The Console Wars: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

I have learned that there are three topics in this world I will never gain any ground on when debating with another person: politics, religion, and gaming consoles. All three contain an endless circle of words where the same arguments are passed back and forth while one person waits for the other to finish only so he can run through his asinine case again. How many times do we need to hear that the Wii is a kiddy system, that Xbox 360s breakdown easily, and that PS3s are too expensive? Gaming forums across the web seethe with these everlasting conflicts and I have yet to see a single one where there was a clear winner. We have all seen the mind-numbing conflicts that include name calling (Xflop, Wiitard, Gaystation), the console sales statistics, the argument of whether graphics matter or not, and subjective/biased debates on what games are the best. It has all been done. It has all been said, and nothing has come of it. It would be great if fanboys (or should I say fanpersons?) would cut the crap and give everyone a break from the BS.

So why do we do this? Why do we have such contempt toward other consoles? The same war has been waged for past systems, but those battles are long forgotten. It is today’s consoles that matter, it is today’s consoles we fight for. Go ahead and Google “Wii sucks” and see how many hits you get, it’s apparently a popular subject.

Maybe we do it to justify our purchases. If I am going to spend a few hundred bucks on a console I don’t want to make the wrong choice, I want to make sure I choose the best. When I do finally purchase one I will defend it to the death against all those who try to convince me that I chose wrong, and I will befriend those who side with me. But is that the only reason we do it?

Some of us may have a history, a friendship we built with a particular brand. One gamer may feel safe purchasing a Wii because he has been playing Mario and Zelda since he was a little kid, one gamer might have fallen in love with KOTOR and Halo on the original Xbox so she sticks with her heart and gets the 360, and one may remember the long days spent leveling it up in Final Fantasy and wants to relive his glory days on his new PS3. We love our consoles much like a best friend, and when someone comes along and tries to knock our friend down, we are there to pick him back up. Screw those other consoles though, they suck monkey butt.

In the end it should all come down to the games, not our pathetic little fanperson quarrels. We are all gamers who have our favorite games on our favorite systems, and at least a few games we want to play on the other consoles.

We should be happy that we have a spectrum of consoles to choose from, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. A world where all competitors die off and we are stuck with a single system to choose from is a day that we, the gamers, lose. So love your console the way you always have, and love thy neighbor’s console as well. The gaming world is growing, experimenting, competing…and that is a good thing.

Besides, there are PC gamers out there who argue against us all and we must unite to defeat them.