Metalhandkerchief said:
1. All games are not equal. That's why I have always, and will always, differentiate between "gamer" and "game consumer".
A gamer has a large library of games spanning some time where at least half of the games are quality games. In addition, a gamer is good at most games, and cares to some degree about quality of games and the art within games.
A game consumer typically buys mostly heavily marketed games like Assassin's Creed, The Sims, Call of Duty, FIFA, Madden, Gears of War etc. and don't own a significant proportion of quality games that weren't heavily marketed or totally casual games from an app store for their mobile device or facebook. A game consumer views games as pure entertainment.
l0ckd0wn said:
That is a great way to differentiate for you, but nothing is quantifiable and is all subjective based on your own perception.
Basically that. Particularly in these parts
Large library of games spanning some time where at least half of the games are quality games
No numbers, and plus that implies that people who own a lot of bad games have to own at least half that amount in good games in order to be classified as a gamer. (You probably didn't mean that literally though)
Also for that matter, there's no way to say what is a good game, 100%.
In addition, a gamer is good at most games
For Team Fortress 2, someone who is good just comes down to "better than everyone else on the server at the time". And that's just one example. In general, most "gamers" who meet all other criteria would get absolutely creamed in a tournament in the top division for a competitive game. What threshold defines "you're good at this game?"
and cares to some degree about quality of games and the art within games.
Not all games are artistic. You can't compare Braid to VVVVV with art, and all people inherently care about the quality of games, even if that's "damn, this game is bad", you're still making a mention about the quality of it. Unless that's a subjective definition of the quality of games based against your experience.
A game consumer views games as pure entertainment.
To me, that comes across as you take games very seriously and
people who take games very seriously for me are the ones who shout down the mic. If you're not having fun, it's not much of a game as far as I'm concerned. I can understand getting mad at your teammates if you have to rely on them, but you can't fault them for trying if they're not up to your standards in the game.
Of course, if you're in a single player game, it doesn't affect you what the "game consumers" do and then you don't even have to think about it, so it shouldn't even cross your mind.