Platform Loyalty: Is It A Bad Thing?

Shadowolf · 2009-02-13T14:29:07Z

Lately I’ve been thinking about the loyalty that is expressed bygamers towards their platform of choice. The question I had to askmyself was, ‘why are we as gamers so passionately driven to support aparticular platform?’ While there are casual gamers who don’t necessarily defend aparticular platforms integrity, more and more casual gamers are beingconverted into platform loyalist, rapidly joining the ranks of the ‘ My console is better than yours’ faithful. As gamers we are always looking for the biggest and brightesttitles that will hopefully satisfy our unyielding appetite for greatexperiences. These experiences create what I believe is an emotionalconnection with the game and if that particular game is exclusive to aparticular platform then the connection with that platform isinevitably created. However, there has to be more to this than a gamebeing exclusive. At the beginning of this current platform race between the threemighty titans, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, many people had theirprediction of who would dominate, who would have the most powerfulsystem, who would have the better games and who would have the betteronline offerings. When looking at these factors it is clear that theseconcerns speak to different consumer needs. In 2005 Microsoft launched their Xbox 360 while Sony launched the PS3 and Nintendo launched the Wii both in 2006. All three systems offer a unique experience, and while someexperiences are more unique than others, most users of each respective system are more than happy with their experiences. So, with all these great gaming machines available, why are peopleso prone to ride with just one? Well for starters these console are notcheap ( The Wii due to an amazing price point from start is exempt from the too expensive argument ).Today we are seeing price drops, tons of content and updates, howeverwhen this generation of consoles began this was not the case. Regardless of the price point of each console there are many factorsthat lend a hand in the platform popularity contest. From exclusive gaming content and controller preferences toplatform features and platform reliability, users will always choosetheir favorite platform. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not! This willnever change. If one buys a Toyota over a Honda they are not considereda fanboy , so whyshould gamers? Well, by definition a fanboy is regularly tagged as agamer who is overtly bias in their pursuit to build up that which theyare in favor of in a extremely passionate and oftentimes annoyingfashion. This is definitely not a good thing. When gamers negatively bash another system out of sport this iswhen platform loyalties get unfortunately ridiculous and out of hand.As gamers we need to be careful of this. There is a distinct differencebetween defending your favorite console and bashing the competition. Moving forward, the obvious reality will more than likely mirrortoday’s platform loyalties. Gamers of the future will have theirplatform favorites. Again, remember this is not a bad thing. In factthese platform loyalties promote and stretch the innovative efforts ofour three major gaming manufacturers. There is a great saying that goes “iron sharpens iron” and as gamers we are ultimately the benefactors.

- Comments (18)

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PS360WII6225d ago

Nice read. Yes there is nothing wrong with having a preference on a console. In fact everyone has one :)

Those who feel they are better people for having their console and people are evil if they like something else is when things get weird lol

Platform Loyalty: Is It A Bad Thing?

Lately I’ve been thinking about the loyalty that is expressed by gamers towards their platform of choice. The question I had to ask myself was, ‘why are we as gamers so passionately driven to support a particular platform?’

While there are casual gamers who don’t necessarily defend a particular platforms integrity, more and more casual gamers are being converted into platform loyalist, rapidly joining the ranks of the ‘My console is better than yours’ faithful.

In 2005 Microsoft launched their Xbox 360 while Sony launched the PS3 and Nintendo launched the Wii both in 2006.

All three systems offer a unique experience, and while some experiences are more unique than others, most users of each respective system are more than happy with their experiences.

When gamers negatively bash another system out of sport this is when platform loyalties get unfortunately ridiculous and out of hand. As gamers we need to be careful of this. There is a distinct difference between defending your favorite console and bashing the competition.

There is a great saying that goes “iron sharpens iron” and as gamers we are ultimately the benefactors.

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