I'll apologize in advance if this runs long, but with the next gen ready to kick into full gear in the next few weeks, you're going to see a lot of people throwing their weight around when it comes to discussions of the future of gaming. Though the 360 has been around for about a year at this point, the biggest war (as usual) has come down to Nintendo vs. Sony. And unfortunately, as with the case almost every time the topic of video games is breached, people are grouped into one side or another. And what fosters this kind of gamer seggregation? One word, which over the last few years has come to take an extremely negative and annoying conotation. I speak, of course, about the word "fanboy."

It's not to hard to find a discussion of video games break that has broken down into the "us vs. them" mentality. And when that happens, the F-word starts getting flung about with reckless abandon. Unfortunately, the word is most commonly associated with those who enjoy playing Nintendo products. That's what lead me to write this.

I'm buying a Wii, I don't know when...but it'll hopefully be soon. For the time being, I am not buying a PS3. And despite whatever I tell people, there's always some bufoon who jumps into the discussion with the mighty "fanboy" accusation. It doesn't matter that the biggest reason I'm not getting a PS3 is money, no...it's naturally that I'm a Nintendo fanboy, who enjoys playing childish games and whatever other stereotype those with no gaming knowledge seem to latch onto.

Of course, if I was unwilling to buy a Wii because I was unsure of the new control system, there'd be people who'd jump down my throat as being of the Sony persuasion. And that's where the problem lies. Under no circumstance is a gamer allowed to enjoy multiple gaming systems. If they prefer one thing to another, they're a fanboy, and that's the end of the discussion. And unfortunately, the person throwing that word out there is considered the "smart" one.

So why go into a huge rant on such an insignificant word? Because honestly, it's gotten to the point where it's just as bad as some of the other words cultures have used to put down those around them. Let's think about it? What is meant when somebody accuses another of being a fanboy?

To be accused of being a fanboy is to be accused of blindly following a certain company regardless of the moves they make. This includes ignoring the faults of a game or console and only paying attention to the upsides. The reverse would apply to a "fanboy's" way of regarding another system. Also, usually the person throwing about the word is doing so as a means of attempting to sound neutral and more knowledgeable. It's essentially they're way of saying: "You won't listen to what I think. Therefore you are wrong, you are dumber than me, and you are a fanboy."

To a gamer, being called a fanboy is one of the lowest insults. It implies a lack of knowledge, and is used to help the accuser feel smarter than those around them. Though it doesn't carry the kind of history that other such words have developed from, to me it doesn't make it any less ignorant to throw it around in the midst of conversing. I've always been a fan of the "attack the argument, not the arguer" persuasion. The word fanboy does nothing of that sort, and only causes a further divison between what is essentially a group of people that all love the same thing very much.