What is a "Fanboy"

Fanboy or Fanboi is a term used to describe someone who is utterly devoted to a single subject or hobby, often to the point where it is considered an obsession. The term originated in comic book circles, to describe someone who was socially insecure and used comics as a shield from interaction, hence the disparaging connotations. Fanboys are often experts on minor details regarding their hobbies, and they take these details extremely seriously. The term itself is often used in a derogatory manner by less serious fans of the same material. Nevertheless, self-labeling usages of the term have been noted; in the songs of the fannish parody musician Luke Ski, many characters proudly consider themselves fanboys. The term is usually applied to people in their teens or 20s. Within this group, common objects of deference for fanboys are TV shows, movies, anime, cars, video game consoles, video games, operating systems, MMORPGs, and software companies.

It's good practice to cite your sources. That was from wikipedia.Link

If you ever need clarification on just about anything, Wikipedia is arguably the most comprehensive online reference out there.

Thanks for your response(s) AND "Wickipedia" is now the first link on my "favorites" toolbar. I just checked it out and am totally amazed.

Sincerely,

Helo

PS

Actually GCII Dread Lords is the first; Wicki the second. What's yours?

My first is the Guild Wars Alpha Test forums. Wikipedia (no 'C' in it) is second. After that, the Ludwig von Mises Institute is third.

To me "fanboy" can also have a connotation of irrational loyalty. For example, being very quick to defend any flaw in this game, or to take offense at any comments critical of Stardock, would be behavior typical of a GC2 fanboy.

Galactic civilization 2 own you anyway !

lol !!!!!!

To me "fanboy" can also have a connotation of irrational loyalty. For example, being very quick to defend any flaw in this game, or to take offense at any comments critical of Stardock, would be behavior typical of a GC2 fanboy.

Like the Half-Life 2 fanboys that try to say the game isn't more scripted than most hollywood movies.

To me "fanboy" can also have a connotation of irrational loyalty. For example, being very quick to defend any flaw in this game, or to take offense at any comments critical of Stardock, would be behavior typical of a GC2 fanboy.

VERY true.
And there are quite a few in these forums.
"The devs said" can also reveal a typical fanboy in many cases IMO.

Sometimes 'fanboy' is a form of abuse hurled at normal users, when they disagree with a poster who irrationally criticizes the game.

Hello Helo! Welcome to the forums!   Don't worry about age around here, it's all relative - though I often get teased around the office for being 26, surrounded by ancient 30-somethings

Yeah, I've noticed a rampent use of the term "fanboy" across these forums. To simplify things, I'll show the two most common instances....

* Situation A *
User1: Um, GalCiv2 crashes my system, formats my hard-drive, and gave me the Bird Flu.
User2: Works fine on my computer.
User1: Whatever Fanboy.

Sometimes, in a 'Situation A', the User1 just needs to update their drivers. Othertimes, there'll be something actually wrong in our code that is causing a problem on their machine that we (and User2) is experiencing. Either way, we can only hope that the User2 will give the player the benifit of the doubt and talk User1 through their problem...otherwise they risk being labeled a "Fanboy".

* Second Situation *
User1: OMG! I can't beleive you shipped the game with a Shift+P key to bring up the different pricing options on the selected style of ship for all the different colonies. I can't possibly play the game without this. Stardock SUX.
User2: Chill out, man. The game won editors choice awards without your suggestion...1.0 was fine, and they're just improving it.
User1: FANBOY!

Again, sometimes User1 is just venting and their 'vital' suggestion would really jsut be used by them. Othertimes we genuinely overlooked a 'easy-to imlement' feature that you benifit everyone and make the game easier to manage. Either way, unless User2 agrees with the opinion of User1, they're normally called a Fanboy.

You'll also find Trolls (forum posters looking for a fight), which is another iffy line between someone frustrated and writing a bit too angry, and someone that is genunely out to wage a vritual Jihad on the forum posters...but we'll save that for the next class

Again, welcome to the forums, and if you have any suggestions or bugs, please post without fear...I'd say this is one of the most balanced and welcoming communities around 

I get accused of fanboidom for using the phrase "the dev's said". The point to that phrase is, if they want a question answered, surely what the develepors actually said would be the easiest way to answer the question? Oh, that and the fact my game hasn't crashed in about a month, even though it is OBVIOUSLY zomg wtf teh suxx0r burn stardock roffles

This thread is full of fanboys.

I *personally* reserve the word 'fanboy' to describe those poor souls who hold a biased point-of-view on a subject that can not be swayed or changed, no matter the logic or proof that is used to explain otherwise (especially when they're wrong ).

For example:

User 1: Stardock SUX! This game won't run on my comp(uter). They released a buggy, POS game.

User2: What's wrong? Are you sure all your drivers are up to date? Does your computer meet the requirements?

User 1: It doesn't matter! I bought this game to run on my computer and it doesn't work..

User 2: Maybe you could post a debug.err log and we could help you out.

User 1: WHat r U, a FANBOY?..

As you can see, User 1 is the actual fanboy, insofar as being unreasonable.

Sometimes on this forum the term "fanboy" is used to apply to anyone who does not instantly agree with whatever unreasonable or irrational criticism of the game someone makes.

It's good practice to cite your sources. That was from wikipedia.Link If you ever need clarification on just about anything, Wikipedia is arguably the most comprehensive online reference out there.

mea culpa

meant to include it within the quote - I use Clusty which is quicker most times than actually going to wikipedia - Clusty uses a right click on word/phrase for dictionary and wiki searches.