User blog:Sabre Knight/Fanboy Rant

Sonic the Hegdehog:

Fans VS Fanboys VS Fangirls

Author's Note: This is an opinion of Sabre Knight. This is not meant to offend anyone. This is simply my observations of Sonic fans, fanboys, and fangirls over the years.

Okay, I have some strong opinions on Sonic fanboys and I want to get them out in the air. First, I'll talk about what I mean when I say "Sonic fan."

A Sonic fan, by my definition, is someone who likes the Sonic the Hedgehog series of games. There may be some he doesn't like, or some mechanics he doesn't like, but he'll always look at the games in a positive light. He'll roll with the punches the game throws at him. For example in Sonic Adventure and its remake Big the Cat's levels are fishing levels. Now here in America, fishing lovers are rare, but a Sonic fan will realize that fishing plays a huge role in the Japanese economy, and understand that it's more values dissonance than anything else. Treasure hunting is a sore spot for fanboys, but not fans. The fan will realize that there are multiple gaming genres represented in Sonic games, and while he may dislike some, he will try to have fun with the game anyway. He may copmpain about some things, but not to the extent of a fanboy.

A Sonic fanboy, despite the name, can be male or female. A Sonic fanboy will rant and rave about everything new in a Sonic game, claiming a game is horrible based on a single mechanic, such as a new character, a new move, or even superficial things like the soundtrack. He'll loudly complain about anything they don't like. Yes, sometimes it's justified, such as long loading times in Sonic '06, but other times he will argue just because he can. A fanboy tries to ruin the gaming experience of anyone else he knows plays the game. Often, he will complain about games he has never played or games that haven't been released (or at least not leaked). A fanboy is never happy unless Sonic can go so fast that he's off the screen at least 20% of the time. While fans enjoy doing speedruns, a fanboy hates any mechanic that slows Sonic down or punishes him for traveling too fast. After all, Eggman has an IQ of 300. He'd realize that to truly stop Sonic he needs to turn Sonic's strength into a weakness. A fanboy refuses to acknowledge this.

A fangirl can also be either male or female. She focuses more on shipping than playing the game. She may very well enjoy the games she's playing very much, but she considers who should be dating whom to be more important. While my definition of fanboy is not compatible with fan, fangirl is. However, a fangirl can also be a fanboy, in which case, she cannot be a fan.

Again, these are my definitions of these words, and different people interpret them differently. As a Sonic fan, I can appreciate that there are some things in Sonic that can be considered scrappy mechanics. I also think about shipping on rare occasions, but only as a wandering thought. (For the record: Sonic x Amy, Knuckles x Rouge, Tails x Wave.) I do not dislike fanboys, I merely find them annoying when ranting. Most of them are very polite and respectful when not on the Internet. While I do consider them acceptable targets, I do so only on the way they act about Sonic games, not their opinions or values. They are not bad people, just bad in voicing their opinions in a calm, rational manner. If they would calm down when they ranted, I wouldn't have any problem with them at all.

Overall, as a people, fans, fanboys, and fangirls are all decent people. They just voice their opinions in different ways. I hope I didn't confuse anybody, and will gladly talk about these on my Talk Page, but only if you do so calmly and rationally. Flaming will not be tolerated. Goodnight.