Gamer Zero Sum Mentality and the Human Condition

What is it about humanity that makes folks think that everything has to be zero-sum? You see this in car preferences Chevy people vs. Ford people comes to mind most readily. No offense to you Dodge people, I know you hate Chevy and Ford and vice versa. But the point is, you really can have a Chevy and a Ford and a Dodge and be really happy-the universe doesn't explode.

What does this have to do with gaming you ask? Well I've been seeing this mechanic play out for months now with World of Warcraft vs. Warhammer. You see the fanboi posts and troll posts all across forums related to both. WoW fans bashing WAR and WAR fans seething hatred at WoW. Somehow folks think you can only play one MMO, this is however patently untrue.

In part it seems tied to this notion of zero-sum mentality. This idea that if Warhammer is good, it somehow diminishes World of Warcraft or vice-versa. At it's most basic this is a beautiful example of herd mentality. If you're not with the majority then you're uncomfortable. Therefor anything that isn't preferred by the herd needs to be derided and decried.

Part of it might be tied to the notion that if one game does well it's at the expense of the other. While there is certainly a finite market-space. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that there is not room in the market for two mass market MMOs. Does everyone truly believe the MMO marketplace is only large enough for a single monopoly?

Since this behavior is so ingrained in people and is evidenced in everything from religious intolerance to fear of gay marriage, I don't really expect to see WoW and WAR fans embracing or at least putting down their knives. But I'm always going to be amused by the irrational herd behavior tendency to go with comfort over rationality or to truly boil it down-feeling over thinking.