PixlBit

There are worse lables like; video game addicts.  

Yeah I know.

It's a hobby, and although the term gamer (I prefer the term dedicated gamer) seems a bit simple, it's time we have our own snobby name just lik a stamp collector does. I used to collect stamps. If watching TV/Movies/Music can be a hobby why not have aterm for those that do it.

Yeah it can be a hobby, but not everyone who plays games views it as a hobby.

     I know people, mostly older people who grew up on that new thing television, that watch it all the time. They even go to sleep in front of the TV. No one thinks that's abnormal or calls them TOOBERS or something; although, maybe they did in the fifties or sixites when TV was still pretty new. Gaming has only hit the mainstream in a big way this last generation. It was a fad in the eighties, then a thing kids did in the nineties, then a thing you did after school with your high school/college buddies, and now it's something you live with. It's everwhere, in everything. Pretty soon, no one will even notice that you game, it will be assumed and the term GAMER will become a thing of memory.

   This reminds me of something I heard once about technology, how it starts as a novelty, then something a niche audience uses, then it becomes unbiquitous and no one notices it anymore. It's taken for granted and assumed in every situation. I think this might be happening with video gaming; although, I still feel a little bit the outsider for being into it so much.

That is a damn good point actually. I know that eventually we'll gain mass acceptance (hell we're already most of the way there), but still.

And then, when it's fully mainstream, my compulsion to be an outsider will kick in and I'll go to something else equally disrespected... or not.

Want to know why gamer is used while there isn't one for other hobbies? It's because the word gamer rolls right off the tongue while "watcher" (using your example) feels awkward to say. That's it. All the other negative stuff comes less from the term and more from a mix of bias from others mixed with the vocal minority giving us a bad name. That is what we really need to fix

 Watcher only feels awkward because we don't use it. Gamer is common, we're used to it. We aren't used to saying watcher unless we're talking about creeps or Dr Dre songs.

That's my point though, it already had a definition before we could assign the word to that. It doesn't matter why it's awkward, just that it's awkward before while gamer never was.

The only people I ever hear or see using the word gamer are people refering to theirselves.  I talk about games a lot at work and nobody every calls me a gamer.  They also never roll their eyes or think that it is weird that I play games.   Most guys relate in some way and the most negative thing I ever hear from a girl is "they're talking about boy stuff". I still maintain this is paranoia.  If people stop using terms like gamer to describe themself then people probably won't think twice about their hobbies.

Maybe where you are. I'm in college, so it's pretty accepted here by everyone. However, that's not the case everywhere. I mean I've heard people talking about how weird I was for playing a ds on the train. They kept talking about me and it made me so uncomfortable that I stopped. My brother has been picked on at school because he likes games that aren't popular.

 My point is that just because it's accepted where you are does not make it universally so.

I guess I'm just lucky then.

Damn right you are :) 

I finally broke the ice and played 3DS at my usual coffee shop haunt. I'm beginning to just not give a damn anymore. I think people were rather interested in what I was doing though more than looking down their noses. 

When I first went on Facebook, I connected with an old friend from college and one of the first things he said to me was "You're a gamer? Cool." That was the first time I'd been called that. I had always played games, but no one ever called me a gamer 'til then, sometime around 2007.

I don't use the term, unless it's their profession. I'll say video game fan, or enthusiast, or player. "Gamer" strikes me as defining someone by their hobby, which I find absurd. Plus when I see or hear the word, it just makes me think of small minded idiots on the 'net who argue (poorly) over insignificant crap.

I'm OK with the term gamer. It denotes action. I'm also a hiker, photographer, cross-stitcher, and singer. All active pursuits. Watching is passive.