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What is a gamer?

Published: Wed 27 Aug, 2008 | 28 Comments

 

What is a gamer?  Recently, given the recent domination by Nintendo due to its ability to capture the “blue ocean”, we’ve heard lots about what a gamer actually is.  Indeed, many people criticised Nintendo’s E3 keynote for delivering to the expectations of “hardcore” gamers.  Consequently, I’d like to take this blog post to dispel a laundry list of myths about what makes a gamer.

 

Myth #1: Gamers Appreciate Games More

 

 

This myth, more than anything, rubs me the wrong way.  Games can be art.  I’ve written a thesis on this.  But most self-proclaimed gamers do not view the activity in this way.  Case in point: how many gamers missed the brilliance behind Douglas Stanley’s Invaders!?  It’s art, yet too many people dismiss it as distasteful.  (In fact, the piece eventually had to be removed due to all the controversy.)  It’s not like gamers spend their time debating the artistic merit of games.  When was the last time you saw someone praise Silent Hill 2’s use of a protagonist/antagonist?  No, what you have are gamers who display their e-peen by demonstrating the number of games they have played and/or the amount of useless gaming trivia they know.

 

No, the reality is that an alarmingly high number of sad individuals try and justify their wasted existence by labelling themselves and then attempting to elevate themselves above others.  Too often I’ve heard: “You’re not a gamer if you’ve never played Ocarina of Time.”  It makes me sick.  It would be one thing if, like academics, the logic was it was a piece of work that should be dissected and analysed for further appreciation of the medium.  But no, what it comes down to is this idea that Ocarina, for reasons other than its artistic worth, is meant to be played by all.  I get that some people think it’s the best game ever, but that is subjective.  At the end of the day, you are trying to praise the action of playing a game, not the game itself.  It’s sad.

 

No, I haven’t played Ocarina of Time.  I haven’t played Super Mario RPG.  I haven’t even played Super Mario Bros. 3.  That doesn’t make me any less of a gamer.

 

Myth #2:  There Is A Gamer Consensus

 

 

There seems to be this idea that gamers generally know what games are good, which games are bad, and which games are the greatest games of all time.  This likely stems from the fact that gamers are used to a system that tries to quantify something that cannot be subjected to litmus tests.  That is to say, gamers are used to reviews.  Gamers believe that there is a consensus, that what games are good or bad is fact, and that the debate is over.  Any dissent is quickly silenced, often with ad hominem attacks.  (It reminds me of the global warming debate in a way.)  Ocarina of Time is one of the best games ever.  There hasn’t been a good Sonic game since Sonic 2.  Heavenly Sword is a God of War rip-off that is too short.  Vampire Rain is pure garbage that should never, ever be played by anyone.  These are just some of the ideas that the gaming community holds as fact.

 

The truth is that the enjoyment that comes from games is purely subjective.  As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.  We do not have a hive mind.  I, personally, enjoyed Vampire Rain quite a bit, but telling people I did is apparently the equivalent of saying that the Holocaust never happened.  I’ve actually seen one very smart and witty girl gamer chased out of a forum because she said that Gears of War was the biggest piece of garbage she’s ever played.  It’s quite sad and pathetic, actually.  It’s almost like the Borg, where you will be assimilated into the gaming consensus and resistance is futile.  The idea of gaming is to have fun, and what is fun is different for everyone.  After all, that’s what makes us human.  Unfortunately, hardcore gamers like to believe otherwise.  Why? Who knows?  Maybe making divisions where they place themselves in the knowledgeable elite makes them feel better about themselves.

 

Myth #3: Gamers Play Long Games

 

 

It seems these days that gamers feel that if a game doesn’t offer hours upon hours of gameplay, it’s a dud that should be ignored.  Fable was criticised for being too short.  Heavenly Sword’s five-hour length was considered blasphemous by many.  Gamers demand days of gameplay for their money.  It doesn’t matter that most of this gameplay is filler fluff used to expand a concept that can only be enjoyable for a few hours (fetch quests, anyone?), or that short games are usually the ones worth replaying over and over because it doesn’t feel like you’ve run a marathon after you’ve finished them; games have to be long, damnit!

 

This, of course, is the height of silliness.  Most people don’t have time to dedicate hours of their live to video games.   In fact, even though Heavenly Sword is only a few hours long, it lasted me a few weeks before I finished it because that was all the time I could dedicate to it.  Maybe hardcore gamers just don’t have lives and have the time to play games all day, every day.  (I once knew someone who had spent eight hours a day playing Oblivion.  That’s the equivalent of a full time job!)  Do these gamers read?  (Kotaku doesn’t count.)  Do they watch movies?  Do they go for walks?  Do they have picnics on a sunny day?  Do they cook?  Do they clean?  Do they try and better themselves (and I’m not talking about beating their high score)?  I can understand that maybe if you get one game a year, and it’s an RPG, you want to get some time out of it, but we’re looking at gamers who buy nearly everything the industry rams down their throat every week.  With a release schedule like that, how do they actually find the time to play these long games?  No wonder so many of them talk about a backlog of titles they need to finish.  (Some people I knew on forums still had games in shrink wrap!)  It’s truly, truly pathetic.

 

Myth #4: Gamers Hate Casual Games

 

 

How many times have you heard that the Wii is ruining the video game industry?  I’ve heard it so many times it makes me sick.  For a start, things evolve – the gaming I grew up on has slowly been replaced by such, ahem, wonderful experiences as Bioshock.  But there seems to be an idea that real gamers hate casual games.  I even remember one episode of the EGM podcast were the hosts berated Jen Tsao because she was playing Wii Play.  They told her that she couldn’t call herself a gamer if she played Wii Play.  What.  The.  Hell?

 

The fact of the matter is that it doesn’t matter what type of game you play; you are a gamer if you play games.  Are you any less of a reader if you read a book by Mills & Boon or even an issue of Reader’s Digest?  Are you any less of a TV watcher if you only watch the news?  Of course not!  But gamers seem to have it in their head that you can only be a gamer if you play can “pwn the n00bs” at Halo 3 and don’t need to look at the moves list in Soul Calibur IV.  (Hell, these same gamers were even disgusted at the idea that Vader and Yoda were included in that game.)  Again, it’s another sad myth created by gamers to make them feel better.

 

For the record, Wii Play is awesome, and Wii Sports was my personal GOTY for 2006.

 

Myth #5:  Gamers Demand Online Components

 

 

I swear to God, if I see another comment on a forum or blog that says a game isn’t worth owning if it doesn’t have some kind of online component, I’m going to scream.  Even reviews mark down games when they don’t have online components.  Why the hell is this so important?  Do you really want to spend your time with every game listening to some 12-year-old American brat screaming obscenities down his headset, wasting your bandwidth with his homophobia?  Are fighting games really that horrible if they don’t have an online component?  Fighting the AI is a bit boring, I know, but don’t these gamers have friends?  What happened to the fun of beating someone you know?  Is it really that fun to smash some anonymous person over the Internet, never to see them again?  How can you get a rivalry going there?  And don’t even get me started on the people who harp on about the inferiority of the Wii or PlayStation online experiences.

 

The fact of the matter is that it doesn’t make you a real gamer if you play online.  Sure, sometimes it’s nice if you want to play some multiplayer and can’t get anyone around to play with you.  But often lots of gamers are simply killing time when they’ve got nothing better to do.  Too hungover on a Sunday and can’t do anything but sink into the couch?  How about a good old game of Lego Star Wars?  It’s simple, fun, charming, and it doesn’t matter if you die.  How does that need an online component?  Yet some gamers rip into the Wii version because it doesn’t have one.  It’s truly pathetic.

 

And this isn’t even dealing with the amount of lag we suffer in New Zealand due to our crappy internet infrastructure….

 

Myth #6: Gamers Own All Consoles

 

 

This one is probably the one that bugs me the most.  Apparently, if you are a real gamer, you will own all the consoles.  If you don’t, you are simply a fanboy.  How could you miss out on Metal Gear Solid 4?  How could you pass up on Gears of War 2?  How could you not want to play Super Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3?  I’ve heard it all too often: real gamers own all the consoles.  What a crock.

 

This is an expensive hobby.  At current prices, it would cost about $1800 just to own all the consoles (and you’d only have Wii Sports with that) – and that doesn’t even include the price of the special HDTV you’d need to fully appreciate them.  Games are also about 100 bucks a pop, which isn’t exactly chump change, especially in a recession.  Sure, some people can get a little zealous about their console of choice – no one wants to spend that kind of cash to back another Dreamcast, do they? – but it doesn’t mean that if someone only owns a Wii they aren’t a true gamer.  Again, if you play games, you are a gamer.  It’s as simple as that.  This includes people who spend most of their time playing minigames over at Neopets.

 

For the record, I don’t own all consoles.  I own a Wii, a PS3, and a DS.

 

So there you have it: six myths about being a gamer that have hopefully been dispelled.  There is nothing that makes you a “true” gamer.  You are a gamer if you play games, just like you are a reader because you read this blog.  Sure, there will always be the insecure fool themselves into feeling some sort of superiority to others, but since we’ve exposed them for the pathetic fools that they are, we can now point and laugh at them – and they hate that.

So until next time, happy gaming, whether it be Call of Duty 4 or Wii Play.  And remember, play for yourself, no one else. J

 

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