The terrifying legion: Why fanboy-ism isn't cute.

So it is well known to many readers that recently I took issue with the way JRPG stalwart developer Nihon Falcom has been conducting its' business.  But today I want to talk about something tangentially related to it; fanboyism.

After taking my opinions to various fansites and forums, expecting to find people who would agree with me on how we fans have been given the rough end of the stick, instead I was met with something that made my stomach churn.  Open hostility? Mass flaming?  All manners of profanities?  Actually no, none of that.

What I found was that the fan-base has actually become a kind of corporate shield for Nihon Falcom.  Fans scrambled to offer up excuses as to why Falcom has conducted itself.  Not explanations; excuses.  These weren't just Nihon Falcom fans, but what I have come to term 'Nihon Falcom Apologists'.  These are people who have taken up the developer's responsibility to conduct PR where the developer has consistently failed to do so.

Now to be fair, this phenomenon exists in all fanbases, but it is normally counter-balanced by the presence of long-term cynical fanbase.  In the case of Nihon Falcom this isn't the case; Fan apologists make up almost the entire fanbase because Nihon Falcom's style of games are built on the premise of accepting compromise (fans agree to overlook the low tech nature of Falcom's games in exchange for the gooey gamey goodness within).  Fans go around apologetically taking up the Falcom mantle but relinquish their role as critics.  A role which is not only expected of them, but a social responsibility and a cornerstone in preventing anti-consumer practice.

The kind of behaviour listed above is a betrayal and reversal of consumer trust.  We trust the consumer base to act as a barrier between abusive corporate practice and ourselves.  We trust that consumer base because, at heart, they share the same interests we do.  But what happens when that consumer base starts setting up a barrier from the corporate side of the fence?  You end up with the fanbase itself perpetuating anti-consumer practice through legitimisation.  Quite why this kind of sentiment is allowed to spread on forums despite being damaging to the community as a whole is beyond me.  In all likelihood most forum administrator's simply don't see the relationship between extreme fandom and perpetuation of anti-consumer sentiment.

I want to state in no unequivocal terms that the consumer has a responsibility (not just an expectation) to side with other consumers.  Ideally that wouldn't necessitate siding against a company, but inevitably there will be times when that is exactly what it entails.