While browsing N4G's front page today, I stumbled upon this article, which asks "Who Won the Game Developer's Conference?". The article goes on to judge the number and quality of new titles shown at the GDC, splitting the so-called "contest" into one between Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. The article lists Microsoft at number three, Sony at number two, and Nintendo at the number one spot.

The article, published by AssociatedContent.com, showcases a major problem among gaming communities and "gaming journalism." The fact that the writer of the article mentioned above somehow got it into his head that the GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE was some sort of contest designed to pique fanboy flamewars is totally unexplainable. One would have to think that the author didn't even attend the actual conference, because if he had he would have seen that it was meant to give an opportunity for developers to get together, share ideas, and discuss industry trends.

If the conference were anything like the Associated Content article made it out to be, there would be a giant scoreboard erected at the center of the event, with all smaller developers pushed to the side while the three console makers battled for supremacy. Clearly, reality is nothing like that, but that doesn't stop articles like that, or discussions like this from happening every single time one of these conferences happens.

Comments on the AC article itself highlight the ridiculous fanboy mentality that shows up all too often in online forums and comment threads related to gaming. "This is bull****. Sony won, ******* Nintendo Fanboy," user Jerome posted in the comment section of the article. "Sony, ;D" replied an anonymous user.

Back on N4G, where I originally found the article, the users proved to be just as obnoxious and uninformed. "I think we all saw the leaked footage of gow3, and uncharted 2 to decide on who the winner is," N4G user chaosatom commented. A reply by Ghost of Sparta essentially said that he liked the site that produced the article because it talked badly about Microsoft.

That's not to say that everyone in communities like N4G is so obsessed with an imaginary "console war" that they can't see the real point of the GDC, however. "GDC[s] are not for showing off, it's much more developer oriented. At E3 or TGS you can talk about 'winners'," N4G member Aquanox scolded. Unfortunately, due to N4G's "Agree/Disagree" system that allows users to rate each other's comments, one can clearly see that almost twice as many people disagreed with Aquanox as those who agreed with him.

It's a real shame when a conference meant for the improvement of the gaming industry gets misconstrued into being something that it is clearly not. When will the childishness stop?