In an ill-advised fit of extravagance I recently bought a PSP. I won't go into the reasons because they were really stupid, but suffice it to say I wanted to own as many of the current systems as possible and was too damned impatient to try and get a Wii. Yeah, and I've noticed that the DS screens really make my head hurt. Oh how I rue that decision with Brawl looming on the horizon. However, I'm sure once one is available I'll be able to con myself into coughing up more cash I don't have.

Anyway, so I bought the PSP and one of the first things I have played is the Patapon demo, which is a blast. I have known for some time that I lack rhythm and this game only reinforced that. However, I have found that I still really enjoy the thing despite sucking, sometimes horribly. I have found that being crap at a game doesn't always translate into hating it. I know the hardcore philosophy often translates into beating the crap out of every game, attaining every achievement and all that crap. Yet, that kind of sucks the fun out of the experience for me. I certainly do not identify myself as a casual gamer, that's almost an insult to me. I love gaming and it is a huge part of my life, I game every day and I keep current with sites like this one. In addition to the 360 I also own a working NES (the updated one), a yellowed with age SNES, an N64, multiple iterations of the Gameboy, and so on. So I guess all this gaming community stuff has given me a bit of a gamer identity crisis. I have always beat the snot out of all my gamer friends when we play together but likewise I have never gone online and not had the snot beaten out of me. So I guess what I'm asking is, if I don't play any game long enough to be that good, am I any less a gamer? Does playing games primarily for fun (I am not immune to beating a game because I just have to) castrate me as a gamer?