The Psychology of Fanboyism

In order to understand what motivates "fanboys" and "fangirls," we investigate the behaviors behind video-game fanaticism with the help of esteemed psychologists, authors, and experts on the subject.

All gamers eventually encounter one. The fanboy and fangirl, who you can find lurking on message boards or can hear shrieking over headsets on Xbox Live, are by no means a recent phenomenon-the first recorded use of the term "fanboy" dates back nearly a century to 1919. First used to describe passionate boxing fans-and later comic-book readers who prided themselves on knowing their cherished fictional universes inside and out-the word has since devolved as a description of immature and often obnoxious behavior in the world of video games.

But what makes fanboys tick? Why do so many take such a militant stance over their video-game console of choice, especially when the differences between consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 are minute when it comes to the average gamer's concerns? The vast majority of major game releases are multiplatform titles, and they offer essentially the same experience regardless of your console of choice. So why do so many fanboys develop a strong attachment to one game platform while rejecting the other with equal passion? With the help of psychologists and authorities on the subject, we seek to learn what motivates fanboy behavior and why it has become a pejorative term.

Video games did not spawn this type of zealous behavior; they're merely the latest, most visible host for this often vicious intellectual virus. Fanboy flame wars raged years before video-gaming ultranationalists took up arms in the Nintendo Entertainment System vs. Sega Genesis days-or even when the Intellivision stoked the fires of Atari 2600 loyalists. Of course, before video games, fanaticism of this kind often took the form of religious or sports debates.

Patrick Hanlon, author of the award-winning advertising psychology book Primal Branding: Create Zealots for Your Company, Your Brand, and Your Future, suggests that this kind of behavior has been a part of humanity since cavemen argued over which type of spearhead was best suited for taking down mammoths. Furthermore, he says the closer the community around a debate like this gets, the harder it becomes to quit.

"Whenever you bundle a group of people with similar beliefs and ideals together, it becomes harder for them to leave individually," says Hanlon, who has worked with Bungie on Halo's advertising campaigns. "If they stop, they lose the respect of the other members of the community. They feel like a member of a community there and nowhere else, and this exaggerated sense of belonging is the same as the communities that battle over Democrats vs. Republicans or Mac vs. PC." He adds that this perceived loss of camaraderie can cause people to remain part of a community against their best interests. "It's the same case with any kind of zealotry."

It's easy to see why people get up in arms about religion-few things are more important to a person's sense of identity than their faith. It gets fuzzier, though, when linking that behavior to a person's allegiance to something like a video-game console.

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