What is your definition of a Gamer?

[wariodude128]

My definition of a gamer is someone who plays videogames. Doesn't matter if it's on mobile, a virtual version of a board game or what-have-you. If you play any of those, you are a gamer. Even if you don't do it all that often.

[Binmaniac]

I think that anyone who considers Gaming to be their primary hobby can be called a Gamer.

[Aerrae]

There's mobile video games which are basically full fledged games... and then there's angry birds, and much worse stuff which is literally just a pretty pay me button.

There's a reason nobody respects the majority of mobile games. It's not cause of elitism it's because 90% of them genuinely are pure irredeemable trash.

Or just something to waste time that is not really made for the player to truly get invested in it as deeply as one would a full fledged video game.

Let's look at it from another angle. You develop games right? So you obviously have a target audience for each project. That audience is a sub classification of gamer. Typically an enthusiast of a certain genre or game type.

These are not distinctions you can ignore in the business side of game development. You don't make a game for "gamers" at large. You make a game for a specific subset of gamers whose tastes you know you can hit properly.

Most mobile games aren't worried about target audience, just profit from a casual audience and mass appeal.

[Aerrae]

I'm not okay with any lootboxes unless the game is F2P and you know damn well that's not the case anymore.
I don't forgive Overwatch for its lootboxes so Rainbow Six Seige doesn't get a pass for me either.

I really don't even care about the moral nonsense. It's exploitative in the sense that the pricks are already charging you 60++++++++ dollars and then have the massive cancerous balls to demand more.

Each and every single company that makes a game like that are greedy. They don't just want profit, they want all the profit they possibly can get at the expense of the common man.

[Spect3r]

isturbo1984 Fair enough
A pro i call gamer, people that play games as a hobby i call them game enthusiasts, aficionados, you get it.
Is just how i see things, but i been called weird since i was 6 so...

[twidget]

I don't like to use the word gamer. But if I did it'd be anybody who plays a few hours a week on any dedicated console

What!
No love for gamers playing on a PC?

If you play games for the enjoyment of playing them and think you're a gamer, you're a gamer.
What games you play and whatever you play them on doesn't matter.

[isturbo1984]

Ah. Makes sense. I was just curious who holds the claim to "gamer," whether it is video game comity or other gaming communities before video games. But to be honest, I haven't heard any non-vg hobby enthusiast (like CCG or tabletop RPG) refer to themselves as a gamer until after video games took hold.

[isturbo1984]

No. "Hardcore" aside, I think you do have to be on a certain level in BOTH examples, is what I was saying. At least when it comes to gaming as a hobby, not on the consumer side of things. Maybe I worded it weird.

I edited it a bit. Does it make better sense now?

[isturbo1984]

Spect3r
But why? You don't really say. We've pointed out the difference between a pro and a hobbyist. Shine some light on the subject, don't just say "agree to disagree," lol.

[PriestTroit]

Eh. Lootboxes are fine when they're used right. I have no problem with them in F2P games and in games like Rainbow Six Siege where they exist but aren't tied to game play elements (having characters/weapons/maps and so on in them) like, say that one Call of Duty game did from a while back.

The argument that they're predatory or somehow morally reprehensible doesn't carry water in my eyes. Hmm... I think I'll make a thread about this subject later. Lots to talk about.

[SckizoBoy]

isturbo1984 - bear in mind that I got into video games really late in life (a stingy old man during my formative years, being a bookworm (rather than going for visual media), and no consol owning friends within walking distance does that, so my salary (the f*** was pocket money?!) went to funding my CCG (well, MtG) habit, since I did pre-release events and what have you). If 1984 is your year of birth, I'm likely a few months younger (back end of 1984), got into MtG at 12 and WHFB at 13 (lucky enough to have a mate who owned a few small armies at the time, went to WH40K and I found a group at uni afterwards).

And y'know... I haven't the faintest what we called ourselves... just guys with hobbies 'cos neither I nor those I played alongside actually gave themselves a label of any sort as far as I can remember... *shrug*

PnP RPG right? See... I never really got into them and the first one I'm actually enjoying only started last September (once a month). Did an aborted Vampire: the Masquerade a couple years ago, but I couldn't get into it... I don't really count my IK RPG campaign, as it was basically a tabletop party-driven RPG, not a real PnP game.

[MakeGamesGreatAgain]

I like how this started off, people who play mobile games is not a gamer, sure it was a qualified statement - mobile only gamers.

I love games like the Kindgom Rush series (mostly mobile gaming). Great strategy game, and funny.
I love the Battle Heart series (iOS gaming - i.e. mobile gaming). Great little RPG strategy game for the iPad.
I love Red Dead Redemption. Fun to go out and watch Arthur get so pissed drunk in a cutscene you’re pissing on the ground at one point.
I love games like Dragon Age, excellent stories that really intrigue you as what is going on.

Being a gamer is just loving games and having fun.

[MakeGamesGreatAgain]

Don’t bring in the infamous Gamers Are Dead Articles into this mix, because we came back the very next day.

[KLoWn]

Someone who enjoys playing games (and usually has it as a hobby). That's it.

[Aerrae]

So you have to play music on a certain level to be a musician but you don't have to be hardcore enough to be a gamer?

There's a disagreement in wording the definition of hardcore gamer but you know it when you see it.