Don't Use the Word "Gamer"

[ROBOcity123]

I think this is a lazy topic TBH. He's a game critic and he doesn't want to be called a gamer, he also happens to be somewhat existential...Of course he doesn't want a label. He's an intelligent man.

 

[MatsVS]

Clearly Yahtzee was desperately hitting on a woman in his bar the other day, only to be turned down, which left him broken and disillusioned. Thus, in a alcohol-fuelled rage he reasoned that this not-too-rare occurrence was due to not him being a scrawny, pasty, glibly arrogant brit who wouldn't have a friend in the world if it wasn't for his little internet show (about games and penises, incidentally), but the 'gamer persona'. Driven by bitterness and hatred towards his peers, that again spawned this ill-conceived internet rant which makes no sense to anyone but his most ardent followers.

Oh fuck it... I'm just gonna sit and play some games before I have to go to work.

lol, that really did make me laugh, its completely possible about the lady buisness but it seems more like you got offended and completely overreacted

Haha, in retrospect I wish I left out the last part of the main paragraph.

 

[Clockwork Scarecrow.]

Enjoy your holiday.

 

[SomeUnregPunk]

I have to say that not only do I enjoy Yahtzee's videos and his articles, I also enjoy these wonderfully hilarious comment threads where these flame wars sprout and die.

Thank you for keeping me entertained. It's like watching drunken bums fight.

I agree with Yahtzee and I see no solution unless some one makes a new popular moniker to describe people who play video-games that aren't douche-bags about it.

 

[General BrEeZy]

thank you.
please planet earth, adopt this fact.
besides, i have a hot date soon anyways.

 

[nondescript]

While I understand the idea and motive behind breaking the paradigm of game-players as basement-dwelling boys who never looked for a real job, I do have one problem with the request. "Gamer" sets an image, but it's also open to interpretation if you're not prejudiced. Someone who loves board games can be a "gamer," as can a 12-year old with their Pokemon deck, a Unix man who programmed his own game, and your girlfriend who plays Halo while you stand outside with her dog collar around your neck. (Yes, The Guild reference.) For that matter, middle-class executives who spend/waste their paycheck in Vegas at the slots or craps table might call themselves "gamers."

If someone wants to define me as a loser just because I play games, that's their loss, not mine. So when people ask, I say, "I play games. You might say I'm a gamer." You might also say I'll pwn ur bg with my leet skillz. But that's another story.

 

[ShadowSilencer]

fixed it for you. I'm fairly certain that there is a statute of limitations on spoilers.

In fact, I may also claim that your use of spoiler tags as a fanboyism.

We all know fanboyism invalidates arguments.

That is quite literally the WORST rebuttal to a well thought out argument that I have ever heard in my entire life.

Goodie, its my turn.

Seeing how you did nothing but come down on "Yahtzee fanboys". I fail to see how its a bad rebuttal. For no other reason than agreeing with his statement that labels are bad.

Your a pot, or a kettle, I don't really care which but you are one of them.

Sir, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

I love Adam Sandler!

 

[someotherguy]

god I love this. I use to be one of the immature idiots that thought gaming was something special. something very satisfying about reading the rants of an educated yet cynical guy who was sucked into the idiotic world of "gaming"
The funny thing is now people will talk about gamers and girl gamers like they agreed with this all along, yet most of them are just blindly agreeing because they read it here. Hipster culture for you.
When you really look at it all for what it truly is, games, movies, television are just things that play on boxes that emit eye damaging light. I don't understand how people don't see this, it's like showing a monkey pictures of happy monkeys to make that monkey feel happy (sitcoms with laugh tracks or comedies without) or showing a monkey a video of a sad monkey having problems to make the monkey feel sad. Video games are just a diluted version of that for the next generation.

Successful troll is successful? Or sad person is sad?

Games are fun. I don't think anyone thinks they're some amazing thing that no one else in the world has experienced. "Try it mann it's cool." Or maybe a bit sadistic? You assume because people agree with something written, they didn't think that before. Theres an agree and disagree side of this argument 50/50 chance you end up on either side. Also, this for you.
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/sheeple.png

And another thing, people who play games aren't hipsters. Far far from it.

That last bit was pretty funny. Yeah man gamers are totally not hipsters, your like....rebels.
God I'm glad this is text based conversation, i would never be able to say that with a straight face. I love that comic btw, but at least I'm aware of what I am. You on the other hand seem to think your above all of it.
I'm a cynical sarcastic annoyance, I'm ok with that. Your a less amusing annoyance, you seem to think your hobby is somehow important. You want to talk about sad?

I wouldn't either, actually. I don't really think gaming is of any importance, it's important to me, as it's entertaining, but I don't think it's world, aside from producing jobs. Honestly I wouldn't be able to say the rebel part either in an average conversation. How do I think i'm above any of it? You have to remember it's fairly difficult to keep serious with this conversation as theres always the nagging suspicion you're a troll. I wrote 3 lines, The try it mann, it's cool thing was a reference to someone trying to get someone else to try drugs. Also, I've grown up believing that hipsters are well, artsy people. If that definition is wrong, my bad.

 

[VondeVon]

I want people to stop saying things like "I'm a gamer." I want people to say things like this:

"I wake up in the morning. I take a shower. I get on the bus to work. I play Doodle Jump on the bus. I go to work. I work. I play a bit of Team Fortress 2 at lunch break with some colleagues. I go home. Some nights I see a movie. Some nights I go for a drink. And some nights I stay in and play Modern Warfare. I am normal."

...Pffft, naw. I'm Australian. I'm way too slack to say all THAT.

Also, where I live "I'm a Gamer" is a very useful opening remark. I don't know any other 'game-players' in my area and so I like to seek out people with whom I can share my hobby.

If I were a bonsai fanatic, I would tell everyone I met just in case one of them is also, and will make the appropriately admiring remarks about my rows of carefully-chosen little cuttings that will, in twenty years, probably be dead.

'Girl gamer' as a title isn't something I hear often, but I do have the misfortune of hearing it from girls who love playing SMG on their boyfriend's machine.

If you don't even own your own console, don't talk to me. That is where I draw my 'snob line'.

Congrats on the success of your Pub! I hope you do get to expand.

I wonder if your roofie rate will be higher or lower - surely any place where you put your drink down and then focus intently on a screen/controller is just asking for trouble.

 

[Sakeretsu]

It is true you are not branded by your hobby ,you just like it ,Mr hats lover Yahtzee point is very relevant.

 

[Koujow]

Upon finishing this article, what I saw was "Someone said something bad about my business, so you need to stop that."

There is a difference between a 'gamer' and 'a person who plays games'. My grandmother plays games on her computer to occupy herself. I play games for hours on end, then discuss them with people online and watch videos about snobs who do/don't like games. I attend conventions about games and I go to friends houses to play games.

A gamer might imply a negative context to the outside world, but to a person who is a gamer or describes themselves as a gamer, it has positive implications as well. It is like the terms Otaku, Trekkie, Ringer or a bunch of other terms. Most people hear them, roll their eyes and imagine the lame but to one of those people, they know there is a culture of people with similar interests.

Basically, a Gamer is someone who is part of the Gaming culture. Many people play games, but Gamers also research, discuss and sometimes even create their own games.

 

[bruunwald]

I suppose that makes sense. We don't call people movie watchers because we watch movies.

But you do call them viewers because they are viewing them. For TV, too.

"Gamer" is a term that reaches back to before even my 1st Edition AD&D Player's Handbook and its backpage ad for GenCon.

I have been playing video games since about 1976, and that was before I got into tabletop RPGs. I still play video games. That said, I think the term rightly belongs with the tabletop genre. I'm going to do something I hate now, and play the generational/age card - something I try never to do because I think it's usually BS.

But, frankly, "gamer" is a term stolen from hobbyists (of which I am one) by a generation of uber-cool little brats, and that those same brats would now reject it wholesale after wrecking it for the rest of us is exactly the sort of behavior I would expect from that generation. Chew it up, spit it out, shit on it, then leave it burning on the porches of the people you stole it from.

As to the stereotype of the fat stinky socially inept gamer in his mother's basement, I've met motherloads of gamers over the course of my life, and the percentage that could fit that stereotype has been about 1% or 2%, and none of those was somebody with whom I actually gamed. Everybody I ever gamed with was a person of good hygiene and usually with a good job, or if between jobs, was a student. All were socially capable people. And I've never played in a basement at all.

 

[Seneschal]

I agree with the argument since I do not think gamers are a group, just like "mountain climbers" aren't a group. Gamers today have next to nothing in common, and I do not feel like part of group with any other gamer. Primarily because it's a solitary endeavor that I pursue as a hobby because it interests me and I find it enjoyable. Like reading books, watching movies, fishing, drawing, painting miniatures, hunting, collecting stamps, whatever else people like. These things do not require a large social construct to function - I can experience them just fine by myself. And, due to the growing diversity of game genres, I have as much in common with other gamers as I have, as an avid horror-movie enthusiast, with the average Julia-Roberts-fan.

I personally do not take gaming lightly, since I think it has some strong artistic potential, and I'm very interested to see it develop. I sustain, however, that it's nothing to get religious about, and it's not significant on a global scale.

So no, I do not think gaming is like being Muslim, or gay, or a liberal, or an animal activist, or a physicist. It's like being a hobbyist - there is no "we"; all I need is a publication to cover events regarding the hobby and a community of reasonable adults to discuss and share opinions on their common interest. Our hobby happens to be enjoyable and beautiful, and these common interest may lead to lifelong friendships, as I've learned, but there is no reason I should "identify" with people halfway around the globe just because we both press buttons when something happens on the screen.

 

[Chitter_swarm]

I'm afraid I must disagree with Mr. Croshaw. Every sub-group that attains a certain level of wider public awareness acquires a derogatory name from those people outside the group. This name is always intended to capture the most negative aspects of those labeled by it. But it is a sign of strength to take that name and embrace it. In America, "feminist" was originally meant to capture an image of butch lesbians who couldn't accept their proper role. Many races have accepted a "racist" label and taken it as their own, the most obvious case being the use of "the 'N' word" by Africans. Jock, Nerd and Punk are all labels that were applied to a group by outsiders. Trying to fight this label is at the same time futile and immature, especially when the argument is ?all labels are bad?. It is a name applied by "non-gamers" and they will continue to use it regardless of what we call ourselves, the only proven method to combat this label as a negative stereotype is to accept it and redefine it on our terms. Yes, I am a gamer. I start games in "hard" mode, I laugh at references to cakes and lies, or to the phrase "someone set us up the bomb" and I watch a British born Australian make jokes about triple cunted hookers.

 

[CopperBoom]

I knew this would be a "Hot Talk Topic" but wow!

 

[EmmerikXXII]

I can see what Yahtzee's trying to do here, but the use of the word gamer isn't a problem and despite what he says, Ben Croshaw is a gamer and when you:

-Make your living from video games.
-Play a new video game, every week.
-Open a bar, that's inspired by video games.
-Wrote a book, inspired by a video game.
-Made a TV pilot, that was a video game show.
-Occasionally appears on a podcast about video games.
-Was a keynote speaker at a conference about video games.

Then you are more than a guy who plays video games, don't try to separate yourself from the nerd in the basement because you two most likely have the same amount passion. Don't try to deny it, be proud of it, besides there wasn't a secret meeting that decided that we're all gamers.

I know he won't read this but it had to be said.

But the problem is that 'gamer' is a nice parasol that the losers can crawl under and hide from the harsh rays of reality. If there was a separate phrase for 'people who play games' and 'losers who play games to hide from a reality they don't understand' then I'd be happy to be a gamer.

The problem with websites like this is that they give people in a self-destructive lifestyle some form of validation. "I hate the outside world, but so do these people so that's ok." If we're going to try and insist that gamer doesn't mean loser we need to be frank with ourselves and realise that in a lot of cases yes it does. I really like playing games, by any reasonable criteria I'm an enthusiast, but compared to some people on here I'm as casual as my grandmother.

And she's dead.

You can see it on here, people play games to escape life and we need to stop encouraging it because it's not the image we want. Either we need to accept that gamer will always mean loser or we need to evict the losers.

EDIT: The first thing we need to change is the popular but wrong assumption that people who don't play games are stupid, or that people who don't appreciate gaming are ignorant. It's a prime nerd defence back from when people first started to manifest nerdness at school; anyone who dislikes your behaviour is stupid and isn't really a person anyway.

That's the core of self deception we need to crack, if gamers have to accept that everyone else is as smart as them and just doesn't like gaming we may well get somewhere.

Perhaps we could all just stop hate-mongering. This entire argument is about distinguishing ourselves from people we don't like. "Losers" crawl under the parasol BECAUSE of people like you calling them losers. Hate all you want. Keep it to yourself. You're as guilty of wanting to be special as the losers crawling under the parasol. You want to kick the losers out of your special club because you don't want to be associated with them. If you can't have a special club, no one can!! Destroy it! Don't call us gamers! Get over it. There are several different types of gamers, as there are several different types of fighters, miners, public speakers, teachers, fisherman, boaters, writers, artists, singers, etc. You get the point.

No one ever said gamer was an illustrious title, but it can be something you're proud of. I am polish. Being polish doesn't make me part of an Elite Polack Association, though I am still proud of my heritage. I think there are many people out there proud of their heritage, and it's merely the nationality of the parents they happened to be conceived to.

I'm a Polish Gamer, and I am proud of it.

 

[Zero-Vash]

Well said my friend. I feel the same way, not only with the "gamer" title but "christian" too. I don't say I'm a gamer, nor do I say I'm christian. But I do play games and do believe in God.

I do both to show people that "we"(people who play games, or people who believe in God). can be "normal"(whatever that means).

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

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.

Aeris is a flaky bint. Hell, she was the most boring character in the game. I stand by that steadfast. I never understood the obsession with her.

Also, John ended up proving Yahtzee right. The irony. Yahtzee at least called someone doing exactly what John did.

Anyways, yeah gamer is the worst term, but we have nothing else unless we want to look like complete douches. But I do know someone who'd fit the bill of gamer, a friend of mine who ignored all of his friends and his girlfriend for 2 monthes. That is probably as close as I've seen anyone get to what Yahtzee says.

 

[SFR]

Hmm... Peculiar, Sir John was put on probation for a post that was obviously sarcastic (at least, I'd extremely assume).

Anyway.

I guess I agree with you on this one, Yatzee. Though, the term gamer is sort of losing that image sense almost everyone plays video games now. The only reason it's an actual term is because that originally wasn't the case.

I wish I lived anywhere close at all to that bar... and was of legal age in the country. Sounds mighty fun and interesting. People always find gimmicks as a bad term, but come on... Gimmicks are the only reason new things happen.

 

[Marowit]

I find it interesting that you want people not to use the word 'gamer' as a descriptive, because it has a negative connotation. I prefer to use it precisely because I don't fit the stereotype. It's my way of pointing out how wrong the stereotype is.