What is your definition of a Gamer?

[Noobc0re]

I think what's tripping a lot of people up with "gamer" is the tiers. There's casual, regular and hardcore. However these are very fluid and fuzzy terms, that can cause a lot of disagreement. Prime example could be Dark Souls. I see Dark Souls as a casual game(no, not saying it's easy), but a lot think of it as a game for hardcore gamers.

Then you have the mobile *ptui* gamers. Who we don't like to call gamers becasue...they're not. The problem is that they technically do play games, so in the game of "well, technically..." they become casual gamers, even though they have nothing in common with what we call casual gamers.

I don't know how to solve that. For the tiers, we might as well just call everyone just "gamers". But how do you make a definition that accurately sorts away the mobile gamers? There's no name for the quality difference between mobile and proper games. Making things worse, there are some proper mobile games. Darkest Dungeon, for example, I believe is ported to mobile.

EDIT: ...Video game enthusiast.

[PriestTroit]

Someone whose primary hobby is playing video games, discounting stuff like candy crush and angry birds. Sorry no. I'll never accept those types of game players as gamers. Those types of games are basically the modern puzzle or crossword book.

Considering you were answering the question "What is you definition of a Gamer?" It logically follows that your definition of someone who's primary hobby is the things you listed excludes the things you didn't list because you didn't include a qualifier. It's just a blanket statement. But if you really just misspoke I'll accept it.... Though I strongly disagree with your opinion about games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds. Not only are those actual games, but so are cross word puzzles.

A gamer is the one that cares about discussing the negative affects of loot boxes, mtx, and all the other disgusting monetization practices of the current triple A industry.

Just going from you statement, if logically follows that anyone who *doesn't care* about discussing those things isn't a gamer in your view. Also, since you immediately followed your definition up with...

A gamer doesn't take that crap and doesn't support it

It's perfectly logical to conclude that any supposed gamer who does put up with that crap and actually does support it isn't a real gamer in your opinion.

I didn't assume anything. I came to my conclusion by deducting it from your definition. If you misspoke, just say it.

[grayfox313]

A horrible human being? Lol kidding, obviously

[Valkenr]

Why are there so many words in this thread?

Gamer - (noun) a person who plays games

/thread

[Spect3r]

To me a gamer is someone who does it professionaly.
If a person plays football or basket as a hobby, they arent called a footballer or a basketball player, so to me is the same with "gamer".
If you do living of playing games you are a "gamer", if not then you someone who plays games.

[aileron]

??? You mean the way media uses the word gamer? Or what it should mean on this website? Last time I checked, table top and card gamers were welcome here.

[Animusisters]

Since the term has seen heavy transformed by todays game journalism I say a gamer is a slur which describes an uneducated mess of a person blindly following a political agenda.

[Aidy]

What's with the over salty blind rage?

[Aerrae]

Aidy -> First thing I said was PRIMARY HOBBY IS PLAYING video games. Can you do something about your complete illiteracy? I'm not even sure English is your first language at this point but I don't exactly care by now. Fix your problem.

PriestTroit

Jeez. Let's just take it as read that I mean ANY kind of hardcore gaming okay? My apologies for not making a list.

Finally I said people that care about discussing them. Not whether they agree with me, don't make assumptions. I don't think gamers should support it in games that also charge an entry fee. We've all seen how that's worked out. If you care about your hobby then obviously you wouldn't want to help any companies move forward with those practices.

The same as if you were hobbyist cook and you invited your friends for dinner, you probably wouldn't skimp on the quality of your food to save a buck. Because you have an actual passion for cooking and only want to serve your friends the best quality ingredients.

[Garrett]

As someone who has spent way more time on /v/ than what is healthy (or what the daily dose the Doc ordered is), to me "gamer" is a normie term used by the mainstream to refer to something they barely understand. To me, people who genuinely enjoy videogames and have a fandom of specific franchises, that group has no name. They're "people who play games". "Gamer" to me is that horrifyingly cringe-laden term that refers to that imaginary wholesome person that Ubisoft's marketing department is emulating when directing their fake coop trailers for the Division 2 or something, or the top comment on a Creedence Clearwater Revival song on Youtube with some le epic quote by Frank Woods from Black Ops. Or a 12 year old who autotunes a badly rhyming song about Minecraft. Or someone who Steven Spielberg thought would think that Ready Player One is cool.

It's not really possible to describe, but the main point is that the actual individuals who play videogames and enjoy them, they're not "gamers". They're something else. That group is too diverse to fit under such a generic title. That generic title refers to a stereotype, a caricature, something that doesn't actually exist, and that only those who are totally out of touch actually believe in.

[xadu]

A gamer is only those who play computer games, and good ones. Not Candy Crush. Because Candy Crush is like an animated crossword game of a newspaper.

If we start generalizing the concept of game, we go into a rabbit hole. Mathematicians are gamers (they even do "game theory"). Stock market investors are gamers (they are gamblers, like casino and poker games). Buying insurance is gaming. Picking up women is gaming. Designing a drainage system is gambling.

[Saonyx]

For me, gamer, is someone who not only likes games, but also spends time learning it's mechanics and researching the game in general. Regardless of skill.

Someone mentioned Candy Crush and Angry Birds not being considered. Most people who play them are casuals, used mostly to play when waiting for something to happen. However, there must be someone out there who really gets into them, researching better ways to win regardless of it's RNG nature (Candy Crush) or the physics involved (Angry Birds).

I don't consider the casuals gamers. Just people who enjoy games.
.

[Hopeless Wombat]

Also, someone who doesn't know how to walk away from a poker machine.

[aileron]

Someone who considers playing games (doesn't have to be video games, could be cards games, board games, pen and paper role playing games, etc) to be one of their hobbies (doesn't have to be there primary hobby). That's the minimum. It goes all the way from that to a professional who literally earns a living by competing at games (eSports).

[SckizoBoy]

Going off an earlier response in the thread, I'm rather torn because I sort of dislike the 'gamer' tag, both owing to what external commentators express concerning the word (especially the non-gaming media, which has made 'gamer', in some corners at least, a by-word for maladjusted individuals one violent game away from a prison sentence), and what a sub-section of the gaming community has done with the word (said elitism as referred to earlier).

I play video games... so I consider myself a video gamer.
I play tabletop games... so I also consider myself a tabletop gamer.
I used to play CCG's... so I consider myself a former CC gamer.
Or more generally, I play games (irrespective of medium)... so I consider myself a gamer (per my definition that an individual who plays games as a hobby, as distinct from sports (side-question: chess, anyone?), intentionally investing a not insignificant quantity of time or time and money (if, by some miracle, you get all or most of your shit for free) as an expression for their enjoyment and passion thereof is a gamer)

As for other people, they can define themselves how they please. I will simply agree or disagree as I see fit but I won't deprive them of their ability to assign whatever label they want on themselves, and while I will posit my own definition, I won't inflict it on other people in earnest should they disagree with it.