Fanboy

From Free net encyclopedia

Fanboy or fanboi is a term used to describe a male who is utterly devoted to a single subject or hobby, often to the point where it is considered an obsession.

1 History of fanboys and the term
2 Some common types of fanboys
3 In Media
4 See also

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History of fanboys and the term

The term originated in comic book circles, to describe someone who immersed himself in the fictional worlds of comics and the culture of comics fandom, to the exclusion of a more mainstream social life. The term is often used in a derogatory manner by other less obsessed fans. In the songs of the fannish parody musician Luke Ski, many characters proudly consider themselves fanboys. The term is most commonly associated with adolescent and teen males but can be applicable to any age or sex. Common subjects of reverence by fanboys are TV shows, movies, anime, cars, video game consoles, video games, operating systems, MMORPGs, and software companies.

The stereotypical image of the fanboy is as an unkempt, socially awkward, young man who may be perceived as a loud mouthed pseudo-intellectual. A popular depiction of this stereotype is the Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons. In the mid 1990s, the emergence of slacker culture changed this image somewhat. Movies such as Kevin Smith's Jersey Trilogy (Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy), altered the image of the fanboyTemplate:Fact. As electronic entertainment gained popularity, the term became increasingly applied to video gamers and television addicts who readily labelled themselves.

The earliest use of the word "fanboy" has been dated to 1982, to the cover of the "Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide". On this cover page are sketched overweight, overzealous comic book collectors wearing T-shirts that state "Fanboys of America," and are describing the extreme measures they would go to, including moving to San Francisco, to preserve their comics.

Fanboys can be zealously committed to their particular narrow area of interest, to the exclusion and derision of competing or similar products, regardless of their merits. Fanboys are often perceived as possessing a sycophantic devotion to the creators behind the object of their passion. An obsession may be short or long term and, at times, aggressively defended. One example of this is Harry Knowles and his associates at Ain't It Cool News, whose particular focus is on movies in the action, fantasy, adventure and superhero genres. Fanboys are noted for a very emotional attachment to their chosen subject, often taking negative remarks about it as a personal attack. They may readily engage in debates, but will fall back on emotional responses. For example, a "fanboy" may go out of their way to point out negative and often untrue statements about their obsession's rivals; this is commonly known as FUD.

More recently, especially in the video game industry, fans of a particular video game console manufacturer have begun exhibiting slavish devotion to their brand of choice. Conversely they hold an unreasonable amount of animosity towards the other brands which they consider to be competition. They are extremely rude to fans of the other companies or even people who don’t hail complete and utter devotion to the object of their fanaticism. These people seek out every opportunity to annoy others whose opinions differ from theirs. This trend has led to the term “fanboy” deriving a more and more negative connotation.

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Some common types of fanboys

Note that, by their very nature, the following lists are generalizations and stereotypes of the characteristics commonly found or believed to be found in 'fanboys'.

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Video game fanboys

After comic books, video games may be the most fruitful environment for fanboys. These include:

Nintendo Fanboys (sometimes called a "Ninty" or "Drone", short for "Nintendrone", also "Nintendophile", and "Snerd", the last one for the SNES game console and the term nerd)
Sony Fanboys (sometimes called "Tools", short for "PSTool" which is derived from Sony's current entertainment console, the PS2)
Xbox Fanboys (sometimes called "Xbots")
Sega Fanboys
Final Fantasy Fanboys (want the series to continue forever)

On the GameSpot System Wars forum, as well as SystemWars.com [1], the different schools of video game fanboys are associated with various animals. Nintendo fanboys are called "sheep" because of their perceived willingness to be herded by Nintendo. Sony fanboys are called "cows" because of the perception they pay extra, i.e. are "milked" by Sony for optional features for their equipment of choice. Microsoft fanboys are called "lemmings" because of the perception they follow Microsoft blindly, even if it leads to their demise. Similarly, PC fanboys are called "hermits" because they are perceived as solitary, friendless gamers who play by themselves.

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Anime fanboys

Anime is another fertile breeding ground for fanboys. Some notable examples are:

Dragon Ball Fanboys (get hung up on names, especially romanji)
Sailor Moon Fanboys (very strict about manga continuity)
Inuyasha Fangirls (generally, they're all female, but display all the traits of fanboys)

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Computer software/hardware fanboys

Linux Fanboys - Love open source. View Microsoft as the ultimate evil, believing its products inferior and attributing its dominance solely to sheer financial muscle and FUD.
Mac Fanboys - The "Cult of Mac". Devoted to the Macintosh, both as hardware and as an operating system (especially Mac OS X), to Apple's hardware devices (such as iPods), and to Apple's various other software and hardware products. Emphasize ease-of-use over complex features.
Microsoft Fanboys - Devoted to the Microsoft Windows operating system, the software available for it (such as Microsoft Office), and various Microsoft hardware products (such as the Xbox). Focus on the fact that the majority of PC software, in particular PC games, is compatible only or primarily with Microsoft Windows. Deride Apple fans as simpletons.
ATI Fanboys - Often boast that their graphics cards have greater image quality. Refer to Nvidia fans as "Nvidiots".
Nvidia Fanboys - Refer to ATI fans as "FanATIcs" (should not be confused with AEG sponsored posters, who receive indirect compensation as a reward to subtle promotion of NVidia's products)
Google Fanboys - Devoted to the corporation that produced the Google.com search engine. They are ceaselessly bullish on Google's future, insist that Google will eventually unseat Microsoft as the most dominant technology company, consider Google's stock a bargain at any price and tirelessly argue against any insinuation that Google is ignoring its self-proclaimed mandate to "Do No Evil."