If any has already been said, apologies, I didn't read every post. If I side track I apologise as well
Gamer, hardcore gamer, it's all relative. To some-one that doesn't play video games at all, or a casual gamer, hardcore gamers and elite gamers don't exist, they do come across the occasional, quote Yahtzee "that guy" but don't think anything of it. Some think gaming is a little childish and request the gamer to, quote my mother "grow up and get out for once".
Personally, I define hardcore gamers, gamers etc. by the number of hours they play on the average week, along side their perspective on games, life and consoles.
I'd call myself a gamer, as do my friends who are gamers themselves, however I despise FPS though, and people frown when I say my favourite game isn't one, they frown even more when I blast the Halo series for in my opinion being worse than meeting your partners parents for the first time. I have many casual gamer friends that are better at games than I but, they still call me a gamer and themselves not at all, especially in the aforementioned FPS, I tend towards RTS, TBS, RPG. When a games gets released I marathon that bad boy, like GTA last night until near 5am. SvR 2008 in November 2008 until 7am (and also taking the day off uni), Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, GotY ed. for no-one knows how long. I am a PS3 owner (and fan boy), previously I owned; PS2, PSX, Mega-Drive II, Game boy colour, Game boy, X-Box, X-Box 360 (not for very long though), Spectrum ZX, A BBC, and the original console version of pong, I own the original house hold games console, that fact should make me elitist when you think about what elite means, sod the NES and the SNES games, also the Spectrum and BBC, pre-cartridge gaming, this should also make me more of an elite, but I'm not, because I don't look down on and think myself better than other gamers, like in my experiences all elitists seem to. on top of that, RTS at a time I used to Beta test, and check its compatibility with the (at the time studied) Art of War. My current PC is being built to play PC games at high spec, even crisis.
I call myself a gamer, my friends and family call me a gamer, what do you think? (aside NERD!)
I agree, gaming started off casual. Now its a serious industry that comes under fire far to often from other scared media.
Nowadays, gamers start off casual, they are slowly drawn in, at first thinking people on WoW are sad, but as they play more, they understand more, and eventually they may end up on there themselves, I started off playing games a few hours a week, last year I peaked playing several hours a day, now I'm on a healthy amount a week, about 14, 2 hours a day on average.
This is a side note, and a testament to the fact that I played games way to much, I developed a state of mind that my doctor described as "Game mode" where many of my body functions slowed and my brain acted differently to normal, this was after a good 4 hours straight gaming, when this state was reached, reactions quickened, I was easy to anger, but generally was more placid than normal, the expression "time flies when your having fun" was predominant, hours would pass in what felt like minutes and in one very dramatic case 3 days passed with me playing a single game, Final Fantasy VIII from start to finish, with out a break except food that was brought to me and going to the toilet (I had a broken foot and was in bed, before you call me a lazy bugger for having food brought to me, I didn't take pain killers either, that was weird). Since the number of hours a week playing games have decreased I don't enter this mode anymore, last night with GTA aside.
Gamer, hardcore gamer, it's all relative. To some-one that doesn't play video games at all, or a casual gamer, hardcore gamers and elite gamers don't exist, they do come across the occasional, quote Yahtzee "that guy" but don't think anything of it. Some think gaming is a little childish and request the gamer to, quote my mother "grow up and get out for once".
Personally, I define hardcore gamers, gamers etc. by the number of hours they play on the average week, along side their perspective on games, life and consoles.
I'd call myself a gamer, as do my friends who are gamers themselves, however I despise FPS though, and people frown when I say my favourite game isn't one, they frown even more when I blast the Halo series for in my opinion being worse than meeting your partners parents for the first time. I have many casual gamer friends that are better at games than I but, they still call me a gamer and themselves not at all, especially in the aforementioned FPS, I tend towards RTS, TBS, RPG. When a games gets released I marathon that bad boy, like GTA last night until near 5am. SvR 2008 in November 2008 until 7am (and also taking the day off uni), Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, GotY ed. for no-one knows how long. I am a PS3 owner (and fan boy), previously I owned; PS2, PSX, Mega-Drive II, Game boy colour, Game boy, X-Box, X-Box 360 (not for very long though), Spectrum ZX, A BBC, and the original console version of pong, I own the original house hold games console, that fact should make me elitist when you think about what elite means, sod the NES and the SNES games, also the Spectrum and BBC, pre-cartridge gaming, this should also make me more of an elite, but I'm not, because I don't look down on and think myself better than other gamers, like in my experiences all elitists seem to. on top of that, RTS at a time I used to Beta test, and check its compatibility with the (at the time studied) Art of War. My current PC is being built to play PC games at high spec, even crisis.
I call myself a gamer, my friends and family call me a gamer, what do you think? (aside NERD!)
I agree, gaming started off casual. Now its a serious industry that comes under fire far to often from other scared media.
Nowadays, gamers start off casual, they are slowly drawn in, at first thinking people on WoW are sad, but as they play more, they understand more, and eventually they may end up on there themselves, I started off playing games a few hours a week, last year I peaked playing several hours a day, now I'm on a healthy amount a week, about 14, 2 hours a day on average.
This is a side note, and a testament to the fact that I played games way to much, I developed a state of mind that my doctor described as "Game mode" where many of my body functions slowed and my brain acted differently to normal, this was after a good 4 hours straight gaming, when this state was reached, reactions quickened, I was easy to anger, but generally was more placid than normal, the expression "time flies when your having fun" was predominant, hours would pass in what felt like minutes and in one very dramatic case 3 days passed with me playing a single game, Final Fantasy VIII from start to finish, with out a break except food that was brought to me and going to the toilet (I had a broken foot and was in bed, before you call me a lazy bugger for having food brought to me, I didn't take pain killers either, that was weird). Since the number of hours a week playing games have decreased I don't enter this mode anymore, last night with GTA aside.