What is a Practical Fan?

What is a Practical Fan?

You know the majority of the fans on the brand-specific message boards that go nuts over the littlest things? Those aren’t practical fans.

You know the ones that go absolutely nuts about price increases (we all hate ‘em but…) without listening to the logic of why it had to happen? Those aren’t practical fans.

You know the ones that go nuts if a new version doesn’t match their ideal version (which was probably out in the 80s and is really only ideal because it’s immortalized in a memory) in every single detail? Those aren’t practical fans.

No offense to anyone that matches those descriptions.

A practical fan is just as much a fan of the property as any of the more rapid (and vocal) ones. A practical fan just realizes that sometimes things happen that are beyond their control and try to look for the positive in new releases or whatever.

A practical fan will listen to logic when it’s presented, may not like the conclusions but at least listens and understands that there is a wider world out there and more concerns then just what the fans want.

A practical fan understands that the loud fanbase on the message boards is a very small amount of the larger fanbase, it’s just more vocal.

Most fans, and there’s nothing wrong with this, are incredibly passionate about their brand/franchise/whatever. Sometimes very rigidly so. A practical fan is just as passionate, except they are tempered with the ability to listen to logic and to adapt.

Fandom isn’t black and white, there’s lots of shades of grey. A hardcore fan doesn’t see it that way. A practical fan does.

Now this is talking in absolutes. No one is really an absolute. I tend to think that the majority of fans are practical, it’s just a very few that aren’t and those are the ones that seem to stand out the most.