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This came up recently. I feel confident that I can call myself a gamer. I love video games, I have a subscription to Game Informer and the like.
but I was told by a co-worker, Im not much of a Gamer because I dont pay attention to things like LoL, DoTA or(Maybe I shouldnt have said this) I knew about nothing from E3 or pax prime, but I also dont know about half the releases on steam
But what makes someone a gamer, is there more then loving games?

You play games, then you are a gamer (if you identify as such). Simple as that.

Im wargamer, but I dont keep up to date with many things wargaming related. Im usually oblivious to new things coming out and so on unless I accidentally come across it.

In terms of video games, TECHNICALLY if you play any video games you are a video gamer. Just different levels of "hardcoreness".

So, if you play video games, you are a gamer. I personally would consider myself an extrememly casual gamer. I have played many games growing up, but now im older I play a very select few games for about 0-10 hours a week. My friends however spend most of their spare time playing video games and keeping up with them all. But we are still both gamers I guess.

A gamer is someone who regularly spends a significant amount of their free time thinking about or playing games as a matter of preference.

You play/like the same kind of games I do, for the same reasons.

Someone is a gamer if they play games.

That is all.

A gamer is someone that plays a game, any game, competitively. LoL, Dota, Eve Online, WoW, COD, Halo, as long as it isn't a situation of 'oh I'm bored so I'll go play a game or two'. A recreational gamer is just someone that plays games, but a 'proper gamer' plays the game competitively. Someone can be a gamer by playing nothing but Tetris if they play it competitively.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
A gamer is someone that plays a game, any game, competitively. LoL, Dota, Eve Online, WoW, COD, Halo, as long as it isn't a situation of 'oh I'm bored so I'll go play a game or two'. A recreational gamer is just someone that plays games, but a 'proper gamer' plays the game competitively. Someone can be a gamer by playing nothing but Tetris if they play it competitively.

You know, I love games. I've been playing board games and computer games and pen and paper games since I was a tiny child. I make mods for games that I love.

But I don't play competitive games. They hold no interest for me. I'm not a competitive person.

So I suppose I;m not a gamer.

Me either. That sort of thing just makes something that should be fun into a chore. And I have a hard time thinking of the arena games like LoL as real games in the lines of AAA titles, but that's where the gamers are now apparently. I'll just stick to going pew pew on my console and call me whatever that label is instead of 'gamer'.

I've played over a thousand hours of TF2, and countless hours of other games for over two decades. Apparently, I'm not a gamer because I don't do it "competitively".

Yeah, your definition is elitist.

Yeah, that sounds weird to me.

If you play games, you're a gamer. Even Farmville counts, in my opinion. It's just more people trying to act superior for no reason, same as the old PC master race gak.

I'm honestly ok with not being a gamer.

The 'problem' with the term gamer is that it's about as descriptive as 'sportsperson' or 'religious'. Such groups are massive and the variance between members can be staggering. There is as much difference between a golfer and boxer as there is a Candy Crusher and DotA player, yet the term is perfectly adequate for both. That said, description that doesn't tell you anything isn't much of a description.

What a some people mean when they say 'gamer' is the more time demanding and skill intensive games- specifically non-casual games. The claim to this title I don't think is warranted. To call yourself a gamer in my eyes you need only have an interest and desire to play. You don't even have to- life gets like that- but you have to be interested in and want to play.

If you like games your a gammer, and I say we leave it at that. If we want to start putting qualifiers and conditions on it, then things will get really complex really fast.

As far as I am concerned, a gamer is a person who dedicates a significant portion of their time, interest or income to gaming.

I liked the comparison in the article posted in the Thread That Shall Not Be Named.

A gamer is to playing games what a gearhead is to cars.




- edit-
I just asked my girl this question and she said "Anyone who has held off taking a shower so they can keep playing video games is a gamer."

i think you co-worker has difficulty distinguishing between a casual gamer, gamer and hardcore gamer.
You can say your co-worker he is not a gamer because he doesn't play more communication with sonico and doesn't know about Tokyo Game show
like the game SOB said "entitled gamer much?"

If you play games you are a gamer. If you play games competitively you are a competitive gamer. If you just play FarmVille and angry birds on your phone you are a casual gamer. Either way still a gamer,

A gamer is someone who would want to be a gamer, no? I mean, my Dad has occasionally played Bejewelled. He wouldn't call himself a gamer. My mother has played a colour-matching game on her phone a few times. She wouldn't identify as a gamer. I don't think being a gamer is something you do by association, or by some arbitrary 'amount' of games or time spent playing games. It's a choice.

Wanting to have a label.

I vaguely remember Yahtzee said he considers a gamer someone who 'gives a gak' about gaming.

Which sounds about right to me.

 Kojiro wrote:
The 'problem' with the term gamer is that it's about as descriptive as 'sportsperson' or 'religious'. Such groups are massive and the variance between members can be staggering. There is as much difference between a golfer and boxer as there is a Candy Crusher and DotA player, yet the term is perfectly adequate for both. That said, description that doesn't tell you anything isn't much of a description.

What a some people mean when they say 'gamer' is the more time demanding and skill intensive games- specifically non-casual games. The claim to this title I don't think is warranted. To call yourself a gamer in my eyes you need only have an interest and desire to play. You don't even have to- life gets like that- but you have to be interested in and want to play.

I like this post

Also, I don't consider the "hardcore", "casual", or "competitive" prefixes to the label "gamer" to have any real value. They're so poorly defined even amongst people in this thread that someone could be all three at the same time and even though they're supposed to somehow be exclusionary.

I played CoD4 for 1 year and three months over the course of 4 years. I think that qualifies as Hardcore .



And I played with the team lead from [Ghosts], so I guess that makes me competitive.

But then I find most people only throw those words out when trying to deny (or trivialize) someone else membership as a Gamer, not as some kind of description of their own habits. I fail to see what's wrong with playing games casually, or how being a casual player means someone isn't a gamer. If playing games is a hobby someone has the term seems apt to me, regardless of what adjectives you throw in front of it.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
This came up recently. I feel confident that I can call myself a gamer. I love video games, I have a subscription to Game Informer and the like.
but I was told by a co-worker, Im not much of a Gamer because I dont pay attention to things like LoL, DoTA or(Maybe I shouldnt have said this) I knew about nothing from E3 or pax prime, but I also dont know about half the releases on steam
But what makes someone a gamer, is there more then loving games?

Elitest jerk.

Seriously 'gamer' is anyone that plays games. The assclowns who get hardons over LoL/DoTA are the same guys who you see on the YouTube videos of 'infamous gamer freakouts part DEUX' and in my opinion are spoiled, rotten, man children that have no place in the gaming community.

Also, I too get Game Informer, I enjoy it.

Also part II, I've played hundreds of hours of CoD, Battlefield, TF2, and a thousand other games. I guess I'm elite. Cool.

I don't think any of those labels are particularly great or exclusive. They are just a way of describing with a slightly more narrow focus than just gamer alone.

HBMC makes a good point that it is a matter of choice. I'd say the choice is how you see yourself and then actualize that identity. I'll also use my parents as an example. Each of them spends more time playing video games than me in a given week. I don't mean stuff like Farmville or Candy Crush, either. My mom plays games like Yoshi's Island and Skyward Sword. My dad plays Bethesda's RPGs and games like Sniper Elite. From what I gather, they play almost every single day. I haven't played any video games at all for the past three weeks. But I chose to see myself as a gamer and they don't. They could not tell you which company owns BioWare or which games BioWare makes. They could not tell you what DOTA stands for or what it is. They don't care about Zoe Quinn or Phil Fish or Total Biscuit or Jimquisition or Yahtzee. They don't keep up with relative sales figures for consoles or how the tablet market impacts design. They don't post on message boards discussing what a gamer is.

Obviously opinions on this can differ greatly. I would classify a gamer as someone who plays a lot of games, and different types, nothing to do with serious competitive play, just the fact that they play more than one genre often, or at least a lot of games of a single genre.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
This came up recently. I feel confident that I can call myself a gamer. I love video games, I have a subscription to Game Informer and the like.
but I was told by a co-worker, Im not much of a Gamer because I dont pay attention to things like LoL, DoTA or(Maybe I shouldnt have said this) I knew about nothing from E3 or pax prime, but I also dont know about half the releases on steam
But what makes someone a gamer, is there more then loving games?

To be a gamer youd have to play betwen 2-5 hours on a Daily basis or atleast 5 hours per session deppending on variables on a frequent basis and you need to enjoy doing it.

LoL or Dota dosent make anyone a gamer, its the time and commitment someone puts down that determines how much a gamer they are, E3 and Pax is aswell largely irrelevant to being a gamer, in the end you have to actually game to be a gamer.

When you play games. And like them.

And for some, when you play games and always complain about how they could be better cause you are one of "those people"