Over the past few weeks, while catching up with friends on Facebook, I noticed that one of them had commented on a page. The page in question was about gaming, and upon further inspection, I noticed a comment. They defined in their eyes what makes a Gamer, and I completely disagreed. I then started scanning through the comments, and to my surprise, a lot of people agreed with them. I then came to a realization that the true definition of a Gamer seems to be varied. So, I decided that I’d give my own definition on what I think the foundations of a Gamer is. Will you agree with me? Or will you tell me that I’m clearly drunk and should go back to playing the new God of War (Psst, read our review), we shall find out!
The page I visited described a Gamer as someone with a large number of consoles. Now, while having a Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, and whatever other definitive console would be amazing, that really doesn’t make one a Gamer. To me, all that means is that you clearly have a lot disposable income. Then, I see videos of people on YouTube playing, describing, and reviewing a multitude of titles spanning back to the Atari days. Commenters claim the that these are Gamers just because they happened to possess a certain game, and I say no, not entirely anyway.
In my opinion, a Gamer is someone that is truly passionate about gaming. A person that looks at a video game and sees it for the artistic marvel and creative genius that it is. A person that when playing a game, isn’t just a mindless Call of Duty player that uses the F-word and throws childish fits because their quick scope technique wasn’t at all quick and it resulted in their untimely death. It is my belief that a Gamer can have only one console, with a handful of games, and still proudly call themselves a Gamer because it’s passion that defines it. I have encountered many people that have said that they are a Gamer, yet if I excitedly bring up an upcoming game from my favorite franchise that we both share in common, they simply say “Oh, that’s really cool, I might pick it up”. That’s not a Gamer; that’s just a person that enjoys playing video games on their down time to escape the the real world. We are a breed of individuals that, as cliche as it may sound, live and breath gaming. I called out Call of Duty earlier, but there is no denying that whenever one of those titles are released at a midnight launch, you will find a line-up of eager Gamers waiting in anticipation. Our passion for a franchise can be so strong that we want to show our appreciation for a game, be it by attending midnight launches or cosplaying. Of course, if you are like me and you lack the patience and precise design to manufacture costumes, hey, even wearing a Super Mario Brothers shirt proudly shows people that I am a proud Gamer. I can’t tell you the amount of times that I have quoted games in conversations at the risk of being looked at like I have a pimple the size of Filgaia (Wild Arms for the Win!).
Let me make something clear, while someone with a large collection of gaming memorabilia clearly has passion, there’ a line that distinguishes between Gamer and collector. I have come across many collectors that have an Atari, Commodore 64, Genesis, and all the other retro consoles just because they can actually make a pretty good chunk of change off them. If I recall correctly, an original Nintendo once sold for $10,000. (If you have any interesting/expensive collector item sale stories, let me know in the comments below or on our Facebook.)
In conclusion, a Gamer is someone that has a large passion for gaming; someone that sees it as a lifestyle and not just a platform to virtually rip someone to shreds via God of War or shoot someone full of holes, giving them the Swiss Cheese treatment thanks to Gears of War. A person that isn’t ashamed to show the world that they adore gaming and get excited for game releases months in advance. Which reminds me, Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon is finally coming out! Ahhh! I think I’m going to die of giddiness.
What do you guys think? Do you agree with my opinion or do you have your own opinion on what makes a gamer? Let us know your opinions and join in this Bago-discussion!
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