14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to the gaming market and all its subsidiaries (accessories and some part of the hardware market) there are strict rules that govern it. That's why we see some accurate predictions when it comes to sales, whether it's for games or for different platforms. Humans tend to follow a pattern and just like ordinary sheep we move in a general direction. I'm sure there are some physiological and sociological laws that regulate this kind of behaviors but I'm far from being familiar with them, although I'll try to be as straightforward as possible.
We have to take into consideration two fundamental laws of "crowd psychology" and both of them make sense, even if we apply them to a benign portion of society, the gamers (fanboys especially). Before we venture in abstract notions of psychology, we must define a gamer or better yet we have to define the crowd that these laws are established for. It's like performing an experiment on all the subjects and then find out who was actually suited to be in that particular experiment. A gamer must have a personal attachment to a gaming platform (PC or consoles) and a similar attraction to a specific kind of game-like action, FPSs, strategy and so on. They mustn't be over a certain age (the age is practically insignificant, there are other factors to be considered like a steady job and a wife or a serious relationship) which represents the fracture factor, a state where a gamer loses his need to play or when other actions take priority over gaming. They also mustn't be too young as they are not yet capable of rational thought (again age is not a fixed value).
The first law was enunciated by Sigmund Freud and stated that people who are is a specific group tend to discriminate against people who act as individuals and often a crowd will merge its ideas into a singular form. As a direct result, each member of that particular group will feel an increase in personal beliefs as he adds the beliefs of others to his own, propagating them with an increase force. This method is used as a weapon against individuals so they can be more easily assimilated (this group sounds like the Borg). And because it's Freud, they also probably have some issues with their mothers. I'm just kidding, but if we try to apply this law over fanboys (consoles or otherwise) we'll see it matches like a glove. Fanboys tend to form groups that are bent on convincing others that their choice (again, the platform is irrelevant) is the best one.
The second law I found to be quite interesting is called "Convergence theory" and states that the actions of a group is not dictated by a mass decision, but more so by a few individuals. Thus a group is more likely to form if its members tend to have the same ideas. Again this applies with spectacular accuracy and we can see this pattern all over the internet. The gaming community seems to be driven by these two laws combined and which at the same time maintain the gap between the groups.
At this point in time the crowd that favors the consoles, the Xbox 360 and the PS3, is getting bigger and it's absorbing more individuals that are either undecided or have been disappointed by the PC. There's no doubt that in a short time, the numbers of console owners and exclusive players will surpass the PC and then we'll witness a third unexpected law to come into action. Its principle is so simple and actually has no connection to psychology. It's called the third law of Newton. The ones that played Halo 3 and stayed home sick won't know what I'm talking about so I will state it: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". My opinion is that if you push an abstract system (either physical or psychological) it will push back. The same can be said about the PC gaming community. They are being pushed in a corner that keeps getting smaller and ridiculed with pitiful games every day. I think this system will push back and when it does, everything we see today will be upside down. Maybe it will start with the next generation of processors from Intel, maybe it will be the refusal of a video card producer to develop a graphics solution for the next consoles because they blew too much money from the PC market the last time they did it. Who knows what will be the trigger? Only one thing is sure: if you're a console fan and you have the opportunity to gloat, do it. It won't be for long.