Do I really count as a "gamer"?

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And stuff likes this keeps me so, so happy that my original intent to get into the gaming industry years ago (with the big guys, not indie devs) died a horrible, flaming death. Had I actually entered that part of the industry, I'd have gone insane by now due to stupidity overload. I can only handle so much shrieking derp at once, really.

...that the damn things sell well doesnt make them any less bloody stupid, but I doubt I have to explain that to anyone here.


I keep thinking that the term "hardcore" is mostly just applied to that sort of player though to get them to feel important/empowered, thus getting them to buy more such "hardcore" games (yes, I must put quotes around it every time) so they can continue to feel that way. Yay, psychology!! !

...which makes it even funnier to watch one of them try out a game that's ACTUALLY a hardcore sort (as in, difficult and requiring the use of more than half a brain cell). I get a kick out of it every single time.

Well like I said above, the hardcore gamers buy more than everyone else.
They are now the life blood of the industry.

Hardcore has never referred to difficulty at any time.

With that said, if you still want to get in to the industry then go to DigiPen University and then to Nintendo.
Nintendo actually treats their employees the best and doesn't over work them.
Though they do have a strict management style.

With that said, Westerners would rather work for EA, Ubisoft and others, then work for Nintendo because they want to make mature/hardcore games.

This is why Retro studios had a decent exodus of employees a few years ago, because they didn't like Nintendo's gaming philosophies and management style.

With that said Nintendo's current CEO was developer and founding member at HAL before being promoted to Nintendo's CEO.

Nah, entering the industry at that level would only drive me crazy. One thing that happens very often in high level development is something my cousin calls "corporate meddling". Decisions on what to make, and how to make it, are often not dictated by the actual devs, who have to stick to certain conventions if they want to keep their career intact. There's so many examples out there that it's just bloody absurd. It's one of the reasons why I tend to hate mainstream games by default; creativity is stifled there, and developers that I COULD otherwise consider truly great are forced to rein in their full talent. They may make good games.... but without those restraints, they could make LEGENDARY games. A type of game that is becoming more and more rare.

I discovered the indie scene a few years back, when I was starting to get fed up with the utter boredom that the consoles were giving me. As I do with... every conceivable subject I'm interested in, I turned to the PC to that, since my whole existence seems to revolve around the blasted thing. Finally, I found what I'd wanted. Hundreds of them, games I actually had an INTEREST in, as opposed to the one or two that might appear on the consoles every century or so.

Those guys can make what THEY want to make, what they want to play... not what some controlling entity tells them they must. I had a chance to experience some of that design style for myself recently, when an indie studio I'm familiar with and that I'd done tons of testing for came to me with a contract offer (which is notable due to the fact that I have no reputation as a designer, due to not having worked a single day in any job in probably 8 years), to design and make a section of the game dealing with a type of thing that comes from a genre they simply werent familiar with. Had to do with the shmup genre, naturallly. The rules for this were extremely vague. They simply handed me what I needed, said "have at it!", and... well, that's what I did. Did things MY way. It couldnt have gone better, really; I'm likely to take part in this again, in a larger role, in April, due to the stuff I made with that first one.

THAT is the sort of experience I'd always wanted out of game design... and while I'd originally been on track towards a career in that, I stopped cold when I got close to the inside elements of the industry and had a chance to see how the internal stuff really worked. There was no way in bloody hell I was going to do or put up with any of that crap.


And that's why I always find stuff like this, anything related to that constant hardcore crap, to be so bloody stupid. Not to mention a bit of an explanation as to why I'm always bashing the mainstream section of development, as certain people on here have occaisionally wondered why I do that so much; may as well give a brief explanation while I'm thinking about it.

....though some of it also just comes from the fact that I've a bit of a dark personality and am inherantly negative to begin with.


There, rant over. I now return you all to your regularly scheduled topic.

How do you define a gamer? To me all it means is someone who plays and enjoys video games ranging from casual to hardcore, console to PC, vast array of games across to genres to a narrow theme of interest or just a singular game, and you can go on and on with every variable.

I wish I could play more, I don't have the money to pursue the interest right now.(along with most other things)

If you own that many games and have so many that your favourite games list is over five lines long, you are the gamer god.

Your game library and years of experience most certainly qualifies you as a gamer, my friend, and if you want, you can use me as an example. I have never finished a Zelda game or a Pokemon game. Those are very well respected, influential franchises in gaming and most people would consider themselves to be a gamer if they played just one of those games to completion, and such a task could take 15-30 hours depending on the pace. However, I am definitely a gamer because of my thousands of hours playing multiplayer games and finishing other single player games, and I very much connect with what you are saying because I play or I am least interested in a lot of different games. I played all kinds of video games as I grew up and there really isn't a single game or even a single series of games that I can call "my absolute favorite of all time" (I even avoid doing so in casual conversation) like so many gamers seem to do nowadays. I enjoy the games that I play for different reasons and I think the immense variety of experiences that you can gather from playing games is one of the greatest things about video games as a whole.

To answer the implied question of "what is a gamer?", a gamer is someone that enjoys games in one form or another and, to a certain degree, feels that gaming is a part of who they are. It's a cultural identity and as such it is not a simple, well-defined group, and don't let all of the mono-gamers out there (gamers that seem to only care about one series or one genre) fool you into thinking that you're not a gamer if you enjoy a greater variety of games than them. I actually think that you should be quite proud of that, because, in my opinion, one of the things that significantly stunts the growth and development of gaming as a whole is the degree to which massive numbers of people consign their experience with gaming to one series of games or even just one single game and have not a care in the world for the video games that actually innovate and try to figure out solutions to the problems that those masses have become inexplicably become entirely complacent with. Playing a lot of different games is just about the easiest way to familiarize yourself with what certain games do well and what other games don't do well, and thus help you be a more discerning and knowledgeable consumer, and, by just a little bit, help to increase the quality of games in the future.

I could really go on about the state of the gaming industry and gamer culture and how the subgroups and trends all interact with each other for the betterment or the worsening of video games forever, but there's only so much ranting that I am willing to put the posters and readers of this thread through, so, yeah, end of rant.

Not sure why it is rage inducing for some people, I just have fun with it....might be a little frustrating if someone is really going out of their way to hurt the chances of the team winning, like feeding the enemy and flat out refusing to communicate with the team so I have called people out on that. And some people get nasty and elitist and will go on about how so and so sucks so much rather than give them helpful advice which I don't get as the helpful advice is usually more effective. but for the most part it's fun for me I am more fascinated by the characters and learning to play them well...not sure there is any game like that without some drama though. Never thought I'd put money into a game like that but have bought skins for the characters. I cannot deny the obsession part though, my brother plays to and if we get to talking about it that can take a while as others hanging out with us have no idea what we are talking about or why its so fascinating to us.

You own a sshhhh-load of video games, and you like playing them. That counts. No real reason to argue about it.

Yeah, 'cause that's the end-all-be-all determinant. The word of the "experts" is final.

Yeah, that's pretty much been my response as well.

Sadly, they really DO use that info to make decisions, which.... just makes it that much worse.

I played Modern Warfare 2, three different Tekken games. Numerous games on my 3DS like Dead or Alive Dimensions, two Pokemon games, Kirby Air ride, a few games on NES remix and some other games. I wanted to play Dishonored, but it was taking ages to load.

I plan on getting Majora's Mask 3D and Dead or Alive Last Round this month.

I also played PaRappa the Rapper. Tomorrow I will start my day with Tekken Tag as usual. Last night I accidentally turned on my Ps4. I wasn't planning on it, but I ended up playing Injustice Gods Among Us.

This is the life I live after graduating? Fine with me