don't take it personal, just remember that in the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king.
You should win blog of the month
Logic? In MY N4G? What is this blasphemy!?
I remember when N4G was overrun with 360 fanboys and just people that preferred the 360 over PS3. I say it is about even now for those two but there are defiantly more PC fanboys then there has ever been and there are just people that prefer the PC like pandamobile.
The old N4g you could not say ONE good thing about the PS3 without being marked as trolling. Now you can say pretty much good things about the PS3 and 360 but there are still trolls or just those that have been marked trolling when they were not trolling.
I think it has been called N4PS3G because most of the 360 fanboys have been run out and now hate the site.