Are we 'real' gamers?

[Columbia]

If I had a moni each time I was told I wasn't a "real gamer", I'd have lots of moni.

I'm pretty sick of RPG-fantasy bastards who think they have a monopoly on defining even what a game is. Fantasy is by its definition unlimited, yet we have a commercially made blob of lard that has one particular lore and a need to diss everyone else.

Screw them!

A gamer is anyone who spends a relatively significant amount of time and effort on a game, compared to general population.

Oh my god, so much this. All of this.

[Frozen_Heart]

Don't know what the definition of 'real gamer' is, and I don't really care either.

I assume I am as I play many genres of games, including shooters which seems to be what people have in mind when they say gaming.

[cantab]

If there's such a thing as "real gamers" I don't wanted to be counted among them. From the bad attitude of the "PC Master Race" lot, to the whole "Gamergate" thing that was just an excuse for people to be nasty little [insert favourite swearword here], to the general behaviour of a lot of players online, No Thank You.

[vixr]

I'm not a gamer...I can quit any time I want.

[billbobjebkirk]

I think the problem here is that, for the most part, we are a very different crowd than what the normal public would see as "gamers".

[pxi]

I've been playing computer games since the early 80's. It's my primary hobby, and as such I would consider myself a 'gamer' in the way that others might consider themselves audiophiles or movie-buffs.

It's my observation that the 'real gamer' or 'hardcore gamer' labels started to be thrown about sometime around the era of the XBOX, and if I was going to generalise, they tended to be used by people that previously would have derided my hobby. Make of that what you will.

Anyway, I thought gamers were dead?

[Plume & Akakak]

The use of the expression "casual gamer", mentioned in a few posts here, is something I have an aversion for. More often than not, it serves the same segregation purposes that others have pointed out.

If these damn Bartle categories (that, I've been told, are still used within the game industry) have any relevance, then I observed that "casual gamer" has become a condescending term, generally used by some of the commonly-called "achievers" and "competitors" to describe people who have other interests in playing video games (like, but not limited to, the "socializers" and "explorers" of said Bartle categories).

This expression is just dumb, completely out of touch with today's context, in which games are designed to allow so many kinds of experiences.

The posts of regex, Camacha, cantab and r4pt0r summarize well my own opinion on the question.

[vger]

"casual gamer" has become a condescending term, generally used by some of the commonly-called "achievers" and "competitors" to describe people who have other interests in playing video games (like, but not limited to, the "socializers" and "explorers" of said Bartle categories).This expression is just dumb, completely out of touch with today's context, in which games are designed to allow so many kinds of experiences.

I can remember "casual gamer" being used as a term in old Nintendo Power issues, and it seemed to refer to nothing more than someone who didn't want their games to be ridiculously insanely hard.

I think casual gamer became a dirty word around the same time computers stopped being 'nerdy.' And by that I mean the people who said, "Computers are for nerds," until somebody handed them computers and said, "That's alright, this isn't a computer, it's a phone. You like phones, right?" With that came the app stores, FILLED with rinse and repeat metagames that are designed to be played with a maximum of 2 buttons, or just a touch screen. And the size of the screen also demands very simple games because there's no room for detailed information.

From what I've seen, the great wedge that got driven through the gamer community was never about console vs. PC or even console vs. console. It was about all gaming platforms vs. phones. That was when the people who NEVER would've touched a gaming console OR a desktop computer, finally jumped on board. But they never really joined the gaming community, and many still haven't realized, "Wait, I'm doing that thing that I used to give people wedgies for doing."

That's my 2 cents worth of a hypothesis anyhow.

[Robotengineer]

Isn't the whole 'real' gamers thing a no true scotsman fallacy?

[Flymetothemun]

Isn't the whole 'real' gamers thing a no true scotsman fallacy?

Huh. I don't know how I missed the NTS fallacy. Thanks, and I agree.