Don't Use the Word "Gamer"

[TWEWER]

We shouldn't call ourselves gamers because society has put a label on the word? I guess we shouldn't say we play video games for the same reason.

For instance, if I were to call myself an otaku people would look at me strangely. If/when I tell people that I watch anime I get equally weird looks.

 

[Legion]

An entire article where I agree with every word Yahtzee has said? Hell must have frozen over.

I have also been trying to say the same thing on this forum, especially in reference to 'hardcore' and 'casual' arguments.

The point is that you are putting yourself into a group by which people will define you. I like computer games, sometimes I play them too much, sometimes I get more excited about a games release than a logical adult probably should. That is not the sum of my being though, I don't call myself a reader, or a film-watcher, or a exerciser, so why define myself by a single hobby?

That said, those are my reasons for why I don't define myself as a gamer, if people really wish to do the above then more power to them.

 

[Iffat Nur]

If you really want to be classified as "gamer", I have a handy dandy little chart so you can see what kind of gamer you are.

Spoiler

However thats only if you consider yourself a gamer, instead of simply "someone who play games".

My friend was born to belong in Nostalgiafag, and hes only twelve :l.
but I dont know what I belong in though :/. But if I was held at gun-point and forced to pick one, i will probably pick 23 :l.

So, I was hoping for a new ZP, but whatever :/. What with this year being a slew of disappointments, Yahtzee deserves a break.

 

[MasterWhatever]

Tho I don't fully agree with what you say. (Even though some great points were given, mind you.) I will fight to the death for your right to say it.

 

[MattyDienhoff]

What else do we call "Someone who playes games a lot"? "An interactive media fan?" ? Just becuase 'gamer' has a bit of a bad image does not me we should abandon the word wholesale. If we stop using gamer ans start using, i don't know, "Gameist" or whatever the stereotype will just move over to that word and we will look like pretencious dick-bags in the meantime.

Exactly this.

I play and am interested in video games, therefore I am a gamer, regardless of any negative stereotypes that may center around the hobby. I'm a video gamer just as surely as I'm a movie-goer, book reader and music lover, because I'm interested in those too, but I don't define myself solely by the hobbies I enjoy.

 

[Tarik94]

So true!

 

[Kuckles]

You know, I've put up with the self-important, narcissistic bullshit of a one Benjamin "Yahtzee" Croshaw for quite some time now. And though that is hardly a stretch for me, as I have been absorbing the anger and prejudice of the world's asshole population for a good three decades, I can no longer stand to have Yahtzee's own brand of verbal diarrhea being funneled into my ear canal any longer.

I put up with a lot of shit from people like Yahtzee over the years. But when you call Aerith Gainsborough a "flaky bint", you have stepped over the proverbial line. I have no more patience for you, Croshaw. Take your crybaby rants that you poorly disguise as legitimate reviews and stick them up your pasty, white tuchus. You really wanna know what the definition of the stereotypical asshole gamer that gives us all a bad name? Every morning you look at one in the mirror when you wake up. It's people like you that ruin this hobby for the rest of us.

And before you accuse me of the following. No, I do not own a body pillow or any other perverted anime crap. Though I'm sure you'll claim otherwise in next week's article.

I quite cease to see why this is important.
If you somehow lack the ability not to listen to people, especially people who according to you are "the world's asshole population", then that's your problem.
While we're at it, why in the name of the non-existing god do you try so hard to join this part of the population.

Another thing I dont get is, why the hatred towards Yahtzee? He is expressing his opinion about a subject in a manner which he thinks best, it's his way, not yours. He has as the same right as you to write things like this. As a manner of fact this message is an example of it!
And it's not people like Yathzee that ruin a hobby, it's the fact that you actually think that. Your letting it ruin the hobby for you, and that's entirely your fault!

Anyway, to Yahtzee I say only, rant on! You're doing a hell of a good job.
(And yes I think hell is imaginary too.)
Ow and happy holidays.

 

[Irridium]

If you really want to be classified as "gamer", I have a handy dandy little chart so you can see what kind of gamer you are.

Spoiler

However thats only if you consider yourself a gamer, instead of simply "someone who play games".

My friend was born to belong in Nostalgiafag, and hes only twelve :l.
but I dont know what I belong in though :/. But if I was held at gun-point and forced to pick one, i will probably pick 23 :l.

So, I was hoping for a new ZP, but whatever :/. What with this year being a slew of disappointments, Yahtzee deserves a break.

Well you could be multiple ones.

For example I'd be 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 15, 21, 23 and occasionally 27.

 

[runnernda]

Extra Punctuation: Don't Use the Word "Gamer"

Not all gamers are sweaty manchildren playing games in their parent's basement. Some of them are actually normal.

Read Full Article

Like... you?

On topic, I agree. I don't use the word gamer anyhow... it carries with it a negative stigma that's sort of unappealing to be labelled as.

And yes, 'girl gamer' is the worst. As if it's something special to be a female who plays video games. The smart girls I know on the intertubes disguise their gender to simply get along with the game, rather than be bombarded with unwanted attention.

This^ is why I don't speak on XBox Live.

OT: I am guilty of using the word gamer. It does have a negative connotation and stereotype, but it's one that doesn't fit me. I mainly use it to attempt to dispel the stereotype. I have friends who say they'd "never date a gamer. Bad hygiene is a deal-breaker" to which I reply with something like "I'm a gamer. Are you insulting my hygiene?" Stereotypes and generalizations are something that have always grated on me,, so I seek to destroy them when I can.

There's enough reason in the article to try to eradicate the word (and hopefully, the stereotype) altogether. I'm down.

 

[tmujir955]

Extra Punctuation: Don't Use the Word "Gamer"

Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and writes the back page column for PC Gamer, who are too important to mention us. His personal site is www.fullyramblomatic.com.

Read Full Article

If you can't convince the Escapist editors of your cause and get them to change your bio, then what hope do you have for the rest of the community?

Nice catch. Hopefully Yahtzee will actually see this and respond.

 

[Vestsao]

Init.

 

[bojac6]

Thank-you Yahtzee. The problem with "gamer" culture is the elitism isn't that people think people who play video games live in their parents' basements and have bad acne anymore. The problem is that people who are very much into "gamer culture" are insistent that that people think people who play video games live in their parents' basements and have bad acne anymore.

For example:

I don't really use gamer either, but I'm not sure the term will go away until games gain some more acceptance. This comes with time and defying sterotype, of course, not with this idiotic "gamer pride" thing that's been going on.

How much more acceptance do people who play a lot of video games need? WoW has 10 million subscribers. The top ten MMOs have around 60 Million between them, which is estimated to be about half total.

Find a college student who has never played Halo, I bet you can't.

The problem is gaming elitism. It's discounting the 100 million people who play Farmville as not "true gamers" and then saying nobody plays video games. I personally really enjoy the Halo games. For this opinion, I have been told I'm not a real gamer. I'm bored to tears by Gran Turismo, I think multiplayer is more fun than single player in almost every regard. Because of this, I know a few people at work, those that I would dub more "hardcore," they tell me that I don't really play video games.

So yes, if you discount all of the hundreds of millions of people who play video games regularly, but they don't play the kind of video games you personally like, then being a gamer is not mainstream, has yet to gain social acceptance. Just like if you discount the movies about Iron Man, X-Men, Batman, the Christopher Reeves Superman and Spider-man, comic books are not main stream and don't have a lot of acceptance. But I have trouble believing that a movie coming from unpopular and even stigmatized source material is going to make hundreds of millions of dollars. Hell, Transformers 2 was, by ticket sales, a huge hit, and that was a shitty moved based on shitty comics, a shitty cartoon, and actually kinda cool toys.

Anyways, to sum up. My point is that if people stopped the whole in-your-face gamer attitude about how much they suffer for their hobby, or the constant "I play video games, but I'm good at sports" type stuff that implies that people who play sports don't play video games or vice versa, and just played video games and talked about them with people who also played and didn't talk about them with people who didn't, no one would care. Because you know what? Most people don't care about you or your hobbies. Most people aren't going to be affected either way, they only get a problem when you won't shut up about how you went 30-4 in MW2, or how mind blowing you thought the end of Mass Effect 2 was.

If they cared, they would play it and find out themselves.

 

[Contun]

Hm. I've never really noticed before, but whenever I use 'gamer' to describe myself I've always felt kinda dirty.... almost shameful even....

Even though I am a 'gamer', I guess I associate it with overweight men living in their mothers basement or immature thirteen year-olds screaming profanities.

I'll try to refrain from using that term from now on, labels are pretty dumb anyways.

 

[Iffat Nur]

You know, I've put up with the self-important, narcissistic bullshit of a one Benjamin "Yahtzee" Croshaw for quite some time now. And though that is hardly a stretch for me, as I have been absorbing the anger and prejudice of the world's asshole population for a good three decades, I can no longer stand to have Yahtzee's own brand of verbal diarrhea being funneled into my ear canal any longer.

I put up with a lot of shit from people like Yahtzee over the years. But when you call Aerith Gainsborough a "flaky bint", you have stepped over the proverbial line. I have no more patience for you, Croshaw. Take your crybaby rants that you poorly disguise as legitimate reviews and stick them up your pasty, white tuchus. You really wanna know what the definition of the stereotypical asshole gamer that gives us all a bad name? Every morning you look at one in the mirror when you wake up. It's people like you that ruin this hobby for the rest of us.

And before you accuse me of the following. No, I do not own a body pillow or any other perverted anime crap. Though I'm sure you'll claim otherwise in next week's article.

Please, let me first just say, you suck for making me have to do research >.<

Now, I never actually played FF VII (I was an N64 kid thank you very much), but from what I understand (wiki articles on Tifa, Aeris/Aerith or whatever the hell her name is, my cousin in BD), more ppl would write hentai about Tifa then Aerith. And its not just because she died, we have prequels for that :l. Its because she is an uninteresting character. You can't exactly put alot of your emotions into someone who doesnt actually appear as much as the other three protagonists. the entire point of super-emotional death is that you can fully understand the characters. Sure, it was shocking, I wont put Japanese ppl in such a low position to call them super-cliche, but it wasnt a thing that made you feel seriously pissed at Seporith, or dried your "manliness" to dust. Toy Story 3 is an example of what I mean. You dont see Andy a huge amount in the first two, but you understand he loves his toys (loved, sorry :l). So it was a truly sad thing when it showed the montage of Andy playing with his toys, especially if you watched the first two movies, along with the trailer. They didn't need to kill Andy, but they still managed to convey emotion because you (if youre not the fag who watches sequels before prequels) because, like I said, you understood the character. Know, I know the Final Fantasy stories dont have a line to show progress in it (or as far as I know), but they could have had it run into a sequel, where Aeris/Aerith would be understood a little more before truly dying.

Then again, for what I just said, maybe Final Fantasy 7 wouldnt have been that popular :/

 

[ohgodalex]

Well i don't have acne but i do smell like wet dog on account of being caught out in the torrential rain a 15 minute walk away from my house (fucking non functional bus system....)


What else do we call "Someone who playes games a lot"? "An interactive media fan?" ? Just becuase 'gamer' has a bit of a bad image does not me we should abandon the word wholesale. If we stop using gamer ans start using, i don't know, "Gameist" or whatever the stereotype will just move over to that word and we will look like pretencious dick-bags in the meantime. Like so;

"Well im quite the fan of Games"

"So you're a gamer?"

"No. Im an interactive media fan!"

"...."

...

[sub]"dick"[/sub]

You're ignoring the point of the article. I enjoy books. Am I a Reader? Should I be wearing shirts with F. Scott Fitzgerald titles emblazoned across the front? Should people make snacks and Mountain Dew flavors that are marketed to people who love books?
Unless you are a huge idiot, you will answer no to all of the above questions.

 

[ohgodalex]

You know, I've put up with the self-important, narcissistic bullshit of a one Benjamin "Yahtzee" Croshaw for quite some time now. And though that is hardly a stretch for me, as I have been absorbing the anger and prejudice of the world's asshole population for a good three decades, I can no longer stand to have Yahtzee's own brand of verbal diarrhea being funneled into my ear canal any longer.

I put up with a lot of shit from people like Yahtzee over the years. But when you call Aerith Gainsborough a "flaky bint", you have stepped over the proverbial line. I have no more patience for you, Croshaw. Take your crybaby rants that you poorly disguise as legitimate reviews and stick them up your pasty, white tuchus. You really wanna know what the definition of the stereotypical asshole gamer that gives us all a bad name? Every morning you look at one in the mirror when you wake up. It's people like you that ruin this hobby for the rest of us.

And before you accuse me of the following. No, I do not own a body pillow or any other perverted anime crap. Though I'm sure you'll claim otherwise in next week's article.

I hate to double post, but I felt the inexplicable urge to acknowledge what is clearly the most bizarre troll of all time.
Well played.

 

[RogueLament]

I see where your going with this and I agree that it has a bad stereotype around it but I doubt that getting rid of the word will get rid of the stereotype, and there will always be people who have to label them selfs as gamers just because with out it they have no label. Everybody wants to have a label (be it sports star, rock god, goth, or even average joe) and without it they'll have no idea who to hangout with. I agree with the principle of this article but I don't think it would change much.

 

[RTR]

Very nice, Yahtzee. I'm a little surprised this didn't come about sooner.
Have a nice holiday.

 

[Iron Mal]

I personally use the term 'gamer' to describe one who enjoys playing games and does so on a regular basis, and I feel that does a fairly good job of describing us.

As for the arguement of how we don't label other people by their preferred media, movie lovers? emos/goths/moshers/etc.? These are all people who's identity is centered around the media they enjoy and consume (the main thing that makes gamers unique in this form of naming is that we engage more actively in games that most others do in their media, it is more appropriate that we are named after it since it is something we are doing ourselves).

The people who draw the negetive conotations to the word 'gamer' are not only the ones who wear it like a badge of pride, but also those who see it as an insult or a form of segrigation (in otherwords, Mr. Croshaw himself), I am reminded of the issues surrounding use of the 'N word' (it started off as a racial slur, then people tried to turn it into a term of endearment only for this to fail and for it to remain as a racial slur because it is still treated as an 'exclusive word').

In other words, if you want the negetive imagery surrounding the word 'gamer' to disappear then we have to just accept it as a blank label, stop thinking that it's something to be proud (or ashamed) of and just treat it for what it is, a conveinient way of referring to someone who plays games, if we start emboldening it or censoring people who use it then the image problem we have is only going to get worse.