Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.

by Jamison DeLorenzo

If one theme has been consistent in these articles, aside from snide comments and sheer brilliance, it has been the purveyance of something that should be obvious by now: I am a hardcore gamer. I play games every day. I read about games every day. I discuss games every day. This has been the case since 1988. This may make you wonder why my job is not in the video game world, and for better or worse it mostly stems from a lack of effort. A story for another day for certain, but if I have proved anything over the course of my life it is that video games are what I know most about (with a possible exception of Simpsons trivia). I am a hardcore gamer.

Alas, I do not think it means what I think you think it means. I think.

In the never-ending battle of the console wars, something which is inescapable, people seem to be doing whatever they can to rationalize their thinking. You’ll recall that in my Console Sanity Check series I erupted with a series of rules that needed to be set in place for everyone’s safety. We are almost back at that point again. Gamers are labeling other games in a vain attempt to pat themselves on the back that they made the right choice. Much like the liberals of the 1980’s the hardcore gamer is now being thrown under the bus.

I, however, refuse to be run over. This is not just because I have a problem with skid marks. No, the problem lies much deeper than that. You see, despite my pacifist nature it is possible to provoke me. Hardcore gamers, some time during the past year, became a term that refers to people who play first person shooters and very violent games. In other words, games like GTA, Halo, Gears of War, and God of War. Someone who detests that particular genre of games labels it with a term they don’t want to be labeled as and then decries it. This is the classic straw man argument at work (it may only be a related strain, but either way this is a viral argument).

Every time I struggle with the definition of a word I turn to the most impartial and standard place one can turn: the dictionary. Surely we all can agree that this is the one place we can turn to for understanding of our language. Being that hardcore gamer is a concept more than a word, there is really only one other good place to turn: Wikipedia. Only this time the site talks about the rather uncertain definition of the term. Rather than spend a good deal of time thinking of a solid definition for the term I will instead propose an idea to you on what I feel the term really should mean.

The way I see it, a hardcore gamer is one who enjoys gaming- a lot. They play a multitude of games and they are exceedingly good at them. You ask them questions when you are stuck. You seek their opinions on what games they should buy. They can recall more about games from years past than you can remember about what you did last week. If playing video games was a job with good pay they would be some of the best people at their job in the world. I strongly believe that this is at the core of what it means to be a hardcore gamer.

This should explain why I consider myself to be a hardcore gamer. I eat, sleep, and breathe gaming. When people throw me into the lump of people whom they believe snack all day, live with their parents, trash talk on Halo all day long, wear the same clothing, and haven’t talked to a woman since 1997 I become offended, and with good cause. Not only because I have documented proof of socializing with a woman in 2004, but because stereotyping on any level is something I have a problem with.

As such, I hate it when people use the term hardcore gamer even when they feel the term refers to someone who plays FPS’ all day, only cares about shiny graphics, and jumps at every war game possible. The problem started, however, with people trying to label Nintendo fans as people who prefer the cutesy games. It’s as I said before- people feel better when they feel they have condescendingly labeled people who disagree with them (after all, every gamer is completely socially insecure). Sure, after playing a large share of Nintendo games I wanted to try some new things and move past the cartoon style Nintendo games. I still love cartoons, but the problem is that I’ve been watching the same Mario cartoon for 10 years now. Instead of just looking to try the latest style of gaming, people moving over to PS and Xbox camps started referring to Nintendo games as not just cartoony, but childish.

Now the war is (justly) coming back at the PS and Xbox fans. They initiated the battle and now Nintendo has a lot of ammo to fire back. I have my own web space, so now I feel I need to say something about this. Here is a message for every Nintendo fan out there- tread lightly. Yes, you have every right to be mad for being told you are playing kids’ games. You should feel free to mock everyone who hunkers down in front of a FPS that badmouths Nintendo’s graphics, makes fun of the controller when they are stuck on the outdated Dual Shock, or makes a snide Mario comment while they hold their breath for Halo 3. Still, you must tread lightly. I say this not just because I tend to avoid pouring kerosene on flame wars, but because name calling just doesn’t get you anywhere. He who yells the loudest only stands to gain a sore throat.

All this talk about the PS/Xbox crowd as the hardcore gamer camp and the Nintendo crowd as the cutesy gamer camp needs to stop. It needs to go away and be buried forever. If you want to whine about game titles then your only legitimate target is a console that’s been out for more than 2 months. If you want to whine about price then you have to acknowledge that the more expensive consoles provide a lot more than games (whether you want movie playback or not). If you insist on making gross generalizations (I’m very close to blowing up on people saying that all Nintendo games are fun) then you are simply on the other side of the coin to the argument you find so very annoying. To me, that only makes you one thing- annoying.

Not that I ever oversimplify things.

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