What is your definition of a Gamer?

[twidget]

Well, it looks like, I'm not a gamer then.

[Dykun]

Someone who gets immersed in the game enough to value and apreciate the time (joy, challenge, anger and tears) spend it, even if you never finish it or manage to get good at the game.

[LadyDeadpool]

A person that plays games. There are multiple types of gamers though, of course.

[Nic]

somebody invested in games or even just one game

[AvalonArt]

Anyone who "GAYMS" is a "GAYMAR" :^)
Jokes aside , anyone who takes part in gaming regularly is a gamer.
Simple logic : a reader is someone who reads often , not someone who read something in 3rd grade. Hence similar it is for gaming

[Gemini73]

I guess for me a "gamer" is someone, like myself, who treats it as a hobby. That said I think 'video game hobbiest/enthuisast' is a more fitting description.

It's the same difference as someone who goes to watch the Marvel films because they enjoy a good movie and those who obsess over the Marvel universe and who are extremely passionate about it and everything to do with it. Both sets of people are movie goers, but only one set has made it a hobby.

Back to games, I do like to encourage anyone with a passing interest in gaming, no matter how small, to expand their gaming horizons as they might find themselves pleasantly surprised.

[KingConnor]

A gamer is anyone who plays video games. It doesn’t matter if they are console, PC or mobile games, they are still video games and therefore playing them makes you a gamer

[Chompy Said]

Anyone that plays a game, card, tabletop, video, or physical.

[Cortex]

A "runner" is not someone who runs to catch a bus, or even somone who runs while training for another sport. - It is someone whose primary hobby or profession is running.

A "footballer" is not someone who occasionally plays football simply because its mantadory at school. - It is someone whose primary hobby or profession is playing football. (If at school it means he is on the football team, or in the football club, or spends the bulk of his free time playing football)


So a "gamer" is someone whose PRIMARY HOBBY or profession is playing games.

(Or your secondary hobby if you are still very passionate about it).

[twidget]

Cortex Would a professional gamer whose PRIMARY HOBBY is running be a runner or a gamer?
Both?

For a footballer, (would that cover American football, Australian rules football and soccer? just curious), are weekend pickup games enough to qualify as a footballer or is playing in an organized amateur league the minimum acceptable level to qualify?

How passionate is "very passionate"?
Would playing a mobile game to and from your PRIMARY HOBBY be enough to qualify as very passionate, ergo a gamer?

Lots of subjective qualifiers in your post.
I'm just gonna stick with if you play games and enjoy playing them, whatever they are, you're a gamer.

[Cortex]

Cortex Would a professional gamer whose PRIMARY HOBBY is running be a runner or a gamer?
Both?

For a footballer, (would that cover American football, Australian rules football and soccer? just curious), are weekend pickup games enough to qualify as a footballer or is playing in an organized amateur league the minimum acceptable level to qualify?

How passionate is "very passionate"?
Would playing a mobile game to and from your PRIMARY HOBBY be enough to qualify as very passionate, ergo a gamer?

Lots of subjective qualifiers in your post.
I'm just gonna stick with if you play games and enjoy playing them, whatever they are, you're a gamer.

If you want me to use legalese to eliminate subjective qualifiers I can try

A professional gamer whose primary hobby is running would be BOTH a "gamer" and a "runner". It is possible (and common) for people to be multiple things.

"Footballer" depends on what your hobby is called where you live. If you call your hobby "american football" then you would be an "american footballer"

If you play weekend pickup games that is spending your free time on a game so it qualifies as a hobby that you spend a lot of time on. A hobby that you spend a large amount of your free time on qualifies as your primary hobby.

How passionate for a secondary hobby to qualify: 0.85 as passionate as you are about your primary hobby.

[twidget]

Legalese is used for obfuscation and not clarity.

[twidget]

So somebody who has two jobs to make ends meet and hasn't a lot of free time wouldn't need to spend as much time playing as say somebody living off a trust fund and not having to work?
Or is there an absolute minimum amount of time, by your metric, one has to spend playing to be a gamer.

[lowdown]

Man, I've always wondered about this as well.

I think they are a gamer if they play games semi regularly. By that, I mean they play more than once or twice in their life. Even if it's like twice a month to play Candy Crush, they still count.

This comment triggered me so much.

[Samsonite]

if you've never played Bugsy 3D, then you're not a gamer. Period.

[scottypops]

My criteria is as follows. Do they consider themselves a gamer? If yes then they're a gamer. It no, then they're not a gamer.
.

I agree with this. It's a community-based definition, which to me makes sense. If someone considers themselves a gamer, they are in some way passionate about it and want to be involved with the community--that's good enough for me. If they don't, regardless of their gaming habits, why would we want to insist that they are?