Ok... I'll try to keep it simple, but I doubt it will happen.
I do enjoy Yathzee's ZP and XP as well as most of its opinions on cynism, gaming and dick analogies. Therefore I am a silent admirer like most of the internet I assume. The reason my silence breaks today is actually to revoke XP's last argument regarding the word "gamer" and its use.
Naturally, gamer like many other words have had many different reasonings and semantics over the history, but a word is hardly a true matter of discussion. In fact, if we all agree, would stop using the word gamer and replace it with killer, just for the jest, without alteration of the definition would be as pointless as changing it for his elaborate tell-me-your-life-yawn-I'm-bored sounding. Yes, a word leaves an image of the said definition in one's mind and yes we have come to accept that said definition over the years, so to get around all this: Even though Yahtzee brought a pretty decent argument on "gamers" it is nonetheless misled by the very concept of it all, the definition.
First off, I would like to say that images are everywhere, whether justified by a personal definition or not. A gamer is someone who plays video games on a certain frequency, like poverty, it's a loose definition. Some consider themselves rich by being able to drink pure water or having a pure soul if that counts, some are considered poor for being heartless. Although none of these definitions have numbers to illustrate a line between rich and poor, the loose definition fills the blanks with one's ability to define the matter through a subjective point of view. Same could be said for gamers, so there is no need for this definition to have a said frequency or number of hours to acquire a proper gamer title. ESPECIALLY not achievement points of any kinds.
Now that we have a simple loose definition of gaming, there is a certain standard coming into play saying that gamers are so and such that stands outside the definition. Fat, otaku, emo, weirdos, or paperlichenkovs, etc. These standards are what ends up altering the definition on a greater mass and then changes the image of what a gamer is supposed to be. Yet the real definition or the proto-definition if everyone agrees to change it stays unchanged. A gamer is someone who plays video games on a certain frequency. Yet these people has certain predispositions and likelyhood toward those newly established standards and that's undeniable. If you play WoW instead of playing basket-ball, don't expect to loose too much weight. Certainly you can by eating healthy and moving from time to time but the level of activity of gaming, except for the Wii and those new motion controls, are pretty low. The same can be said if you eat at McDonald and should you call these people McBurger raiders or people enjoying greasy food won't alter the image of an obese man or fat-assed woman. Neither do changing the word gamer for an euphemism will alter the image of it.
So it is true: Gamers have an image problem. That's not to say they are losers or any worst than those sweaty Brunos who plays though with their steel-plated abs. Nowaday every words has or will eventually have an image problem if you look deep enough, that's mankind for you. There is no reason for that to change unless tolerance and friendship hits us through way of tactical nuclear strike. Personally, I go with cynicism about it and live my life that way. I assume the "gamer" I don't know well is an antisocial reject fat and unloved by his parents and get to know the guy better to maybe prove myself happily surprised I was wrong or satisfied I was right, just like every E3 hype, no?
As for the term normal, that would be the word I would ban. It's offensive when you don't feel like belonging and shouldn't be used to describe anyone for there is no one that can claim itself pure of any deviance. And if a such person did exist being the average-perfection of what we expect of a human being, that guy is surely the only one and therefore special in itself, should I not say abnormally normal.
Until next time, Escapist.
