Am I a Gamer?

[Mareon]

Two days ago I finished a 100 hour long playthrough of ?The Last of Us? Grounded-difficulty, and I have never felt greater satisfaction from hearing that ding of a gained trophy.
Am I a Gamer?
Last night I started a normal difficulty playthrough of Dragon Age: Origin, planning to finish it for the first time ever before Inquisition is released. I am playing as a mage, and I printed out a build for the most efficient mage the internet could give me, and I did it with no shame, since I have played the first 4 hours of Origin like twelve times since I regretted a choice.
Am I a Gamer?
I bought Heavy Rain on release day, went home and played through it in one 10 hour sitting, never been more engrossed in a game. I haven?t touched it since.
Am I a Gamer?
I bought Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on PSN, a game that I have a perfect twenty year old memory of running through in one sitting for like every afternoon during a summer. That didn?t stop me from getting my ass handed to me when I played it now.
Am I a Gamer?
I have replayed Mass Effect 2+3 over a dozen times, always with the same Shepard: Paragorn FemShep, Infiltrator. I started a Renegade playthrough with a male Shepard just to see the difference, but I stopped in disgust about 4 hours in.
Am I a Gamer?
I bought the Orange box like five year after everyone else, and I played through Portal in one sitting, cackling all the way. I have yet to touch Half-Life 2.
Am I a Gamer?
I have somewhere on my PS3 a Skyrim playthrough where I am sixty hours in and where I haven?t visited the Greybeards yet, only because too see how much game I can go through without actually doing the storyline. Answer: Quite a lot.
Am I a Gamer?
The most fun I have ever had in front of a console was last night when I, as a kind of victory lap, started a new game+ of The Last of Us on easy mode and am just murdering my way through the game with childish glee.
Am I a Gamer?
Because whenever I read the word ?Gamer? these days I never recognize myself.

 

[Barbas]

Call yourself whatever you like, then. "Gaming connoisseur", "Games enthusiast", you can choose whatever floats your boat. That's the beauty of it!

 

[Gray-Philosophy]

Am I a gamer? Q & A:

Do you enjoy playing video games as a recreational activity in your spare time?

Yes [_]
No _[_]

If you answered Yes to the above question, you are a gamer.


Definition:

Gamer
Gam"er (gemər)

1. an individual who enjoys playing video games as a recreational activity in their spare time.

 

[madwarper]

Question #1) Do you play games?
Question #2) Do you self-identify as a "Gamer"?
Question #3) Ummm... What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

If you answer yes to the first two questions, then Congratulations, you're a Gamer.
If not, then you can self-identify as something else.

 

[Teoes]

Whilst the evidence provided would point to 'yes', all that could be undone by the simple admission that you also dabble in Farmville.

You old-school Mario avatar also tempts me to wail and point and proclaim you a try-hard, so you might want to look into that?

[sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]Do I need to state that I'm joking?[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[josemlopes]

No one cares except for the publishers that need to know what their demographics are, and even then they probably dont care what name (or lack of) you want to call yourself, all they really want is to know what kind of people will buy their products and why.

 

[Silvanus]

I would consider you a gamer. Whether you consider yourself one is another question. It's not an objective category.

 

[shrekfan246]

No one cares except for the publishers that need to know what their demographics are, and even then they probably dont care what name (or lack of) you want to call yourself, all they really want is to know what kind of people will buy their products and why.

I dunno, I'd say a rather disproportionate number of people seem to care that other people are or are not "Real Gamers[sup]TM[/sup]". Over the years some people have tried to imply that I'm not one (the fact of how I don't identify with the label notwithstanding); just looking around my room there are three home consoles, three handheld consoles, and two laptops.

OT: Do you want to be one?

I mean, it seems like you're maybe in a similar spot that I have been by which the term "Gamer" appears to have been co-opted by a rather vocal group of people I'd rather not be associated with. If that's the case, hey, just call yourself whatever you like. I mean, that's what people should do anyway as I feel that people have become far too attached to the term as some sort of descriptor for themselves, but it's all the more relevant if you've become disenfranchised with the term.

 

[Duster]

The trick is the adjective

dedicated hobbyist
big fan
avid gamer

 

[Mezahmay]

I'm not really sure I understand the issue. By your definition, you do not identify as a gamer. Therefore you are not a gamer to you. But is this because you choose not to limit a portion of your identity to a single enthusiasm or because the public perception of what a "gamer" is these days is something you do not identify with? Does it ultimately matter since everyone around you also has varying definitions of what a "gamer" is and they will also classify you? If you show up to a meetup or something of cool, like-minded people you enjoy spending time collectively identify as "gamers", would that alter your perception of what a "gamer" is?

So yeah, that was a bunch of cop-out bullshit. Unfortunately that doesn't make it any less valid. Do you say you're a gamer? Then you're a gamer. If not, then you're not. While that matters more on an individual level that becomes a moot point once other people are introduced. Categories will naturally form and individual identity will diminish as group identities are formed due to things like loyalty mobility and groupthink.

 

[Raikas]

I would ask why it matters - do you want to claim "gamer" as an identity marker, or do you just want to claim "gaming" as one of your hobbies?

Because listing the amount of time spent playing games only tells me that you have the time to devote to them and the desire to play them - if you want that to have some kind of label outside of a hobby descriptor, fair enough, but I don't think time or specific games matter. I know people who describe themselves as gamers and play 15 minutes of CoD every couple of days, and fair enough. I also know plenty of people who play "serious" games for an hour or more a day and don't call themselves gamers (although they do list gaming as a hobby if asked). If you want the label, claim it, and if you don't, don't. Other people can't give you that answer.



Personally, I've found that the older I get, the less I want pop culture consumption to be a social signifier, so I'm happy to claim the latter and not the former. As far as I'm concerned I have a hobby, but it's not a central part of who I am, even when I sink hours upon hours into it. But that's just me.

 

[Alfador_VII]

ok, do you regularly play games? Yes!

Then you're a gamer!

As far as I'm concerned the term really doesn't need any deeper analysis than that

You can argue about whether poking about with Farmville etc on your phone makes you any less (or more) of a gamer than playing several hours of console or PC games every night.

 

[Mareon]

Whilst the evidence provided would point to 'yes', all that could be undone by the simple admission that you also dabble in Farmville.

You old-school Mario avatar also tempts me to wail and point and proclaim you a try-hard, so you might want to look into that?

[sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]Do I need to state that I'm joking?[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

Hah. That avatar was chosen in a moment of panic when I clicked the wrong avatar back when and I was given a Justin Bieber avatar. I just picked the first thing that wasn't Bieber.

 

[MrFalconfly]

Question #1) Do you play games?
Question #2) Do you self-identify as a "Gamer"?
Question #3) Ummm... What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

If you answer yes to the first two questions, then Congratulations, you're a Gamer.
If not, then you can self-identify as something else.

Q1: Yes

Q2: Yes

Q3: 900km/h is the top speed for a Me-262 Schwalbe (Swallow) in level flight, that hasn't been loaded with any munitions.

In conclusion, I'm a gamer and an aircraft-buff.

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

Why do you care so much what others think of you or label you as? Just live your life. Life's too short to be worrying about stuff like that. Like what you like, do what you do ( You know, within the law), and as long as your happy, then it's all good.

 

[jdogtwodolla]

It doesn't matter, Gamer should mean less if not outright be meaningless. What would you call a label like this anyway, a social label? Man, Fuck social(?) labels.

Social(?) labels like Geek, Nerd and Douchebag (not insinuating douche relates to the prior three, honestly) are either so open to interpretation or just so open in general, that it accommodates a wide amount of different people who approach it a wide amount of ways. It's pointless to try and define it.

And I hear that shit only really matters for marketing.

 

[Danny Dowling]

don't really understand what the purpose is of this thread.

are you doing it to show off about having the time to put 100 hours into The Last of Us? To show off that you beat it on grounded? To show off about all the other gaming feats you've attained? Is the question rhetorical? Why not just post this in one of the other threads related to this topic? In fact I think there is one floating around right now which is asking what defines a gamer... this is pretty much just a post for that thread.

Do you really need the attention that requires a whole thread for this? I just don't see why the need for the thread tbh.

 

[Vigormortis]

The trick is the adjective

dedicated hobbyist
big fan
avid gamer

Wow. Someone who gets it.

Finally.

Poignant, yet pithy. I like how you think.

 

[TheRiddler]

Question #3) Ummm... What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

In case anyone was curious, it's about 24 miles per hour if we're talking about the bird.

OT: Not to parrot (another bird pun!) everyone else, but if you play videogames, and self-identify as a gamer, then congratulations! You're a gamer.