On Sushi and Fanboys

Final Fantasy IX

When someone asks me what the best RPG is I want to immediately shout Final Fantasy IX (that's 9 for you non-Romans) and start listing the plethora of reasons that I hold this particular gem above all others. Instead of doing that though I will generally say that the best RPG that I have played is Final Fantasy IX, and then list the reasons why it resonated with me. Yes, even I have an inner fanboy, we all do. I've written on this subject before so I hope you're ready for another small helping of today's topic: Fanboys (and girls).

An observation I made with my wife recently refreshed my interest in the subject. You see, we go out to Sushi a lot, and here in beautiful southern California there happens to be a Sushi place on every corner. The sheer number of Sushi joints might seem amazing, but that's not what is. What's actually amazing is the amount of these places that are "the best". I just have to chuckle to myself every time I hear the phrase "this is the best sushi place" or "they have the best sushi in California". I'm oft reminded of a certain quotable quote "Napoleon, like anyone could even know that".

Best, as an adjective adverb or noun is almost always subjective. Now, is it a bad thing to let excitement grab hold of us? Well, yes and no. Excitement can be contagious, but in effect of opinions it can also be dangerous. I'm not excluded from this myself. More than once I've come across a person with similar taste in "bests" and it creates an atmosphere that is nearly electric. Giddy is a good way to describe it when I can talk to someone about the clever undertones of FLCL, or the impact Pokemon Red/Blue had on our youth, or that The Bouncer is actually a fun game.

We use best as a way to translate complex emotions into one word that says it all. This (object) is the best, it is #1 to me, and that is largely (or entirely) based on my opinion. If someone agrees, awesome! If they don't, awesome! Because they're entitled to their own opinion as well. I can (and do) say that I have the best wife in the world, and I can admit to having a bias, but I know several good friends that would disagree with me and say they have the best wife. This sort of back and forth is fine, it's well within the definition of a fanboy (yes, I'm a fanboy of my wife, she's freaking awesome) but avoids the dark and gloomy borders of that other type of fanboy.

That other type, as I wrote in my last blog, is the one who is blind. Their game, movie, band or whatever has no faults, and they will defend it to the death. This leads to trolling, flame wars, and incessant name calling among other things. These are the dangerous waters. Things like the "Console Wars" are raged by the fanboys, the ill mannered kind who find the best way to build up the system they purchased is by knocking all the others down. Sony, Apple, Nintendo, and Microsoft do not care what you think, they are big boys and can defend themselves.

As for "best", it's all just semantics, but I prefer to limit its use. After all, if we live in a California where all the Sushi places are the best, are any of them really?