Today I wanted to discuss with you the word "Gamer". What comes to mind as you think of this word? Does it bring gleefull memories of you and your friends huddled around the N64 laughing and hurling insults at each other over 007? Does it bring up the thought of a basement dweller stuck on World of Warcraft for the 14th hour of that day?
When I think of the word "Gamer" only one thing seems to comes to mind; saddening.
First things first, let me tell you I am an avid video game player. I can spend over 4 hours playing my PlayStation 4 on my days off. My first taste of gaming was when I was 2 years old, walking in on my mother and her neices playing the original NES console, and being so excited by what I saw, I proceeded to giggle and stomp my feet all over the fried chicken on a plate placed on the floor next to them. From that day on my fate was sealed. I loved video games.
Throughout my life I've played the entire Metal Gear Solid saga on each of their respected consoles religiously. I stayed up many nights playing Zelda: Ocarina of time trying to get passed the unforgiving water temple. I've owned too many games throughout the years to name. Every E3 conference since the beginning of YouTube has been watched. Today, as a flight attendant, day-trading 22 year old, I'm still what many of you would call a "Hardcore Gamer," something I could never call myself.
As was said earlier, the word "saddening" comes to mind when the word is shrewd around. For someone like myself that likes to stay at a certain distance from the more vocal crowd of video game players, it's easily seen that video game consumers are easily one of the most vocal and vicious communities of consumers alive. In the days before latter half of the last-gen cycle, we could praise a game on it's merits, and knowing the limitations of said game, we overlooked its many flaws and found the gem of a game it was. Now that is certainly a rarity.
We seem to be so focused on a game's flaws and arguably bad marketing tactics, that we almost forget we're buying these things to have fun. The Mass Effect 3 debicle for instance.
I am in the apparent minority who actually loved the ending. The good byes said to our favorite characters, the closing of certain plots that have been around since the first game. I realized that the game in itself was the ending. The last ten minutes was well thought out in my opinion. I saw the entire last game as the ending. I can't recall a time I ever felt so strongly about any video game to be as mad as some of my fellow consumers were. Mind you I'm a huge Mass Effect fan. Mass Effect books, comics, animes, and right down to the watch I wear on my wrist every day. Mass Effect branded. So the argument that I don't love the franchise enough to get upset about it's ending is out of the question. Which brings me back to it.
Are the "gamers" who vote a video game publishing company (cough* EA) as "Worst Company in America" who I'd like to define myself alongside? Certainly not. C'mon, Bank of America was literally kicking people out of their homes and people vote a video game company as worst in America? Let that sink in. Not to mention the abhorrent death threats, developer lambasting, and overall crude behavior, all in the name of gaming. Priorities of a populous is a different discussion entirely.
So, countless comments are seen here on N4G with statements such as, "you're not a real gamer," or "this would be a great thing for gamers." I can't help but cringe a tad bit thinking they could be referring to someone like me. The word "consumer" is much more preferred. I just think it's a bit sad when someone defines themselves solely by their hobby as a video game player. When I see someone say "you're not a real Gamer," I take pity on them, simply because of what I personally accociate with that word.
I hope I can say for certain that video game playing is not your defining trait. Let it be your career position, one of your more productive hobbies, or maybe what you aspire to do.
Perhaps we should live and play games, not live TO play games.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
Yes, other people do stupid things, lets abandon an identity. I'm not going to define myself as an american anymore because americans do some dumb things.
ME3s ending was attrocious.
Context. How many gamers were among the voters who also had their houses foreclosed by bank of america or wells fargo? How many are actively screwed by EA every time they release anything. It's not about being petty, as you so inelegantly imply, it's about having more of a steak in problem behaviors that very obviously impact the voter.
A defining trait=/= *the* defining trait. I am a gamer. And a snowboarder and a reader and a wrestler and a martial artist. Know when any of that is relevant in game related stuff? Basically never, so gamer is what gets used.
" In the days before latter half of the last-gen cycle, we could praise a game on it's merits, and knowing the limitations of said game, we overlooked its many flaws and found the gem of a game it was. Now that is certainly a rarity. "
This sentence here is why I would never consider myself a "gamer" any longer. To completely overlook the flaws of a product is ludicrous and reflects poorly upon a person.
"So the argument that I don't love the franchise enough to get upset about it's ending is out of the question. Which brings me back to it."
Who would propose such an argument? I would much rather put forth the argument of your crystal clear favorable bias towards Mass Effect, if it weren’t already made unnecessary through the above sentence. Mind you, I wasn’ terribly upset about the endings as much as I was for playing what could better be described as a Gear of War reskin with added RPG elements.
Don’t even get me started on the whole EA excerpt. It was an internet poll, could you fathom for a second that perhaps the population that answered said poll had an unusual concentration of gamers comprising it, and thus does not represent the whole of America? Also, I am not an American, bust last time I checked, banks are not in the habit of signing people to adjustable rate mortgages at gun point, so excuse me if there’s no sympathy for your argument there.