Eh. It depends on the person. I don't consider myself a "gamer" because the Sims is basically the only game I play and I have no big passion for video gaming but it's each to their own
This discussion reminds me of a similar one I've encountered among runners. There are some runners who live to race. There are others who run because it helps them manage their stress or relax. Others run because they prefer running to other forms of exercise. The latter two groups might never enter a road race or, if they do, have very little interest in their time.
Some of the racers don't consider casual runners to be "runners" at all. The racers don't quite include me in their group, because while I enter road races, I don't usually train as intensely as the "true" racers. Hard-core gamers probably wouldn't consider me one of their group, either. I can't match my reflexes against a younger gamer in a first-person shooter, and I rarely choose to try. My daughter is far, far better than my wife and I are at sparring and fighting monsters in My Time at Portia, because she's kid-quick. Instead, I'd prefer to give my brain a workout with a simulation, or relax with a couple of hours of The Sims.
I hear the same discussion among people who play my other favorite game, Football Manager. Because your success in FM isn't dependent on controlling a footballer on the pitch, some say it's not a "real" game. Thousands and thousands of us beg to differ there, too.
I never use the phrase "If you Play Sims you're not a real gamer" because I keep getting mixed messages from The Sims fanbase. On one hand we have plenty of the fanbase saying "Hey, we ARE real gamers!" while we get the other half of the fanbase saying "True, I literally only play The Sims". So I just go out of my way to avoid that comment.
A guy friend said something like this to me once. I laughed along with him, it wasn’t a big deal. Then he set me up on a blind date with his friend. The blind date became my husband.
I didn't really say as much earlier, but since this is now it's own thread I might as well: I consider "gamer" a self identification label. Pretty well anything else is unnecessary gatekeeping, and from what I understand the vast majority of people do not care if and/what you play in your free time.
I don't really identify as a gamer, much less a hardcore one, but I probably fit the bill by a number of definitions so I wouldn't be upset at being called one. I play a number of varied games and am decently well versed on industry topics. It is also my favorite form of entertainment.
I do think there is room for discussion about using labels for behaviour patterns to discuss topics more accurately, but in general the "real gamer" flamebait ends up looking oxymoronic.
I could care less, I don't consider myself a real gamer. I avidly play Sims and can count the other PC games I've played on one hand. So, for all those people who play "Fortnite" and FPS games etc., well I can imagine that my thousand of hours playing a game that has no defined goals or a win scenario seems quite pointless, I'm OK with that. 😉
I don't really care if people consider me a "real gamer" or not. I like what I like.
I consider my entire household a gaming family, because that's what we spend most of our free time doing. Our weekends usually consist of my husband and our sons on the PS4, and me at the computer. Every now and then we'll all play Minecraft or something else together.
I've never understood the whole gatekeeping, "you're not a real (insert fandom/hobby), unless you do this/that/whatever" type comments. Some people don't obsess over things, some do. Why does it really matter what other people are doing? What difference does it make in your life?
To me hard core gaming is spending most of your free time playing computer games.
Sims is one of the few games I can play without getting sick. I wish I could play subnautica. I have watched my daughter play that off and on. Gorgeous underwater scenes. I like sky rim, but have to go slow. Even then only about 15 minutes at a time. Sims 4 I can sit and play for hours without it affecting me. The only other types of games I can play are on big fish, game house, and shock wave.
My daughters love mind craft, and especially mind craft dungeons which they play together.
My husband spends so much time and money on Pokemon Go. He could have bought several of those shoot em up "hard core games". I had to set limits for him money wise. He knows everything there is to know about the game, watches you tube videos about it, plays on five different accounts, and is constantly playing whether we are taking a walk, waiting for food in a restaurant, or sitting around the house. My daughters put their foot down on movie night. No phones while watching a movie together. He has one up on the so hard core gamers that are attached at home to their consuls. He can play Pokemon Go out and about any where ever he can get single. I'll give him credit. He gets things done around the house, does really good at work, and is there for us when we need him to be. To me he is a hard core gamer.
My youngest collects Pokemon cards, and my middle daughter and I do play Pokemon go also. Not nearly as intense as he does. You will find me playing Sims 4 much more often.
The irony of the "real gamer" comments is that they are often made on other games - that both parties are playing. Like an MMO. Like if I'm not a "real gamer", what does that make you, since we are playing the SAME GAME?! *insert word I can't say here* I'm not bothered too much by it, since I've been playing games, video, tabletop, and cards since before half of these characters were alive.
People who call themselves "real gamers" or ("real anything", for that matter) strike me as mistakenly elitist people who come off as very little different from simple bullies. Everyone probably knows by now that bullies pick on other people because their own lives are lacking in some way, and either they haven't yet realized it or for whatever reason haven't dealt with it. Their opinions mean nothing to me, personally.
I play a lot of different kinds of games (Sims 4 being only one of them), but I'm picky about which ones I do play. My favorites are the Mass Effect Series, with The Witcher series being a close second and the Deus Ex series being a close third. I've played those many times over the past ten years or more, and I can easily see myself playing them again. I've also played and enjoyed the Thief series, some of the Elder Scrolls series, some of the Splinter Cell series, the Dragon Age series, most of the Assassin's Creed titles, Watch_Dogs 1 and 2, Elite Dangerous, a number of smaller (some indie) titles, some of which I liked very much. There have been a few MMOs in my gaming life, too, some of which I liked for a while, and some that weren't so great. I've probably overlooked naming a few, but it's not important.
Maybe I'm a gamer and maybe I'm a gaming hobbyist. I have no idea if there's any real difference in those terms, and I don't care. It doesn't matter because neither my choice of game(s) nor the terms anyone else calls me are what define me, anyway.
FYI: Just because you can see my signature, don't assume that I can see yours.
Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off.
I used to play a lot of mmos, so I do only know the difference from hardcore, semi hardcore and casual gamer. Hardcore for those who play a lot on a game, maybe in a competition, and casual for those who don't care about competition and play for fun or relaxation. I have never considered seeing sims as a non videogame, because that's a ridiculous thought, even for me.
Sims was the franchise which had opened the gates to the videogame genre to girls and women. These new female gamers did also joined the competitions and of course they had beaten other, prior only male, players, which had hurt some fragile male ego. I think that's one of the reasons why some people see sims as a non video game, sims is guilty for bringing girls into a male only genre. And as other simmers already have written, people who say sims is a not a video game, for them every other game which isn't a shooter or a competition game is just boring in their opinion.
Honestly I couldn't care less about the opinion of those players. Every person has a different taste and that's good.
If folks said I’m more dog than human I couldn’t care less.
When an experience keeps me fulfilled and happy and I’m not putting others in jeopardy, I don’t care what name or definition someone gives it. The important thing is what it means to me. Yes I’m that selfish.
“Do you play the sims?”
“Indeed I do.”
“Then you must be a Khbcdfkhbviudfh.”
“Yeh Grand. Now you go back and play your Hvndhbvjhbfkhhdf, so we can all be happy. Bye.”
I don't care because I don't consider myself a gamer, though I have played many games, probably not just the right type of games to consider myself a gamer... or maybe it's just that I don't want to label myself like that. Honestly I don't know. I play whatever I want if I like it and that's that.
I have played games of one type or another since before the invention of video games themselves. I have played an awful lot of video games since, from early Maxis games, through shooters, RPGS, etc and have current subs for EVE Online and FF14.
I don't think of myself as a gamer at all, tho gaming is one method of entertaining myself along with telly, movies, books, going for walks, etc etc.
I am curious - what is a gamer really? Seems like the label itself is only for those that feel that need to be categorised or belong to a club.
Awake.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity.... The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
I find it interesting how it's always the 'competitive' players that are usually branded 'hardcore gamers'.
I think there's give and take here. For example, I could play a Hideo Kojima game, and know what to do or how to progress even if the game doesn't tell me how, because I've grown up playing and watching all of his other games. I know all of the little details he likes to include in his games, right down to all the easter eggs, but I bet if I asked someone who primarily plays MMO games to play the same Kojima games that I have, they may struggle with certain parts, or just flat out not understand the concept. At the same time though, I'm terrible at MMO (mainly PvP based) games because I'm not fast enough, I don't have the hand-eye co-ordination for it, and I get easily defeated - also, I just simply don't like them. It doesn't mean that either one of us is better (or more 'hardcore') than the other, but rather that we've both found comfort and enjoyment in a certain style of game, so we continue to play similar games because it feels familiar.
I wouldn't consider myself 'hardcore' by any means, but I do consider myself a gamer, or enthusiast. This sort of reminds me of how some people think that if you play on an easier difficulty, then you're not really experiencing the game properly - it's sad to say that I've met a few people who share this view. I'm not interested in the challenge and I don't want to feel frustrated with a game, so I usually play on easy or normal. When it becomes too difficult for me, the likelihood of me putting the game down, and never picking it back up again increases. My goal is to get to the end, and finish the game, and I don't care how I get there just as long as I had fun doing it. I'm currently playing Far Cry 6, and I'm having a blast! It's got to the point where I'll go to bed, only to end up thinking about how I'm going to tackle the next lot of missions, and I get excited to wake up and carry on playing. I can't tell you how long it's been since I've felt this excited and passionate about a game.
TL;DR: To me, being a 'hardcore player' means being skilled and adaptable across a wide variety of game genres, not just one. It also means being helpful and encouraging towards new and low level players. If you're the type of person that's willing to give a new player some loot you don't need, maybe help them out with a mission, or even just give them some tips and advice, then you're the real MVP.
Sims 4 Wish List:
> Option to toggle on/off random townie generation.
> Turn vacation worlds into residential worlds.
> Option to purchase separate worlds or a world pack.
I have often felt that there is not a clear definition of what classifies as a gamer, especially now when a lot of people play so many different games like mobile games.
I play a lot of different games and I feel that the sims is a game like many others. I do think that it is struggling to find a place among other games in social media but that's probably common for a lot of games.
Actions speak louder than words and I would rather that Maxis and the sims community show these people that say that the sims is not a real game that the sims is a game that you can play while playing other games. Games like Animal Crossing seems to have been invited into that space but I wouldn't mind seeing more.
I don‘t understand why some simmers are so obsessed with the idea of being „real gamers“. I don‘t associate anything good with gamers so let others have that title.
Most of these upstart "real gamers" are just kids anyway. I played Pac Man, Centipedem and Q-Bert in the arcade, my first console was an Atari 2600.
For all that, while I consider myself a hard core gamer, I'm just not a hard core computer gamer. Give me rule books, dice, a bag of Doritos, a 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew and a handful of friends who want to tell a story together.
Sims is real gaming. So is D&D, and 7th Sea, and Traveler, and Champions, and...
Am I dating myself with this?
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I don‘t understand why some simmers are so obsessed with the idea of being „real gamers“. I don‘t associate anything good with gamers so let others have that title.
Lol yeah I agree but I think the problem is kind of having the sims being seen as a lesser than game. Like im not sure to explain it but I feel like when people say stuff like that they put down simmers.
And I want to add that people put in a lot of time in the sims and they become masters at building, creating sims, and even just managing huge households. It's not an easy thing but there is also no competition because everything is subjective. You can't really beat someone at building it just depends on the person and what they like more. So simmers can definitely be hardcore gamers. I mean a casual gamer is not spending thousands of hours playing a game.
Most of these upstart "real gamers" are just kids anyway. I played Pac Man, Centipedem and Q-Bert in the arcade, my first console was an Atari 2600.
For all that, while I consider myself a hard core gamer, I'm just not a hard core computer gamer. Give me rule books, dice, a bag of Doritos, a 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew and a handful of friends who want to tell a story together.
Sims is real gaming. So is D&D, and 7th Sea, and Traveler, and Champions, and...
Am I dating myself with this?
Dating yourself? Nah...
All your base are belong to us!
You guys want to talk 'real gamers' ? Pfft, my grandmother was a real gamer, hardcore all the way. For over twenty years, she and her girlfriends would get together every Thursday night to play Canasta and Whist. Cucumber finger sandwiches notwithstanding, that's some heavy duty hardcore loyalty to the gaming world, my friends. Yessiree!
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"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ~ Mark Twain
I don‘t understand why some simmers are so obsessed with the idea of being „real gamers“. I don‘t associate anything good with gamers so let others have that title.
Exactly. Like if you feel like i need to prove something to you I dont care about your approval at all
The Sims has currently lost its identity. Bring it back for TS5
Another part of this is the real money these "real gamers" fork out for their computers to play the newest games. Someone will gripe about paying around $1000 for their graphics card and I'll respond with "Pfft. I paid just a couple hundred for my whole system." They'll laugh when I describe my old system but then I'll point out that not long ago someone paid several thousands for it when it was brand new.
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Some of the racers don't consider casual runners to be "runners" at all. The racers don't quite include me in their group, because while I enter road races, I don't usually train as intensely as the "true" racers. Hard-core gamers probably wouldn't consider me one of their group, either. I can't match my reflexes against a younger gamer in a first-person shooter, and I rarely choose to try. My daughter is far, far better than my wife and I are at sparring and fighting monsters in My Time at Portia, because she's kid-quick. Instead, I'd prefer to give my brain a workout with a simulation, or relax with a couple of hours of The Sims.
I hear the same discussion among people who play my other favorite game, Football Manager. Because your success in FM isn't dependent on controlling a footballer on the pitch, some say it's not a "real" game. Thousands and thousands of us beg to differ there, too.
Exie hay, cavero, mabza meeah vendarzo.
Yevsas mairzeemo!
Pretty glad I didn’t see it as a red flag.
I don't really identify as a gamer, much less a hardcore one, but I probably fit the bill by a number of definitions so I wouldn't be upset at being called one. I play a number of varied games and am decently well versed on industry topics. It is also my favorite form of entertainment.
I do think there is room for discussion about using labels for behaviour patterns to discuss topics more accurately, but in general the "real gamer" flamebait ends up looking oxymoronic.
I consider my entire household a gaming family, because that's what we spend most of our free time doing. Our weekends usually consist of my husband and our sons on the PS4, and me at the computer. Every now and then we'll all play Minecraft or something else together.
I've never understood the whole gatekeeping, "you're not a real (insert fandom/hobby), unless you do this/that/whatever" type comments. Some people don't obsess over things, some do. Why does it really matter what other people are doing? What difference does it make in your life?
Sims is one of the few games I can play without getting sick. I wish I could play subnautica. I have watched my daughter play that off and on. Gorgeous underwater scenes. I like sky rim, but have to go slow. Even then only about 15 minutes at a time. Sims 4 I can sit and play for hours without it affecting me. The only other types of games I can play are on big fish, game house, and shock wave.
My daughters love mind craft, and especially mind craft dungeons which they play together.
My husband spends so much time and money on Pokemon Go. He could have bought several of those shoot em up "hard core games". I had to set limits for him money wise. He knows everything there is to know about the game, watches you tube videos about it, plays on five different accounts, and is constantly playing whether we are taking a walk, waiting for food in a restaurant, or sitting around the house. My daughters put their foot down on movie night. No phones while watching a movie together. He has one up on the so hard core gamers that are attached at home to their consuls. He can play Pokemon Go out and about any where ever he can get single. I'll give him credit. He gets things done around the house, does really good at work, and is there for us when we need him to be. To me he is a hard core gamer.
My youngest collects Pokemon cards, and my middle daughter and I do play Pokemon go also. Not nearly as intense as he does. You will find me playing Sims 4 much more often.
The irony of the "real gamer" comments is that they are often made on other games - that both parties are playing. Like an MMO. Like if I'm not a "real gamer", what does that make you, since we are playing the SAME GAME?! *insert word I can't say here* I'm not bothered too much by it, since I've been playing games, video, tabletop, and cards since before half of these characters were alive.
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I play a lot of different kinds of games (Sims 4 being only one of them), but I'm picky about which ones I do play. My favorites are the Mass Effect Series, with The Witcher series being a close second and the Deus Ex series being a close third. I've played those many times over the past ten years or more, and I can easily see myself playing them again. I've also played and enjoyed the Thief series, some of the Elder Scrolls series, some of the Splinter Cell series, the Dragon Age series, most of the Assassin's Creed titles, Watch_Dogs 1 and 2, Elite Dangerous, a number of smaller (some indie) titles, some of which I liked very much. There have been a few MMOs in my gaming life, too, some of which I liked for a while, and some that weren't so great. I've probably overlooked naming a few, but it's not important.
Maybe I'm a gamer and maybe I'm a gaming hobbyist. I have no idea if there's any real difference in those terms, and I don't care. It doesn't matter because neither my choice of game(s) nor the terms anyone else calls me are what define me, anyway.
Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off.
Sims was the franchise which had opened the gates to the videogame genre to girls and women. These new female gamers did also joined the competitions and of course they had beaten other, prior only male, players, which had hurt some fragile male ego. I think that's one of the reasons why some people see sims as a non video game, sims is guilty for bringing girls into a male only genre. And as other simmers already have written, people who say sims is a not a video game, for them every other game which isn't a shooter or a competition game is just boring in their opinion.
Honestly I couldn't care less about the opinion of those players. Every person has a different taste and that's good.
Gamer Shmamer.
If folks said I’m more dog than human I couldn’t care less.
When an experience keeps me fulfilled and happy and I’m not putting others in jeopardy, I don’t care what name or definition someone gives it. The important thing is what it means to me. Yes I’m that selfish.
“Do you play the sims?”
“Indeed I do.”
“Then you must be a Khbcdfkhbviudfh.”
“Yeh Grand. Now you go back and play your Hvndhbvjhbfkhhdf, so we can all be happy. Bye.”
I don't think of myself as a gamer at all, tho gaming is one method of entertaining myself along with telly, movies, books, going for walks, etc etc.
I am curious - what is a gamer really? Seems like the label itself is only for those that feel that need to be categorised or belong to a club.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
I think there's give and take here. For example, I could play a Hideo Kojima game, and know what to do or how to progress even if the game doesn't tell me how, because I've grown up playing and watching all of his other games. I know all of the little details he likes to include in his games, right down to all the easter eggs, but I bet if I asked someone who primarily plays MMO games to play the same Kojima games that I have, they may struggle with certain parts, or just flat out not understand the concept. At the same time though, I'm terrible at MMO (mainly PvP based) games because I'm not fast enough, I don't have the hand-eye co-ordination for it, and I get easily defeated - also, I just simply don't like them. It doesn't mean that either one of us is better (or more 'hardcore') than the other, but rather that we've both found comfort and enjoyment in a certain style of game, so we continue to play similar games because it feels familiar.
I wouldn't consider myself 'hardcore' by any means, but I do consider myself a gamer, or enthusiast. This sort of reminds me of how some people think that if you play on an easier difficulty, then you're not really experiencing the game properly - it's sad to say that I've met a few people who share this view. I'm not interested in the challenge and I don't want to feel frustrated with a game, so I usually play on easy or normal. When it becomes too difficult for me, the likelihood of me putting the game down, and never picking it back up again increases. My goal is to get to the end, and finish the game, and I don't care how I get there just as long as I had fun doing it. I'm currently playing Far Cry 6, and I'm having a blast! It's got to the point where I'll go to bed, only to end up thinking about how I'm going to tackle the next lot of missions, and I get excited to wake up and carry on playing. I can't tell you how long it's been since I've felt this excited and passionate about a game.
TL;DR: To me, being a 'hardcore player' means being skilled and adaptable across a wide variety of game genres, not just one. It also means being helpful and encouraging towards new and low level players. If you're the type of person that's willing to give a new player some loot you don't need, maybe help them out with a mission, or even just give them some tips and advice, then you're the real MVP.
I play a lot of different games and I feel that the sims is a game like many others. I do think that it is struggling to find a place among other games in social media but that's probably common for a lot of games.
Actions speak louder than words and I would rather that Maxis and the sims community show these people that say that the sims is not a real game that the sims is a game that you can play while playing other games. Games like Animal Crossing seems to have been invited into that space but I wouldn't mind seeing more.
Am I dating myself with this?
Lol yeah I agree but I think the problem is kind of having the sims being seen as a lesser than game. Like im not sure to explain it but I feel like when people say stuff like that they put down simmers.
And I want to add that people put in a lot of time in the sims and they become masters at building, creating sims, and even just managing huge households. It's not an easy thing but there is also no competition because everything is subjective. You can't really beat someone at building it just depends on the person and what they like more. So simmers can definitely be hardcore gamers. I mean a casual gamer is not spending thousands of hours playing a game.
Dating yourself? Nah...
All your base are belong to us!
You guys want to talk 'real gamers' ? Pfft, my grandmother was a real gamer, hardcore all the way. For over twenty years, she and her girlfriends would get together every Thursday night to play Canasta and Whist. Cucumber finger sandwiches notwithstanding, that's some heavy duty hardcore loyalty to the gaming world, my friends. Yessiree!
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ~ Mark Twain
Exactly. Like if you feel like i need to prove something to you I dont care about your approval at all
Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
I'm a gamer, not a Gamer.