Choose your tribe

Tribes - are they still prominent within gaming circles?

Being a child of the eighties I can remember quite vividly growing up in the early-to mid nineties. This period is often looked fondly by gamers as The Golden Age of 16 bit gaming. And one of the key elements of that period was the rivalry between the big two: Sega and Nintendo. And as such, one had to pick one side, stick with it and keep defending it no matter how much crap comes from people telling you otherwise.
Of course, now it's changed. Now it's a three way race: Sega has fallen and Sony and Microsoft have stepped into challenge the almighty Nintendo.

So what I want to know is does the rivalry that happened back in the nineties still persisting.
And if so, is it still as intense as it used to be?

I really found the passion of these console debates rather puzzling. I mean, back in the day I played both Mario and Sonic and found them both great games in their own right. I swore allegiance to no console (and still do) favoring the games instead. Thus it is indeed peculiar that the way some fans react. Particularly the Nintendo mob who laughed at Sega fans and treat the Sony fans with the same venom usually reserved for some scum who sleeps with one's wife.



One compelling argument is that when you're a child, your parents can only afford to buy one console. Thus it is a challenge in order not to pick the wrong one. But that argument doesn't really have weight - at least from my perspective because I'm an adult and, like most gaming veterans from the Golden Age, I have the money to obtain more than one console. Thus I have a PS2, a Dreamcast, a 360 and a Wii. But again there is no loyalty - because the games rule.

I can understand a human need to find people with similar interests and band together in groups but the same thing is happening is more war-torn regions in the world today. Conflicts that make these console debates feeble in comparison, dealing with race, territory and an inability to co-exist
Compared to the console debates which are ultimately based on forms of entertainment.

I honestly feel that loyalties can have a drastic effect on gaming in general. Some people may refuse to play anything but the games on their console of choice but in some cases they may be missing out on something good. After all, that goes against something that drives any game: Exploration It is this single drive that makes people pick up games. It makes us keep coming back. It makes us go hunting down everything from every last corner in the game. It makes us to invest so many hours into a game itself. Thus, shunning a system really goes against one of the foundation stones of gaming: Both as a game and a gamer.
I liked the Sonic games, in their heyday, but I wonder how many Nintendo fans overlooked it in passionate (and ultimately futile) disgust. They were great games and at least worth a look. And indeed, I still think it's a delightful irony that the Megadrive Sonic games are now accessible on the Wii Virtual Console.

So to summarize, loyalties may exist but I don't care. I'm only interested in the games.
As we all should.