Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style
When I talk about my childhood spent in the back seat of a minivan playing an imported Japanese copy of Tails Adventure on my Game Gear, or on the living room floor meandering through the levels of Gauntlet Legends, or scouring anything resembling an arcade with my fingers crossed for a Hydro Thunder machine, you might mistake me for a Gamer. When I talk about slightly more recent events -- eliminating challengers in one hit with my overtrained Absol in Pokemon X/Y, almost miraculously sniping enemies off with a shotgun in Fallout: New Vegas, completing the entirety of an Assassin's Creed game without ever using anything but the wristblades -- you could be forgiven for again thinking that I'm a Gamer.
But I wasn't, and I'm not.
I'm not trying to prove my gaming cred here, nor am I trying to make a point about how easily my interests can be dismissed by someone with an agenda. The fact is that I've been playing video games regularly for as long as I can remember, but I've never called or even considered myself a Gamer... And I'm not about to start any time soon.
When I was young, I thought that everyone played games, no matter their gender or age or race or abilities. My dad played games, and I played games, and I assumed that when I was at a friend's house and they didn't have a console out in the open that it was just tucked under the TV cabinet where mom tucked ours whenever she wanted to vacuum or, you know, walk around without tripping over a tangle of controllers and cartridges. I assumed that everyone played games, so when I saw the backwards-hat-wearing and almost invariably male Gamers on tv and in magazines (just not in "my" magazines) I assumed they were some sort of special subclassification of people who enjoyed games. For example, I assumed that Lisa Simpson played them as often as her brother, but that Bart was a "Gamer" because he engaged with them on some other level that was honestly never clear to me. I was young and pretty naive so I didn't really dissect these ideas any further, but now it's fairly obvious that I thought Gamers were some mysterious (and masculine) other because that's what the world around me said they were. Lisa Simpson didn't give a shit about Bonestorm.
It took me an embarassingly long time to unpack all the things I'd passively accepted. I had written off entire genres (like first-person shooters) simply assuming that I wouldn't be any good at those kinds of games anyway -- that those kinds of games for some abstract reason just weren't "for" me. No one ever told me that directly, and I'd never tried them myself to know if that was the case, it was just one of many things I seemed to pick up through cultural osmosis. I never saw any 4th grade girls in puppy sweatshirts turning fleshy demons into fleshy chutney. Those games were for Gamers, and I wasn't one. I played the games that welcomed me, and I assumed the ones that didn't weren't "for" me in the first place.
These days I can see a lot of the ideas I had for what they are and where they came from. I've divested myself of the bullshit I pushed around, Katamari-like, for all these years, and I enjoy games even more as a result.
... But I will still never call myself a Gamer.
To me, the classification of "Gamer" has a lot of baggage; it's a word that feels inherently exclusionary and hostile (especially right now.) I can't help but compare it to the word "Foodie," which conjures up images of and experiences with people who define their entire identities based on what they put in their mouth (or on their Instagram.) It's one interest above all others, and a label tailor-made for gatekeeping. But like those who simply enjoy cooking, more people than ever before (including women) are incorporating games into their daily habits without defining themselves through them. As with television, books, magazines and movies, gaming is practically ubiquitous in our modern lives; they're being consumed by anyone who cares to, proving that you don't need to be a capital-G Gamer to love and appreciate the medium. Moreover when your interests aren't monolithic, there can be so much more in a game for you to appreciate beyond its performance, mechanics and visual fidelity. Lisa Simpson's love of Jazz would have given her tremendous insight into what makes Grim Fandango's soundtrack so damn good. For my part, my love of fashion has translated into a powerful interest well-designed characters (Vivienne, I'm looking at you) and connoisseurship of character customization systems. When you're not a "Gamer" it's okay to like gaming as much as (or even less than) something else in your life, because the game itself is just one piece of what makes it worth playing.
So I'll admit that accepting the mantle of "Gamer" as a child might have broadened my gaming horizons much sooner, but it's not something I feel compelled to take up now. I don't need to be a Gamer to game, and I never did.
TweetJanine Hawkins (@bleatingheart on Twitter, Iris Ophelia in Second Life) has been writing about virtual worlds and video games for nearly a decade, and has had her work featured on Paste, Kotaku, Jezebel and The Mary Sue.
Gamer = Human. Human = Gamer. It really is that simple. Playing games is hard-wired into our nervous system. Being able to model and "play" scenarios without real-world consequences is a critical survival mechanism.
There's zero compelling evidence that a 'Y' chromosome magically grants you any greater inherent aptitude at it or fundamentally changes the way you play.
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Friday, August 29, 2014 at 06:51 AM
You're a blogger. NOW let's talk about ungainly stereotypes. :)
Posted by: Ghosty Kips | Friday, August 29, 2014 at 11:13 AM
It's disappointing to read a blog post such as this from someone who regularly highlights inequality and discrimination in gaming circles.
Gamers come in many sizes and many forms, casual gamers, hardcore gamers etc. "gamer" is not a dirty word and nor should it be used as such.
Posted by: Ciaran Laval | Friday, August 29, 2014 at 12:24 PM