Gamer

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Historically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames.^{[citation needed]} More recently, the term has grown to include players of video games. While the term nominally includes those who do not necessarily consider themselves to be gamers (i.e., casual gamers),^[1] it is commonly used to identify those who spend much of their leisure time playing or learning about games.

There are many gamer communities around the world. Many of these take the form of web rings, discussion forums and other virtual communities, as well as college or university social clubs. Stores specializing in games often serve as a meeting place to organize groups of players^{[citation needed]}. Prior to the emergence of the Internet, many play-by-mail games developed communities resembling those surrounding today's online games^{[citation needed]}.

In October 2006, the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) was established as the first non-profit membership organization formed to represent American computer and video game consumers. The ECA was formed, in part, in response to the seemingly imbalanced representation of the games industry (e.g., the ESA, IGDA and others) in comparison to game consumers in the United States Congress.^[1]

Contents 1 Types of gamers 1.1 Types of video gamers 1.1.1 Casual gamer 1.1.2 Hardcore gamer 1.1.3 Pro gamer 1.1.4 Newbie 1.1.5 Import gamer 1.1.6 Retrogamer 1.1.7 Girl gamer 2 Avatar 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Types of gamers

• Video gamer: A person who enjoys playing video games.
• Table gamer: A person who enjoys playing tabletop games. This term is often used to refer to gamers who play miniature wargames, but it could also refer to players of board games, card games, or roleplaying games. Those who specialize in military table top simulations of the Avalon Hill/SPI variety are sometimes referred to as grognards, from the term for French Napoleonic soldiers.

[edit] Types of video gamers

In the United States, the average video game player is 35 and has been playing video games for over 12 years.^[2] In the UK, the average video game player is over 23 years old, has played video games for over 10 years, and spends around 12.6 hours a week playing video games.^[3] The term "video gamer" is composed of several subgroups of gamers.

[edit] Casual gamer

A casual gamer is a player whose time or interest in playing games is limited. Casual gamers tend to play games designed for ease of gameplay and don't spend much time playing more involved games. The genres that casual gamers play vary, and they might not own a specific video game console to play their games.^[4][5] Casual gaming demographics vary greatly from those of traditional computer games, as the typical casual gamer is older and more predominantly female.^[6] One casual gamer subset is the "fitness gamer", who plays motion-based exercise games.^[7]

[edit] Hardcore gamer

Hardcore gamers prefer to take significant time and practice on games, and tend to play more involved games that require larger amounts of time to complete or master. Hardcore gamers may take part in Video game culture. Competition is another defining characteristic of hardcore gamers, who often compete in organized tournaments, leagues, or ranked play integrated into the game proper. There are many subtypes of hardcore gamers based on the style of game, gameplay preference, hardware platform, and other preferences.

[edit] Pro gamer

Professional gamers play video games for money.^[8] Whether a professional gamer is a subtype of the hardcore gamer largely depends on the degree to which a professional gamer is financially dependent upon the income derived from gaming. So far as a professional gamer is financially dependent upon gaming, the time spent playing is no longer "leisure" time. In countries of Asia, particularly South Korea and Japan, professional gamers are sponsored by large companies and can earn more than $100,000USD a year, in addition to the following that some obtain.^[9] In the United States, Major League Gaming has contracted Electronic Sports Gamers with $250,000USD yearly deals.^[10]

[edit] Newbie

Newbie is a slang term for a novice or newcomer to a certain game, or to gaming in general.^[11][12] It can have derogatory connotations, but is also often used for descriptive purposes only, without a value judgment. Two derived terms are "newb", a beginner who is willing to learn; and "noob", a derogatory name (an alternate spelling for noob is n00b).

[edit] Import gamer

Import gamers enjoy playing or collecting video games produced internationally. The most common imports are from Japan, although some European and Japanese gamers purchase games from North America. Depending on the gaming platform involved, these gamers may use devices such as modchips, boot disks, and/or Gamesharks to bypass regional lockout protection on the software, though some prefer to purchase imported consoles. A number of these gamers import games that fall into genres generally not released outside of Japan, such as dating sims or anime/manga-based licensed games.

[edit] Retrogamer

A retrogamer is a gamer preferring playing and collecting retro games - older computer, video, and arcade games. The term retrogamer is used mostly in the United Kingdom and Europe, while the terms classic gamer, or old-school gamer are more prevalent in the United States. The games are played either on the original hardware, on modern hardware via console emulation, or on modern hardware via ports or compilations.^[13] Some retrogamers are in the business of refurbishing old games, particularly arcade cabinets. Some even make their own arcade cabinets.

[edit] Girl gamer

A girl gamer 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 now comprise 34% of all gamers. Also, the percentage of women now playing online has risen to 43%, up 4% from 2004. The same study shows that 48% of game purchasers are female.^[14]

[edit] Avatar

An avatar, username, game name, alias, gamer tag, screen name, or handle is a name (usually a pseudonym) adopted by a video gamer, used as a main preferred identification to the gaming community. Usage of user names is most prevalent in games with online multiplayer support, or at electronic sport conventions.^{[citation needed]}

Similarly, a clan tag is a prefix or suffix added to a name to identify that the gamer is in a clan. Clans are generally a group of gamers who play together as a team against other clans. They are most commonly found in online multi-player games in which one team can face off against another. Clans can also be formed to create loosely based affiliations perhaps by all being fans of the same game or merely gamers who have close personal ties to each other. A team tag is a prefix or suffix added to a name to identify that the gamer is in a team. Teams are generally sub-divisions within the same clan and are regarded within gaming circuits as being a purely competitive affiliation. These gamers are usually in an online league such as the Cyberathlete Amateur League (C.A.L.) and their parent company the Cyberathlete Professional League (C.P.L.) where all grouped players were labeled as teams and not clans.

[edit] See also

• Consumer
• List of gaming topics
• Gamers Outreach Foundation
• Entertainment Consumers Association
• Player (game)
• Video game addiction

[edit] References