A gamer is a proactive
hobby
A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing oth ...
ist who
plays interactive games, especially
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s, tabletop
role-playing games
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...
, and skill-based
card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific.
Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...
s, and who plays for usually long periods of time. Some gamers are competitive, meaning they routinely compete in some games for money, prizes, awards or the mere pleasure of competition and overcoming obstacles. In some countries such as the UK and Australia, the term "gaming" can refer to legalized
gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
, which can take both traditional and digital forms, through
online gambling
Online gambling is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for the Liechtenstein International Lottery i ...
. There are many different gamer communities around the world. Since the advent of the Internet, many communities take the form of
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
s or
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
or
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
virtual communities
A virtual community is a social network of individuals who connect through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Some of the most pervasive virtual communi ...
, as well as
in-person social clubs
A social club may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation, or activity. Examples include: book discussion clubs, chess clubs, anime clubs, country clubs, charity work, criminal ...
. Originally a hobby, it has evolved into a
profession
A profession is a field of work that has been successfully ''professionalized''. It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, '' professionals'', who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are accepted by ...
for some. In 2021, there were an estimated 3.24 billion gamers across the globe.
Etymology
The term ''gamer'' originally meant ''
gambler
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three elem ...
'', and has been in use since at least 1422, when the town laws of
Walsall
Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield.
Walsall is th ...
, England, referred to "any dice-player, carder, tennis player, or other unlawful gamer". However, this description has not been adopted in the United States, where it became associated with other pastimes. In the US, they made their appearance as
wargame
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...
s. Wargames were originally created as a military and strategy tool. When ''
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...
'' was released, it was originally marketed as a wargame, but later was described by its creators as a
role-playing game. They too called their players ''gamers'' and this is where the word changed definition from someone who gambles to someone who plays
board game
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a co ...
s and/or
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s.
Categories
In the United States as of 2018, 28% of gamers are under 18, 29% are 18–35, 20% are 36-49 and 23% are over 50. In the UK as of 2014, 29% are under 18, 32% are 18-35 and 39% are over 36.
According to
Pew Research Center, 49% of adults have played a video game at some point in their life and those who have are more likely to let their children or future children play. Those who play video games regularly are split roughly equally between male and female, but men are more likely to call themselves a gamer. As of 2019, the average gamer is 33 years old.
Female gamer/gamer girl
A female gamer, or gamer girl or girl gamer, is any female who regularly engages in playing video games. According to a study conducted by the Entertainment Software Association in 2009, 40% of the game playing population is female, and women 18 or older comprise 34% of all gamers. Also, the percentage of women playing online had risen to 43%, up 4% from 2004. The same study shows that 48% of game purchasers are female.
According to a 2015 Pew survey, 6% of women in the United States identify as gamers, compared to 15% of men, and 48% of women and 50% of men play video games. Usage of the term "girl gamer" is controversial. Some critics have advocated use of the label as a
reappropriated term, while others see it as nondescriptive or perpetuating the minority position of female gamers. Some critics of the term believe there is no singular definition of a female gamer and that they are as diverse as any other group. However it is generally understood that the term "girl gamer" implies that it is a girl who plays video games.
Psychology
Shigeru Miyamoto says that "I think that first a game needs a sense of accomplishment. And you have to have a sense that you have done something, so that you get that sense of satisfaction of completing something."
Gaming is a form of escapism.
Hideo Kojima states that "If the player isn't tricked into believing that the world is real, then there's no point in making the game."
In April 2020, researchers found that top gamers shared the same
mental toughness
Mental toughness is a measure of individual resilience and confidence that may predict success in sport, education and the workplace. As a broad concept, it emerged in the context of sports training, in the context of a set of attributes that allow ...
as
Olympian athletes.
Escapism in gaming is a major factor in why individuals have falling in love with gaming. This idea of being in another world while gaming has become very common with gamers, these video games create a new world where these gamers feel they fit in and can control what is going on.
Types and demographics
Sexes
![Negative-space-man-controls-all-video-games](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Negative-space-man-controls-all-video-games.jpg)
The two most controversial issues surrounding the gaming world in today's day and age are ideas of gender roles and LGBTQ+ involvement in the gaming industry. It is first important to understand the difference between men and women in the world of gaming. Although roughly the same number of men and women play games, the stereotype of a gamer is one that is predominantly male. A justification sometimes given for this is that while many women occasionally play games, they should not be considered "true" gamers because they tend to play games that are more casual and require fewer skills than men. This
stereotype is perpetuated by the fact that at a professional level, most of the teams competing are composed of men, while female gamers of moderate skill are rendered invisible. The Idea behind a woman being a more active player than a man fits the common concept of what is seen to be a typical video game player in the gaming industry. The average gamer is seen to be a male player who is usually Caucasian. Aside from the average look of a gamer, It is notable to understand that a study has shown 48% of game purchases are from female consumers, but in 2015 only 6% of women that are in the U.S identify as a gamer. Ideas behind the word "girl gamer" tend to spark a contentious reaction, and the use of this name has been supported as a title that is seen as a
reappropriated term.
Gaymer
![Silicon Valley Pride Parade 2016 - -SVPride2016 (28844993833)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Silicon_Valley_Pride_Parade_2016_-_-SVPride2016_%2828844993833%29.jpg)
Besides the distinction of a "girl gamer" from a "male gamer," there is also a common understanding as
stereotype of a "Gaymer." A Gaymer is a depiction of a gay gamer, and someone who identifies their sexual orientation to be a part of the
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
(
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
,
bisexual,
lesbian, or
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
) community while participating in video games. The concept of Gaymer's have and are a part of two surveys in 2006 and 2009. The 2006 survey took note of the levels of detriment that Gaymer's may have experienced, and the 2009 survey kept detail of the content that Gaymer's would find to be normalized in
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s. Staying the topic of ideas behind gaming and the relationship with the LGBTQ+ community, it has been noted that video games are starting to develop more characters and depictions of members from this specific community. Some of the topics of these specific LGBTQ+ friendly video games include such ideas as queer coming out stories, and queer relationships.
These games are also providing the option of character creation with different forms of gender expression along with more LGBTQ+ romance options.
One example of these games in the LGBTQ+ realm of dating would be something called ''Dream Daddy'' that was released in 2017. This physical game had many queer individuals debating, but the overall representation of the game was applauded by many of the LGBTQ+ members due to its accurate presentation and the way that it provided comfort to people of many sexualities. The concept of having more of these gender and sexuality friendly games is providing LGBTQ+ members with a safe space to feel welcome and explore their queer personality preferences in a more confident manner.
Dedication spectrum
It is common for games media, games industry analysts, and academics to divide gamers into broad behavioral categories. These categories are sometimes separated by level of dedication to gaming, sometimes by primary type of game played, and sometimes by a combination of those and other factors. There is no general consensus on the definitions or names of these categories, though many attempts have been made to formalize them. An overview of these attempts and their common elements follows.
* ''
Newbie
Newbie, newb, noob, noobie, n00b or nub is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in a profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning Internet ac ...
'': (commonly shortened to "noob", "n00b", or "newb") A slang term for a
novice
A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience.
Religion Buddhism
...
or
newcomer
Newcomer may refer to:
* Newcomer (surname)
* Newcomer (Lenape), chief of the western Lenape and founder of Newcomerstown, Ohio
* Newcomer, Missouri, a community in the United States
* Novichok agent, ''Novichok'' meaning 'Newcomer' in Russian ...
to a certain game, or to gaming in general.
* ''Casual gamer'': The term often used for gamers who primarily play
casual games, but can also refer to gamers who play less frequently than other gamers. Casual gamers may play games designed for ease of gameplay, or play more involved games in short sessions, or at a slower pace than hardcore gamers.
The types of game that casual gamers play vary, and they are less likely to own a dedicated video game console. Notable examples of casual games include ''
The Sims
''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation game, life simulation video games developed by Maxis and video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling ...
'' and ''
Nintendogs
is a real-time pet simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was released in Japan, and was later released in: North America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and other regions. ...
''.
Casual gamer demographics vary greatly from those of other video gamers, as the typical casual gamer is older and more predominantly female. Fitness gamers, who play motion-based exercise games, are also seen as casual gamers.
* ''Core gamer'': (also mid-core) A player with a wider range of interests than a casual gamer and is more likely to enthusiastically play different types of games,
but without the amount of time spent and sense of competition of a hardcore gamer. The mid-core gamer enjoys games but may not finish every game they buy and is a
target consumer
A target market, also known as serviceable obtainable market (SOM), is a group of customers within a business's serviceable available market at which a business aims its marketing efforts and resources. A target market is a subset of the total ma ...
.
Former Nintendo president
Satoru Iwata
was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. He was a major contributor in broadening the app ...
stated that they designed the
Wii U
The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4.
Th ...
to cater to core gamers who are in between the casual and hardcore categories.
A number of theories have been presented regarding the rise in popularity of mid-core games. James Hursthouse, the founder of Roadhouse Interactive, credits the evolution of devices towards tablets and touch-screen interfaces, whereas
Jon Radoff of
Disruptor Beam
Beamable Inc. is a technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts. They currently provide implemention services of Games as a Service features within the Unity game engine. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2020, the company worked within game ...
compares the emergence of mid-core games to similar increases in media sophistication that have occurred in media such as
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
.
* ''Hardcore gamer'':
Ernest Adams and
Scott Kim
Scott Kim is an American puzzle and video game designer, artist, and author of Korean descent. He started writing an occasional "Boggler" column for ''Discover'' magazine in 1990, and became an exclusive columnist in 1999, and created hundreds of ...
have proposed classification metrics to distinguish "hardcore gamers" from casual gamers, emphasizing action, competition, complexity, gaming communities, and staying abreast of developments in hardware and software. Others have attempted to draw the distinction based primarily on which platforms a gamer prefers, or to decry the entire concept of delineating casual from hardcore as divisive and vague.
Professional gamer
Professional
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...
gamers generally play video games for prize money or salaries. Usually, such individuals deeply study the game in order to master it and usually to play in
competitions
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...
like
esports. A pro gamer may also be another type of gamer, such as a hardcore gamer, if he or she meets the additional criteria for that gamer type. In countries of Asia, particularly
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
and
China, professional gamers and teams are
sponsored by large companies and can earn more than a year. In 2006,
Major League Gaming
Major League Gaming Corp. (MLG) is a professional esports organization. MLG is headquartered in New York City, New York and was founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso. MLG has held official video game tournaments throughout the ...
contracted several ''
Halo 2
''Halo 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox console. ''Halo 2'' is the second installment in the ''Halo'' franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed '' ...
'' players including
Tom "Tsquared" Taylor
Tom Taylor, known by the gamertag Tsquared, is a former professional gamer and captain of one of the most successful teams in Major League Gaming (MLG) history, Str8 Rippin, and was also the coach of Status Quo during the 2010 National Champion ...
and members of
Team Final Boss with $250,000 yearly deals. Many professional gamers find that competitions are able to provide a substantial amount of money to support themselves. However, oftentimes, these popular gamers can locate even more lucrative options. One such option is found through online
live streaming of their games. These gamers who take time out of their lives to stream make money from their stream, usually through sponsorships with large companies looking for a new audience or donations from their fans just trying to support their favorite streamer. Live streaming often occurs through popular websites such as
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
,
Hitbox
Collision detection is the computational problem of detecting the intersection of two or more objects. Collision detection is a classic issue of computational geometry and has applications in various computing fields, primarily in computer gr ...
,
Mixer and
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. Professional gamers with particularly large followings can often bring their fan bases to watch them play on live streams. An example of this is shown through retired professional ''
League of Legends
''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by '' Defense of the Ancients'', a custom map for ''Warcraft III'', ...
'' player Wei "CaoMei" Han-Dong. Han-Dong had decided to retire from
esports due to his ability to acquire substantially higher pay through live streaming. His yearly salary through the Battle Flag TV live streaming service increased his pay to roughly $800,000 yearly. Live streaming can be seen by many as a truly lucrative way for professional gamers to make money in a way that can also lessen the pressure in the competitive scene. We are seeing a rapid increase in the young video game players wanting to be Professional Gamers instead of the "pro athlete". The career path of becoming a professional gamer is open for anyone any race, gender, and background. A gamer is a person who plays video games for long periods of time, on gaming consoles ranging from PC's to Xbox's and PlayStation's. In countries like the UK and Australia, gaming stands for legalized gambling. The gaming community now has developed at a much faster rate and now is being considered esports. These more serious gamers are professional gamers; they are individuals that take the average everyday gaming much more seriously and profit from how they perform.
Although the LGBTQ+ gamers are starting to make more of a mark in the gaming world, there are still many disadvantages to this process. Homophobia in the gaming world does tend to take a toll on the problem of an equally shared gaming experience. This is both an issue within the games industry and many areas of the games culture. The brings back the thought of importance for increasing LGBTQ representation in games, especially with such events as GaymerX. There is a study called the online roulette survey that shows that queer gamers are at a disadvantage financially for the fact that the highest earning professional gamers in the LGBTQ+ community bring in less money than popular heterosexual professional gamers. This highlights that not only is there a huge divide between male and female counterparts in the gaming industry, but there also happens to be a great divide when it comes to sexual preference in the gaming world, especially when it comes to the professional gaming scene. Often, tech companies' privilege men's point of view over women's participation in tech and their consumption, which could be seen as vice versa for people of a homosexual and heterosexual identity. The two topics will always hold a big weight in the gaming industry.
Retrogamer
A retro gamer is a gamer who prefers to play, and often enough collect,
retro games—older video games and
arcade games. They may also be called ''classic gamers'' or ''
old-school gamers'', which are terms that are more prevalent in the United States. The games are played on the original hardware, on modern hardware via
emulation
Emulation may refer to:
*Emulation (computing), imitation of behavior of a computer or other electronic system with the help of another type of system
:*Video game console emulator, software which emulates video game consoles
*Gaussian process em ...
, or on modern hardware via
ports
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...
or compilations (though those 'in the hobby' tend toward original hardware and emulation).
Classification in taxonomies
A number of
taxonomies have been proposed which classify gamer types and the aspects they value in games.
The
Bartle taxonomy of player types
The Bartle taxonomy of player types is a classification of video game players ( gamers) based on a 1996 paper by Richard Bartle according to their preferred actions within the game. The classification originally described players of multiplayer o ...
classifies gamers according to their preferred activities within the game:
* Achievers, who like to gain points and overall succeed within the game parameters, collecting all rewards and
game badge
Digital badges (also known as ebadges, or singularly as ebadge) are a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality or interest that can be earned in various learning environments.
Origin and development
Traditional physical badges have ...
s.
* Explorers, who like to discover all areas within the game, including
hidden areas and
glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...
es, and expose all game mechanics.
* Socializers, who prefer to play games for the social aspect, rather than the actual game itself.
* Beaters, who thrive on competition with other players.
* Completionists, who are combinations of the Achiever and Explorer types. They complete every aspect of the game (main story, side quests, achievements) while finding every secret within it.
The
MDA framework describes various aspects of the game regarding the basic rules and actions (''Mechanics''), how they build up during game to develop the
gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pl ...
(''Dynamics''), and what emotional response they convey to the player (''Aesthetics''). The described esthetics are further classified as Sensation, Fantasy, Narrative, Challenge, Fellowship, Discovery, Expression and Submission.
Jesse Schell
Jesse N. Schell (born June 13, 1970) is an American video game designer, author, CEO of Schell Games, and a distinguished professor of the practice of entertainment technology at CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), a joint master's pro ...
extends this classification with Anticipation,
Schadenfreude, Gift giving, Humour, Possibility, Pride, Purification, Surprise, Thrill, Perseverance and Wonder, and proposes a number of generalizations of differences between how males and females play.
Avatar
Creating an avatar sets the stage of a player becoming an avatar; it is the first interaction that a potential player must make to identify themselves among the gaming community. An avatar, username, game name, alias, gamer tag, screen name, or handle is a name (usually a
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
) adopted by a video gamer, used as a main preferred identification to the gaming community. Usage of user names is often most prevalent in games with
online multiplayer
A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
support, or at
electronic sport
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional sports, professional players, individually or as ...
conventions. While some well-known gamers only go by their online handle, a number have adopted to using their handle within their real name typically presented as a
middle name
In various cultures, a middle name is a portion of a personal name that is written between the person's first given name and their surname.
A middle name is often abbreviated and is then called middle initial or just initial.
A person may be ...
, such as
Tyler "Ninja" Blevins or
Jay "sinatraa" Won
Jay Won (born March 18, 2000), better known as Sinatraa, is an American professional ''Valorant'' player. Won began his esports career as a competitive ''Overwatch'' player for Selfless Gaming, before signing with the San Francisco Shock of the ...
.
Similarly, a ''clan tag'' is a prefix or suffix added to a name to identify that the gamer is in a clan. Clans are generally a group of gamers who play together as a team against other clans. They are most commonly found in online multi-player games in which one team can face off against another. Clans can also be formed to create loosely based affiliations perhaps by all being fans of the same game or merely gamers who have close personal ties to each other. A ''team tag'' is a prefix or suffix added to a name to identify that the gamer is in a team. Teams are generally sub-divisions within the same clan and are regarded within gaming circuits as being a purely competitive affiliation. These gamers are usually in an online league such as the Cyberathlete Amateur League (C.A.L.) and their parent company the Cyberathlete Professional League (C.P.L.) where all grouped players were labeled as teams and not clans.
Clans and guilds
A
clan, squad or
guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
is a group of players that form, usually under an informal 'leader' or administrator. Clans are often formed by gamers with similar interests; many clans or guilds form to connect an 'offline' community that might otherwise be isolated due to geographic, cultural or physical barriers. Some clans are composed of
professional gamers, who enter competitive tournaments for cash or other prizes; most, however, are simply groups of like-minded players that band together for a mutual purpose (for example, a gaming-related interest or social group).
Identity
The identity of being a gamer is partly self-determination and partly
performativity
''Performativity'' is the concept that language can function as a form of social action and have the effect of change. The concept has multiple applications in diverse fields such as anthropology, social and cultural geography, economics, gender s ...
of characteristics society expects a gamer to embody.
These expectations include not only a high level of dedication to playing games, but also preferences for certain types of games, as well as an interest in game-related paraphernalia like clothing and comic books.
According to
Graeme Kirkpatrick, the "true gamer" is concerned first and foremost with
gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pl ...
.
''
The Escapist'' founder Alexander Macris says a gamer is an enthusiast with greater dedication to games than just playing them, similar in connotation to "
cinemaphile
Cinephilia (; also cinemaphilia or filmophilia) is the term used to refer to a passionate interest in films, film theory, and film criticism. The term is a portmanteau of the words cinema and philia, one of the four ancient Greek words for love. A ...
".
People who play may not identify as gamers because they feel they don't play "enough" to qualify.
Social stigma against games has influenced some women and minorities to distance themselves from the term "gamer", even though they may play regularly.
Demographics
Games are stereotypically associated with young males, but the diversity of the audience has been steadily increasing over time.
This stereotype exists even among a majority of women who play video games regularly.
Among players using the same category of device (e.g., console or phone), patterns of play are largely the same between men and women. Diversity is driven in part by new hardware platforms.
Expansion of the audience was catalyzed by
Nintendo's efforts to reach new demographics.
Market penetration of
smartphones with gaming capabilities further expanded the audience,
since in contrast to consoles or high-end PCs, mobile phone gaming requires only devices that non-gamers are likely to already own.
While 48% of women in the United States report having played a video game, only 6% identify as gamers, compared to 15% of men who identify as gamers.
This rises to 9% among women aged 18–29, compared to 33% of men in that age group. Half of female
PC gamers in the U.S. consider themselves to be core or hardcore gamers.
Connotations of "gamer" with sexism on the fringe of gaming culture has caused women to be less willing to adopt the label.
Racial minorities responding to Pew Research were more likely to describe themselves as gamers, with 19% of
Hispanics
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
identifying as gamers, compared to 11% of
African-Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...
and 7% of
whites
White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view.
Description of populations as ...
.
The competitive
fighting game scene is noted as particularly racially diverse and tolerant.
This is attributed to its origin in arcades, where competitors met face to face and the barrier to entry was merely a
quarter A quarter is one-fourth, , 25% or 0.25.
Quarter or quarters may refer to:
Places
* Quarter (urban subdivision), a section or area, usually of a town
Placenames
* Quarter, South Lanarkshire, a settlement in Scotland
* Le Quartier, a settlement ...
.
Only 4% of those aged 50 and over identified as gamers.
Casualization
Casualization is a trend in video games towards simpler games appealing to larger audiences, especially women or the elderly.
Some developers, hoping to attract a broader audience, simplify or remove aspects of
gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pl ...
in established genres and franchises.
Compared to seminal titles like ''
DOOM
Doom is another name for damnation.
Doom may also refer to:
People
* Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed
* Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist
* Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher
* ...
'', more recent mass-market action games like the
Call of Duty series are less sensitive to player choice or skill, approaching the status of
interactive movie
Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but m ...
s.
The trend towards casual games is decried by some self-identified gamers who emphasize gameplay, meaning the activities that one undertakes in a game.
According to Brendan Keogh, these are inherently masculine activities such as fighting and exerting dominance. He further says that games women prefer are more passive experiences, and male gamers deride the lack of interactivity in these games because of this association with femininity.
Belying these trends, games including ''
The Sims
''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation game, life simulation video games developed by Maxis and video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling ...
'' or ''
Minecraft
''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java (programming language), Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made pub ...
'' have some of the largest audiences in the industry while also being very complex.
According to Joost van Dreunen of SuperData Research, girls who play Minecraft are "just as 'hardcore' as the next guy over who plays ''
Counter-Strike
''Counter-Strike'' (''CS'') is a series of multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video games in which teams of terrorists battle to perpetrate an act of terror (bombing, hostage-taking, assassination) while counter-terrorists try to preve ...
''".
Dreunen says being in control of a game's environment appeals equally to boys and girls.
Leigh Alexander argued that appealing to women does not necessarily entail reduced difficulty or complexity.
See also
*
Entertainment Consumers Association
*
Esports
*
Gamers Outreach Foundation
Gamers Outreach Foundation (stylized as Gamers Outreach) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides entertainment to hospitalized families through video games. The organization was started in 2007 in response to a canceled Halo tournament. ...
* ''
Going Cardboard
''Going Cardboard: A Board Game Documentary'' is a 2012 documentary about the American adoption of German-style board games, and includes coverage of the 2009 board game event ''Spiel'' in Essen, Germany, as well as interviews with many prominent ...
'' (documentary)
*
List of gaming topics
*
Player (game)
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pl ...
*
Video game addiction
Video game addiction (VGA), also known as gaming disorder or internet gaming disorder, is generally defined as the problematic, compulsive use of video games that results in significant impairment to an individual's ability to function in vario ...
References
{{Fandom
Gaming
Nerd culture
Stereotypes
Video game culture
Video gaming
Video game terminology