We left off last time in the midst of the greatest nerdosphere competition ever, inspired by the greatness that is the Emerald City Comic Con that took place this past weekend. We’ve settled the fights between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, along with the competition between JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon, but we still have 4 more competitions to get through. So round up your nerdling hordes, and let’s do this! In our lineup today is:
World of Warcraft vs League of Legends
Mass Effect vs Diablo
DC Comics vs Marvel Comics
Star Trek vs Star Wars
Round Three: World of Warcraft vs League of Legends
The Background: WOW is perhaps the best known massive multiplayer online game. It’s become so popular even South Park has made fun of it, which is basically a rite of passage. League of Legends is the most populated MMO. As of last year it boasted higher numbers than WOW, though outside the gamer community it may be less known. As an aside, the cosplay displayed at ECCC inspired by each of these games was breathtaking! The Fight:
Interestingly, the sentiment breakdown for these conversations is nearly identical, but World of Warcraft has a bit more overall volume and polarity in the passion arena. It’s a tough call, but in this case, I’m calling in favor of World of Warcraft.
The Result: Sorry, there’s no loot from this boss, but raise your weapon in an enemy vanquishing pose!
World of Warcraft: You are victorious.
Round Four: Mass Effect vs Diablo
The Background: Keeping with the game theme, these two RPGs are two of the most popular and highest rated games. They also inspire absolutely fantastic cosplay. The Fight:
Similar to World of Warcraft vs League of Legends, the volumes were pretty close, aside from in March when the most recent Diablo was released. However, unlike our last round, the sentiment percentages have more variation. In terms of passion expression, Mass Effect was 5% more positive and 10% less neutral than Diablo, so we’ll give volume points to Diablo and passion expression to Mass Effect.
The Result: While clearly Mass Effect fans have a passion for fan fic, overall, Diablo wins this round with conversation clearly driven by
purchase intent and inspiring cosplay.
Round Five: DC Comics vs Marvel Comics
The Background: Comics are the source for many beloved characters and franchises, and these two deliver some of the biggest. DC Comics is responsible for bringing us Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and others. And, according to a close friend and comic enthusiast, they have great story lines that surpass many other comic houses. Marvel is the source of several noteworthy franchises including the Avengers, Spiderman and X-Men. The ’90 X-Men cartoon based closely on several comic story lines is a cherished part of my childhood. Notably, DC Comics had a booth at Emerald City Comic Con and a line that wrapped all the way around. Marvel did have a booth. They did, however, spam the new Spiderman Trailer before every main hall panel…so I guess they were there in spirit. The Fight:
DC had slightly more passion volume, but Marvel had stronger positive sentiment by over 10%.
DC clearly won the intent to purchase category. Maybe if Marvel also had booths at cons where people buy comics they would have been more competitive in this category too – just sayin’.
The Result: DC made a strong showing but in this battle we have a winner:
Round Six: Star Trek vs Star Wars
The Background: It’s only fitting that this pairing be the final match. These fandoms and franchises are long standing and iconic. Star Trek has launched numerous iterations of itself and foretold, or inspired, many technological advances we enjoy today – i.e. cell phones. Star Trek promoted peace and acceptance at its core; placing aliens and humans, regardless of race or nationality, alongside one another in a collaborative, and occasionally romantic, capacity. Seriously, everything Star Trek represented should give us the happy feels – with a dash of action and space stuff. Star Wars gave us Harrison Ford. And a wealth of memorable characters, music, and plot lines to act out as children (or adults). And while those plot lines changed slightly with each re-release, these are films that told great stories and had a huge impact on film making especially in terms of advancing special effect usage. So it might be Sci-Fi sacrilege but let’s do this! The Fight:
The Result: Star Trek wins in terms of fan fic and cosplay, the most devout indications of fandom, but overall, the force was with them.
Finally, we have all of our victors. We can now all return to enjoying the things that make us very happy and clutter our desks knowing if they are winners or losers. Just kidding!
