What is a "gamer"? Do you consider yourself a "gamer"

zenno · 19-03-2014 5:53pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

*puts on pedantic hat* Pong was no where near the first game ever made. It's more likely to be space war on a PDP-10 terminal (which was also released in arcade format before pong as well). There's also a case to be made for Tennis for Two which ran on an oscilloscope.*Takes off pedantic hat*

I didn't know that

I actually thought pong was the first. For neo geo... I still play those games using an emulator.

CiDeRmAn · 19-03-2014 5:56pm

zenno wrote: »

I didn't know that I actually thought pong was the first. For neo geo... I still play those games using an emulator.

Original Hardware all the way baby!

zenno · 19-03-2014 6:19pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Original Hardware all the way baby!

Indeed.

I still can't beat ghosts and goblins to this day :mad:

CiDeRmAn · 19-03-2014 6:24pm

That's a tough one alright.
I prefer Super Ghouls'n Ghosts myself

MadYaker · 19-03-2014 9:13pm

The old men have taken over! I'm out :pac:

Retr0gamer · 19-03-2014 9:34pm

MadYaker wrote: »

The old men have taken over! I'm out :pac:

Whippersnapper. Back in my day you had one joystick and one button. None of your newfangled dual sticks and shoulder buttons.

CiDeRmAn · 19-03-2014 10:04pm

In the days of Robotron there were dual sticks and shoulder pads....

Unfortunate that the idea of liking a game or games that run on older hardware earns you the term "old man".

Come on people, liberate yourselves, love all the games, not just the one in the Gamestop window!

Tipsy McSwagger · 19-03-2014 10:09pm

jenjenten wrote: »

aisha tyler calls herself a gamer...........

and a comedian

nesf · 20-03-2014 2:33am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Whippersnapper. Back in my day you had one joystick and one button. None of your newfangled dual sticks and shoulder buttons.

You had a joystick? Lucky bastard, all I had was a pair of sucky paddles for an Apple II. I was so jealous of my friend's Atari.

nesf · 20-03-2014 2:35am

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Unfortunate that the idea of liking a game or games that run on older hardware earns you the term "old man".

You (if I remember right!) have kids old enough to play games with you, there's no world where some of the kiddies on here don't call you old! :P

CastorTroy · 20-03-2014 2:48am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Whippersnapper. Back in my day you had one joystick and one button. None of your newfangled dual sticks and shoulder buttons.

We going Atari or, the greatest joystick ever, the Zipstick?

Ah the days of the joystick waggle to run in Daly Thompson's Decathlon.

But to answer the question, I would refer to myself as a casual gamer until that term took on a diferrent meaning. I wouldn't play regularly, but when I do, I could complete a game in a day or 2. I admit to not liking every genre such as RPG, RTS or sims

john the one · 20-03-2014 2:53am

I bought and now play another world on my phone.
Have a ps3 & ps4
Play Minecraft on the laptop
Play Minecraft pocket on the tablet
Have the parts for a gaming PC coming from Germany over the next few days.

But honestly don't think as myself as a gamer. More a casual player

Sarky · 20-03-2014 12:39pm

<looks up from AD&D sourcebook>

Pipe down, noobs. :pac:

See, we could play this "I'm more a gamer than you" thing all the way back to charades, chess and beyond, but if you like to play games, of any sort you're a gamer, and no amount of telling someone they're not will make it true. I think it's cute that some people will only consider video games to be "gamer", but I don't look down on them for it. Because they're gamers. I don't pretend that the arseholes hurling abuse over the mic in COD[whatever bloody number it's at now] aren't gamers. They are. They're also arseholes, and rather than indulge in a no true Scotsman fallacy to pretend gaming is purer than that, I'll call it out, because they're gamers, and gamers should recognise that gamers can be arseholes, and that it's not ok.

3mm · 23-03-2014 10:29pm

I only mainly gamers as people who play on pc as most console users are just doing it when bored etc.

CiDeRmAn · 23-03-2014 10:34pm

3mm wrote: »

I only mainly gamers as people who play on pc as most console users are just doing it when bored etc.

Wow
Such wisdom
Why didn't this guy post sooner?
Could have cleared it all up!

nesf · 23-03-2014 11:07pm

3mm wrote: »

I only mainly gamers as people who play on pc as most console users are just doing it when bored etc.

Correct grammar is required to be in the PC Gamer Master Race. Please return to the console using peasants for further education before aspiring to join us. Thanks.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 23-03-2014 11:08pm

the only real admission requirement for the pc master race is the ability to type one handed

nesf · 23-03-2014 11:25pm

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

the only real admission requirement for the pc master race is the ability to type one handed

You've a dirty mind, though that does explain the 300 hours sunk into Tomb Raider on Steam.

OwaynOTT · 24-03-2014 1:12am

Gerard Butler is a gamer.

CiDeRmAn · 24-03-2014 9:28am

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Gerard Butler is a gamer.

Great Zombie Jesus that was an awful awful film.
Remember when Gerard Butler was a good actor?
No, me neither!

_Kaiser_ · 24-03-2014 9:45am

In the old days I would have been a gamer. I started off with an Amstrad CPC as a kid, then an Amiga 500, then an Amiga 1200 and finally various PCs

When I got to the PC stage I used to go to LAN sessions with a few of the lads in work, invest in the latest hardware and games etc

As I've gotten older though I just kinda gave it up.. not sure why. Guess I found other things to spend the money on, but also with the Celtic Tiger everyone settled down and moved out of Dublin so getting people together is tough for a few hours never mind a weekend.

I was never into consoles though. Had a 360 for a while but used it maybe for 4/5 hours total. Just preferred the keyboard/mouse/joystick controls in games I guess - plus I was more into RTS, sims and strategy rather than random FPSs or driving games.. though I played a fair number of those too.

I don't even have a PC at the moment but with games like Elite Dangerous on the horizon (a game I spent years playing in my youth) I'd like to do something I think, but these days I wouldn't have a clue what a decent video card is for example.

o1s1n · 24-03-2014 11:41am

I'd be the same re gaming on PCs. There was a time when I could read hardware specs and know what they meant. Step away from it for a decade and it all seems like jibberish now

CiDeRmAn · 24-03-2014 1:26pm

Reflecting on the whole gamer thing, I wonder if the term really means different things depending on your start point.
When I got really into it, back in the mid 80's, that's 1980s rather than 1880s my A&R chums, I would have been described, kindly, as "into computers, despite being rather more into loading games on cassette into my Zx Spectrum and fiddling with tape head levels.
With the past time becoming less niche in the 90s I think the term gamer popped up, simply differentiating between those who play games and the larger population of my peers who didn't play games at all.
The notion of snobbery, the casual vs hardcore, that stuff came much later on.
This is probably why I identify so much with being a gamer while others find the term derogatory.
As I mention, there was a time not long ago when the person with a Playstation was not typical of his peer group, even if he/she was in their teens, more so as you scale the age up.
And the latter is still true now, I'm 42 but amongst my work colleagues I'm just one of a handful who play videogames, even fewer who play them regularly and are into the scene, in fact I'm probably the only one out of some 200/300 people.

Maximus Alexander · 24-03-2014 1:32pm

I know what you mean OP. I probably play games on average a couple of hours a day (some days not at all, some days many hours), and have done since I was a teenager. Yet I still, for some reason, don't identify with the term 'gamer'. I suppose it's an odd one to me, like I know people who are really into film and television, but they're not referred to as "filmers" or "tvers". There isn't a term for them at all, that I know of.

It's just a form of media that I consume and appreciate, but it doesn't define me in any way.

CiDeRmAn · 24-03-2014 7:33pm

People really into movies tend to be film buffs, people really into TV are often seen as morons and should pick up a book now and again!

gugleguy · 24-03-2014 7:42pm

I wish. work and having to take work home with me . no way. Right now at home I have a Nintendo 3DS XL , a Lenovo Z500 with 2GB NVIDIA graphics card with windoze 8.1 and a Sony VAIO with 1GB NVIDIA CUDA graphics gettinvg on a bit but still perfectly capable. No time for serious gaming though. :'-(

CastorTroy · 24-03-2014 9:25pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

People really into movies tend to be film buffs, people really into TV are often seen as morons and should pick up a book now and again!

And if you're into football, you're cool and a real man... or some crap like that :rolleyes:
As I've said before, how come you're a geek if into movies, comics or games but just a fan if into football?

Anyway, different discussion for another day

CiDeRmAn · 24-03-2014 10:07pm

I was at a get together when my brother in law got engaged.
I was seated with a bunch of lads who were family of the bride to be.
The talk for a good two hours was football, football, football, and I just stayed quiet behind my pint.
Then someone piped up "So Ciderman (not my real name) what are you into?"
And I says, "Videogames, reading and I like to paint landscapes and seascapes"......
30 tense seconds later the chat started again about football for another 2 hours....
True story

CastorTroy · 25-03-2014 2:03am

Just do what I do when trying to take a hand at someone. Just say "I just never got the appeal of watching 22 guys running around in shorts".

Of course probably better if you know them a bit at least.

2Mad2BeMad · 25-03-2014 2:20am

CastorTroy wrote: »

Just do what I do when trying to take a hand at someone. Just say "I just never got the appeal of watching 22 guys running around in shorts".

Of course probably better if you know them a bit at least.

and people don't get the idea of sitting around all day playing games as its a waste of time and most play on their own so its seen as unsocial (not my idea of it)
but really if you think about it

For people who don't like games but lets say love football, like cider's position their at the wedding party , once he mentioned he plays games etc... they went quite for 30seconds, thats probably because they have no interest in games
what if it was the opposite, everyone played games but cider liked watching football? their still would be a 30second silence
World is full of hypocrites :pac:

I love football but when I see a bunch of lads talking about it at the start of a conversation like " Did you see the game last night " it sounds like small talk too me which I cringe at :pac: Its like football is only ever brought up between people who have not spoken in a while or barly know each other just too get a conversation going, as if theirs nothing else too talk about and as if everyone loves football.
Like wise if I see some lads first talk too each other about games or if all they do is talk about games all day long (Like a few people in my old college) I see them as unsocial people who sit in all day :pac: that and the fact they never came out on a night out once :pac: Which is unhealthly , as long as their's young lads who'd choose to sit in playing games all night everyweek rather then go out and have a laugh, then gaming will always seem an unlikely conversation too come up when talking too a stranger(s) (Unless you standing around gamestop waiting for a midnight release:P)

What is a "gamer"? Do you consider yourself a "gamer"

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