"I don't play games. But I'm a gamer"

[Deleted]

None of your options.

Gamer= Video Games in general, excluding farmville and the retarded assortment it follows.

[Specops]

BF3 and CoD doesn't make you a gamer, it makes you an everyday nobody who started playing games because of Guitar Hero, Rockband, Singstar, Buzz or other party games developed for the big masses.

Being a gamer is about playing games you enjoy, being able to appreciate a game which grafics aren't at MAXIMUM POWER, being able to like to play old games.

It's also about not being afraid to like your hobby and be open about it, instead of being a closet-WoW player, without anyone knowing.

It goes on, but I'm not in the mood for writing.

You say playing BF3 and CoD doesn't make you a gamer, yet contradict yourself with "playing games you enjoy..." By your logic people who enjoy BF or CoD aren't gamers, but are at the same time.

[Deleted]

BF3 and CoD doesn't make you a gamer, it makes you an everyday nobody who started playing games because of Guitar Hero, Rockband, Singstar, Buzz or other party games developed for the big masses.

Being a gamer is about playing games you enjoy, being able to appreciate a game which grafics aren't at MAXIMUM POWER, being able to like to play old games.

It's also about not being afraid to like your hobby and be open about it, instead of being a closet-WoW player, without anyone knowing.

It goes on, but I'm not in the mood for writing.

Edit: The only game in that list I count as "Gamer"-material is Assassins Creed II/Brotherhood/Revelations, since lets be honest, AC1 sucked major balls.

My list would be:

Own more consoles than just a Wii/PS3/360, and that means older generations.
Have played some of the classics, like Mario, Megaman, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Kingdom Hearts and so on.
Knows that Zelda actually is the princess that Link, the Hero of Time is trying to save, not that Zelda is Links name.
Knows that Samus is a girl, in a suit and her name isn't actually Metroid.
Etc. etc.

Wow. I'm glad I'm not the kind of person you would consider a gamer.
Holy shit you take things seriously. One of the most bitter pieces of text I've read in a long while.

[~Valen~]

The poll is totally biased!

[Zechs-cenarius]

When I talk to people who are pretty serious about their gaming, they play any or more of the following(not an exhaustive list):

Assassin's Creed
Battlefield 3
Call of Duty: MW3
SWTOR
WoW
SC2
League of Legends

You get the idea. The games which are fresh and hot off the presses, and everyone's crazy about.

But I have a friend who calls BF3 and Call of Duty players "chickens who don't have the guts to go to REAL war" and claims that, despite the fact that he doesn't play any of above mentioned titles, that he's still a "gamer". But the only thing he plays with any regularity at all, are his flight sims.

Now we're not talking about Microsoft Flight Simulator or such. He plays those sims which accurately simulate you driving a remote-controlled airplane. So the idea here is, you hook up your remote control device to your PC via USB, play the sim to test our your moves, and then once you're comfortable, you take your real remote-controlled little helicopter out for a spin outside. You know those toys you buy from hobby stores? They're made most out of foam and very light material, with a motor to drive the propellers(whatever you call it), etc.

He says that this is "gaming", the very same gaming, but more realistic because it's driving an actual remote controlled toy. I disagreed, because it's nothing like playing the titles above, the type of games that we serious gamers play and love.

Oh, and he believes PC Gaming is dying and iPad games are gonna take over. Hard core gamers don't matter, it's the casual crowd who don't take gaming seriously, who do matter. And games really shouldn't matter beyond a simple diversion, is his take.

What do you guys think? Is being a gamer about playing the latest and greatest, or is being a gamer subjective and can be anything you want it to be?

Bleh your friend has a rather ignorant train of thought with regards to BF3 and CoD players. With that quoted part about that group of players the same can be said about him being "chicken that doesnt have the guts to fly a real aircraft". Real aircraft being jets not these lulz recreational aircraft.

[Mexa]

No, a gamer is not a person who occasionally plays videogames. And i dont consider ppl who play single player games gamers either.

a gamer is a guy who, on a rather no-lify level plays competetive online games. Not profesionally or anything, but f.x. games like the newest online FPSs, Some of the MOBA games or wow on an atleast heroic raiding level (or working his way up there)

Atm i play Dota 2, and we are normally 3 persons at LAN playing matchmaking on weekends. We are gaming, but not necessarily gamers. because i dont considder myself a gamer.

I would like to get into gaming again though when we get a more stable Dota team.

And it is not at all about the games being new or not. CS:S is a perfect example for that.
Since videogames become more and more normal among children, a lot of kids and teenagers play Assasins creed or maybe skyrim and stuff, but they dont, and neither do I, considder them gamers

Ofcourse these are my opinions.

[javen]

My girlfriend kind of does this. If you were to ask her, she'd have an emphatic "I love video games!" but she never really plays them. She does some ipad games, she used to have a PS2 with guitar hero and a Wii with a few games and she'll watch me play Uncharted, but other than that they don't really hold her interest. I've tried to get her to play a few games with me, all kinds of genres but she's never really into it and gets frustrated easily. It's not a big deal, she likes the games she likes, and seems pretty okay with that. She doesn't mind that I buy/play games as much as I do, as long as it doesn't interfere with friends and stuff we do together.

But yeah, I'd call her a gamer, because why not? She likes video games, just not as many or as much as I do. Nothing wrong with that.

[Grizzly Willy]

My question is, why are people so concerned over trying to find yet another narrow definition in which to order each other in? All you're doing is assigning people more classifications.

And does it matter what another person thinks defines the word "gamer?" Surely you can handle being grouped up with other people that may or may not exactly fit your definition of a rather trivial classification. I can understand wanting to specify definitions of groups that pertain to a religious or political ideology, but being worried about "gamer" strikes me as odd.

Edit: I suppose, if I have to through in my opinion on what the actual definition is, I would say it varies from person to person. I just think it's anybody who plays games. You could even have sub-groups, like card-gamers, board-gamers, and, as is probably most prevalent on these boards, video-gamers.

[OrcsRLame]

No, a gamer is not a person who occasionally plays videogames. And i dont consider ppl who play single player games gamers either.

a gamer is a guy who, on a rather no-lify level plays competetive online games. Not profesionally or anything, but f.x. games like the newest online FPSs, Some of the MOBA games or wow on an atleast heroic raiding level (or working his way up there)

Atm i play Dota 2, and we are normally 3 persons at LAN playing matchmaking on weekends. We are gaming, but not necessarily gamers. because i dont considder myself a gamer.

I would like to get into gaming again though when we get a more stable Dota team.

And it is not at all about the games being new or not. CS:S is a perfect example for that.
Since videogames become more and more normal among children, a lot of kids and teenagers play Assasins creed or maybe skyrim and stuff, but they dont, and neither do I, considder them gamers

Ofcourse these are my opinions.

For starters, if kids are playing Skyrim and Assassin's Creed, that's some pretty irresponsible parents. Both of those games are M rated, and for pretty good reasons.

Second, you don't consider this guy to be a gamer, even though his APM puts Korean SC2 pros to shame? ^_^ Some single player games can be just as hardcore, or even more so than online multiplayer games.

[mordale]

How can you compete on single player RPGs?

when devs actually make a challenging game.

[OrcsRLame]

when devs actually make a challenging game.

Don't forget about SDA as well. http://speeddemosarchive.com/gamelist/FullList.html

I'd like to see anyone on mmo-champion try to match or beat an 8 hour 32 minute Final Fantasy 9 run. Or a 10 hour 25 minute Final Fantasy 10 run.

[Kalyyn]

Only playing the "latest and greatest", as you put it, means that you have no real appreciation for the art of game making. The most "hardcore" gamers are the ones who take game history very seriously, and seek out great titles, regardless of if they were made in 2011 or 1991.

Speaking of which, I just beat Myst and Riven over the last two weeks, because I had never actually completed them before. They were released in 1991 and 1997, respectively.

[Deleted]

The main problem with this poll is that it's not Binary.

I have a feeling the majority selected "can mean anything" because it's closer to the truth than "LATEST AND GREATEST LOL"

The term "Gamer" is applied 99% of the time to digital games, not board games, or RL "toys".

To be a gamer, you have to play a decent amount, not just 1 hour a week on a thursday night, but essentially enough to make gaming your "Primary Hobby", the one you spend the majority of your free time doing.

You don't have to play the latest or greatest games, as long as it's what you enjoy. There are THOUSANDS of brilliant indie games out there that most of us will never have heard of, but they have their own communities just like we have ours, and I'm sure there are people out there that play them just as much as we play WoW, CoD or BF3 - they're still gamers.

[Eorayn]

What a dick.

One is simply a gamer, if one plays games at least a few hours a day. XBOX, WII, PS3, PC and MAC are “consoles” listed for gamers. Playing Angry Birds on your iPad is not considered gaming.

[Deleted]

Remote-controlled planes are what I would call a "hobby", not a "game". But you must admit that both of these terms are pretty vague.




<3

Last i checked i believe computer games and such is counted into the list of hobbies.
Such as pottery, and stamp collecting. As you say, the difference is vague so i'd rather say that it's a subject of time passing rather than a hobby.

[reemi]

Gamer is someone who play a lot videogames. If the gamer like MW3 or BF3, he's still a gamer.

You're not better because you play "underground" games....

Same with musics

This only affect the "kids" because you always want to be unique.

I'm a gamer, not because I play a lot, not because I dont play MW3 and any "popular games", but because I play a lot since 1980, I had almost every console and still own LOT of games. You want to talk about any game, I played it!

[Deleted]

Since when did "Gamer" become some elitist crap?

A Gamer is a person who plays a lot of computer games.. Doesn't matter if it's Pacman or Arma2.. The end.

I kind of agree. It sounds almost like a new "hardcore vs. casual" debate where everyone comes up with their own definition.

A Gamer is someone who plays video-games as a hobby.

A hobby implies a certain level of dedication but the platform is irrelevant.