Isn’t it kind of silly that this is still going on? Heck, it was silly all the way back in the 90’s when many of us were still just dumb kids. Yet, somehow it’s endured and it still inspires feelings strong enough to manifest outside of the internet. I actually had a brush with it out in the real world this week, and all I can think now after the fact is how…dumb the concept is. Seriously, what is this weird tribe-like mentality surrounding the assorted gaming platforms?

Now, it’s not as though I don’t understand loyalty to a platform; I vaguely remember hating Xbox for no good reason back in the early 2000s for “daring” to intrude on PlayStation’s and Nintendo’s turf. But, I was a dumb kid then and that was a dumb thing. I missed out on the early Xbox days because of it, and I kind of regret my younger self’s short-sightedness there. Platform preference is fine of course. Heck, I still spend most ofmy gaming hours on PlayStation.

But, that doesn’t mean I think Xbox, PC and Switch are garbage. Quite the opposite. Theyall have their strengths and lots of great titles in their respective libraries. This is a sentiment shared by most of my gaming friends and other fans I’ve encountered over the years, so I kind of thought “console wars” was over. Yet, it would seem that they are, in fact, not.

This week I encountered what I would describe as a Nintendo super fan, the kind of dude who knows all sorts of obscure facts about assorted Nintendo games and has no problem talking about them at length. That’s all well and good; it’s even impressive in away. However, just because someone has a preference for Nintendo doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t play other stuff. After all, console wars are stupid, right? Well, not to everyone it seems.

I made the mistake of asking this dude if he was going to be playing Elden Ring this week, earning some (very deserved?) ridicule for it. The answer was a very confused, borderline offended “no.” This guy played Nintendo and only Nintendo and had a very dim view of the rest of gaming, to the point that it (apparently) should have been obvious to everyone that, no, he did not, in fact, play anything besides Nintendo.

I just let it go at the time. Enjoy your Nintendo if that’s what you like, you know? But I still find that attitude very strange, especially now. No gaming company has a spotless reputation, and none of them are above exploiting their customers in some way. Nintendo is just as guilty as the rest of them. Heck, you could argue that it’s worse in some ways. But that’s not the point here. The point is that it doesn’t benefit you to ride or die for Nintendo or really any one platform holder.

They’re all the same, and all you’re doing by buying into the old “us vs. them” mentality is denying yourself great gaming experiences and giving your platform of choice free reign to be as cruddy and exploitive as possible. After all, why should they improve if they’ve got fans that’ll buy their stuff and defend them no matter what?

This is, of course, just my opinion though. Many people can only afford one platform or only have enough time or interest for only one, so maybe that’s where the mentality is coming from these days. Even so, I was very surprised to encounter it outside of the internet and even more so to hear from a dude around my own age.

---

How do you feel about the console wars? Do think they have their place or serve some good purpose?

Image is official promo art