I see the title everywhere, and it seems you can play video games and not be a ‘gamer’, so what exactly is a gamer? Why are people obsessed with this label? I hear “if you only play Call of Duty you’re not a gamer” or “if you only play easy games, you’re not a gamer”. Why not? I don’t understand this at all. Personally, I play video games for fun and I’ve done so for over 20 years. I’ve owned a NES, GameBoy, SEGA Genesis, Nintendo 64, PSone, PS2, Xbox and Xbox 360 (in that order). Also an iPhone and Kindle Fire HD (mobile gaming). What does that mean? Why does it matter?

I mean if you enjoy watching TV are you a ‘TV’er’? ‘couch potato’? TV fanatic? The same goes for movies. Or cars even. Now I know there are people who are obsessed with movies and consider themselves some sort of movie hipster. And there are car people for whom cars are more than just a vehicle. But what difference does it really make? If you have fun playing video games, you have fun playing video games. That’s it. You might be part of a gaming community, be it Xbox Live, a forum, a website or even a blog. But does it really make a difference?

I’ll stop rambling now, I’m just tired of seeing the gamer vs non-gamer argument. Who cares. It’s a hobby. It’s a form of entertainment. If you play a game and I play a game, what’s the difference? Am I not having the same fun? Experiencing the same thing?

photo taken from the webcomic CTRL ALT DEL @ http://www.cad-comic.com