Quoting: eldaking"Gamers" are more of a community centered around videogames than just the act of playing videogames.

Absolutely not. There is definitely a toxic group of people that claim that they are the only true gamers... but they're lying, because they're toxic.

I love playing games, and I've played games literally every day for more than 30 years. I am a gamer. I'm not going to let people gatekeep me from that, directly through their toxicity, or by proxy from bystanders by conceding the term to those that want to control it.

Quoting: eldakingI play a lot of videogames, but I am absolutely not a "gamer". It's not about how much I like videogames, or how much time I spend playing, or how much I know about them. Or about how difficult are the games I play, or how good.

"Gamers" are more of a community centered around videogames than just the act of playing videogames. It has its own culture, its own aesthetic, its own social rules. There are spaces where they hang out, events and products catering to them, iconography, slang, memes, specialized language, memes, history. Not every chair where people play ideogames is a gamer chair, not every personal computer able to play videogames is a gaming PC. My aunt may spend as many hours as she wants playing candy crush, sudoku, angry birds, and wordle without ever engaging with this community. Not that she would be accepted, of course - it is a pretty shitty community on the whole, despite the many cool people and cool sub-groups.

You can of course use the word "gamer" to refer to anyone playing any videogames, plenty of people do. But people will assume a lot about based on that, because the people that self identify as and are identified by others as "gamers" are just a subset of the much larger group of "anyone who plays videgames". Some kinds of game are more associated with being a gamer, and not necessarily "more hardcore" games. Some kinds of social experience, accessories, and online spaces as well. Being cynic, what you buy is a big part of it, because companies intentionally try to "segment the market" and try to sell a "lifestyle".

I am... gamer adjacent. I end up interacting with a lot of "gamer stuff" where it overlaps my interests (case in point, GOL), but I actively avoid the larger gamer community. I have no idea what is the latest GPU (those letter and number strings make no sense to me), haven't used a gaming console since before they could connect to the internet at all. I had to ask my gamer friends how exactly is the gameplay of fortnite and what is the difference between Battlefield and Medal of Honor. I never play multiplayer with strangers, much less "ranked" or "competitive". And like I said, I consider the overall gamer community toxic as heck, wholesome pockets notwithstanding. So I am not interested in reclaiming the label, trying to fight the gatekeeping and the toxicity and reinvent the style. I don't need to "be a gamer" to "play games".

Yeah, no.

Quoting: CatKiller

Quoting: eldaking"Gamers" are more of a community centered around videogames than just the act of playing videogames.

Absolutely not. There is definitely a toxic group of people that claim that they are the only true gamers... but they're lying, because they're toxic.

I love playing games, and I've played games literally every day for more than 30 years. I am a gamer. I'm not going to let people gatekeep me from that, directly through their toxicity, or by proxy from bystanders by conceding the term to those that want to control it.

Fair enough with regards to toxicity and gatekeeping! I can certainly stand behind that, and I hope I didn't imply that there are "requirements" to be a gamer - there is a baggage to the term, assumptions, associations, but I'm not saying anyone should have to conform to that.

It's more like, I don't care about reclaiming that one term for me personally, and I halfway "resent" being defined, being given a label, based on one thing I do. 90% of "gaming" as a hobby doesn't interest me, and what does is usually a subset of other categories that I care more about. It's easier to explain what things I'm actually into, rather than saying I'm a gamer and then listing all the things I don't care about (or actively avoid), easier to find people interested in games within other groups rather than the opposite, etc.

(Sorry for rambling, I'm a bit sleep deprived and probably not as coherent as I think I am.)

Last edited by eldaking on 9 February 2022 at 8:51 pm UTC

Quoting: damarrin

Quoting: eldakingI play a lot of videogames, but I am absolutely not a "gamer". It's not about how much I like videogames, or how much time I spend playing, or how much I know about them. Or about how difficult are the games I play, or how good.

"Gamers" are more of a community centered around videogames than just the act of playing videogames. It has its own culture, its own aesthetic, its own social rules. There are spaces where they hang out, events and products catering to them, iconography, slang, memes, specialized language, memes, history. Not every chair where people play ideogames is a gamer chair, not every personal computer able to play videogames is a gaming PC. My aunt may spend as many hours as she wants playing candy crush, sudoku, angry birds, and wordle without ever engaging with this community. Not that she would be accepted, of course - it is a pretty shitty community on the whole, despite the many cool people and cool sub-groups.

You can of course use the word "gamer" to refer to anyone playing any videogames, plenty of people do. But people will assume a lot about based on that, because the people that self identify as and are identified by others as "gamers" are just a subset of the much larger group of "anyone who plays videgames". Some kinds of game are more associated with being a gamer, and not necessarily "more hardcore" games. Some kinds of social experience, accessories, and online spaces as well. Being cynic, what you buy is a big part of it, because companies intentionally try to "segment the market" and try to sell a "lifestyle".

I am... gamer adjacent. I end up interacting with a lot of "gamer stuff" where it overlaps my interests (case in point, GOL), but I actively avoid the larger gamer community. I have no idea what is the latest GPU (those letter and number strings make no sense to me), haven't used a gaming console since before they could connect to the internet at all. I had to ask my gamer friends how exactly is the gameplay of fortnite and what is the difference between Battlefield and Medal of Honor. I never play multiplayer with strangers, much less "ranked" or "competitive". And like I said, I consider the overall gamer community toxic as heck, wholesome pockets notwithstanding. So I am not interested in reclaiming the label, trying to fight the gatekeeping and the toxicity and reinvent the style. I don't need to "be a gamer" to "play games".

Yeah, no.

Thank you. That was seriously a bunch of BS as put forward by the terrible gaslighting gaming press.