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A gamer is a person who plays interactive games, especially video games, tabletop role-playing games, and skill-based card games, and who plays for usually long periods of time. In some countries, such as the UK, the term "gaming" can also refer to legalized gambling, which can take both traditional tabletop and digital forms. There are many different gamer communities around the world. Since the advent of the internet, many communities take the form of Internet forums or YouTube/Twitch virtual communities, as well as in-person social clubs.
Identity
The identity of being a gamer is partly self-determination and partly performativity 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. Escapist founder Alexander Macris says a gamer is an enthusiast with greater dedication to games than just playing them, similar in connotation to "cinemaphile". 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.
Female gamer/gamer girl
A female gamer, or gamer girl, 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.
Professional gamer
The International (TI) is an annual Dota 2 esports tournament hosted by Valve Corporation, the game's developer. The first tournament took place in Cologne, Germany at Gamescom in 2011 and was held shortly after the public reveal of Dota 2, with a total prize pot of $1.6 million. The second International took place in 2012 at the Benaroya Hall in Seattle, and retained the same $1.6 million prize structure. For the third International in 2013, again at Benaroya Hall, Valve introduced an interactive, digital "compendium" which fans could purchase to follow the event and contribute to the prize pool; which reached a $2.8 million prize pool with $1.2 million added from compendium purchases.
The fourth International, this time held at the larger Seattle venue KeyArena in 2014, continued the practice of compendium sales and ultimately broke records for having one of the largest prize pool in esports history, with a total of nearly $11 million. The fifth International took place in 2015, with the prize pool totaling over $18 million, making it the largest esports prize pool for a single tournament until being consecutively surpassed by the sixth and seventh Internationals. The eighth International was held at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada in August 2018.
Dedication spectrum
"Hardcore gamer" redirects here. For the online gaming magazine, see Hardcore Gamer.
Warren Moon and Marshall Faulk playing a video game
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, (commonly shortened to "noob", "n00b", or "newb") is a slang term for a novice or newcomer to a certain game, or to gaming in general.
Casual gamer: The term casual gamer is 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 and Nintendogs. Casual gamer demographics vary greatly from those of other video gamers, as the typical casual gamer is older and more predominantly female. "Fitness gamer"s, who play motion-based exercise games, are also seen as casual gamers.
Core gamer: A core or mid-core gamer is 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, doesn't have time for long MMO quests, and is a target consumer. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated that they designed the Wii U 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 compares the emergence of mid-core games to similar increases in media sophistication that have occurred in media such as television.
Hardcore gamer: Ernest Adams and Scott Kim 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.
Thanks to Wikipedia: Gamer
Curiosity is the single most important attribute with which humans are born. More than a simple desire to discover or know things, curiosity is a powerful tool, like a scalpel or a searchlight. Curiosity changes us. It is also a way to effect change, perhaps even on a global level.