On Being A Fanboy

Watch as Simon Jeffery, head of Sega America, crushes the dreams of Sega fanboys everywhere. No Seaman 2. No Shemue 3. No Dreamcast 2.

Big surprise, right?

However, if you do watch the video, notice his demeanor. He denunciates Seaman 2 as "crazy" (well, he might be right there). Towards the end, he becomes more cocksure, talking about the ardent Dreamcast followers, hoping for a DC 2 as "fanboys." He seems to be derisory of Sega's hardcore audience.

And, I must admit, that hurt a little.

Yes, I am a Sega fanboy. I have UK:Resistance in my RSS reader. I do still hold hope Sega might make a good Sonic game. I did own a Dreamcast. And a Mega Drive/Genesis. And a Master System. And a Game Gear. The fanboy is not isolated to video games. There are ardent followers of sports teams, rock bands and even car manufacturers.

I felt like Jeffery was talking to me, telling me he thought I was silly; that the Sega I had has gone and that it wasn't coming back.

When I came to write this post, I was actually going to aim it at the Nintendo followers. Nintendo's E3 showing was, by all accounts, awful. But, as 1UP Yours so deftly noted, it wasn't for the core audience. It was for the people from the mass media, looking to cover the next casual game, and they got that in spades. Nintendo doesn't cater to its core audience any more. It's big releases are casual games for casual gamers. Their blue ocean strategy is working beyond their wildest dreams. As a public company, they're not going to be able to justify to the shareholders why they should invest big money in AAA core titles, when the return for Wii Sports 2 will be much, much greater.

I was going to tell the Nintendo fan base to stop waiting for Nintendo to remember them again, because they won't. Then the head of Sega America comes and tells me that Sega doesn't remember me either.

And now I empathise completely.