Define "Real Gamer"
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Someone who picks up a controller or fires up a pc game and then has fun playing it, or even better have a laugh while playing with their friends.
I heard some guys talking about being a real gamer in Game once. To be honest, they sounded really obnoxious about it, I heard "...that guy's not even a real gamer lol!" Yeah they said lol, I hear it a lot, not important. After they said that I thought it was such a weak thing to say about someone else. Thinking you are better than other people is pretty much one of the easiest ways to get me to dislike you.
I think that people working at a videogame store should probably have different values from the ones shown that day as anyone who enjoys games regularly is in my opinion a real gamer, not a hardcore gamer.
A hardcore gamer usually spends hours practicing and playing games to be much better than other people, which usually makes them "that guy" at parties, who makes the game less fun for others because they are so good, I know this, because when playing with my friends I'm "that guy" though I wouldn't say I am a hardcore gamer.
I have since learned to play easily and let people win at least equally to me, though deciding to let your mate win after you have ground his health as far as you wanna go to be satisfied that you were going to win, then having them go "SUCK IT! I'M AWESOME!" is a risk you have to be willing to take in order to let your friends enjoy games as much as you do.
I think that people working at a videogame store should probably have different values from the ones shown that day as anyone who enjoys games regularly is in my opinion a real gamer, not a hardcore gamer.
A hardcore gamer usually spends hours practicing and playing games to be much better than other people, which usually makes them "that guy" at parties, who makes the game less fun for others because they are so good, I know this, because when playing with my friends I'm "that guy" though I wouldn't say I am a hardcore gamer.
I have since learned to play easily and let people win at least equally to me, though deciding to let your mate win after you have ground his health as far as you wanna go to be satisfied that you were going to win, then having them go "SUCK IT! I'M AWESOME!" is a risk you have to be willing to take in order to let your friends enjoy games as much as you do.
This is all opinion, my opinion. AFAIK these terms are not set in stone and anybody is free to make up their own segments of the videogame playerbase.
A gamer is a person who likes playing videogames.
A casual gamer is such a person, but prefer the small singleplayer puzzle-like games. The casual gamer does not play for the challenge but because they are bored. The term casual(s) is most likely coined by the more experienced crowd.
A "core" gamer is a person who owns one or more consoles or a pc capable of playing games. This term is coined by the industry. These are the gamers the industry relies on to buy their games. The core gamer does not care how the game actually works as long as it works.
The fanboy gamer is an idiot who will defend his purchase of console or pc or game regardless of how much it really sucks. The fanboy will deny obvious facts like "MW2 for pc is probably the worst PC FPS-release in modern times" or "The Xbox 360 controllers D-pad is the worst of the lot". Sure the D-pad works and MW2 is very well done on pc and runs amazingly even on dated hardware, but they are both coming short of what, atleast i, expected from then.
A pro-gamer is someone who is payed or sponsored to play games. Its more than an expensive hobby for them.
A hardcore gamer is a gamer who plays for a sense of accomplishment, to achieve a goal within a game. The hardcore gamer probably plays a little too much.
I used to play WoW at the hardcore level, with 5x5 hours of raiding every week and the rest of the time thinking about stats and strats. It cut into my sleeping hours and family/IRL-friend time. I do not play MMORPGs anymore (i got bored with WoW because with 5x5 hours per week we blew through the available content every week and other MMORPGs do not come even close to WoW) but i miss the friends i made and good people i met on it.
I'm not saying every gamer fits into just one of these categories or any at all. I will play any game that appeals to my personality be it Plant vs Zombies(for casual play) or Bad Company 2 (for more hardcore accomplishment) on my pc. I will play The deadliest warrior/FIFA/Tekken or Warioware for the Wii when i visit my brother (or any other game he challenges me in) and i will defend the Windows platform like a rabid fanboy idiot, should someone attack it.
Wow this got quite long quite fast. In short, there is no such thing as a real gamer as to me that would imply the existence of a wrong/fake gamer. There are just gamers and a lot of them, each with their own preference in games.
A gamer is a person who likes playing videogames.
A casual gamer is such a person, but prefer the small singleplayer puzzle-like games. The casual gamer does not play for the challenge but because they are bored. The term casual(s) is most likely coined by the more experienced crowd.
A "core" gamer is a person who owns one or more consoles or a pc capable of playing games. This term is coined by the industry. These are the gamers the industry relies on to buy their games. The core gamer does not care how the game actually works as long as it works.
The fanboy gamer is an idiot who will defend his purchase of console or pc or game regardless of how much it really sucks. The fanboy will deny obvious facts like "MW2 for pc is probably the worst PC FPS-release in modern times" or "The Xbox 360 controllers D-pad is the worst of the lot". Sure the D-pad works and MW2 is very well done on pc and runs amazingly even on dated hardware, but they are both coming short of what, atleast i, expected from then.
A pro-gamer is someone who is payed or sponsored to play games. Its more than an expensive hobby for them.
A hardcore gamer is a gamer who plays for a sense of accomplishment, to achieve a goal within a game. The hardcore gamer probably plays a little too much.
I used to play WoW at the hardcore level, with 5x5 hours of raiding every week and the rest of the time thinking about stats and strats. It cut into my sleeping hours and family/IRL-friend time. I do not play MMORPGs anymore (i got bored with WoW because with 5x5 hours per week we blew through the available content every week and other MMORPGs do not come even close to WoW) but i miss the friends i made and good people i met on it.
I'm not saying every gamer fits into just one of these categories or any at all. I will play any game that appeals to my personality be it Plant vs Zombies(for casual play) or Bad Company 2 (for more hardcore accomplishment) on my pc. I will play The deadliest warrior/FIFA/Tekken or Warioware for the Wii when i visit my brother (or any other game he challenges me in) and i will defend the Windows platform like a rabid fanboy idiot, should someone attack it.
Wow this got quite long quite fast. In short, there is no such thing as a real gamer as to me that would imply the existence of a wrong/fake gamer. There are just gamers and a lot of them, each with their own preference in games.
Someone who knows that you have to play the classics on their consoles, emulation is never as good as the original
List is long, how about a 'you're NOT a real gamer if you..' list..
If you skip cutscenes on the first playthrough... :/
If you didn't like Deus Ex. :/
If you played Half Life 2 BEFORE playing the original. :/
If you manage to say 'World of Warcraft is an atractive game' without bursting into hysterical laughter. :/
If you skip cutscenes on the first playthrough... :/
If you didn't like Deus Ex. :/
If you played Half Life 2 BEFORE playing the original. :/
If you manage to say 'World of Warcraft is an atractive game' without bursting into hysterical laughter. :/
Someone who plays more then one genre on a weekly to daily basis, I go by every 2 days now. Mainly because it's gotten boring, I get my fun from RPs now... But if you only play one genre then that's stupid. I prefer RPGs but I like 3rd person shooters, action adventure, some FPS's and platformers. Some racers are good (Split/second) mostly I don't enjoy them and I've only ever played 2 RTSs that I like (Rise of nations:Rise of legends and Comand and Conquer: Generals). So I define myself a 'real' gamer.
Wow, you're looking way too much into this. I'm not a fan of Wii games or gamers obsessed with playing this one particular game online because I feel bad for them not branching out and finding loads of other incredible games that are out there, but in the end it's up to them
Exactly what I was going to sayPegghead said:
I like your definition! Thank you for so succintly summing up this whole topicJedi Sasquatch said:
A 'real gamer' is someone who enjoys gaming. End of. The idea that you have to have played certain games to be considered a 'real gamer' is just pretentious fanboy-ism and is not to be taken seriously.
Actually you are wrongGeneric Gamer said:
Movie buff
Audiophile
Bookworm
none of them are attemps to legimise anything they are only used to denote an extremly strong personal interest, avid book readers call themselves bookworms not because they think book reading makes them better readers than anyone else but because they spend lots of money and time reading books than they do anything else
No the gamer part is to tell you they like games enought to use it to self identify, the addition of hardcore or casual or social or roleplay or larp'ing or tabletop etc. are there to denote a subset of gamer interestGeneric Gamer said:
Effectivly they are genres
Real Gamer = Anyone who purposely goes out of their way to play something for the sake of playing it.
I'd say a serious gamer is someone who;
Has a broad understanding of the established genres and typical modes of address/narrative employed in games.
Broad knowledge of the history of games both culturaly and technologicaly.
Has played a large catalogue of games spanning a variety of genres.
Is comfortable playing on a variety of platforms, old and new ("I'd win if I had a mouse and keyboard" is not a valid complaint, kids).
Rabid and pathological intolerance of a anyone less knowledgable or skilled as yourself, and an unquenchable loathing for anyone more knowledgable or skilled than yourself.
The last one's a joke, but it does seem to come with the territory in any area of special interest unfortunately...
Has a broad understanding of the established genres and typical modes of address/narrative employed in games.
Broad knowledge of the history of games both culturaly and technologicaly.
Has played a large catalogue of games spanning a variety of genres.
Is comfortable playing on a variety of platforms, old and new ("I'd win if I had a mouse and keyboard" is not a valid complaint, kids).
Rabid and pathological intolerance of a anyone less knowledgable or skilled as yourself, and an unquenchable loathing for anyone more knowledgable or skilled than yourself.
The last one's a joke, but it does seem to come with the territory in any area of special interest unfortunately...
Hardcore game often refers to a few things that often coincideGeneric Gamer said:
Big budget with lots of different mechanics that cover a fully realised narative.
It's kind of the opposite of casual games which are basically Arcade games that have been rebranded since arcades are basically dead but typically have a single mechanic and no branching narative and offer enjoyment even in small doses.
Tetris would be a perfect example it's fun even if you only have ten minutes spare, you have the single mechanic of rotating blocks to learn (its impossible to forget how to play tetris) and is abstract in that their is no storyline to progess through it never requires a massive time investment.
Dragon age: origins would be a perfect example of a hardcore game, it has many different mechanics to learn like controling each character or setting up the automated tactics screen, understanding combat roles to effectivly equip party members with advantageous gear.
It's storyline really needs to be played quite frequently and for extended periods to digest it, as for time you could spend 15 minutes doing nothing but switching gear or buying new gear which on its own is not really enjoyable if you were to try and play the entire game in byte sized chunks.
If I was going out in 15mins dragon age origins is not the kind of game I would go to.
Hardcore can be shortly summed up as being in depth and generally not suitable for a quick dip unlike casual that have a more disconnected challenges style of design
A gamer, paradoxically, is not someone who thinks they are a "real gamer" for only playing games like Bejewled or Peggle.
I'm not saying they're bad games (in fact, quite the opposite) but you are not an elite gamer for mastering a game from only one particular genre (and one that requires no obvious skill or practice).
I'm not saying they're bad games (in fact, quite the opposite) but you are not an elite gamer for mastering a game from only one particular genre (and one that requires no obvious skill or practice).
I'd say someone who actually cares about videogames as a genre. You've got bored housewives playing FarmVille or my little sister playing NintenDogs on her DS, but in my eyes that doesn't make them gamers.
In my eyes, caring about the genre means being excited for new releases, following the developments in the industry (even if just a bit), checking up on news and of course playing games.
It doesn't matter how long you play, what you play or how good you are in any game, as long as you actually care about the medium that's called videogames you're a gamer.
In my eyes, caring about the genre means being excited for new releases, following the developments in the industry (even if just a bit), checking up on news and of course playing games.
It doesn't matter how long you play, what you play or how good you are in any game, as long as you actually care about the medium that's called videogames you're a gamer.