The Glade 4.0

This was going to start out as a post about console wars, but I realize it reaches even further than that.

I don't understand all the wars going on between consoles and tech brands (like Apple/Android). And I am not talking about between the manufacturers, I am talking about the consumers. When you think about it, it is completely retarded.

"My toy is better than your toy." That's pretty much what it seems to boil down to. But it also seems to go beyond that. A lot of people will take pleasure when their toy company does better than their "rival." And they will take pleasure in knowing that other consumers who spent just as much money as they, are now somehow more handicapped than they.

What is with this mentality? Is it because they initially spent a lot of money on their toy, and are constantly seeking justification that it was money well spent? And seeing a similar-but-different toy do poorly give them that justification? But if so, why get pleasure in knowing other people who bought rival toys are now worse off than they?

I think it's partly justification-seeking as stated above, but it's also a sense of "team mentality." They like being on a perceived team, and anyone who is not on their team is their rival deserving of their ire. You know who else had this exact same mentality? The jocks in high school that most geeks disliked. The geeks were never on their perceived team, and so were the target of their ire. In effect, a lot of these brand wars consumer folks are just like the "Look at me now" Jenny Jones Show guests: they've now turned into the very thing they hated in high school.

Consumers shouldn't be fighting and arguing with other consumers. The very idea is ridiculous and flat-out immature. "I bought chocolate ice cream and so did my friends. All the folks who bought rocky road are SOL because the store isn't stocking it anymore! Bwa ha ha! We win! You lose!" That's pretty much the core of any brand wars argument I've seen.

Like I said, I just don't understand it.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Its for the same reason people fight about any other decision/belief other people have that doesn't directly effect them in any definable way: they want to be right, and they feel like the only way to be right is to have everyone else be wrong.

Hence, it's not enough to decide that you like Apple devices, and will use them.... You have to also be sure that everyone else *also* likes and uses Apple devices, or you might be "wrong" in your like or dislike of something.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I blame the internet.

Really. It is like politics. Now that "everyone" has a voice online, everyone thinks their opinion is the only proper POV and tolerate no dissent.

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The extent to which I support brand wars, as you call them, comes down to one thing, and one thing entirely:

If my product of choice (mobile OS, gaming platform, even MMO) suffers for market share, it doesn't get supported as well. Poor support devalues my platform's usefulness and usability to me.

If everybody thinks iOS is king of the hill and 80% of the population uses it, the Android store sucks because it's not worth the effort to port to it, and the other platform(s) get all the good exclusives. If my MMO's population atrophies, they cut staff and release less content, and my experience of the content that is out there is diminished because the server's a ghost town. If there's an amazing multiplayer game (FPS, sim, MOBA, RTS, whatever), and nobody plays it, it takes me twenty minutes to find a match, or the matchmaking has to settle for atrocious mismatches in the interest of actually getting me a game.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I typed the same thing as NephyrS, so yeah, that.

But that mentality would lend itself more to "Hey guys, you should totally check this out and see what you're missing!" and less "What you use/play sucks monkeyass and you're a moron for choosing it!"

I'm all for seeing good products and companies succeed. But my post was less about that, and more about the mentality of taking pleasure in seeing others fail. Especially when seeing fellow consumers fail at making the "wrong" choice, even though THEY certainly do not directly impact them.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

i just read a somewhat related story this morning...

Why this 14-year-old Apple fanboy switched to Android

I'm too lazy to look it up, but I recall reading something about 'belief reinforcement', or something along those lines...

This isn't anything new and is not limited to video games or the internet era. Its human nation to seek validation for ones thought process and to seek belonging among those who man similar choices

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Indeed




NinjaEdit: Just for fun

I prefer white shorts Calvin. The rest of you are racist bastards who should die!

PS: RC Colaaaaaaaaaaaa *****!

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My toys are better than your toys and it's all about Jolt.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

Putting this in it's proper place

If you wanna get racist...

How about a little



Otherwise, there is always the old standard...

So I don't know why, but I suddenly want to replace that cat/dog person list with quotes from Kevin Smith movies.

Dog people are 12% more likely to spank it into a Dixie cup.

Cat people are 9% more likely to have their ******* licked by a fat man in an overcoat.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.