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What Type Of Gamer Are You?
Thanks to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (via Recordonline.com) for their article trying to characterize gamers into visual stereotypes. It starts: "It used to be that if you played video games more than casually you were labeled a nerd... Nerds, as an easily identified social group, don't exist anymore.", and goes on to describe "clans of specialist gamers" such as 'Survival horror junkie' ("Think goth kid from the '80s meets skate punk... the color for this season is black, black, and more black") or 'RPG obsessive' ("Little has changed with the outward appearance of role-playing game fans since the golden age of 'Dungeons and Dragons'") Is this simply lazy/offensive pigeonholing, or can you spot certain gamers on sight alone?
How about not a gamer? For example, I'd rather get drunk or read a book than spend 36 hours envaginated in a video game...
spotting a Minesweeper/Solitare Executive Assistant is only worth 1 point
is easy - black turtle neck (skivy) babbeling something about fruit....
Second, what in the hell is going on with the description of FPS fans? The author seems to think that anyone who plays FPS games like Counterstrike or UT2k3 will become a military junkie/extreme right wing survivalist. As a fairly avid Counterstrike player and someone so far to the left Noam Chomsky would call me a pinko commie bastard, I can say decisively that this is not true. Many of my friends play FPS games, and we certainly don't obsess over guns or military jargon. While people who have an obsession with all things military in the first place are probably drawn to FPS games, people who play FPS games casually or even competitively are not going to be transformed into military killing machines. Quite simply, the author is smoking some good shit. I want some.
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
Or unemployed!
Imho, yes.
I've played "shooters" (CS, GTA:VC (which I do NOT consider a shooter), Quake2, Doom(s), Hitman, 1942...), platforms (Prince of Persia 1 & 2, ...), "arcade sims" (NFS, Comanche, Apache, Falcon 2, Aces over the Pacific, Red Baron, subs, ...), some RPGs, ...
I don't wear camo, cargo pants, or t-shirts, and my reflexes suck (I rarely do especially well at CS, but I still love it).
I haven't (yet) played paintball, although I do shoot & hunt occasionally. Never even seen a Jane's book, although I have heard about them due to the Jane's flight sims.
Sniper was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Thank god I didn't pay for it. I loved Starship Troopers though.
I don't know what a "Survival Horror" is (I've never seen any of the Resident Evil games, etc., but DoomIII looks like it will be fun, if that counts.
Basically, the author couldn't think of anything to write, so he wrote this? And he totally left out sims (no, not The Sims, although he left them out too, along with RTS's).
Nothing to see here; Move along.
I used to be a journalist. I think I'm venting something here - humor me.
-A
P.S. I bet he hates being misquoted too.
All this time, I thought I was hiding my RPG-geekness from the world, and now some guy has figured out the fact that I wear a loincloth and carry a 2-handed bastard sword actually means something!
Shh... Don't tell those guys at work about this. You know, the ones that are wearing the camo pants and carrying big guns.
Shooter enthusiast, although I don't have the characteristic gut that was mentioned in the article. I almost got one, but that is because I spent a hot summer as a software engineer. The hot part is significant because it was too hot and humid to run/bike.
From my LAN party experience, shooter enthusiasts are tall and skinny.
My vice is Battlefield 1942, but I've been on the bandwagon since Doom 2...followed by Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Unreal/UT.
It is possible for gamers to have normal lives!! My girlfriend is sitting behind me, and we're off to play some late-night pool now.
More than enough BS
consoles destroyed the nerd strangelhold on gaming. 15 years ago when you HAD to have a PC to play the GOOD GOOD high tech games, being a nerd was a prerequisite to being a serious gamer, because you had to invest a lot of money in a computer that most people had no need for AND you had to havet the expertise to run it. Once consoles caught up with PCs in terms of gaming power(which wasnt too long ago), all of that ended. Now ANYONE can pretty much play any game they can wrap their brains around. I work for a "large multimedia rental chain" and I can tell you the people coming in to rent games are NOT nerds.
I can just picture an RTS'er like myself...
Physical characteristics: The typical penny pincher, only spending their hard mined gold or vespan gas on what they really need.
Other distinguishing characteristics:You can always point them out in a crowd...because they are always pointing at other people giving commands and hot grouping those with like characteristics.
When not playing games, most likely to be: Framing their signed PGL card of Tillerman.
Least likely to be: Anything unorganized, lacking any well balanced activities, or involving people who have no idea what they are doing (newbies).
Favorite movies: Warcraft3 Replays
Dream Job: Whip cracker, Hive Mind, or any general managing position.
As you can see, I really had no idea what to put as in the case of this article...soooooo I just filled in the blanks with random crap! I should be a journalist too!
Roleplayers.
There is excitement in their eyes. They make big gestures. When walking along they seem to be in their own world, and having fun there!
Often there is a ratio of about three to one male to females. Sometimes higher, or lower.
Alcahol, and drug use is rife(pass the pipe gandalf).
Those with fair complexions become quite pale.
Hair is often long. Beards on the men can be often seen.
Gothlike clothing is quite common.
Makes jokes about taverns. Says troglodyte instead of trog. At the pub(where they go quite a bit) they can sometimes be overheard asking for a pint of strong dwarven ale.
He missed by a large degree on age range for RPG fans. This may have been written by a high school student and seeing a narrow view of the world because its not even close to what I have seen. So much for research.
Is this simply lazy/offensive pigeonholing, or can you spot certain gamers on sight alone?
I don't know if it works for all types of gamers, but I've been able to recognize friends who've gotten into Everquest by their sudden, prolonged absense. Does that count?
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
But "hard-core" survival horror players aside....
Anybody who lists Resident Evil among their favourite movies has GOT to have serious issues and an all-round hatred of life.
Either that, or they REALLY need to see more movies.
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
How many people like only one kind of gaming and have only one hobby? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Yeah, that's what I thought. This reads like it was written in the early 90s, and the "author" merely updated the names of a few games. It was narrow-minded then, and it's narrow-minded now.
There are much more genres than that
....and leave it at that.
(Fellow slashdotters, you have just read more insightful commentary on the stereotyping of gamers than anything in the article.)
Was that meant to be as rediculous a statement as it sounded?
We play the only games out : Quake 3 Wolfenstein Neverwinter Nights UT 2003 Windows XP It seems like a common trend ... Shoot people or hack people or kill hard drives.
Sigs are nice guns
So people that like horror are goths, people that like things dealing with the military are gun-toting right wing nutjobs, and sports fans are obsessed with... sports. Wow, that's some great Comedy By Numbers you've got there, Mr. Taves. Did you pull it out of a "What type of movie-goer are you?" article from 1970 or did you take a trip to the library and find a "What type of reader are you?" article from an 1880 newspaper archive?
I wish I could get a job plagiarizing the same oft-plagiarized hunk of bullshit that's been kicking around the journalism industry for longer than any of us can remember. I bet it's a really fun job, like being a taste tester at a cookie factory, or one of those jackasses that gets their name on TV by calling movies "thrill rides" or "a tour de force".
I've spent two years behind the counter, and I can't say I've met any of those people. No, not even the roleplayers. Some day everyone will cotton on to the fact that gamers are people. That's all. 99.999999% of gamers are office workers with happy partners and no social problems. And massive paycheques, from the look of it. They don't use games to make a statment about themselves; they're just having some fun.
[insert witty quote here]
I'n none of the gamers mentioned in the article. I do, however, spend quite a lot of time playing adventure games. After a few years in coma, it seems like this genre is coming 'round again, fortunately for me and lots of others. Yesterday I learned that Jane Jensen (the author of the fantastic Gabriel Knight series) is making an adventure game for The Adventure Company. And there's a new Tex Murphy adventure in the works too. Check The Unofficial Tex Murphy Website for details.
-- Cheers!
If you look up Mr Taves at the Seattle PI you'd find he's actually the video game columnist. And I have to add one thing, the article did a bad job of quoting the article.
If you go to the article (which can be found here you will see that there is one additional line to the article. And I quote: "Scott Taves is a lifelong nerd who favors shooters and survival horror games."
I don't think the article was meant to be taken at face value... (but if you search his other articles, he does pick Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness as a hot pick) but I think the ommission of that last line from the article on the website linked above does leave out something interesting and insightful.
Just for the record, since the PI is my local large market newspaper (even though I'm 150 miles away), and my favorite of the two Seattle papers, I am writing a letter to the editor (by email of course) pointing out the backlash this article has created in the gaming community (as well as mentioning seeing if putting slashdot in the newspaper has a slashdot type effect). I'll let you know if it gets printed
yis et was
For those that don't get it, I'll spell it out: the entire article is a troll. It's not meant to be taken that seriously. It's just there to try to get a rise out of you. Happens all the time. The author wasn't actually trying to pigeonhole anyone...instead, it was just something fun, using common stereotypes...which, as we all know, are only sometimes true. It's like saying gay people are flamboyant. Maybe some of them are, but saying that doesn't mean they all are...it just means that often, the hard-hard-hardcore ones are. Yeehaw. Anyhow, like I said, the article was a troll, and apparently, it worked. Kudos to the author. I rate the article a +5, Funny/Troll. :)
-G
Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
FPS gamers who play games like Counterstrike, Quake series, Unreal and others can be identified easily. Look around for thin tall bodies with loose skeletal structures with jeans and T-shirts. Most often they come with long hair too. They all are slightly hunch-backed and can never sit straight in a chair. They've thin hyperactive arms and move the mouse around with the thumb and ring-finger only.
The RPG types are generally heavier in build, mostly with fat, and lean too close to the monitor. Not as impulsive as the FPS types, they seem to be too careful with their choice of keypresses. They can also be more emotionally expressive and when you talk to them, sound a little 'younger' in the head. This is compared to the FPS types who act a little autistic and avoid conversation altogether.
Then there are the 'jolly' gamers who play sim online, railroad tycoon etc. They are the most social of all and go on almost as if their listeners are as excited about their gameplay as they are. They also seem to grow up to become 'hairdressers' if you know what I mean.
Legacy gamers are people stuck in time. They cannot fathom replacing their SNES and Genesis game ROMS with Halflife2 and Doom3. They're generally slightly older and lazier types, laid back in the chair, swinging it sideways as if nothing exciting is happening on the screen, while they finish off their Sonic2 game the 127th time. They also come with small parchments scribbled with cheat codes, and fatality/babality and other codes for mortal kombat and street fighter. Hate to say it but they're the stinkiest of the group.
Theres another group I cant quite find a word for. The high-schoolers? These are the ones who live on the edge, visiting game stores and all. They dress like highscoolers trying to dress hip, have small social groups many of whom wear Napster shirts. They use all the latest P2P software simultaneously downloading the latest movies and games. Most of them have Playstation2s at home and the latest ATI video card in the computer, and are saving up for Doom3, HL2, GTA4.
Last but not the least, there is the professional white-collar team who cannot be recognised as gamers. They dont look or act like they play games. They carry suitcases, are well-dressed, heck might even have relationships. But in their cubicles, they become the all-reigning masters of snood and tetris!
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Console Platformer
Profile: Snot nosed kid with a short attention span (aka Troll).
PC RPGer
Profile: Teens to 30s, socially retarded, Nerd incarnate. Despises console RPGer with a passion. Attends medieval festivals.
Console RPGer
Profile: Teens to early 20s, Anime geek. If not actively involved in cosplay then actively fantasizes about cosplay. Will loose interest in games after he kisses a girl for the first time.
RTSer
Profile: any age, clean cut, anal retentive fascist. Favorite Star Wars character, Darth Vader. Enjoys destroying every last farm and peasant in his virtual world.
Microsoft Solitaire Player (or Minesweeper)
Profile: 40+, bearded, burnt out Unix or mainframe programmer. Company he works/worked for went client server and plays simple games to keep from going postal.
People who play fighting games are Asian? They should've just gotten it all over with and said that up front.
Is it just me or are all these articles written to categorize gamers really insulting? Perhaps it is because the authors really don't know that much about gaming in the first place?
Nerds, as an easily identified social group, don't exist anymore
/. I present to you evidence to the contrary - Me.
QED
Lad- err, Gentlemen of
What a complete and utter bunch of monkey horse shit. Dumb fuck.
I don't know if this has happened in other parts of the world, but here in Germany a couple of years ago a simple game called "Moorhuhn" started a real craze. The objective was to move the cursor with the mouse and shoot down birds. You know, the quick and simple game that gets you hooked for a long time.
It was downloadable for free from the internet (not anymore) and was played by almost everyone to an extend where severe productivity losses occured since many people played it at work.
So, the type of person to play such games (I guess Minesweeper would be similar) is "Everyone" - how do you categorize this?
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
"Is this simply lazy/offensive pigeonholing"
Yes. "or can you spot certain gamers on sight alone?"
Maybe, but the people I know, who play games, look nothing like any stereotypes.
Obviously everyone is different, trends occur but they are NEVER the RULE.
That i like FPSs, the shirt with a tent that says "camper" or the "I see fragged people" shirt is a dead give away. That and me and my freinds can be over heard chatting about "juicy gibbs".
That and you can hear me screaming "OMG you fsking CAMPER!" from my room between 1000db flack bursts.
And you can tell that I am a RPGer since I hum the Final Fantasy win theme after aceing a test.
Wearing my geekyness on my sleeve...
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
I'm totally a fan of RPG's. To me they're the best types of games. Now I know it's ok too run around outside with a sword, trying to mimic great RPG charcters. When I'm not playing games I'm reading about them, or running around the house with a old lightsaber. I think I'm pretty much a big RPG gamer. My favorite RPG would have to be the Zelda series, (mostly WindWaker). :)
Once, I was standing in the game store talking to the clerk when nobody was around. In came a big stereotypical biker dude -- leather vest, chain wallet, big bushy beard, do-rag, the whole nine yards. He comes up to the counter, and the clerk says "Can I help you?"
In a gruff voice, the guy says "Yeah. I heard that Animal Crossing came in today. Can I pick one of those up?"
I asked. I HAD to. It was for him.
Not to beat his article to death point by point, I will just take about the Sport Gamer. The author states that Sports gamer is least likely to actually play any sports. It seems that very recently, the LA Times did an article about all the Madden fans the NFL has. One guy in particular plays on average 6 hours a day during the season, and 8 or more during the off season. NFl players even have tournaments that end superbowl week.
Of course, this article could have just been a lame troll.
(not that lame since it got me... lol)
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable" - JFK
Considering the number of special operations guys I know & work with who are PS2 addicts I'd say that spotting a video game addict on sight due to some 'average appearance' is impossible. Everyone is a geek on Sunday night when they are alone with the cold leftover pizza slices and the PS2. Appearance when walking down the street on Monday morning has nothing to do with how often you vegetate with the assistance of video games.
What a joke.
I know quite a few females that would argue strenously against that position. Quite a few *hot* females.
Maybe it's journalists that don't go on dates anymore?
skye
Since I like RPGs and shoot-em-ups. I should have long hair...rings around my eyes...and camo pants and talk military style.
Also I have no chance of going on a date with "a real live girl" (maybe a dead one) or take long walks, yoga or help old ppl.
Um... well, after hearing a second or two of music from just about any Japanese adventure/RPG, I can usually rattle off the composer and the game it came from.
Other than that, the only trait my gaming friends and I share is the propensity for calling each other by profane and sometimes blasphemous epithets. What category are we?