As a Gamer...

So I like games

If you have been following me at all, or if you know me at all, you will know that I love games. 

If you don't know what this is then shame on you...

Video games that is. 

They are one of the greatest forms of joy that I have in my life and I spend a great amount of time most days sitting on arse playing games. 

I have bonded with several friends over games, and whilst playing games. 

I have a lot of close friends who play games and declare themselves gamers. 

But what does 'gamer' mean? 

Well. It means that...

Typing 'gamer' into google...seriously?

Hmm....

What does it mean? 

Ultimately, most people perceive it to be a person who plays games for a hobby. But as with most labels that people receive (such as emo, gay, lesbian etc.) it is simply a term used to consolidate all of us into one single easy to market to category. 

The label is simply 'that guy who lives at home with his parents' or 'the guy who is addicted to Wow' (World of Warcraft for any scrubs reading this :P). 

But the more that I think about this definition, the less sense it makes to me. 

I mean, if you really think about it it, how many people do you know who play games? And I'm not just talking about people who like to play Call of Duty, I'm also talking about people who have Angry Birds, Temple Run or any other such game. 

I would imagine that that is quite a lot of people. 

So, even though gaming is becoming more and more popular every year thanks to the advent of 'casual gaming' as it is called, the media and politicians and people who don't play games are continuing to brand us as a single demographic. Even though we are as diverse as any other community of people. 

There are the casual crowd as I mentioned before, but there are also the E-Sports fans, the Hardcore fans and the people who enjoy Call of Duty every now and then, and so on and so forth. 

The reason that we are branded as 'gamers' and why we are marketed to as one group of people, rather than the multi-faceted community that we are is because gaming hasn't become a global form of media, such as Film or Music or TV. 

But we are getting there. 

Call of Duty BLOPS 2. That is a good name.

Games are becoming more and more popular (thanks to the iPhone) and the gaming industry is getting more and more respect and interest from the outside world. 

I mean, in one of my lectures is about the games industry! 

That's pretty goddamn awesome. 

I really am looking forward to that, and I get to give a presentation about it as well. 

I might put that online in case you guys want to see it. 

However....

I say that the media tends to group us into one large group of people, but because it sees us as that we are generally viewed as a negative thing. You know what I'm talking about, there are some people in our community who are loud, offensive and constantly insult people who they have most likely never met and never will. You know what I'm talking about; it's either the 12 year old shouting abuse on COD, or it's the solo ranked queue troll on Lol (League of Legends). 

We seriously need to get rid of these people if we want to be taken seriously as an art form, or as a separate community with it's own rules and icons. 

Because right now, 'gamers' are being seen as immature abusive and irresponsible twats who spend too much time of their lives online and not outside. 

Just speaking for me, I would like to see this definition of 'gamer' changed. 

Who else is with me? 

See you guys later, 

Jamie.