'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over. - Polidicks

cant we just play videogames because they are fun and we like them

Gone Home is a game because on Amazon it's listed under PC Games. Checkmate. [editline]28th August 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=DanRatherman;45828516]cant we just play videogames because they are fun and we like them[/QUOTE] Shut the fuck up you consumerist nerd.

game journalist calls event that exposed a lot of game journalists as being complete shitlords a non-issue, and says that there are no 'sides' to be on, while heavily parroting a view from a single side BLAH BLAH BLAH GAME JOURNALIST ATTEMPTS TO DEFEND GAME JOURNALISM THE SKY IS BLUE BIRDS TWEET THE SUN RISES

[QUOTE=Maloof?;45828509]I got the sense that that bit of the article was about how 'gamers' are percieved (and spoken to) by marketers. You only have to look at nearly ever single bit of game advertisement to see that, despite vast evidence to the contrary, marketing departments still only really target semi-affluent white guys when drawing up ad campaigns for games[/QUOTE] What about mobile games? Although they greatly differ in interactivity from AAA gaming, it's significantly larger and profitable than AAA gaming. They aren't targeting white males.

i also like that all of this shit is exposing the thinly veiled apathy that so many of these self absorbed hipster shitheels have for their audiences "yeah well I never liked any of you consumerist assholes anyway. Your stupid game merch makes you look like a retarded loser oh I'm sorry I meant virgin loser #endableism"

This is such a holier-than-thou article it makes me sick

This is quite possibly the most condescending thing I've ever read.

[QUOTE=DanRatherman;45828516]cant we just play videogames because they are fun and we like them[/QUOTE] But then you wouldn't be able to participate in the wonderful, nuanced dialogue that we're currently having about the state and future of a nebulous group of people who have the fact that they buy vaguely similar things in common! Don't you want to spend hours arguing with people who won't change their opinions about whether people are actually sending death threats to specific women or not? Or what about the wonderful he-said she-said regarding whether someone's sexual activities allowed them to get their independent game more publicity, and what that means when it comes to journalistic integrity from a journalism community that's financially beholden to the creators of the products they're supposed to be reviewing anyways? Isn't this just fucking riveting? Why you want to just HAVE FUN AND PLAY GAMES when this is going on?!

[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;45828410]If anything, this whole clusterfuck has made me respect the shit out of the rights activists who don't have their heads up their asses. It takes balls to stick with your principals when the figureheads of your community will ostracize you for it. If nothing else this whole shitstorm has given me a solid list of feminists who I can tell for a fact actually care about equality. There's a part of me that hopes that in separating the extremists from the legit good people we'll actually be able to start having a proper conversation. All of the shaming and entitlement has poisoned this topic for years, with that contained maybe we can start focusing on actually making things better for people.[/QUOTE] I kinda wish MissAngerist would reveal herself and put up a patreon, because I would happily donate to somebody willing to speak up against the horde (even anonymously) as she has done.

[QUOTE=Turnips5;45828444]Gone Home really is on the edges of what could be considered a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game"]game[/URL] though as far as I'm aware, there's no possibility of losing in Gone Home and no competition. it's an interactive art gallery/work of fiction. that's not a bad thing though! a lot of adventure "games" fit this bill, such as my favourite, Beneath A Steel Sky (although you can actually die in that game a fair bit)[/QUOTE] Time goes on; if you stick to a formal definition written years ago in an industry that [I]needs[/I] change and innovation if it's going to thrive given the massive slew of new titles coming out every year, then the definition of 'game' needs to be fluid too. I think it's perfectly reasonable to pick out aspects of the broad definition of 'a game' and use them to create a game that solely focusses on those aspects; the way that [I]Dear Esther[/I] took 'interactivity' and 'plot' and a little bit of 'challenge' (a few jumps you could make to experience new areas/new chunks of narrative, a little bit of spatial exploration and navigational problem solving, etc) was great, and while it wasn't everybody's cup of tea I know a lot of people enjoyed it. Maybe not an overwhelming majority, but if you're pandering to the majority then you'd make [I]Dear Call of Duty[/I] or [I]Gone Medal of Honour[/I]. I think the arguments over 'what is a game' are unnecessary. Discussion is great, but insulting games or getting so uptight about it that you say 'this is not a game' is unhelpful to growth and experimentation. I think that on some level it probably contributes a bit to the hesitancy of many developers to take risks and break new ground.

[QUOTE=Viper202;45828438]'Gamers' have always irritated me to hell, because it's the term people call themselves when they treat gaming as a lifestyle rather than just a hobby. You don't bleed mountain dew pal, you are just a dude that also plays video games please can you stop embarrassing yourself.[/QUOTE] Why do you people get so upset about the word gamer? Are you afraid that you'll bet gamer cooties by association or something? All a gamer is is someone who has a vested interest in gaming as a hobby, and pays more attention to games than the common person who buys CoD and Madden/Fifa every year. If you spend time on internet forum dedicated to games (like this one) and keep up with the development of games you're a gamer. Hell practically every hobby ends up having their own term for themselves, but the public at large don't know or care what it is.

[QUOTE=CoolKingKaso;45828578]What about mobile games? Although they greatly differ in interactivity from AAA gaming, it's significantly larger and profitable than AAA gaming. They aren't targeting white males.[/QUOTE] I've yet to see a mobile game that's got any advertising beyond a banner in another app

you've literally never seen farmville?

[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;45828591]i also like that all of this shit is exposing the thinly veiled apathy that so many of these self absorbed hipster shitheels have for their audiences "yeah well I never liked any of you consumerist assholes anyway. Your stupid game merch makes you look like a retarded loser oh I'm sorry I meant virgin loser #endableism"[/QUOTE] I've actually not heard that sort of argument used at all by anybody [editline]29th August 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Laferio;45828669]you've literally never seen farmville?[/QUOTE] I've never seen any ads for it that seem to target a specific demographic other than the 'you enjoy x game so you will enjoy farmville' type ads. I should probably qualify all this with the fact that I don't have a TV at the moment because I'm not too good at aerials

[QUOTE=Maloof?;45828657]I've yet to see a mobile game that's got any advertising beyond a banner in another app[/QUOTE] King games get ads all the time on TV. Candy Crush and other shit that's exactly the same.

[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;45828591]i also like that all of this shit is exposing the thinly veiled apathy that so many of these self absorbed hipster shitheels have for their audiences "yeah well I never liked any of you consumerist assholes anyway. Your stupid game merch makes you look like a retarded loser oh I'm sorry I meant virgin loser #endableism"[/QUOTE] I miss the times when authors would voice their politics/thoughts through their own fiction instead of a 140 character tweet. It's not only less vitrolic, it's also easy for your audience consume the ideals made inside of it. If 1984 was a single sentence consisting of, "Government control is bad.", it would never become memorable at all.

What a fucking embarrassing article.

[QUOTE=Maloof?;45828670]I've actually not heard that sort of argument used at all by anybody [editline]29th August 2014[/editline] I've never seen any ads for it that seem to target a specific demographic other than the 'you enjoy x game so you will enjoy farmville' type ads. I should probably qualify all this with the fact that I don't have a TV at the moment because I'm not too good at aerials[/QUOTE] The Candy Crush ads/King ads are advertised constantly on TV. I was pretty surprised to see them constantly myself.

[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;45828688]King games get ads all the time on TV. Candy Crush and other shit that's exactly the same.[/QUOTE] ah interesting apologies, I don't have a tv

[QUOTE=Swilly;45828218]Gamer is the equivilant of Comic Book Lover, Movie Enthusiast, TV Binge Watcher. You have fandoms just around specific fucking TV shows like Dr.Who being called [B]Whoovians[/B]. This isn't some strange alien concept, this has been here forever.[/QUOTE] Personally I'm a fan of Doctor Who and I fucking hate that term, sort of get the feeling its used to put people in a group and stereotype the shit out of them.

[QUOTE=JustExtreme;45828094]Source: [url]http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/224400/Gamers_dont_have_to_be_your_audience_Gamers_are_over.php[/url][/QUOTE] looks like someone got called a "faggot" on chat

"Gamer culture" is a word used to sell bullshit products like Gamer Fuel and Gamer grub

[QUOTE=Jackald;45828744]Yeah, I love games not pandering to gamers, nothing like having easier and easier games with less and less interactivity getting closer and closer to movies![/QUOTE] tbh i don't get this casualization or whatever dumb word you want to use started years ago, and it wasn't(and isn't) about appealing to non gamers, just more gamers in general more people who play games like playing more casual stuff like hack and slash skyrim over number crunchy dungeon crawling stat management simulators like Baldur's Gate. And it's not because they aren't "real gamers", it's because they either can't or don't want to invest the time it would take to learn something more complicated. the people who appeal to non gamers are people like zynga and king and all those other hack frauds that real gamers like ourselves are too busy playing dwarf fortress to give a fuck about anyway

[QUOTE=Memobot;45828212]Very true. I get a bit annoyed when news outlets use the usual stereotypes of 'spotty, pale teens etc. etc. same old ill informed bollocks'. I think Newsnight did that recently during a report on Dota 2's The International and the rise of eSports. People play games, or don't play games. Gamers no longer exist.[/QUOTE] I don't know if this is quite accurate - one can be engaged in an activity much more than the average person, even while the average person does participate in that activity. I have ridden a horse, but I am no horsey type. I read, but I am no bookworm. I watch films, but I am no 'movie guy'.

i stopped identifying as a gamer a long time ago and this is why, never liked the image i presumed was being perceived by other people

i think this article is definitely targeted--it's in direct response to the shit-flinging 'controversies' in the industry the past couple weeks--but it has value. Swilly, to say the author has done [i]nothing[/i] is just as shallow and hostile as her attitude toward the 'gamers' depicted in the article. we're still clumsily slugging through the immature stages of this industry. this is part of it. This article is part of the whole culture surrounding video games. i disagree with Alexander's prediction that the community will be overturned and remade by a new generation with respect and creativity. i think the video game industry has inflated wildly and poked into the mainstream line of sight, which has attracted waves of new consumers expecting the same kind of cultivated maturity from this market barely out of its infancy. whatever your opinion of her position, don't discard it as pointless or unnecessary. the progression of any medium requires thoughtful genuine discussion, and if there's something she's right about, it's that we don't do that a lot.

[QUOTE=cocothegogo;45828936]i stopped identifying as a gamer a long time ago and this is why, never liked the image i presumed was being perceived by other people[/QUOTE] Then why identify as anything? I don't care what you or other people think of me nor the things I do and love. Someone will always judge you for bullshit reasons, everyone including you is beautiful and unique, it doesn't matter what others want to judge you on, they will always find their petty garbage one way or another.

lol who the fuck does this guy think he is? All I see in this article is some condescending fuck listing a whole bunch of shit that literally calls the majority of people that play games a bunch of brainless consumerist spergs. Yeah I bet this guy is soo much better, ended up at his shitty journalist job and not even doing his job properly cause he's talking about completely other stuff than video games.

[QUOTE=goldenbuttocks;45828834]looks like someone got called a "faggot" on chat[/QUOTE] Eh? Edit: Also, what's a sperglord? Someone with Aspergers? Seems to be a heavily used word in this thread but I don't get it because I am familiar with some people with that condition and they don't seem to act how you assume they do. Are they a minority or is this just a shitty ableist lazy ass stereotype?

'gamer' is not far away from 'atheist,' really as in, the people who proudly proclaim they are a 'gamer' are on the same level of thought as those who champion their atheism. which really irks me, because, it's not another religion that you get to run around yelling about, it's about abstinence from religion. you don't need a community or organized group, you just left exactly those kind of things. i think a lot of people who are embarrassed by the word 'gamer' and stay far away from the heavily commercialized core of the video game industry are akin to the silent atheists who don't want a label, because they just got done with having a label. [editline]Edited:[/editline] To clarify, i mean 'gamer' as in the person who goes to the midnight release of every COD and Battlefield game for the collector's edition, buys energy drinks, maybe Mtn. Dew and Doritos, is very loud over a headset, etc.