What is a "gamer" to you?

[DarksideEric]

IGN made a video a while back about this topic, but since I want your guys' opinion I won't reference it, however here's the link if you'd like to watch it.

So, as the thread title suggests (and I believe The Media Hub is the correct place for this), what do you think makes "a gamer."

To be perfectly honest, I am very liberal about what makes a gamer, and instead just look at it more on the same scale that art is viewed. Nearly anything can be "art," I mean we've seen nearly blank canvases be toted as "art" and sold for a high price, and then we've all seen the beautiful masterpieces of film, paintings, gaming, etc. We just, or I do at least, then judge it by the quality (to us) the art is.

So, in essence, I accept pretty much anyone that uses gaming as at least a secondary hobby, perhaps even tertiary hobby, can be labeled correctly as a "gamer." Play solitaire at work everyday for a few hours to pass the time? Yeah, you're a gamer. I won't expect you to jump in on conversations regarding the balancing of Street Fighter or how the FPS genre should change to allow for a better meta game, but I won't be elitist and claim you to be "not a real gamer" because there's really no point in that.

So, what are your thoughts? Do you place casual gamers in a negative category as "not real gamers?" Do you just accept everyone into the fold until they let you know their interest has limits?

 

[Dagger Dias]

In its simplest definition, a "gamer" is one who finds enjoyment during his/her spare time in playing video games. This includes "hardcore" gamers who play all the latest releases on Xbox and Playstation, the Nintendo fanboys, the oldschool gamers who still like the NES/SNES/Genesis/etc, casual gamers, PC gamers, and more. There are very many different types of "gamers" out there and 99% of the time, as long as you find enjoyment in video games then you are a gamer. The one time that I think that does not count is someone who plays nothing but sports games. To me that's not a "gamer". Those individuals are sports fans, unless they play games outside of those about the NFL or NBA.

I personally fall under a couple of different types of the "gamer" spectrum. I'm an oldschool gamer first and foremost, as I still to this day prefer classic SNES titles to anything currently on the market. That's not to say I don't like modern games too, I anticipate the release of the next Dragon Age game a great deal. I also fall under the nintendo fanboy type of gamer, I'll play Mario and Zelda games until the day those series finally end, which I am fully convinced will never happen. I'm not interested in sports games or first person shooter games, but I'll try pretty much any game at least once.

My name is Dagger and I am a gamer.

 

[lowandmighty]

I'm more the accept everyone into the fold kind of person. The way I see it, if you play and enjoy any computer game often enough you should be called a gamer.

Where my theory falls down is whether I can say that on my own gaming merits, thats where the topic gets complicated.
Like Dagger Diaz suggests if you just play sports games you're not a gamer but a sports fan and I can see the logic in that. I do fit into that category, my games are like madden, nba, tennis, soccer, car racing even rugby and of course wrestling.
But I do play all the GTA games when they come so I have embraced a game which is not based on a true world interest like sport. So does that one exception make me a gamer?

Its also not the only exception because as a child I played the old school genesis/snes games and even have some of those and arcade games emulated somewhere in the archives of my pc.

So I guess its up to the hardcore gamer community to decide whether or not you are a gamer. I don't think you can decide it yourself, its kind of like saying you're funny but nobody else can back you up on it.
I wonder, am I a gamer? If you are a hardcore gamer let me know.

 

[Slash-LN]

I'd probably be an outcast gamer.
Like lowandmighty most of what I play are sports games. I play a few games outside of those like GTA and Saints Row but hardcore gamers would probably say I'm not a "true" gamer.
I used to be way more into it but now I hardly play anything at all but I think the fact that I spend times playing video games would pretty much make me a gamer. I honestly have never labeled myself as one though until now.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Even though I play WWE games on my X-Box every couple of days, I wouldn't really call myself a "gamer". I have never played Call of Duty, Halo, Warcraft and countless other games that gaming fans get excited about, they just do not interest me.

I tend to buy a maximum of 2 games a year, although for the last 3 years or so I have only bought 1- the new WWE release. I often buy a football game and until GTA IV I would buy the new Grand Theft Auto release, but I haven't bothered this time. I just don't have the time or urge to put so many hours into a game.

I used to play games more when I was in high school, stuff like fighting games (Mortal Kombat, Tekken etc) and racing games like Gran Turismo but I don't anymore. I have too many other hobbies to dedicate much time to games. Again, I used to play the old school Championship Manager games on my PC but when they became too in depth I stopped as it was too time-consuming. I do play Mario Cart at my girlfriends house occasionally, and play with her little daughter on Super Mario Brothers Wii.

I suppose as I DO play video games (or A video game- WWE 2K14) you could say I am a casual gamer, but apart from the new wrestling game I don't ever get excited about any new releases or read gaming magazines, websites etc. I guess you could call me a wrestling fan who plays their video game.