JOYSTIQ!!! IT BURNS MY EYES!!!



How about we just say you play video games, like we just say people play instruments, and how people play sports?

Geezer Gamer

Midlife Crisis-core

Back-In-My-Day-We-Only-Had-One-Button-And-Four-Pixels-And-It-Was-Good-Enough-For-Us Gamer

I'm not into labels. Now thats hardcore.

Just play video games. This goes for everyone reading this. Yes this is a wall of text.

Doesn't matter if you're casual or hardcore. Don't worry if games aren't 10 out of 10s or are. Don't worry about them being "art." Don't worry about release dates, "when its done." Don't complain to reviewers,developers,publishers, or anyone else they don't care what anyone says. Despite saying that they value community feedback. If you feel uncomfortable saying gamer, say you like interactive virtual experiences. If that doesn't do it for you, say you hate all reality and wish to live in the various virtual one available to everyone. Existentialist isn't the word, but it comes to mind. As does escapism.

Don't pay no attention to the man standing behind the curtain. Once you drop the curtain down, you'll see every game for its texture maps. You'll notice buffering and glitches. See the development barriers. Corners cut. Sprites or animations reused. Look deep enough and you can see parameters. Formulas. Algorithms. You'll stop enjoying the games because you'll know too much of the technical end. At the same time, you'll want to be informed. After all, you're able to read words. Why not learn something useful, like how video games work?

Just play games. I don't care if its Halo, Animal Crossing, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Madden, or any other "casual" games. Yes, those games are all mainstream. Casual. If you're playing Gaurdian Heroes, Ikaruga, Ico, Beyond Good and Evil, Braid, or any of the other games people love to talk up to look cool, just play it. Talk about if you like it, but within good reason. Yes, those games are also all mainstream. Casual. Just walk into any store, buy a copy. Purchase anything online now.

You don't pick up a controller with all the world's pressure put onto your shoulders if you don't play it? Do you? Surely wars were never won or continents shifted because some guy or gal played one game over another for a shorter or longer period of time than another? When did playing a video game save a life? I can point to examples of it destroying lives. Passion. Addiction. Obsession. Just playing too much. Game manuals used to say take the occasional break for a reason. If only to write criticisms of video game culture, take an occasional break.

Applying a label to a game itself for its genre, I see that as okay. Helps a person know what they like. Some people prefer strategic Role Playing Games to beat em ups and vice verse for all the genres you can think up and define by using your own critical thinking skills. Branding a game casual or hardcore doesn't make sense to me. Yes, Final Fantasy takes some time to complete. If you mention the name to the average person, do they not know what it is? How about Grand Theft Auto? How about Zelda? Everyone's played Zelda. How many of them complete it all the way through? With gameFAQs or the old cheat books, everyone becomes a winner. Tutorial levels can teach anyone the advanced techniques. Most games use the same license game engines. The various middleware that are in every game you play. Speedtree, gamebryo, renderware, the Unreal engine, havok, its all the same thing. Over and over. Third or first person shooter. Western or japanese RPG. Generic platformer starring an animal mascot. The same sports games every year. There is no labels if you don't use them or bring them up. Just you know the chant by now, play video games.

If you've got something informative to say about a game, I'd like to read that. I tire of these vague arguments and from now on will post this every time I see the same few video game arguments that are always on the internet.

Why bother with a term? How about we call ourselves nothing. Simply play our video games, occasionally discuss them in a civil manner. And please, with as few spelling or grammatical errors as possible. Is it really that hard?

I play a variety of games. Try to play something new as often as possibly. Sometimes I play a lot of games, sometimes I find one to play continuously. Other times, I just want to play my old ones because of how over priced and crappy by comparison the new ones are. Everyone that knows me knows me as a guy who plays video games.

Too long, didn't read.

What Randombullseye said, only less text.

See?

Labels aren't all bad, but when you apply them to yourself, you're trying to convey the message you're into something, that it is part of your identity. Sounds like you don't feel comfortable identifying publicly as a gamer -- so don't.

Holy shit Bullseye, please tell me that's a copy pasta.

You know you could have been playing a game in the time you took to write this blog.

Great article Takeshi. And Maxvest, I am very comfortable calling myself a gamer. It is part of my identity as a person. I'm not quite sure how to articulate it but I guess I feel uncomfortable when someone tries to label a demographic with something they think is clever. And this happens to be my demographic. I guess I can agree that the term gamer is all we really need.