I consider myself to be a video game enthusiast, I pretty hardcore one. I can be classified as a collector as I have tons of games and old systems. I figure myself as a sort of playing expert as I can handle my own in almost any type of genre and rarely does a video game challenge stop me. I am also a news junkie, I like to keep tabs on everything that is happening in this industry, not just general news but how the gaming community is reacting.
The following of the industry is where I feel I stand out from most of the hoards of game players. Obviously all of us here follow the industry in the same way but out in the real world, it is not like that at all. Some of the stuff that you over here in lines to pick up games is so wrong, so out of date. I love knowing everything that is happening and I love how this community reacts to news, often with hilarious gifs. There are celebrity news junkies, movie afficionados, crazed sports fans, me its with video games. Now I do mostly focus on just console gaming so I don't feel the same way with PC gaming.
I do feel like I am always the most knowledgable when it comes to video games in any real life situation until proven other wise. Basically if I am in a conversation with someone about video games I throw a few things out to see where they are at in the whole gaming knowledge spectrum, I can tell pretty quick how much they know and I adjust my responses accordingly.
I am not the most skilled gamer when it comes to any one genre, almost all my friends are better than me at FPSs. And that is fine by me, I rather be a jack of all trades and a master of none when it comes to gaming. I want to play as much as possible, as many different games as I can get my hands on. Online gaming is fun but not my focus, I will always enjoy a good single player campaign more. I know the average gamer is moving more and more toward online gaming and at times it makes me feel like an outsider when it comes to the so called casual crowd. I rather play Rayman and CoD, to most of my friends that is probably super weird, oh well.
Here though we are all like that, its why I like game forums so much, you guys are like me, you see gaming the way I do and I love that.
Pretty chronic. I consume as much information about games as I can. Books, magazines, podcasts and whatever else. If I am not working or sleeping I am usually doing something gaming related.
I try to beat as many games as I can and avoid endless games because they rob me of more varied experiences.
I'm definately a loner gaming-wise. It takes too much effort to schedule an online game. And unless it is co-op it doesn't count toward beating a game.
I co-host a gaming podcast that takes up about 6 hours of my time each week -- that's a substantial commitment of time in addition to the amount of time I spend reading about games and playing them.
In terms of the games I play, I guess I play everything other than endless games and strategy games. Everything else I can find something worth examining or enjoying.
I recommend reading the Red and Yellow part at the top of this Topic, then immediately "Hiding" other's main entries until you are done with yours. I want to see how different and how much the same we all are when it comes to a topic like this!
In case you haven't noticed, I almost enjoy WRITING about games, gaming and the whole community more than playing games themselves! 
Gaming is all about fun for me. Gaming is like becoming a kid again, and discovering new things, places and characters. Gaming is usually best when it doesn't take itself too seriously, as that allows for much more freedom than what we would find in the real world. It doesn't matter if a game has cartoon or realistic graphics, just as long as it's fun to play, I will likely play it. Simplier games do fit me best, though, since I just want to sit back, relax and have some fun. I'll play anything from Space Invaders to Gran Turismo 5. Fun is the key.
I don't know. Maybe this would be easier if I did read other people's posts?
Despite what people might presume, I don't think I've ever played a game that I didn't derive some form of enjoyment from. The thing I enjoy about videogames is that they're a new medium of entertainment, which means that cultural expression is much rawer, and more experimentation goes on that isn't just experimentation for the sake of experimentation. If you think games have become boring, formulaic imitations of one another (which they have by comparison only to themselves) go and watch almost any film made since the '70s, or any book written from the previous century onwards, etc. etc. The rawness of popular music is, with a few exceptions, raw horseshit. So it doesn't have the same appeal. Yes, in general these old, established mediums have seen some progression since the 1990s, but that progression has been into a formless, craft-less mass of crap as irrelevant and pointless as modern classical music.
So the best thing videogames have going for them is that they're not shit yet?
So, what you are saying is: You are the type of gamer that will get at least some entertainment from --ANY-- game you play because they are --ALL-- relatively unique ideas compared to the other mediums out there?
If you feel you've described the type of gamer you are sufficiently enough, go ahead and read the others, if you want!
phantom_leo said:So, what you are saying is: You are the type of gamer that will get at least some entertainment from --ANY-- game you play because they are --ALL-- relatively unique ideas compared to the other mediums out there?
I would say I can gain some enjoyment from any videogame due to them containing more aspects than other mediums, so each aspect can therefore be of a lower quality than in other mediums and still contribute something, and interactivity also allows me to manipulate the experience into something enjoyable in the same way that one can make a terrible film fun by making fun of it, but more directly. For example: I can make bad visuals good with camera control.
But the unique thing (while it lasts) that I enjoy about gaming when compared to other mediums is the rawness, which isn't necessarily the reason in and of itself that I can enjoy games more easily than other forms of entertainment.
Without reading anyone else's replies:
I'm the kind of gamer who reads up more on games then he plays them. I've only ever owned Nintendo consoles, since I care for their first party software, but not for guns and can only invest so much time in my hobby. It'd be insane to go full-out multplat if take into account that I have a backlog and only manage to game for a couple hours a week. On the other hand I find it easy to keep on top of the news and find this to be a very interesting industry.
I don't enjoy online gaming, unless it's with friends, because, as mentionned before, I can't commit enough to games these days to not have my ass handed to me online. The only exception to this might be arcade racers, or stuff like Mario Kart, since I seem to be rather good at those. Rather, I'd gather around some friends and play local split-screen multiplayer for longer then grown-ups should.
As for genre's, I'll try anything that seems to try something new, or is of exceptional quality (and is available on a Nintendo console, or more recently, steam) and if I can manage to the time for it. triple A games with huge marketting budgets don't do much for me though, and I usually skip those. They also usually have a large amount of guns in them, which I already stated I'm not too fond of. I find it hard to resist a good arcade racer, although I can't stand NFS.
So all in all I end up not playing the games most of you do, leaving me with little to discuss online. Do I not see the appeal of exclusives on other consoles (or series that just refuse to come to a Nintendo home console)? Sure I do. I've been sitting on the fence in regards to buying an X360, or later a PS3, ever since this gen started. But I can't justify spending €250 on a console just to play a handfull of games, of which history has pointed out that most will appear on Steam at one point or another anyway.
I've been playing online with a good friend of mine once a week for maybe 3 years now, and it shows that we're both different gamers. I'm not too big on micro-management and planning. I just jump into the fray and have at it, while he'll put a lot of thought into his loadout, and keep a safe distance while picking off targets. And that sums it up nicely. I'm a guy who likes to 'play'. I don't want to sit through endless menu's or cut-scenes. I want to stomp goomba's, shave seconds off my time to get the best medals, and want to kill bullymong's by punching them in the face. Most of all, I want to be smiling while I'm gaming.
I buy most games near to their launch and at full price. Because I only buy games I really am looking forward to... Sure, I'll dive into the bargain bin every so often, but I have noticed that the amount of time I'm willing to stick with a game is proportionate to how much I've spent on it. I still haven't bought W101, but I know I won't wait untill I can find it for €15, because if I do, I'll never get past the opening missions.
I'll go read some of the other replies now, and possibly edit stuff in later.
Reading the replies so far, it seems that we're a pretty homogenous group. bOring!
phantom_leo said:If you feel you've described the type of gamer you are sufficiently enough, go ahead and read the others, if you want!
So how are we supposed to read your advice, while following up on your innitial advice to not read replies?
Foolz said:But the unique thing (while it lasts) that I enjoy about gaming when compared to other mediums is the rawness, which isn't necessarily the reason in and of itself that I can enjoy games more easily than other forms of entertainment.
I think that this is something that we're losing at a high rate. Games are headed in the same direction as movies and music. Mainstream big budget, but low risk, productions, and an alternative scene that is more willing to take risks, or to portray the vision of one individual.
By risk of misinterpreting what Foolz means by rawness:
I wonder how younger gamers think of this. Do they care for rawness? We acknowledge it as part of gaming because we grew up with games that were very rough around the edges. Will younger gamers, who grew up with Fifa and CoD, put up with inferior graphics and abstract concepts like we do?
As games take a huge amount of time and effort to create, we're used to some rawness. In film it's easier. You shoot a film of a guy, and that guy looks just as you'd expect. No uncanny valley, no weird shadowing. In music it's easier because you're only aiming at one sense. Gaming is so much more complex, or at least, it can be.
I think a big draw of gaming is also that it is an active passtime. I don't really like the term 'interactive'. You can't truely interact with a computer program. at best it's asynchronous interactivity, with you interacting with what the developer created. However, it is active. If you don't budge, the game doesn't either. I grew up in a house of couch potato's, and the fact that I was just not sitting there in some near-vegetative state, was a big draw. But to say that gaming is the only active passtime is wrong in my opinion. Reading is just as active, albeit in another sense. In gaming, you decide what happens, sometimes in what order. With reading, the journey is set in stone, but what you see is up to you. It's for this reason that I refuse to watch the HBO adaption of a Song of Fire and Ice. It'd ruin the upcomming books for me.
I think the best thing that describes me these days is a non-violent gamer. I can't watch the news or listen to unpleasant stories on the radio just because they're a little too disturbing, so as a general rule I try to stay away from those kinds of games as well.
I've never been a fan of FPS or anything with an element of realistic violence like the GTA games. That's not to say I never play anything violent, but generally it's very over-the-top and ridiculous in nature like MadWorld or Bulletstorm. Keep in mind I do make a distinction between violence and action. I don't necessarily consider fighting games to be violent, though they can be. Street Fighter isn't violent persay. Mortal Kombat is. Swinging a sword around to eliminate a monster like you do in Zelda or Rune Factory isn't necessarily violent. So perhaps I'd be better off say non-gratiutious violence?
At any rate those exceptions don't define me as much as the games I usually play and enjoy. Right now, what have I been playing? Hometown Story - a game where you run a shop and talk to other people in a village to make their wishes come true. I'm more likely to play a game like that or Harvest Moon that utilizes strategy and emphasizes communication (though I still don't get Animal Crossing), adventure/mystery games like Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk, or puzzle games like Professor Layton or Tetris. And if I need a little more action than those games provide, jRPGs like Persona and Dragon Quest are great as are select 2-D fighters like the aforementioned Street Fighter.
robio said:(though I still don't get Animal Crossing)
Hmm, I used to "get:" Animal Crossing, and loved it. Wild World especially., but not so much anymore. City Folk and New Leaf felt like work, boring, tedious work. 
I must say, I didn't know that about you, Rob. Anyone learn anything else about anyone else in this topic that was unexpected?
Ravenprose said:Hmm, I used to "get:" Animal Crossing, and loved it. Wild World especially., but not so much anymore. City Folk and New Leaf felt like work, boring, tedious work.
I really wanted to like Animal Crossing. It was the first game I bought after I got a GameCube, but for the life of me I just couldn't figure out what I was supposed to get out of the game. I thought at first maybe it was just maybe the setting, but years later I tried London Life from the Professor Layton game, and it didn't make a difference. Living my life in a video game without a clear goal just doesn't appeal to me.
phantom_leo said:I must say, I didn't know that about you, Rob. Anyone learn anything else about anyone else in this topic that was unexpected?
Yeah it's something that sort of clicked with me a few years ago. At first I thought it was just due to me having kids and not wanting to play those kinds of things around them, but looking back on it, it's always been a subconscious philosophy I guess. In college I was playing Harvest Moon, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Street Fighter, and Mario Party and stayed away from most shooters and more violent fare that was coming out for the Playstation and PCs. Quake was the one exception, though that's because my roommate always played it and had a network to play on against guys at a rival college.
robio said:I really wanted to like Animal Crossing. It was the first game I bought after I got a GameCube, but for the life of me I just couldn't figure out what I was supposed to get out of the game. I thought at first maybe it was just maybe the setting, but years later I tried London Life from the Professor Layton game, and it didn't make a difference. Living my life in a video game without a clear goal just doesn't appeal to me.
I had a clear goal in Wild World: Collect everything. And I do mean everything. I think the primary thing that killed AC for me was that with each new game, you must to start over from scratch. Also, I realized that it was impossible to get everything in the game.
WARNING! DO NOT READ OTHER'S ENTRIES --BEFORE--
COMPOSING YOUR OWN! I WANT TO SEE HOW --YOU-- FEEL.
THIS WON'T BE AS CLEAR IF YOU HAVE EVERYONE ELSE'S
IDEAS FLOATING AROUND IN YOUR HEAD!
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**There's no structure to this. This is not a test. The answers will not be held against you --HOWEVER-- if you say you are the kind of gamer that loves FPS and all you play are JRPGs, it's fine if someone wants to bring that to your attention.
I am not asking if you are old-school, casual or hardcore; I am asking what you think about when you call yourself a gamer. Try to avoid pre-conceived terminology, talk about your behaviors or observations instead. That being said:**
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I am the kind of gamer that likes to look at the hobby as a whole. I pay attention to the Industry trends. I pay attention to how the whole sub-culture of gamers act towards one another. I like to build community when it comes to gaming. I believe in life you need to know where you've been to know where you are going and it's the same when it comes to games. I noticed on my PSN profile that I put up years ago, I referred to myself as a "Gaming Historian" and I believe that is accurate. If I haven't experienced a game first hand, chances are I'll still know something about it. When people ask me: "What types of games do you play?" I answer: "If it's not Sports or Racing, assume I've played it!"
Going with whole "know where you've been" and "played everything" philosophy, of course I am into Retro games. In the past I was into platformers primarily, side-scrolling or 2D space shooters and JRPGs mostly after that. Back in my younger days, I tended to gravitate more towards not so much family friendly games, but games that were less violent, more heroic, more colorful and happy than edgy, gory or peer pressured into being popular. I was known as that "Sega" guy on my school campus, but I was a Nintendo fan at heart.
I was never much of a PC gamer, but I did play a tiny bit of Ultima back in the day and Rogue-likes before "Rogue" was even a "thing." Consoles have always been and will always be my forte.
As the years went on and trends came and went, my tastes began to polarize. I will always love the games that started all the trends, series and genres. The NES is my console equivalent of my "first love" and I'll always look back on it fondly with no regrets. I love and adore the simplicity of the games back then. They are the kinds of things you want to play when you want to PLAY and not think too much about what you are doing. They are more instinctual, reflexive and pure fun than cerebral, thought-provoking and complex. There's only so many Bubsy's & Aero the Acrobats you can play, butt-bounces you can pull off or three-shot kill bosses you can fight. There's only so many Atomic Kids, Truxtons, or Air Divers you can fly through. There's only so many times you could choose Attack, Magic, Item or Defend... BEFORE you start to wish for "Something new Under the Sun."
Street Fighter was the best of both worlds. It was simply a One on One Fighter, but it introduced a complexity in it's gameplay that was barely seen before. I was hooked! ...BUT this is where everything started to change for me. I still revered my simple games, but I also started my Never-Ending Quest for those games that were Off-Kiltered, Stood Apart from the Crowd, had Unique Gameplay Elements or Weren't Afraid to try Something New! It's why I still play a little bit of EVERYTHING. It's the games like --THAT-- that Inspire my Passion or incite my Official Topics. Let's just say, you'll know 'em when you see 'em!
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It's hard to not talk about genres when you are talking about the kind of Gamer you are because they are what make up the Hobby that makes up the Gamer. I'll cover a few of them briefly, but I don't want to go into too much depth.
FPS are a strange lot for me; at their heart they are the simplest game out there: Point and Fire. There's hardly much variation in there; it's the competitive nature that sometimes turns me on and mostly turns me off. Goldeneye, with it's introduction of body specific damage on consoles, unique play control and close-quarters competitive play, will always be the one that defined the genre for me. Everything is measured against IT and, even today, it has ruined most FPS that came after!
JRPGs are kinda like the relative that waaay, waaay overstayed their welcome. They hardly evolved until WRPGs came onto the scene more strongly and by the time Japan realized what they were doing "wrong" it was already too late. Do gamers want "Attack, Magic, Item or Defend" with a story-line --OR-- do they want the complete and utter open world freedom to choose who they are, whether they save or damn the world, what skills they possess and what they look like with bare-bones hints at a plot? There's a part of me that misses the Drama of Final Fantasy; there's a part of me that loves running into the woods looking for ore to craft my shield, running into a huge Dragon and fighting it in an epic battle, then coming across an unexplored cave with thousands upon thousands of gold piece silverware to loot! The day someone manages to marry the drama of a Japanese story into the Open World of an Elder Scrolls game, is the day I become a Role Playing Gamer again!
That being said, and being the dichotomous gamer I am, I'd rather be the "Hero" in a moody Japanese JRPG than an Anti-Hero Bad-Ass in a Western game any day! It's just the kind of guy I am. I'm almost --NEVER-- into being the villian, unless it's done in a funny or clever way like Dungeon Keeper!
There's a handful of Genres that never get old for me: There's the ones dubbed "Metroid-Vanias" though Metroid and Super will always be the ones I hold most dearly. Symphony of the Night was a masterpiece, so I'll tolerate the name --DESPITE-- the genre being birthed by Samus! I'll always love my "Loot" games: Console Baldur's Gate or Norrath games; Phantasy Star Online GameCube is STILL one of my most played games and the scant Diablos I have played, are --ALL-- my cup of tea!
The "Rogue-Like" games have aways been and will always be some of my favorite types. The combination of Loot Items, Character Building and Randomness of Dungeons... The allure of --NOT KNOWING-- what's coming next and always being at the risk of Dying and Losing Everything --VERY-- few games do this well. I would count the Demon and Dark Soul's games among these despite their set world structures --JUST-- because they always keep you on your toes and at the edge of your seat!
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...yet, I haven't finished Demons or Dark Souls, and I probably won't. As a gamer, I run very Hot and Cold as to how Easy or Hard I want a game to be. A lot of games, I will leave at the Default difficulty. For some reason, Gears of War I crank up to Hardcore, most FPS too. Action RPG's as well. Games that have Adaptive Difficulty or Artificial Intelligence, that adjust the game to how well or how poorly you are playing... I LOVE THOSE! You hardly ever see them, really, probably due to the time and cost of programming something like that, but, again, Thanks to the NES, the shooter Zanac still holds a place in my favorite games of all time just for the simple fact it does exactly that! I --NEVER-- play a game on "Easy!"
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People often say: "If you are into challenge, play more Online games against HUMAN opponents!" I have a problem with this. One: At my heart and soul I am --NOT-- Competitive. Two: Artificial Intelligence is adaptive, a lot of the time People are NOT! They'll do the same things again and again and again trying to beat someone else. I find GOOD artificial intelligence much more intriguing and challenging than most human players. I find most Online play BORING.
I DO NOT like Trash-Talking. I do not like Online gamer GROUP mentality. If I play a game online versus someone COOL, I don't mind LOSING! As a matter of fact, I find I have more fun when I am losing than winning! Losing only inspires me to be a better gamer. Winning, after a while, gets to be BORING!
I would --MUCH RATHER-- play a good COOPERATIVE ONLINE game than Competitive! The many hours I spent with Travo and others playing games like Borderlands 2... Some of the most memorable gaming I've done in the last decade!
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When I talk the way I am doing in this topic in Real Life, people look at me and say: "Your game collection must be immense!" Nope. Not in the least. I am not a collector. I have never been a collector. I will never be a collector. As a Historian, you can love talking about the past. You can study it. You can appreciate it. You just can't cling to it. This industry is always about innovation, growth and change. I find it's hard to focus on that aspect of the hobby when half your mind is devoted to clearing a tremendous backlog. Playing a game is all about the Experience for me. Seeing what it has to offer, appreciating its Nuances, hopefully seeing it from the Beginning to its End. Finishing a game is less important to me than just having FUN with it. I don't know what determines internally for me the time I'll devote to a game, but once it's time has passed, Finished or Not, more often than not, it's traded in and the I've moved on to the next one! Although I've played, owned and completed A LOT of games in my lifetime, when I talk about the sheer numbers, it's not to boast, it's more to tell someone: "Yeah. I'm a very, very EXPERIENCED gamer!"
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