As a gamer, I find it enjoyable to get a system for the multitude of games that are on it. I purchased a PlayStation 3 for Sonic, LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, and many other series I felt I’d enjoy. I got a Wii for Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, and the many games I knew were going to come out for it. I had gotten a 360 so I may play on Xbox Live with Resident Evil 5, Borderlands, Halo: Reach, and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift. By purchasing these systems, I knew I’d want future games for them that were bound to be released (Skyward Sword for Wii, the Assassin’s Creed games on PS3/360, etc.). If there is one thing I’ve noticed about people who call themselves gamers, however, it’s the fact that they give themselves that title when they own a system for only one or two games. They didn’t get those one or two games in waiting for more games to come out; they only wanted those two games in the years that the system(s) had been available.
Why do I bring this up? Because I’m sure we all know at least one person who owns a system for only one game.
When I had gone to Gamestop about a week and a half ago, I was planning to purchase Portal 2 and a headset for Xbox 360. After I had found what I was looking for, I decided to do my usual window shopping, looking to see what they had fresh in stock, hoping to find a pre-owned copy of one of several games I’d been waiting to play. During my browsing, a man came into the store, walked up to the cashier, and inquired about getting a Playstation 3. When asked if the man knew which model he wanted, his response was “I don’t know which model’s which; I just want to play Call of Duty and Madden on it.”
The cult following for this game swamped Gamestops across the nation on the 8th of November. If only it wasn't the first PS3 game for 90% of the players there.
Now, being the quiet person I am, I don’t like to directly confront people about how stupid they are, but try to analyze this situation with me. This man is prepared to shell out over three hundred dollars for a video game system just so he can play Modern Warfare 3 and Madden 2012, with no plans on purchasing any other games (except for future Madden and Call of Duty games). Think about all of those dollar bills who are getting ready to be burned on two games. Consider the game system, who will only ever get to see two or three games played on it, with no purchases on its PlayStation Network store (aside from downloadable content for the games he’s bought). The two Gamestop employees behind the counter also seemed to hold back the insults.
It was at this point when the man left with his system and two games that I had to really think about if he was going to go home, kill a few people in Call of Duty, beat some randoms in Madden, and feel the need to call himself a gamer at that point. Personally, I feel a gamer is someone who has a passion for gaming, who can actually talk for hours about the games they play with less than twenty percent of the conversation consisting of how many headshots they get or what their kill-death ratio is. A gamer, in my opinion, has to have some sort of variety in the games they play. You can have your preferences point to Madden and Call of Duty, that’s fine, but don’t call yourself a gamer if your preferences limit your game library to having three years of Madden and four Call of Duty games.
If little Tommy delivers papers everyday, how fast will the bike be moving if he contributes to my headshot count? Let's find out.
For gamers who purchase a three hundred dollar system just to play one or two games, think instead about actually looking through the systems’ immense libraries of games they have to offer. You might just find something you like.
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1 comment
Cameron C
November 15, 2011 at 8:47 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I respectfully disagree with your idea of what a “gamer” is. To me, a gamer is someone who plays games. That’s all it takes to be a gamer. It’s a horrible idea to exclude these people who don’t play as many games as you, because how else is someone supposed to join the larger gaming community? All of us started off buying a console for one or two games. We all had to start somewhere.
As much as I hate using the term, you seem to be applying the image of a hardcore gamer to all gamers. If someone is enjoying only a few games, they suddenly are dumber than those of us who buy more games? Hell with the amount of time people seem to put into CoD they’ve more than earned the title of “gamer” for sheer dedication to that one series.