If you had to choose the best platform would it be Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation 3, and PC? This question is debated amongst fellow gamers and even amongst ourselves till this very day. All of these platforms are fighting for supreme control for everyones inner fan boy (or girl for my female readers). The inner fan boy usually wants us to take sides on the matter even before one had had time to play the games. The fact is we are defined by the act of playing video games and not by platform which we play on. When one asks “what are your hobbies” one usually does not state the platform they play on first but the simple fact that they play video games.
Sometimes the inner fan boy can get the best of us by taking sides or refusing to play a game because it is not a particular platform. I struggle with my own inner fan boy as I try to stay as un bias as I can. He comes creeping along when you least suspect making you angry or even flustered when someone has a different opinion. For me at heart I will always be a Nintendo fan boy. I usually buy most everything Nintendo no matter how bad or good it might be. It can always be hard for me to branch out at times but I always tell myself to keep an open mind. To not play a video game just because it is not on a certain platform or not on the one of your choosing is just wrong.
The inner fan boy can even control what franchise you love the most. For me that is getting anything Mega Man related no matter what the cost! At times at has become silly seeing myself buy games in the franchise that I regret (Mega Man Soccer). I have learned overtime that your favorite video game character may not always star in the greatest of games. Even today as I scroll through the list of DLC games the little fan boy always keeps telling me to buy Mega Man 10.
Ones fan boy never disappears, but here are some handy tips to overcoming his power. The first is to always play a game before you judge it. Just like books you can’t tell a video game by what you see on the front case. Even if it seems childish or stupid how do you know that unless you play the game? Case and point for me was Red Dead Redemption. At first I had refused to buy it calling it “A Grand Theft Auto ripoff” but man was I wrong. This game blew my mind and I am still shocked till this very day at how good the game actually turned out.
The second is to never let the past dictate your future. What that means is that if you had a bad experience with a game in the franchise or the company don’t let it keep you from playing future titles. I had never been a Call of Duty fan much myself until Black Ops and even stopped playing Modern Warfare 2 after about a month after the release. I could have let my inner fan boy keep me away from Black Ops telling me that Call of Duty was a bad franchise but gave it a shot and fell in love with it.
Third is don’t get to caught up in the details. If you don’t like a platform or gaming franchise try not to focus on what you find bad about. Instead try focusing on aspects you like and hope they keep improving on in the future. Even though I might not be the biggest Gran Turismo fan I appreciate the amount of content and detail that is put into that game. Even though the gameplay doesn’t really win me over I love the fact that they bring a lot of content to a $60 dollar game.
In closing I would not choose any platform for being better than any other. I can see the positives and negatives with each platform and franchise. It is best to stay as un bias as possible because a good game is a good game no matter what platform you play it on. Now don’t go out and buy everything single system you can but just keep a more open mind when it comes to gaming.You’ll never know when a video game gem will come on a platform you least suspect.
