What is a "gamer"? Do you consider yourself a "gamer"

CastorTroy

I'm someone who will try to bring others into a conversation if I can by finding a common topic, but the number of times I've left a table/room because the conversation was about football for the hundredth day in a row has led to me simply saying to others that I get the feeling they don't want me around so they start talking about football.

challengemaster

Sarky wrote: »

<looks up from AD&D sourcebook>

Pipe down, noobs. :pac:

See, we could play this "I'm more a gamer than you" thing all the way back to charades, chess and beyond, but if you like to play games, of any sort you're a gamer, and no amount of telling someone they're not will make it true. I think it's cute that some people will only consider video games to be "gamer", but I don't look down on them for it. Because they're gamers. I don't pretend that the arseholes hurling abuse over the mic in COD[whatever bloody number it's at now] aren't gamers. They are. They're also arseholes, and rather than indulge in a no true Scotsman fallacy to pretend gaming is purer than that, I'll call it out, because they're gamers, and gamers should recognise that gamers can be arseholes, and that it's not ok.

People may not necessarily like it, but it's true. If you asked the same question 15 years ago, you'd get a much different answer. Consoles and smart devices have opened up the area to a much wider audience, not just the 'nerds' playing quake.

There's a big difference as a player between casual and competitive (or 'hardcore') gaming though, but to an outsider it's a fine line. That's where the problem arises. From an outside perspective, there's now only two fine lines between the "elite" spending 30+ hours a week gaming competitively at the top of their game, and the lad playing angry birds while taking a dump.

I've never had anyone look down on me for playing video games. Honestly, when people tell tales of how others berate them for their interest in gaming I assume that they are exaggerating. I'm 28 and pretty much everyone I know plays some form of video game. In college everyone bar 3 out of just under 40 people played games. At a wedding over the weekend and gaming was discussed quite often and that includes a number of people closer to the grave than they are anything else. I recently did a course and myself and a number of the people on it, ranging in age from 21-43 regularly got together to play some PS3 and MegaDrive. Hell even two of the women who are in their early 60s wanted to get involved and are planning on joining us the next time we get together.

It's quite difficult to find someone who doesn't play some form of video game. Even my mom has in recent time began playing games on her phone. Granted they casual time killers but still a games a game.

CiDeRmAn

In retrospect I think it was the painting rather than the games that did it, unless I could of convinced then I painted footballers... That might have saved me.

Vojera

Back in the PS1/PS2 eras I would've considered myself a gamer. I played every spare second I had. I played FFVII so much that I got a nosebleed and was banned from playing for a week (not actually related, but try telling my mother that). At that time I had one friend who also played and I was totally looked down on for playing because I was a) a girl (still am, I suppose!), and b) supposed to be one of the "smart" kids.

Once I went to college I played a fair amount of DS games, although it's not until now I fully appreciate what a fantastic system the DS is and how many great games it had.

And today I find that all those pesky things like work and being married and having to maintain a house just get in the way. I wish I was more "gamer" than I am now. But I'll accept the tag if someone gives it to me.

CiDeRmAn

What a fantastic post.
And I couldn't agree more.
My single days, when not consumed with study or the opposite sex, was gaming heaven.
But I was seen as distinctly odd for being 18 with a Gameboy, it had just been released.
None of my colleagues or friends played games and the only places that sold them were shops that sold computers, the occasional few in electrical stores and in some few toyshops.
Now as a gent in his early 40's, with a career and a family it's harder than ever to be a gamer at all, I can find the time to build a good collection but not the time to do it justice and play it!

Doctor DooM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I've never had anyone look down on me for playing video games. Honestly, when people tell tales of how others berate them for their interest in gaming I assume that they are exaggerating. I'm 28 and pretty much everyone I know plays some form of video game. In college everyone bar 3 out of just under 40 people played games. At a wedding over the weekend and gaming was discussed quite often and that includes a number of people closer to the grave than they are anything else. I recently did a course and myself and a number of the people on it, ranging in age from 21-43 regularly got together to play some PS3 and MegaDrive. Hell even two of the women who are in their early 60s wanted to get involved and are planning on joining us the next time we get together.

It's quite difficult to find someone who doesn't play some form of video game. Even my mom has in recent time began playing games on her phone. Granted they casual time killers but still a games a game.

Maybe the few years between you and I make a big difference so. I can remember being asked by someone when I'd grow up when I was waiting for a game in an arcade. I was 16 at the time!

nesf

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I was at a get together when my brother in law got engaged.
I was seated with a bunch of lads who were family of the bride to be.
The talk for a good two hours was football, football, football, and I just stayed quiet behind my pint.
Then someone piped up "So Ciderman (not my real name) what are you into?"
And I says, "Videogames, reading and I like to paint landscapes and seascapes"......
30 tense seconds later the chat started again about football for another 2 hours....
True story

Yeah I've had that. It's easier to explain than playing Go or Chess though I find (and definitely easier than miniature based wargames, I almost never mention this one outside of gamer circles).

nesf

Deleted User wrote: »

I've never had anyone look down on me for playing video games. Honestly, when people tell tales of how others berate them for their interest in gaming I assume that they are exaggerating. I'm 28 and pretty much everyone I know plays some form of video game. In college everyone bar 3 out of just under 40 people played games. At a wedding over the weekend and gaming was discussed quite often and that includes a number of people closer to the grave than they are anything else. I recently did a course and myself and a number of the people on it, ranging in age from 21-43 regularly got together to play some PS3 and MegaDrive. Hell even two of the women who are in their early 60s wanted to get involved and are planning on joining us the next time we get together.

It's quite difficult to find someone who doesn't play some form of video game. Even my mom has in recent time began playing games on her phone. Granted they casual time killers but still a games a game.

I'm 5 years older than you and I really notice it when I meet my son's friend's parents who tend to be 5+ years older than me (I was 25 when he was born, most of the parents in his class were 30+ with their first).

There was this awkward spot one evening where myself and another father struggled deeply to find anything in common to talk about when he was picking up his son. We were saved when my father arrived because he could make small talk about football and hurling. There was definitely a shift and I think you're right with the under 30s gaming is very common as a hobby but for the 30+ and especially the 40+ it's a good deal rarer. That said, I do know avid gamers in their 50s and above so it's not exactly unknown or anything.

Retr0gamer

Deleted User wrote: »

I've never had anyone look down on me for playing video games. Honestly, when people tell tales of how others berate them for their interest in gaming I assume that they are exaggerating. I'm 28 and pretty much everyone I know plays some form of video game. In college everyone bar 3 out of just under 40 people played games. At a wedding over the weekend and gaming was discussed quite often and that includes a number of people closer to the grave than they are anything else. I recently did a course and myself and a number of the people on it, ranging in age from 21-43 regularly got together to play some PS3 and MegaDrive. Hell even two of the women who are in their early 60s wanted to get involved and are planning on joining us the next time we get together.

It's quite difficult to find someone who doesn't play some form of video game. Even my mom has in recent time began playing games on her phone. Granted they casual time killers but still a games a game.

I get this an awful lot. My mam absolutely hates videogames and my friends think it's weird that I like games so much.

Then there's my girlfriend who is a bit younger than me and her and all her mates are huge into videogames. I'm only 3 years older than you but there's a big difference in people being accepting of videogames in that age gap.

CiDeRmAn

Mrs Ciderman detests games, one and all.
Despite this I seem to have managed a reasonable collection and a room dedicated to them too.
My son plays and finishes more games than i do! And he's only ten!

Retr0gamer

Beware if she develops Sauron syndrome.

CiDeRmAn

I've long since reached a form of detente there, if she don't see the Steel Battalion controller she doesn't care about the Steel Battalion controller!

Taylor365

nesf wrote: »

Yeah I've had that. It's easier to explain than playing Go or Chess though I find (and definitely easier than miniature based wargames, I almost never mention this one outside of gamer circles).

:pac:

I always segway video games into everything. If you can talk the talk, you can make anything sound amazing even to the average oaf!

Want to talk about miniature based war games while people yak on about football? Anyone remember Subbuteo?

BAM!, palm of you hand laaad.

gugleguy

Taylor365 wrote: »

:pac:

I always segway video games into everything. If you can talk the talk, you can make anything sound amazing even to the average oaf!

Want to talk about miniature based war games while people yak on about football? Anyone remember Subbuteo?

BAM!, palm of you hand laaad.

Not my scene. Reminds me of the type of board games that came out at lunch break, when we could'nt go out when it was raining. Invariably, these games had pieces missing. Subbuteo? The big event I remember was that model floodlights could be bought to illuminate the board in the dark. But if it floats your boat..

Taylor365

gugleguy wrote: »

Not my scene. Reminds me of the type of board games that came out at lunch break, when we could'nt go out when it was raining. Invariably, these games had pieces missing. Subbuteo? The big event I remember was that model floodlights could be bought to illuminate the board in the dark. But if it floats your boat..

I see my post went straight over your head... :P

Talking about miniature based football game = segway to talk about miniature based war games.

nesf

Taylor365 wrote: »

I see my post went straight over your head... :P

Talking about miniature based football game = segway to talk about miniature based war games.

It's easier to start from toy soldiers. :P

Akrasia

I'm not just a gamer, i'm a serious gamer.

This means I take gaming very fecking Seriously!!!

And if you don't know all of the finishing moves for every character in Mortal Kombat 3 then you're nothing but a Newb!!!


Not really. I only play games for fun. And I can't even do one finishing move for MK3 because my fingers are slow and pre-arthritic and my memory is too full of useless banking related passwords and account numbers to fit in anymore arbitrary sequential combinations

CiDeRmAn

Mortal Kombat is an awful series, and the money shots? Just a bunch of randomly created button sequences the truly bored have to learn off in order to titillate the typical teen back in the 90's who didn't have the internet yet.
I was never good a SFII but at least it's special moves had sequences that made sense.

Celadore

I think a gamer is someone who would describe one of their interests/hobbies as playing games. The amount of time and the knowledge they have about games and the industry is more based on that persons personality and degree of interest (brings about whole casual/hardcore side of it). Also choosing to accept being labelled as a gamer is entirely down to that persons personality. I personally don't mind the term as I don't think that encompasses my entire personality, just a bit of it.

My first console was a Nintendo back when I was 6. Since then, when i was still quite young, some of my close friends tried to get into them (because I was so mad into them) but to no avail. We are still very close but i just don't ever bring up games around them.
I'm so glad at how the gaming industry has expanded making games more the norm now days though. I have a few friends now that do play games, from those that play games alot to those who mess around on the Wii. Although there are still a lot of people that wouldn't describe gaming as one of their interests, I'm glad that the industry is growing more and more every day and that being a "gamer" is more socially accepted.

C14N

Deleted User wrote: »

I've never had anyone look down on me for playing video games. Honestly, when people tell tales of how others berate them for their interest in gaming I assume that they are exaggerating. I'm 28 and pretty much everyone I know plays some form of video game. In college everyone bar 3 out of just under 40 people played games. At a wedding over the weekend and gaming was discussed quite often and that includes a number of people closer to the grave than they are anything else. I recently did a course and myself and a number of the people on it, ranging in age from 21-43 regularly got together to play some PS3 and MegaDrive. Hell even two of the women who are in their early 60s wanted to get involved and are planning on joining us the next time we get together.

It's quite difficult to find someone who doesn't play some form of video game. Even my mom has in recent time began playing games on her phone. Granted they casual time killers but still a games a game.

Different experiences for different people but I have not found this to be true in my own life. When I was a teenager, I was really into games. I mean I subscribed to two magazines (which I always read cover to cover), I was checking gaming news sites daily, I racked up thousands of posts on gaming message boards and I bought games all the time. I had to keep this stuff secret from others in school. I had a small group of friends who were also into gaming (maybe not quite as much) and I could talk about it with them but if I was with other people or with my football club, I kept my mouth shut about gaming unless someone else brought it up, and even then feigned a passing interest in it. There were only a few games okay to talk about like GTA and FIFA (even CoD wasn't big at the time) but bringing up other stuff was taboo. My own dad regularly asked me how long it would be before I grew out of games and as recently as last summer when I went back to live at home my mother was disapproving and condescending about my interest in E3 (which never happens for any other thing I bring up). It's not as bad in college, especially since I'm in engineering which tends to attract a lot of nerds but it's still something I'm kind of wary of revealing too much knowledge about.

Back to the OP, I personally think a gamer is anyone who considers themself a gamer. I don't think it's some sort of prestigious title to be awarded to only the most dedicated gamers by the No-True-Scotsman's guild but I don't necessarily think it's a term for everyone who plays any games. For example, if most of your gaming is done on your phone or on Facebook, I definitely don't think you are a gamer. I'm not being snobby and looking down, I'm just saying I don't think that kind of person would really consider themself to have a strong interest in games. The same goes for your typical player who has a console and a few blockbuster games for it, I don't think I'd call them a "gamer" either. If you're someone though who has an active interest in games and actually likes discussing them and hearing about them then I'd say you're a gamer. A gamer is the kind of person who actually looks forward to playing games and makes time to do so, rather than having them as something to kill time when they're bored.

CiDeRmAn

My place this evening.
Plenty of gamers to be there!
A&R Beers incoming!

ShadowHearth

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Mortal Kombat is an awful series, and the money shots? Just a bunch of randomly created button sequences the truly bored have to learn off in order to titillate the typical teen back in the 90's who didn't have the internet yet.
I was never good a SFII but at least it's special moves had sequences that made sense.

Retr0gamer

Tis the truth though. In terms of gameplay it's always been really basic and only got a free pass based on the gore. MK2 is the only one that is ok and the very first game is one of the worst fighters ever made.

I'm not including MK9 in that because that one was actually very good.

CiDeRmAn

I would say that my favourite brawler is Powerstone on the Dreamcast, and I suck at it now, though I was better back in the day.

e_e

I've got games but I'm not a gamer. I've got games but I'm not a gamer.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I've got ham but i'm not a hamster