If you play Call of Duty you're not a real gamer

Sean Hollyman

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It pains me to say I've seen this said a lot of times now. What's up with that? Why do people seem so offended when somebody says they like a certain game and jump down their throats about how casual they are and how ____ makes them not a gamer? Does it actually bother them what other people are playing? It hurts my brain
 

Clowndoe

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It just helps them feel like they're on some moral high hill. Something you notice looking at other FPS forums is that people there are really proud of their "niche" FPS that "not everyone can just pick up". Nothing to do but walk away.
 

Foolery

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Jun 5, 2013
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Well, one of the producers at Infinity Ward, Mark Rubin. Has this stated before.

"We have an enormous amount of players who are more in the casual game space, but they play a lot."

"It's kind of a weird, ironic thing to say."

"They aren't hardcore gamers, or even gamers, but they play Call of Duty every night."

"And those guys are going to continue to play regardless of platform. So I think not only will we continue to engage with that existing player base, but we?ll take next gen and see how far we can go with it."
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128868-Infinity-Ward-Says-Call-of-Duty-Players-Arent-Hardcore-Gamers

I can agree this assessment of the playerbase. I know people who are like this. And I don't think any less of them.
 

Nickolai77

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I think we've got to the stage now where it is abnormal not to ever play some sort of game (be it on your smartphone, on Facebook, on console, handheld or PC). Like how owning and driving a car doesn't automatically make you a car enthusiast, neither does owning a couple of games automatically make you a "gamer". Not that there is anything wrong at all with that, although if someone went around claiming to be a gamer but they'd only ever played FIFA and Call of Duty titles I'd be a bit sceptical of their claim.
 

Madkipz

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Sean Hollyman said:
It pains me to say I've seen this said a lot of times now. What's up with that? Why do people seem so offended when somebody says they like a certain game and jump down their throats about how casual they are and how ____ makes them not a gamer? Does it actually bother them what other people are playing? It hurts my brain
Its nothing to hurt your brain over. Much like how the gamer crowd applauds effort on behalf of the player in arena shooters like Quake or former Unreal Tournament that same gamer crowd wishes to point fingers at those who assume the mantle of gamer by virtue of having played with instant gratification guns with no recoil, carepackage spam, noobtubes, and insert martyrdom or otherwise easy to use perks that give you guaranteed kills here".
 

Strain42

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There's no such thing as a "real gamer." The only people the term "Gamer" should apply to are the people who actually play video games for a living, whether on a competitive circuit or for review purposes, or even YouTube folks like the Game Grumps. As in, playing video games is literally their job, it is what they do. Or at the very least, those who are aspiring to do so (I admit I'm not a full time cartoonist, but I still use the title)

Aside from that, "Gamer" is a self-appointed term that people simply give themselves because of their hobby. There is nothing wrong with doing that mind you, but it doesn't give them the authority to claim who is and isn't allowed to use that label as well.

If in my spare time I wrote novels and called myself a writer and then decided to go "All the people who write webcomics aren't real writers." I'd sound like a total jerk.

Same basic principle applies.

The dude who spends 60+ hours a week gaming and has gotten all the Steam achievements on Dark Souls and the guy who plays Angry Birds during the bus ride to and from work both have equal claims to call themselves a "Gamer"

And that concept is unacceptable to certain people, and that's where the debate comes from.
 

Racecarlock

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It's arrogance, plain and simple. Like the people who watch toddlers and tiaras and go "Glad I'm not that evil" or the people who watch jersey shore and go "Glad I'm not that stupid", gamers too need to jack off their ego. So they create a scapegoat for everything wrong with gaming. Casual gamers, call of duty players, or shit, even people who don't particularly like "Art" games (Gone home, dear esther, every day the same dream).

It doesn't help that I'm part of all three of those categories. I may play games all day, but I'm pretty casual about it. I own one COD modern warfare game and have demos of the other two. I also found every day the same dream to be boring as hell.

The only difference between this and masturbation is that your mom can't catch you with your junk hanging out. It's basically the worst kind of way to feel good about yourself. By making others look worse. And I hate it.
 

Nomanslander

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Feb 21, 2009
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Depends on how you look at it, and whether you take it as an insult or not. I mean... people that play only Call of Duty, and nothing else... you can technically say aren't gamers. Just like people that only see popcorn movies and nothing older than 5 years since release aren't movie buffs, and people that go see The Avengers in theaters - but have never read any of hte comics - aren't comic book fans.

I mean, I've never read a Batman nor Spiderman comic in my entire life, but yet I have my opinions on what I like to see in those movies. Do I have a right to do that?

It's a tricky matter since theirs a lot of bias opinions and one-sided perspectives going on.

Or to answer your question:

If you play NOTHING but Call of Duty, I'd say "yes" you are not a gamer.

Taking that as an insult is like me taking the fact that I'm not a true comic book fan of Spiderman and Batman as an insult. Because I really shouldn't.

:p
 

Tuesday Night Fever

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Nomanslander said:
I mean... people that play only Call of Duty, and nothing else... you can technically say aren't gamers.
Callin' shenanigans on that. Is Call of Duty a game? Yes? Then someone who plays it is a gamer. There's no "technically" about it. This is no different than someone who only plays League of Legends, or only plays Pokémon, only plays StarCraft, only plays Angry Birds, or whatever. There's no "rule" stating that you can only call yourself a gamer for playing multiple games, and there's no "rule" stating that certain games are for whatever reason excluded. The only reason to say to someone that they "aren't really a gamer" in a situation such as this is to be a snob.

Just like people that only see popcorn movies and nothing older than 5 years since release aren't movie buffs...
Nope. Those people are still movie buffs. They just watch different movies. Again, only reason to claim that they aren't is to be a snob toward them.

...and people that go see The Avengers in theaters - but have never read any of hte comics - aren't comic book fans.

I mean, I've never read a Batman nor Spiderman comic in my entire life, but yet I have my opinions on what I like to see in those movies. Do I have a right to do that?
Irrelevant because comic books and movies are two different formats. I don't tell people I'm a pilot because I used to play a lot of flight simulators, and I don't claim to love reading novels because I only watch film adaptations. It's absurd.

And someone can absolutely be a fan of Iron Man or Captain America or Spiderman or Batman or whatever without reading any of the comic books the same way that someone can be a fan of those characters without ever watching the movies.
 

mirage202

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Way I see this, if you only play CoD, you aren't a gamer, you're a CoD player. If you play CoD and other games and some uses that BS then they are quite frankly idiots.

Same thing that bugs me about sports fans that only watch a single sport. That doesn't make you a sports fan, it makes you an XYZ fan.
 

DrOswald

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Sean Hollyman said:
It pains me to say I've seen this said a lot of times now. What's up with that? Why do people seem so offended when somebody says they like a certain game and jump down their throats about how casual they are and how ____ makes them not a gamer? Does it actually bother them what other people are playing? It hurts my brain
The problem is that many people build their identity around the things they love. In turn, many people who all love the same thing come together and make a culture. In this case, gamers made gaming culture. These things are precious. Their identity as a gamer and the gamer culture they helped build is very important to these people.

And then people who are not like them come in and tear down the culture they have built and remake it as something else. The thing they helped create, the thing they loved, is gone. Because of the new people playing Call of Duty, who are not the kind of people who built and created gamer culture. These people who play games but are not gamers like us. They may be gamers in that they play games, but they are not gamers in that they are not deep into the culture of games. Hence the distinction: Casual vs. Hardcore.

It does not bother people what games other people play. It bothers them that gaming culture is being taken over by people not like them. They respond to this "attack" with a reflexive counter attack. Thus the "filthy casual" insult.

Personally the changing gamer culture doesn't bother me, we are still getting plenty of great games being made for the hardcore crowd even if the AAA developers are all chasing the casual dollar. However I can see advantages to differentiating between different types of gamers, just as we differentiate between different levels of movie goers. We just need to get rid of the bad feelings associated with it.
 

kortin

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Nickolai77 said:
I think we've got to the stage now where it is abnormal not to ever play some sort of game (be it on your smartphone, on Facebook, on console, handheld or PC). Like how owning and driving a car doesn't automatically make you a car enthusiast, neither does owning a couple of games automatically make you a "gamer". Not that there is anything wrong at all with that, although if someone went around claiming to be a gamer but they'd only ever played FIFA and Call of Duty titles I'd be a bit sceptical of their claim.
I wouldn't be skeptical, I'd know for a fact that they aren't gamers. People who would defend the "gamers" who only play call of duty and fifa confuse me. They say that Gamers are just trying to make themselves feel better, but I don't see how. Unless it's somehow acceptable for people who play basketball once or twice a month to refer to themselves as an athlete, or someone who watches a movie maybe once a month a movie buff, then I guess I can accept people who only play call of duty and fifa as gamers. But really, most groups are not all inclusive. Should soccer moms who play angry birds and candy crush be considered gamers? Should the guy who rides his bike to work sometimes to save money be considered a cyclist? Or how about the person who doodles occasionally but doesn't really ever work to get better, should they be considered an artist? There HAS to be some sort of cutoff, otherwise everyone is part of everything and the groups might as well not exist.
 

DrOswald

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Tuesday Night Fever said:
Nomanslander said:
I mean... people that play only Call of Duty, and nothing else... you can technically say aren't gamers.
Callin' shenanigans on that. Is Call of Duty a game? Yes? Then someone who plays it is a gamer. There's no "technically" about it. This is no different than someone who only plays League of Legends, or only plays Pokémon, only plays StarCraft, only plays Angry Birds, or whatever. There's no "rule" stating that you can only call yourself a gamer for playing multiple games, and there's no "rule" stating that certain games are for whatever reason excluded. The only reason to say to someone that they "aren't really a gamer" in a situation such as this is to be a snob.
Entirely untrue. The vocabulary may be off, but the actual reasoning is sound. The term "Gamer" used to mean something. And I am not talking about it used to be better, it just meant something different. Specifically, gaming enthusiast. Someone who has a wide reaching and highly comprehensive knowledgeable about video games and understanding of video games. You can't be knowledgeable about games if your only interaction with them is one game.

Just like people that only see popcorn movies and nothing older than 5 years since release aren't movie buffs...
Nope. Those people are still movie buffs. They just watch different movies. Again, only reason to claim that they aren't is to be a snob toward them.
They are not movie buffs. They are not the sort of people who build a wide reaching and comprehensive knowledge of and understanding of cinema. They may like movies, but they are not "movie buffs" as per the meaning of the term.

Neither of these things have to do with snobbery inherently. There is value in the distinction between the knowledgeable - the experts - in a field and the ignorant in that field.
 

jetriot

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Its no different from Ebert saying games aren't art or a food snob saying they would prefer dog food over eating at an Olive Garden. Snobs will be snobs.
 
Mar 8, 2012
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A Gamer is, literally, "one who games."

Your dad who plays online poker? He's a gamer. Your grandmother who plays Bridge in the nursing home? She's a gamer. The jock in the back of the class with Lacrosse practice after school, and the nerd at the front who plays D&D on the weekends, guess what? They're both gamers, too.

I'm not going to discriminate and say people who only play CoD aren't gamers; it's just not true. I will, however, pity them for deliberately closing themselves off to new and richer experiences.
 

Ferisar

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kortin said:
Nickolai77 said:
I think we've got to the stage now where it is abnormal not to ever play some sort of game (be it on your smartphone, on Facebook, on console, handheld or PC). Like how owning and driving a car doesn't automatically make you a car enthusiast, neither does owning a couple of games automatically make you a "gamer". Not that there is anything wrong at all with that, although if someone went around claiming to be a gamer but they'd only ever played FIFA and Call of Duty titles I'd be a bit sceptical of their claim.
I wouldn't be skeptical, I'd know for a fact that they aren't gamers. People who would defend the "gamers" who only play call of duty and fifa confuse me. They say that Gamers are just trying to make themselves feel better, but I don't see how. Unless it's somehow acceptable for people who play basketball once or twice a month to refer to themselves as an athlete, or someone who watches a movie maybe once a month a movie buff, then I guess I can accept people who only play call of duty and fifa as gamers. But really, most groups are not all inclusive. Should soccer moms who play angry birds and candy crush be considered gamers? Should the guy who rides his bike to work sometimes to save money be considered a cyclist? Or how about the person who doodles occasionally but doesn't really ever work to get better, should they be considered an artist? There HAS to be some sort of cutoff, otherwise everyone is part of everything and the groups might as well not exist.
Except in that case the only "gamers" are people who make a living off of games, because athletes (and to a less extent movie buffs) aren't people who engage in a hobby but use it as defining characteristic of their life. Inherently, the title of "gamer" is self-ascribed and in-quantifiable, thus completely arbitrary and entirely entitling when used to lock others from the hobby for not having played the original Pong and everything since then. People who defend this weird shaming and unsocial behavior confuse me, because it's fucking weird. It's a hobby, not a broadcasted sport (yeah yeah, esports). Sure, some are "enthusiasts" and some are "casuals", but these terms can exist outside of the "gamer" dynamic, just like a casual movie-goer isn't a "casual movie buff". They're just people who go see movies sometimes. This is why "pro gamer" is distinct from the original title, because gamer largely means nothing in today's day and age.

The term spawned out of the exclusivity of the hobby and finding pride in a hobby that at one point in its lifetime, among a lot of circles, was not a social activity. It's a unique circumstance and its continued and needless arbitration shouldn't occur anymore, because "gaming" isn't niche anymore, much like reading books hasn't been a niche thing since they started teaching people how to read. If anything, the removal of the term is something that would do more good to avoid this strange tribalism as related to an entertainment medium rather than any strange judgment system that qualifies you for the title.

OT:
As said above, I will agree in saying that the people who exclusively play CoD and avoid all other titles are avoiding other great experiences available on their platforms of choice, but fuck if I'm going to tell them what they are and are not based on their entertainment preference.
 

SKBPinkie

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Call of Duty is like the Godwin's law of video games.

If you bring it up as a retort or an insult in some form, you've lost the argument. Hell, considering that it was an argument about video games, you were losing anyway.

Losing at losing. And nope - that's not a double negative.
 
Dec 10, 2012
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Are you new to the internet? This has been ubiquitous for years. The thing is, this doesn't even truly bother very many people. But the magic of the internet is, whenever someone expresses an opinion, it is the most controversial thing anyone has ever heard. Give people the ability to argue in complete anonymity and without social repercussions, and they will take every opportunity to exercise those atrophied RAEG muscles.

Call of Duty is particularly divisive, because of its popularity and its perceived simplicity among its contemporaries. So, if you play it, you are shallow and a poser douche. If you insult somebody for liking it, you are a neckbearded basement-dwelling virgin troll. This is just simple internet math.
 

Tuesday Night Fever

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DrOswald said:
Nope. Still snobbery. Neither "Gamer" nor "Movie Buff" imply expert-level knowledge. They imply that the person is a fan of whatever form of entertainment they happen to be participating in. The distinction you're making is one of specialization. A movie buff, like in that guy's example, that's watching everything released within the last five years is every bit as much of a movie buff as I am, just a hell of a lot more specialized in his or her knowledge. Both people experts in their own particular ways. I might know more about 80's action and science fiction films than that hypothetical movie buff, but that person probably knows a hell of a lot more about recent comedies than I do. If you're going to reserve the title "movie buff" to just those who have seen everything, or even just mostly everything, I think you'll find that nobody is really a movie buff. Especially considering how ridiculously few movies actually made the transition from actual film and VHS to DVD/Blu-Ray/streaming.

This all just smacks of a "you don't like what I like, so you're undeserving of this (dumb) title" mentality. Just more internet elitism to stroke people's egos.