Console wars.

[castletonsnob]

What is it about consoles that make people so tribalistic?



You don't see Coca-Cola drinkers bragging about how much better their soda sells than Pepsi. You don't see McDonalds eaters making liking McDonalds their identity, like console fanboys do.

[BorneAgain]

Console Wars/Tribalism was the perfect storm of both major companies hyping up the comparisons for their own marketing, and video game brands/hardware makers coming at just the right time for the online warring internet culture to be attracted to that phenomenon like flies to sugar.

You go back through online history and you can find plenty of non-game slap fights over various entertainment/technological brands; Mac vs. PC, DC vs. Marvel, Slipknot vs. Limp Biskit, and so forth. With video games becoming exponentially more popular in the last 30 years, pissing matches and cheap insults about brands and their fans weren't just likely but invertible. throw in the fact that systems and or companies are elements that fans sink thousands of hours and dollars into over time, the emotional investment and inexplicable need to defend them is no surprise.

[Lizuka #BLM]

It's always been stupid. Especially when nowadays people still get furious over when a game that was formerly exclusive no longer is; no downside whatsoever to things becoming more accessible.

[schma]

As a kid it was partly tied up wealth level as well I think. The wealthier kids might have more than one game system in any generation. Meanwhile, most kids were lucky if they got one system a generation. You were with that system for the next 5-8 years. The last thing you wanted was to think you had the 'wrong' one. Also, kids are jerks with no sense of what matters.

As I got older, I started to recognize that different systems had different strengths and it wasn't about who was better. As a teenager I loved my playstation (the first one) for the single player games. However, I knew my buddies N64 was the superior party machine. In university I couldn't afford another game system and ended up moving to PC gaming as my computer was my entertainment centre for years. As I matured my tribalism lessened and lessened until I saw no use for it.


In reference to cocacola and mcdonalds, I thimk part of it is that you can get food and drink from so many sources whereas videogames are a much tighter ecosystem. At any given time there's only a few contenders in the market so it becomes much easier to pick one and go, this one, this is the one I identify with because reasons.

[Cyno]

Sega and Nintendo encouraged this shit with their advertising, too. But Gamers™ suck in general. The tribalism over console company is just the tip of the iceberg of the shit wrong inside the gaming community.

[G✇JI☈A]

Remember reading the Console Wars book and one thing that repeated over and over that Sega’s aim was not to make great consoles and fun games.. Their aim was to send Nintendo out of business..

They thought they were in a literal war to the death. A terrible mindset.. If they just co existed and focused on making a great product, Sega could still be making hardware today.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

I got a timely reminder of tribalism in gaming today. Somebody replied to a tweet about a Microsoft president declaring post-Brexit UK as a less-attractive place to do business compared to the EU, to which somebody else replied to the effect of "Who cares what Microsoft thinks? Sony are valued at $15 trillion while Microsoft are only valued at $2 trillion, so Sony could leave the game market altogether and still have enough income to buy Microsoft's worthless asses."

When I pointed out that Sony are worth only $116 billion, and that they probably confused Japanese yen for American dollars in their "15 trillion" valuation I got a DM from them telling me to kill myself. Of course, that person had a timeline full of tribalistic gaming shit.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

It's part of the never ending quest to extend childhood into infinity. There's no f***ing reason on Earth to be a 45 year old man and walking around dressed as Iron Man. Taking something you like and making it your entire personality is something the Internet and cons have enabled to an unhealthy level.

Two people loving Cherry Coke is a fine reason to best friends when you're 8, but once the first grey hair starts appearing in the beard, it's time to settle down.

[Cyno]

Apr 27, 2023 21:57:38 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

Remember reading the Console Wars book and one thing that repeated over and over that Sega’s aim was not to make great consoles and fun games.. Their aim was to send Nintendo out of business..

They thought they were in a literal war to the death. A terrible mindset.. If they just co existed and focused on making a great product, Sega could still be making hardware today.

Sega had a lot of issues that didn't really have much to do with that mindset with Nintendo, especially since the Genesis was easily their most successful console. Their biggest problems came much later. The Saturn was basically DOA outside of Japan because of newcomer Sony's Playstation. Dreamcast had the opposite problem where it was generally pretty successful in the West but never caught on in Japan despite beating the PS2 to the market by over a year.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Apr 27, 2023 22:42:38 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Apr 27, 2023 21:57:38 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

Remember reading the Console Wars book and one thing that repeated over and over that Sega’s aim was not to make great consoles and fun games.. Their aim was to send Nintendo out of business..

They thought they were in a literal war to the death. A terrible mindset.. If they just co existed and focused on making a great product, Sega could still be making hardware today.

Sega had a lot of issues that didn't really have much to do with that mindset with Nintendo, especially since the Genesis was easily their most successful console. Their biggest problems came much later. The Saturn was basically DOA outside of Japan because of newcomer Sony's Playstation. Dreamcast had the opposite problem where it was generally pretty successful in the West but never caught on in Japan despite beating the PS2 to the market by over a year.

Sega kind of had the same general deal as WCW where they kind of just had a hot streak for a period of time that did a decent job of disguising that on the whole as a business they really never actually knew what they were doing.

[A Platypus Rave]

Apr 27, 2023 22:45:40 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Apr 27, 2023 22:42:38 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Sega had a lot of issues that didn't really have much to do with that mindset with Nintendo, especially since the Genesis was easily their most successful console. Their biggest problems came much later. The Saturn was basically DOA outside of Japan because of newcomer Sony's Playstation. Dreamcast had the opposite problem where it was generally pretty successful in the West but never caught on in Japan despite beating the PS2 to the market by over a year.

Sega kind of had the same general deal as WCW where they kind of just had a hot streak for a period of time that did a decent job of disguising that on the whole as a business they really never actually knew what they were doing.

Yeah... I mean even just look at Sonic over the years you can kinda see that with them just constantly throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks... and then ignoring that >_>

Not ot mention basically ignoring what Sega of America did and thinking everything they did was garbage...

[Heartbreaker]

People who simp for billionaire corporations over plastic boxes are hilarious.

[Mr Mario Mario]

I think it comes down to justification of their own choices. You’re spending hundreds if not thousands all in once you take into account games etc and you wouldn’t be as stupid to buy the inferior console would you?

[Non Banjoble Tokens]

The whole thing is sad. Especially when everyone knows the absolute pinnacle of gaming was the Odyssey.

[Glitch]

Apr 27, 2023 22:26:03 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

It's part of the never ending quest to extend childhood into infinity. There's no f***ing reason on Earth to be a 45 year old man and walking around dressed as Iron Man. Taking something you like and making it your entire personality is something the Internet and cons have enabled to an unhealthy level.

Two people loving Cherry Coke is a fine reason to best friends when you're 8, but once the first grey hair starts appearing in the beard, it's time to settle down.

You could say the same thing about sports (or really anything else). There's no reason to be a 45 year old man wearing the same type of shirts that guys playing with a ball also wear. All the internet and cons did was spill over the extreme tribalistic culture that existed elsewhere.

[Bo Rida]

I don't like everything being reduced to tribalism, there are very good reasons to hate basically all the major companies and/or systems at various points in time. Often it's a case of picking the lesser evil.

Those more interested in company accounts than their product/service are weird though regardless of industry.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Anyone who didn’t play the Jaguar 64 is a noob.

[Fundertaker]

Tiger Eletronics Game Watch Master Race!

[BorneAgain]

Apr 27, 2023 22:42:38 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Apr 27, 2023 21:57:38 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

Remember reading the Console Wars book and one thing that repeated over and over that Sega’s aim was not to make great consoles and fun games.. Their aim was to send Nintendo out of business..

They thought they were in a literal war to the death. A terrible mindset.. If they just co existed and focused on making a great product, Sega could still be making hardware today.

Sega had a lot of issues that didn't really have much to do with that mindset with Nintendo, especially since the Genesis was easily their most successful console. Their biggest problems came much later. The Saturn was basically DOA outside of Japan because of newcomer Sony's Playstation. Dreamcast had the opposite problem where it was generally pretty successful in the West but never caught on in Japan despite beating the PS2 to the market by over a year.

A lot of Sega's core issues come down to that they spent a lot in the early to mid 90s to get market share (leaving them without much of a safety net like Nintendo's had), did not anticipate Sony's 3D technology (leading to strained efforts to alter the existing Saturn engine to match it), and loads of internal fighting at the top of SoJ (which effectively hindered efforts to right the ship in the era of the Dreamcast). While the writing may have been on the wall as early as 96, with Sony and Nintendo's domination of the home and portable markets respectively giving Sega no real inroads with consoles, certain key decisions at critical points might have eased the decline a bit.

[A Platypus Rave]

Apr 28, 2023 5:44:34 GMT -5 BorneAgain said:

Apr 27, 2023 22:42:38 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Sega had a lot of issues that didn't really have much to do with that mindset with Nintendo, especially since the Genesis was easily their most successful console. Their biggest problems came much later. The Saturn was basically DOA outside of Japan because of newcomer Sony's Playstation. Dreamcast had the opposite problem where it was generally pretty successful in the West but never caught on in Japan despite beating the PS2 to the market by over a year.

A lot of Sega's core issues come down to that they spent a lot in the early to mid 90s to get market share (leaving them without much of a safety net like Nintendo's had), did not anticipate Sony's 3D technology (leading to strained efforts to alter the existing Saturn engine to match it), and loads of internal fighting at the top of SoJ (which effectively hindered efforts to right the ship in the era of the Dreamcast). While the writing may have been on the wall as early as 96, with Sony and Nintendo's domination of the home and portable markets respectively giving Sega no real inroads with consoles, certain key decisions at critical points might have eased the decline a bit.

I also think that the "add ons' to the Genesis didn't do it any favors in the public's eyes either.

The Sega CD and 32x were basically put out and then left to die...

there were like 40 CD games available in america... and only like 55 total... and 40 total for the 32x... and 6 of them required BOTH.