Yes, They're Gamers, Too

[shinigamisparda]

I do agree people who play games like "Farmville" are not gamers. However, I do not believe you have to achieve some goal like "beat Megaman 2 without dying" or "beat M.Bison in story mode in under 45 seconds" to be called a gamer. My definition is if you play games that you can lose and that are genuinely hard (because of challenge, not poor controls) and keep playing those games through thick and thin, then yes you are a gamer.

Have you played Tetris more than once and enjoyed it? You're a gamer.

DO you play Halo 3 online? You're a gamer.

Have you beaten a JRPG? You're a gamer.

Do you stay up at night challenging your friends to multiple rounds of Soul Calibur? You're a gamer.

 

[zoozilla]

I think this kind of thing applies to all hobbies, though. Especially the nerdy ones.

I mean, you can't really call yourself a film buff until you've seen all of Ingmar Bergman's films 15 times, right?

 

[NTK]

Let's just get rid of the word ''Gamer'' from now on.

Do we have a name for people who watch TV or movies? No.

This. I play games and I like them. Am I a gamer or not, I don't really care.

 

[Robert632]

I'm sorry, but why is beating Mega man without dying a requirement to be a "true gamer"? So people who hate mega man are screwed because they will not really have an intrest in it?

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

Well, I agree with the view of the article. But I also have a theory about why people do this: they need to feel superior. Think about how video game stories go: you are 1 guy, misunderstood, and set with an impossible task. Yet some how, through a combination of skill, you succeed, and return to humanity a hero, loved by all. Often as not, you get the girl too.

Now think about that. Does that not sound like the power fantasy? Gaming is a way to feel superior, especialy in a world where nerdy qualities are constantly demonized.

I can't speak for other gamers, but I feel a lot smarter than a lot of people, simply because I'm good at school and better at gaming. Gaming is the one thing I am better at than the jocks, the smokers, the preps, ect.(yes, I am in high school). It's my claim to fame, "I can kick your ass left and right in halo!". Being good at it, and being the only one good at it makes me feel superior. Helps me feel like I've earned the title gamer.

But now any dumb ***** can hop on Facebook and play farm town, requiring no skill and no devotion, and earn the same title I have spent the better part of my life working towards. I am no longer considered superior to anyone else, as the one thing I'm good at anybody can do now.

What the fuck?

 

[Bananajoy]

I usually tell people that I am a "gamer" because gaming is my main hobby, but I usually don't think of it as labeling myself 'elite' above those who play casual games. Heck I'll play games like Peggle or Bejeweled if I feel like it! But I usually invest more time into games or game related things then your average Joe.

 

[Urgh76]

I'm reminded of the following.

Spoiler: VGCats within

[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=282]

this... practically sums it up

Screw the farmville players

 

[ohgodalex]

I think the problem here is that the article Arendt was responding to was stupid in the first place. The writing was atrocious, and the author seemed to possess all the maturity and culture of a 13-year old fanboy.

 

[PlasticLion]

A gamer walks up to the counter in a video game store.
"How can I help you?" the thirty year old, balding sales clerk asks.
"I would like a copy of Wii Sports Resort and a Motion Plus sensor."-g
"You know the game comes with a Motion Plus, right?"-sc
"Yes, I need two so my son and I can play together. And that reminds me I need a DS too."-g
"DS lite or DSi?"-sc
"A DSi. I just know my son will love taking pictures and then distorting them. He does it all the time on our computer."-g
"SD card?"-sc
"Nope got plenty at home."-g
The gamer pays and leaves.

A man walks up to the counter in a video game store.
"How can I help you?" a dwarf wearing a leather codpiece asks.
"I would like a copy of Wii Sports Resort, please."-m
The dwarf turns around, unlocks a glass case, then bends over to get the game.
"Why is the package so big?"-m
"It comes with the Motion Plus sensor."-d
"What's that?"-m
"It makes the remote more sensitive, you plug it in the end to play this game."-d
"What if I have two remotes?"-m
"Then you have to get another sensor. They are $20."-d
"I guess I need one of those, then. Boy these video game makers really know how to stick it to ya, don't they?"-m
"Anything else?"-d
"No I don't think so, but I'm gonna look around. Maybe I will see something that looks fun."

-fin

It is very a bad business practice to treat everyone who walks into a video game store as if they were the same. Too much technical information will confuse non-gamers into buying nothing, and you will baby talk gamers(even the ones that were recently babies) into annoyance. Call them whatever you want but there is a difference.

 

[SimuLord]

I'm with Scott Ramsoomair and his anthropomorphic felines on this one. The problem with "gaming is for everyone" is not with the people who have been drawn into what is, let's face it, a pretty awesome hobby we all took up ourselves to the point where we congregate here to talk about it. The problem is that formerly niche genres are deader than dead (there hasn't been a great trade sim since 2004 and the best city builders are all from 1999-2003, just to harp on my own pet genres) and companies are now all about "universal appeal" to chase sales.

Time was you could just identify an audience of hardcore gamers, make games, and sell games to those hardcore gamers. The industry was small, the market seemingly locked in, and without the promise of big bucks no whammies STOP, there was more passion in it...at least in the games I got into playing in the first place!

So bring back the hexes and NATO counters. Bring back the Excel spreadsheets with prettier graphics. For the love of the gods, bring back the RCI meter and ordinances and traffic-flow mechanics! It's not casual games I have a problem with. It's industry obsessions with those people!

 

[Illustro Cado]

This relates to how words change meaning over time. If gamer is to remain in our lexicon, it has to mean something beyond "plays games" or "plays certain kinds of games." As someone else stated, it's not unreasonable to define a gamer as someone who acknowledges gaming as an artform rather than mere entertainment. I don't think there's any real debate as to who the hardcore gamers are, although the author of the article which inspired this post is insane if he thinks your run-of-the-mill gamer can make it to the end of Mega Man without getting hit. (This is coming from someone who doesn't get why people think the series is so hard.)

While there's more to be said, I'm certain it's been covered already so I'll leave this as-is for now.

 

[Klepa]

A gamer is a connoisseur of games.

I tried putting my thoughts into english for a good while, but you really said it best.

I know plenty of people who play video games but deliberately avoid the label because they don't consider gaming a significant part of their identities.

And another shoutout to you, as I agree with gaming having to be a significant part of one's life, to be considered a gamer.

I think what "Gamer" today means, is a person who's interested about the gaming industry. People who know who or what Ubisoft, EA, Activision, Blizzard, Bioware or Bungie are. Anyone can play games, but it isn't really a definitive quality of their persona, if they just play Peggle at work.

Just like a "Movie Buff" isn't a person who likes to watch a blockbuster flick once a year. A movie buff would be someone who's aware of different directors, their styles of directing, keeps a keen eye to actors' performances, can comment on screenplay and dialog, and so on and so forth.

Being a "Gamer" doesn't make you a better person. It's just a label that implies that Person X is into Y. My sister plays Facebook games with righteous fury, but she couldn't tell you what any of the companies I mentioned earlier, are about. She and I share nothing in common when it comes to games, so she and I can't be both be labeled the same way. So people like me have taken on the title of "Gamer", while people like my sister are just "Something Elser".

 

[Illustro Cado]

I'm with Scott Ramsoomair and his anthropomorphic felines on this one. The problem with "gaming is for everyone" is not with the people who have been drawn into what is, let's face it, a pretty awesome hobby we all took up ourselves to the point where we congregate here to talk about it. The problem is that formerly niche genres are deader than dead (there hasn't been a great trade sim since 2004 and the best city builders are all from 1999-2003, just to harp on my own pet genres) and companies are now all about "universal appeal" to chase sales.

Time was you could just identify an audience of hardcore gamers, make games, and sell games to those hardcore gamers. The industry was small, the market seemingly locked in, and without the promise of big bucks no whammies STOP, there was more passion in it...at least in the games I got into playing in the first place!

So bring back the hexes and NATO counters. Bring back the Excel spreadsheets with prettier graphics. For the love of the gods, bring back the RCI meter and ordinances and traffic-flow mechanics! It's not casual games I have a problem with. It's industry obsessions with those people!

Indie games aren't afraid to dive into niche markets and I wouldn't be surprised if that's where many hardcore gamers will find refuge in the years to come. You have to consider that gaming is a growing medium which has just entered puberty. It's in that awkward stage between a niche hobby and a popular artform. Eventually it'll have the courage to ask Suzy Trainsim to go see Avatar with it but for now it's trying to play things cool and keep its D&D hobby on the down-low.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

Ugh. Everyone jumping on the "oh lets not be elitist snobs and everyone's a gamer!"

BULL. FUCKING. SHIT.

Not everyone is a gamer. People that occasionally deign to pick up a controller and play some insipid hypercasual piece of garbage are NOT gamers. And don't give me the argument that all games started out casual, because it holds no water. Yes, it used to be anyone and everyone could put a coin in a slot and eat a few pac-pellets, die, and then go wander off. But not everyone did. GAMERS stayed at those cabinets, feeding too many quarters into the machines and always trying to best themselves. Hell, even brogamers (a group many of you know I despise) are closer to the definition than some bubble-headed whore playing "mafia wars" on myspace or facebook or whatever the latest trend is. Now, all this is not to say there are no REAL gamers that play casual things. Even I don't always want to play a 40+ hour epic or something with more depth than Shotgun Mario.

To summarize, no, being addicted to Farmville does not make you a gamer. This bullshit needs to stop

Oh yeah, one good example: I met a girl who called herself a gamer. She has played super mario kart Wii. That is it. She does not play it regularly, or even own a system. In fact, she has never even HEARD of any games besides Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers. No Final Fantasy, no Legend of Zelda, hell not even heard of Halo, and I'm not sure how that's POSSIBLE. And yet she calls herself a gamer "because guys like gamer girls"

*eye twitch*

 

[aPod]

"Susan Arendt sucks at Mega Man"

Appearantly, you arent a true gamer then.

*I've never played Mega Man.*

 

[Graustein]

Snip

If you say so. It really comes across to me more as him being a whiny, elitist jerk who wants to retain his outsider status because it separates him from the non-gaming plebs, inferior specimens of humanity that they are. If he wants to stay in the basement and hiss at the light, that's his perogative. Meanwhile, I'll be over here appreciating the widening of gaming, and so will the millions of plebs who love a game of Bejewelled.

Once again your second sentence just omits everything I typed. It isn't about maintaining that order. Also thanks for putting out the negative stereotype essentially belittling the community that you are posting in. Good work on that.

What it is about is not maintaining that essential rejection of the community but having those that are new to the hobby understand what came before you. It is important to understand that simply grabbing a game console and buying a game doesn't really make you a gamer. There needs to be an actual investment of the individual.

You don't expect a person to grab a camera and then instantly say they are an expert photographer. Or buy some ingredients and say they are a cook do you? Chances are you don't because there is a level of investment and quality that can be measured such as time.

I like that gaming has expanded but what I don't like are those people and companies that essentially exploit the hobby and the people who really don't have a commitment to the hobby but are in it for the money or the fame without understanding the history.

I hope you get it this time because I really don't know how to explain it again.

If someone rages against the popularization of their hobby because they like the status that comes with it being a reclusive hobby - as Scott appeared to be doing in his strip - then they themselves are perpetuating stereotypes. The stereotype in question being that gamers are social outcasts who were tormented for their hobby. I'm not belittling gaming as a hobby, or the gaming community, so please don't put words in my mouth. I'm belittling Scott, and people like him, for, as I said, being elitist jerks who can't stand the thought of people calling themselves gamers who've never played Mega Man. That community, I will gladly mock. Of course, if, by your personal definition, those two communities are the same community under the moniker "the gaming community", then yes, I am belittling the gaming community as you understand it. I don't know what that would make me, since by that definition I'm clearly not a gamer.

Indeed, I don't expect someone to grab a camera and claim to be an expert photographer. Neither have I seen anybody call themselves a gamer after playing one round of Bejewelled. Or, indeed, any game. Frying sausages is the extent of my culinary expertise; notice that I don't, in fact, call myself a cook, unless prefixed by the word "bad". I really haven't seen anybody who doesn't play games with any regularity, and yet claims the title of "gamer". So I don't know who you're attacking here. The only people who call themselves gamers, in my experience, have actually put time and money into it.

I'm not challenging any assertion regarding gaming as a hobby. But to say "you're not a gamer because the games you play don't suit my definition of game" - which is what I am challenging here - is patently ridiculous. Moreso when the speaker's definition of "game" is, essentially, "games I like". Saying that a person who plays their Wii regularly, despite that Wii being their first console, is not a gamer because they've never played a Zelda game is just elitism.

--------

Final thought, not directly related to this discussion:
Why is it that gaming is the only entertainment medium in which it is unacceptible for things to appeal to a non-core demographic? The film industry has something for everyone: action, adventure, drama romance, comedy, romantic comedy, kid's movies, adult movies, movies for the whole family, 3D movies, documentaries, political films... the list goes on. TV has pretty much all that stuff, plus reality shows, sitcoms, cooking shows, evangelist shows, shows like Oprah, The Daily Show, news programs, sports programs, game shows, even more. Literature is equally diverse. I've never seen somebody look at Oprah and lament the inevitable loss of Doctor Who as a result of Oprah's popularity. And yet we have the Wii apparently ruining gaming forever by overloading it with The Casuals. The only communities that are more insular than the "hardcore gamers" are those who follow genres within a medium, such as Fantasy Fiction fans decrying Twilight for "ruining vampires".

 

[Plurralbles]

A gamer is a connoisseur of games.

I tried putting my thoughts into english for a good while, but you really said it best.

I know plenty of people who play video games but deliberately avoid the label because they don't consider gaming a significant part of their identities.

And another shoutout to you, as I agree with gaming having to be a significant part of one's life, to be considered a gamer.

I think what "Gamer" today means, is a person who's interested about the gaming industry. People who know who or what Ubisoft, EA, Activision, Blizzard, Bioware or Bungie are. Anyone can play games, but it isn't really a definitive quality of their persona, if they just play Peggle at work.

Just like a "Movie Buff" isn't a person who likes to watch a blockbuster flick once a year. A movie buff would be someone who's aware of different directors, their styles of directing, keeps a keen eye to actors' performances, can comment on screenplay and dialog, and so on and so forth.

Being a "Gamer" doesn't make you a better person. It's just a label that implies that Person X is into Y. My sister plays Facebook games with righteous fury, but she couldn't tell you what any of the companies I mentioned earlier, are about. She and I share nothing in common when it comes to games, so she and I can't be both be labeled the same way. So people like me have taken on the title of "Gamer", while people like my sister are just "Something Elser".

I was going to say the same thing in another postbut it came out so angrily I had to refrain!

Turns out we 3 are a good trio on this matter. I dont' think the people who say, "A gamer is anyone who plays a game" have any clue at all about the matter. That guy might be the guy labeling himself hardcore, which is an atrociously worthless label.

 

[boholikeu]

Ugh. Everyone jumping on the "oh lets not be elitist snobs and everyone's a gamer!"

BULL. FUCKING. SHIT.

Not everyone is a gamer. People that occasionally deign to pick up a controller and play some insipid hypercasual piece of garbage are NOT gamers. And don't give me the argument that all games started out casual, because it holds no water. Yes, it used to be anyone and everyone could put a coin in a slot and eat a few pac-pellets, die, and then go wander off. But not everyone did. GAMERS stayed at those cabinets, feeding too many quarters into the machines and always trying to best themselves. Hell, even brogamers (a group many of you know I despise) are closer to the definition than some bubble-headed whore playing "mafia wars" on myspace or facebook or whatever the latest trend is. Now, all this is not to say there are no REAL gamers that play casual things. Even I don't always want to play a 40+ hour epic or something with more depth than Shotgun Mario.

To summarize, no, being addicted to Farmville does not make you a gamer. This bullshit needs to stop

Oh yeah, one good example: I met a girl who called herself a gamer. She has played super mario kart Wii. That is it. She does not play it regularly, or even own a system. In fact, she has never even HEARD of any games besides Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers. No Final Fantasy, no Legend of Zelda, hell not even heard of Halo, and I'm not sure how that's POSSIBLE. And yet she calls herself a gamer "because guys like gamer girls"

*eye twitch*

Well it all depends on if you consider the term "gamer" to be closer to "moviegoer" or "film buff". I would probably say it's the former since we have the term "hardcore" for video game buffs.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

Ugh. Everyone jumping on the "oh lets not be elitist snobs and everyone's a gamer!"

BULL. FUCKING. SHIT.

Not everyone is a gamer. People that occasionally deign to pick up a controller and play some insipid hypercasual piece of garbage are NOT gamers. And don't give me the argument that all games started out casual, because it holds no water. Yes, it used to be anyone and everyone could put a coin in a slot and eat a few pac-pellets, die, and then go wander off. But not everyone did. GAMERS stayed at those cabinets, feeding too many quarters into the machines and always trying to best themselves. Hell, even brogamers (a group many of you know I despise) are closer to the definition than some bubble-headed whore playing "mafia wars" on myspace or facebook or whatever the latest trend is. Now, all this is not to say there are no REAL gamers that play casual things. Even I don't always want to play a 40+ hour epic or something with more depth than Shotgun Mario.

To summarize, no, being addicted to Farmville does not make you a gamer. This bullshit needs to stop

Oh yeah, one good example: I met a girl who called herself a gamer. She has played super mario kart Wii. That is it. She does not play it regularly, or even own a system. In fact, she has never even HEARD of any games besides Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers. No Final Fantasy, no Legend of Zelda, hell not even heard of Halo, and I'm not sure how that's POSSIBLE. And yet she calls herself a gamer "because guys like gamer girls"

*eye twitch*

Well it all depends on if you consider the term "gamer" to be closer to "moviegoer" or "film buff". I would probably say it's the former since we have the term "hardcore" for video game buffs.

Yes, but I view "gamer" as closer to film buff, hardcore is fanaticism. You can guess which I am

 

[FoolKiller]

I myself have come under the criticism of not being a real gamer. At university there was someone 3 years younger than me who stated unequivocally that "no real gamer would ever play sports games". I like my sports games. I replied that he shouldn't say such things as I had been gaming since before he was alive.

Personally I just think that you should enjoy whatever form of entertainment you enjoy. It's not harming anyone so what does a label really matter. The people who think it matters are the people who are not comfortable with who they are and need to cling to their "gamer" identity like a toddler to a blankie.