Poll: When did you start to call yourself a gamer?

[TheArcaneThinker]

That was the moment when i finished the campaign in Rome : total war .

 

[Zen Bard]

I think it was around two-thousand-and-never.

I've always enjoyed playing PC games. Hell, some friends and I used to write our own in the late 80's (who knew back then that could be an actual career! Opportunity missed there!)

But like Zhukov said, I'm a person who enjoys playing games.

I reject the term "Gamer" as anything other than some fabricated category devised by marketing departments to pigeonhole a certain group of consumers.

 

[Godhead]

Probably around the time that I first heard the term gamer. Before that it was something I just did with my brothers and my dad on the computer.

 

[Vigormortis]

To me, such titles are rather inconsequential and interchangeable.

Perhaps. But just as many people like to claim they stand for gender equality without calling themselves "feminists", (or indeed like to watch MLP without caling themselves "bronies"), I put forward the motion that one can play video games without identifying as a "gamer".

And that's exactly what I do.

Feminism is an ideology. One built around a certain set of ideals. As such, someone can hold to the ideals without being beholden to the ideology.

Being a gamer isn't an ideology. It's, at most, a descriptor. If someone plays, enjoys, and actively seeks out opportunities to partake of video games, then by definition they are a gamer. Whether they do so casually, habitually, or professionally. The term is nothing more than a description of a personal activity.

That said, no one, not even gamers, is under any obligation to use the term to define their identity. In fact, for most the term is only a small part of their identity. So, it's fine if you don't want to use the term yourself. And it's just as fine to be "offended" if someone tries to pigeonhole you into a perceived ideology by labeling you with the term in a derogatory manner.

 

[SoreWristed]

When people started to call me that. When i grew up i first met games at a friends house where he had a SNES with the Hulk game (can't remember which one) and i used to play there. Later, at another friends house where they had the N64 and i used to go play goldeneye multiplayer. And i noticed they sometimes didn't want to play and i was confused, because surely there was nothing more fun than actualy playing games was there?

And then my dad got a laptop that could run duke nukem, doom and prince of persia and things like that. Got confused as hell again, because i'd try to show it to friends and after half an hour they'd want to go do stuff like riding bikes, pretending to be pokemon or any of the regular kids' stuff. Pokemon on the gameboy also deserves honourable mention since i was one of the only 4 people i knew to finish that game. Ofcourse this doomed my pokedex to being short a couple of entries. *edit* people i knew in my small circle of friends in a small school when i was 10

Same again with the first playstation and when i finally got my ps2, most of the people i'd play growing up with, stopped playing. So they called me a gamer, as an insult sometimes, but mostly because people need everything defined around them.

And now i've found myself years later owning a total of 8 gaming platforms and 255 games. So yeah, i didn't know i was a gamer untill people told me i was. Otherwise i'd still not know, because i only went to look for friends who'd react to the same 'insult' as i did.

 

[Lieju]

I don't really go around calling myself that because it doesn't come up that much.
When I use the word it tends to be a descriptor for 'people who play games' of which I am one, and I guess I started to use the term when I knew about it years ago?

I'm not fond of labelling myself personally. I need to use terms like 'lesbian' to describe myself since unfortunately the society cares about my sexuality but no one cares if I play videogames and I don't face situations where I feel the need to identify myself as a someone who plays games in general.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Don't consider myself a gamer, just a Falco and a king (basically just play SSBM and Paradox RTS games these days).

 

[Phlap]

I've been playing videogames my entire life. I can't remember a time when I didn't consider myself a gamer.

 

[Hawki]

I've played games since I was about 3. That said, I don't call myself a gamer, any more than I call myself a "filmgoer," "reader," or any other term that defines me by something I happen to do. IMO, the entire concept of a "gamer" is one that's out of date.

 

[NPC009]

I think it was around the time internet became a big thing. There were people in my class who played games, but most stuck to popular sport games and the like. Meanwhile, I was becoming more and more interested in JRPG and other rather obscure games, and went as far as importing games that weren't released in my region. People like me were calling themselves gamers and I was like 'that works, guess I'm one, too'.

It's not something I call myself often, but it can be a handy word to have around.

 

[Ishigami]

I suppose since 1989.
Must be around that time that I got my hands on a 486 computer. That was the gateway drug, been a game ever since.

 

[veloper]

Never bother labeling yourself. The people around you will label you already and that's the labels that will be the most sticky.

I'm a gamer, where people call me a gamer and there's no point in denying it when you play many games and even waste time talking about them in places like the escapist.

 

[laggyteabag]

When I started to spend a lot of my spare time playing games, I guess. Nothing too fancy.

 

[sanquin]

Probably in the 2 years that I was part of a 'computer club' at high school. Which consisted of us playing QUAKE and browsing the net most of the time even though we weren't allowed to play games. It was the first time I met like minded people.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I don't.

I've played games since I was little but I find the term cringey, if I'm honest.

I play video games (though not as often as I'd like at the moment) and I enjoy keeping myself up to date on what's happening but I wouldn't describe myself as a gamer. Especially as a woman, in my own experience, you get funny looks from people who think video games are juvenile and funny looks from self-described gamers who don't believe you're a gamer and think you just played Call of Duty with your boyfriend one time.

 

[San Martin]

I don't. I hardly play games anymore, and even when I did I thought it was a silly thing to base my identity around.

 

[Malty Milk Whistle]

I don't and I never have.
Dislike the term, dislike the general use of said term (and not just because of the whole GG debacle)

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

I don't - any more than I'd call myself a, er, 'filmer', or a 'musicer'. Videogames are just another drop in the entertainment/art ocean, part of the cultural spectrum. So it's all just stuff to enjoy/consume/be pissed off by/etc. I started too young to ever even be aware of labels and silly notions of cordoned off cultural identity/associations.

 

[Raikas]

I don't - love games, but it's a hobby and not an identity. And an entertainment consumption hobby at that (I think there are some more active hobbies that do have a lifestyle element, but gaming just isn't one of them).

That said, I don't particularly object if someone else labels me that way, I just don't really care one way or the other.