The Gamer Label

Whenever I come across the term “gamer”, I picture a skinny male with glasses, pale skin illuminated by the glare of the computer screen and fingers pounding repeatedly on selected keys of the keyboard. It’s such a negative stereotype that few want to be associated with it. Yet, many of my friends who don’t fit into that picture can be considered gamers considering the time and money they spend on video games and how deficient I, as a non-gamer, feel when I play against them. Being a person who doesn’t own any consoles, I don’t play video games on a regular basis. Also, knowing the addictive nature of video games, I absolutely refuse to be sucked into building imaginary farms or restaurants that are hugely popular among friends on Facebook.

What amuses me is that some gamers are so serious into their video games is that they are willing to spend actual money to buy items used in games. In Asia, there are people who use money to buy items used in the game World of Warcraft and the Facebook game Farmville. It really shows how important the virtual world of the game space is to some people and the commercial potential of video games.

Whilst there are indeed gamers who yield to the stereotypical nature of a gamer, they are not as prevalent as one may think. With the popularity of the Wii console, watching adults play the Wii has become a funny secondary entertainment to playing the games themselves. It seems that nowadays, gamers are not just the stereotype of anti social young males but includes a large demographic of the society. The creation of machinema and game mods also show that there are gamers who have great talent, creativity, a sense of humour and who are inspired by existing video games to create something new or improve them.