What Makes A Gamer?

Playing Angry Birds for 10 minutes, while you wait for your dentist, doesn't make you a gamer; but according theguardian's logic it does.

[JOKERACN7]

It's hilarious how they define a "gamer" nowadays. Personally, i think the gamer is the one who follows the industry and plays games regularly.

[blackblades]

Yeah, also to add to that a gamer is a person who loves video games, follows the news on games. Has conversations on games and play many types of video games and not just one game like people who only play COD or NFL/NBA or candy crush imo. Also enjoys playing them for what it is maybe and dont complain about everthing and respects the people thats makes them. Then again there are a lot of sub categories like casual etc.. there needs to be a real definition in detail that deep detail.

[WeAreLegion]

A gamer is a person who plays games, the same way a reader is a person who reads. Can we drop the exclusivity?

[Spotie]

A gamer has pretty much always denoted someone more involved than that, though. More of an avid reader than just someone who reads books every now and then.

[WeAreLegion]

That's a game enthusiast or game buff. A gamer just games.

[raggy-rocket]

A wonderful term defined and popularized by a generation of a united community with a passion and love for games that's slowly been corrupted as the medium grew more profitable by a community of more and more, over-entitled hateful brats with no sympathy for any developer difficulty that makes their experience even marginally worse, and a swathe of new gaming companies/cultures trained to exploit the community with money making schemes that rip us off and incrementally reducing content and dev times in games at a rate designed so we don't notice.

Gamers need to give devs a little more credit and a little more leeway in general
But developers also need to cut out dodgy pricing/content structures because it's drowning out all the devs who do things just right and pack their games with content.

In my eyes, a true gamer is someone who realises all these things.

[MJunior]

The word "gamer" don't have a sense anymore. For some reason, anybody that watch some youtuber playing games can be a "gamer".

[rjason12]

Never heard the terms "hardcore" and "casual" gamer until the 7th gen of consoles.

[Skankinruby]

Someone who....you know....plays games? That's a tough question there

[DonBugen]

You never heard "Hardcore" and "Casual" because until the advent of smartphones, games just weren't a part of every person's life. Gaming had a very narrow following in the 8 and 16-bit era. It boomed and became popular with the first PlayStation, and now with smartphones, everyone and their grandmother has their own favorite game.

This is going to sound like crap coming from someone with a Harvest Moon avatar, but what I'm about to say is true for two reasons. ANYONE who plays games regularly is a gamer, just like anyone who acts is an actor, or who dances is a dancer.

Why is this true? First - it's common English. The suffix -er denotes someone who does the verb in the sentence. Simple enough. Now, English is a tricky language - often (but not always!) this denotation implies a profession or employment. We can usually tell from the context that it is being used in. If you were to see a ballet, you would assume that every dancer on the stage was a professional. If you were to to to a wedding, you would assume that the dancers at the reception were not professional.

Second. The Guardian's use of the word Gamer is legit not only because of the English language, but because these "casual gamers" make up a significant portion of game consumption, and steer the industry as a whole. There are arguably more programmers making casual games than there are console games. Smartphone and tablet games generate a ton of cash, and are used by pretty much everyone. Casual game mechanics have begun to enter our games, in the form of micro-transactions and rewards for continuous play. You can plug your ears and shut your eyes, but casual games and gamers are HERE, and they influence the industry. They are what made the Wii and DS arguably the most successful gaming machines of the last generation, and they're not going away.

Treating "gamer" like a title like this sounds almost religious in nature... something that is gained after much dedication, sacrifice, and focus in one's life. It's an emotional title, one that people feel they need to defend. That's apparent when titles like "True Gamer" and "Real Gamer" are flung around. Find a different title to defend. Stating that the only people who can identify as a gamer is someone who devotes their life, time, and finances to the hobby is just hyper-exclusive and silly.

[thugtrio]

Everyone has some very valid points on both sides of the argument. What I'm mostly trying to convey is that more than just playing a game even though that might be a big part of it. I guess you could also divide people who play games into casual and hardcore, but I'd rather not delve into that today LOL.

[ChickenOfTheCaveMan]

To me a gamer is anyone playing video games on a somewhat regular basis.

Then you have casual gamers and hardcore gamers. I'd say hardcore gamers is anyone who can play almost any new games and pick up the pace after 20-30 minutes (controls, level of difficulty, overall gameplay). Casual gamers play less regularly and when they do, it's fun to them but it's less natural sort of speak and need to read the manual, and you'll hear what do I have to do now in their gaming sessions.

[thugtrio]

I think most of us can agree with this statement.

[Picnic]

Meaning of 'game':

1.
a form of competitive activity or sport played according to rules.

2.
an activity that one engages in for amusement.

That covers all games.

Any other definition of 'gamer' is subjective even if for the best intentions.

Some people who regard themselves as gamers praise Tetris above many other games. For me, Tetris is one of the most lacklustre examples that you could have of a 'VIDEOgame'
It's for spacial puzzle and reflex fans, something that you could replicate, although not as elegantly, in real life with a crane and some shapes. But those things alone don't personally give me particular amusement. For me, I don't like it to be easy to replicate a videogame in real life in the exact same aesthetic form that the videogame provides.

[thugtrio]

Interesting point.