Friday Roundtable: Reappropriating "Gamer": The Discussion ...

Posted by Declan Burrowes on Friday, February 17, 2012 ? Leave a Comment?

Gamers United

?Anyone who identifies as a ?gamer? will create a very specific image in the mind of the layman,? wrote Ben ?Yahtzee? Croshaw in August 2010. ?Probably something somewhere between one of the Columbine killers and that shouty German kid from YouTube. Or a sweaty, fat, neckbearded manchild weeping over their Aeris body pillow.? Croshaw ended his article with a plea: stop using the word.

At the beginning of last year, BNBGAMING?s Armand Kossayan wrote a response which called not for damnation and abandonment of the the g-word, but ?reappropriation?, a proactive takeback of a term that to many is nothing more than a shaming pejorative. It inspired some interesting discussion in the comments, and this week, the Friday Roundtable panel takes up the mantle and shares its thoughts on ?empowering? the gaming man and woman. Do we need to reappropriate? Is ?gamer? really such a tainted word? If it is, what can be done to help?

Writing this week are Armand Kossayan, PC/Indie correspondent, to defend his original work; Isaac Hammer, Japanese affairs correspondent; Declan Burrowes, European Managing Editor; and Martin Watts, Editor-in-Chief.

As always, we welcome and encourage your comments and discussion in the section below.

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Not helpful.

Armand:

A year ago I wrote about the idea of reappropriating?the term ?gamer??so that it no longer had the negative?connotation?that it has held. We?ve long subscribed to an image of the gamer as an angry, unattractive, overweight male, possibly living in his mother?s basement; an unfortunate stereotype that helps no one, and is only used as a bludgeoning tool to hurt and?mischaracterize?everyday people.

This was in response to an article written by Yahtzee over at the Escapist, wherein he argued that we should just do away with the term entirely since it was so tarnished. My feeling was that ?gamer? was too entrenched in our collective vocabulary to be dropped entirely; thus the need to reappropriate it into something more positive. Essentially, that we needed to make
?gamer? no different than terms that describe respectable hobbies or professions such as athlete, artist, or doctor (okay, maybe doctor is going a bit too far).

I also argued that there wasn?t much we needed to do to make this happen. As gaming becomes more and more commonplace?among?the people of the Western world, it is normalized and loses some of its more negative meanings.

A year after writing that article, I already feel like we?ve come a long way in making this happen.

In Japan, playing video games defies labelling. (Photo credits: TokyoTimes.org)

Isaac:

As far as reappropriating??gamer? goes, I see it as a non-issue for the simple fact of diffusion. Where gaming was once a niche hobby, the number of people who have never played a portable or home console, much less games on their mobile phone, is so utterly minute that among my generation the question isn?t ?do you play games?? but rather ?what games do you play?? ?Simply put, just playing video games doesn?t make one a gamer.

On that note, gamer as a term has already morphed away from the basement-dwelling, acne-ridden, eternally teenaged nerd, and is more likely to conjure up images of angry, ultra-competitive FPS players.

Here in Japan, where portable consoles are aimed at everyone from ages 5-95, there isn?t even a word for someone who plays games, unless they take it to an obsessive extreme.

I honestly foresee the Western world falling into the same way of thought just for the wide usage and enjoyment of games. For us, and those younger, video games are not, and will not, be a strange thing, but just another part of our everyday life, receiving no more thought than the other forms of entertainment we enjoy.

Declan:

It?s a tough one, though I?m more inclined to side with Isaac. ?Gamer? is a term that I think has long surpassed its usefulness, if it was ever useful at all. We don?t call people with a passion or enthusiasm or even a like for films and music ?filmers? or ?musickers?, and with so many people playing video games today, gamer is equally unnecessary.

But while I agree that more people play games in 2012 than ever before, I think this is down to easy access to smartphones, F2P MMOs and Facebook, not more women and old folks picking up Call of Duty and Mass Effect. Those who take a keen interest in the games industry ? those who might regularly read a video game website, for example ? would, I imagine, still be regarded as a different breed of ?gamer? entirely by those who spend their lunch breaks or evenings with Angry Birds, FarmVille, or the Wii. Call me insecure, but even today I don?t feel comfortable bringing up my gaming habits in polite company. It still carries with it an unpleasant aura of ?oh, at?your?age??. One can extol the virtues of their latest cinema trip or album purchase to their heart?s content and no doubt inspire discussion, but games continue to baffle the non-initiated and conjure up images of immaturity, and the industry?s delight in perpetuating unhelpful advertisements (Modern Warfare 3?s ?A Soldier in All of Us? and Dead Space 2?s ?Your Mom Hates This Game? campaigns spring to mind) laden with pyrotechnics and stereotypes do nothing to advance the medium or its adherents.

EA marketed the gory horror game Dead Space 2 as "the game your mom hates". It received venomous backlash from the online world, indicating a serious lack of understanding between larger publishers and the gaming public.

Isaac:

So, thus it is that gamer is fine, or on its way there, but the very connotation of games as something for children, as a phase we should ?grow out of?, is what we need to address?

Taking it non-digital for a minute, the comics industry faced the same issue. As the original fans grew from childhood to adulthood, rather than throw aside something they loved, there was a demand for change within the industry to suit the new desires of the market. Indeed, this has been and continues to occur within gaming, as different genres and companies tend to specialize.

That, and eliminate the marketing departments. Mom doesn?t approve, indeed.

Is this man a "gamer" even if his playing habits equate to a few minutes of Brain Training or Tetris a day? (Photo credits: AsOurParentsAge.net)

Martin:

Games clearly have matured with us though, taking into account that this actually began in the late nineties with titles like Resident Evil, GoldenEye 007 and Tomb Raider. So, yes, I believe it?s undoubtedly the way in which games are perceived which is in dire need of change.

Like Dec, I?ve?received the odd raised eyebrow when people learn that I write about video games. But again, I think such a response is borne out of a lack of understanding or knowledge, not to mention that when I was growing up, video games were seen (and still are by many) as a waste of time, or an instrument through which murderers and rapists were being created.

I think starting with Nintendo and the Wii, and the subsequent motion-controlled rivals that followed, that the industry is slowly but surely changing that perception. It is now very normal for those ten years younger than me to have an evening of Call of Duty multiplayer, whereas ten years ago I was probably viewed as obsessive. This opening up of games to a wider audience may not bring in a new demographic to the likes of Skyrim?or Street Fighter, but it does at least provide ?non-gamers? with an idea of why ?gamers? like to play games.

Declan:

Video games need time. To me the issue is simply a natural generational gap that will cease to exist once our children raised on video games mature and produce children of their own raised in a world even more familiar with them. While games have been around since the 1970s, as Martin says, it really only has been the last ten to fifteen years in which they have developed more complex narratives with well-written and well-imagined characters, plots and settings, and an even shorter time still since games have seriously entered the public eye. In that regard, the 2010s may well be the industry?s most exciting decade yet in terms of wider appeal and diversification.

That said, I can?t see the 75-year-old technophile making the jump from?Tiny Wings?on his iPad to gushing about the latest?Team Fortress 2?hats on the Steam discussion boards anytime soon.?As I said, while gaming may be welcoming more people than ever before, these late arrivals are landing in territory unfamiliar to most ?hardcore? gamers, that still suspiciously eyed world of social and casual games. They?re a separate market entirely, and what better evidence for that than the mass appeal of Nintendo?s Wii and DS systems?

I think any effort to actively ?reappropriate? the term gamer would be misguided and a waste of energy. Like Isaac, I foresee the word falling out of use altogether in years to come; it will ultimately be rendered meaningless when everyone and their dog has a game-playing device of some kind ? ?it?s already happened in Japan. Let the old fogies rattle on about the alleged brain-rotting abilities of Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, just as the same old fogies raged about the internet, cinema and photography once upon a time. (They?ll all be dead soon, anyway.)

Armand:

We could be waiting a while before discussing Valve's design philosophy and RTS strategies makes polite dinner party conversation.

Jumping back a bit in the conversation, there is a difference in all hobbies between the casual?participant, the?enthusiast, and the obsessive. Everyone likes movies to some degree. Some people watch lots of movies, and a smaller group take it the an entirely different level. And we do have a term for them. They?re film buffs, and though they aren?t looked upon with outright disdain, an outsider might still think it?s a bit abnormal. I think you could say that for most hobbies and interests though. Anyone who gets more into it than the bulk of their peers is likely to be viewed a bit?differently, and that will always apply for any interest, including gaming. People who are as ?obsessed? as we are aren?t ever going to be the norm, but someone who owns a console, and plays maybe 5-10 hours a week is still a gamer, just a more ?normal? one.

As far as feeling less than comfortable about bringing up your gaming interests though, I think that?s an important thing to address. Maybe you get an odd look when you mention that you?re an?enthusiast?to a gaming outsider, but you also help normalize the term and the concept for them by doing so. Over time, even if they don?t develop their own interest in gaming, they will hopefully start to see things a bit differently. By demonstrating that you aren?t an outdated stereotype, it makes things a little better for the rest of us.

Reappropriation will largely happen with time, and with little effort on our parts. As we?ve all said, it?s already happening. But we can also do little things to help now, whether we?re just more open and transparent about our interests, or we maybe ?gift? a game to our non-gamer buddies, and ask them to play. Frankly though, it is only a matter of time, if not something that has more or less already happened.

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Share Your Thoughts:?We?ve shared our thoughts and now it?s your turn. Does the word ?gamer? need to be reappropriated??In your mind, are games perfectly acceptable in cultured society, or are they and their consumers still regarded as childish?

Source: http://bnbgaming.com/2012/02/17/friday-roundtable-reappropriating-gamer-the-discussion/

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