What kind of gamer are you?

A recent video from a youtuber I follow made me wonder about this. There are many types of gamers in the world, those who barely touch the scene besides a few extremely barebones low budget mass market games, those who like to play only a very small number of games but play those games religiously, those who play basically everything mainstream, and about a million different subsets that focus on specific genres or types of games.

It made me curious which everyone here is, or they perceive themselves as.

I'm sort of a hybrid myself, I follow the main Pokemon series religiously to the point I'll buy any system to play a new release, and frequently play on simulators. I follow the (j)RPG scene religiously as well as I'm sure everyone here is aware of, but outside Pokemon and Tales Of the number of games I actually play is very slim contrary to how much I follow the scene.

So I'd say I'm a hybrid of the religiously plays one game and focusses on a specific genre subset, occasionally branching out in to a mainstream game.

So, what about everyone else? What type of gamer do you think you are?

It's a curios one as words like casual and hardcore get tossed around all the time.

But does my Aunt who plays Candy Crush etc most days for X amount of hours make her a casual as she's playing a casual game but she like what I call the midcore / dudebro who will buy COD, FIFA and if there let's say on Xbox Halo 5 & maybe some other big game like Fallout 4 but they like my Aunt does with candy crush will play what COD every day in MP for 12 month's.

Does that make them less of a gamer then let's say me who plays everything on every system where possible & go's from Everybody's Gone to the Rapture to Uncharted 1 to Life is Strange to Halo 5 to Black Ops III to Dragon Quest Heroes to soon Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Which are all different genres some are the most mainstream you can get then some are fairly niche. With likes of let's say COD, I've played the campaign and a bit multi player but have sold already and moved on the next game.

I want to say Hardcore as from what I'm saying I play a lot I will play pretty much any genre or will at least try, I of course talk about games a lot, watch / listen to stuff about games but if you took how many hours I play from Jan 1st - Dec 31st against some who plays religiously just 3 or 4 games over the same period, I would say it be closer then you may think.

But also if you look at games I own 213 of them is for the Dreamcast and 40+ for the GameCube does that make a retro gamer, not really as I do barely play them, so that does that make me a collector as I also own 62 retail Wii U games.

Then I'm a big fan of indie games, I don't play as many as you would think or even buy as many either but I've support about 15 games via some sort of crowd funding and to get back to the Dreamcast but I own 9 indie games on that but that make me more a patron of the arts of game making and helping the little guy (not sure you can say that about Yu Suzuki) out.

If you asked this question back in 1995 you'd get would a sort of fanboy answer with I only play SEGA games.

That my answer is that I'm a jack of all trades.

I'm a very different gamer than I was five years ago, which was very different to five years before that and so on. I've gone from playing my Game Boy and trying to get chances to play other people's machines, to someone who obsessed over Nintendo to now being someone who tries to sample everything I can. I still love Nintendo games, but I also like to explore interesting indie stuff on Steam, big AAA experiences on my XBox and fun, social little multiplayer things on my phone. I'm also someone who loves to discuss this stuff and thinks everyone needs to hear my thoughts on what games are, what they can be and what they should be.

At the moment, I'm a gamer who doesn't play very many games. The Nintendo release schedule and NaNo are to blame.

I'm somebody who tries to play everything. The only games that I'm likely to be happy to miss are either broken, sports or racing. Even then I tend to dip in occasionally.

An idea I've had for a little while is that alongside 'casual' and 'hardcore' - as broad labels, natch - there's 'Nintendo gamer', for we are not either of those two. Anyway, I am a Nintendo gamer - I'll play any Zelda (except for a couple... you know the ones I mean), Mario or main series Pokemon game, and will pick up most Kirby titles, Metroids, Karts, etc. I also dabble in JRPG's, puzzle games and 2D platformers.

Play many games across plenty of genres; finish* very few.

Follow a few gaming personalities; 'play' some games vicariously through them.

Too many games and not enough time.

*Finish: In a single player game - just finishing the main story, I never bother to Plat games because I view many achievements as pointless busy work. If we're talking sim games - Cities: Skylines, Banished, Europa Universalis IV - you don't finish those games as such, but I haven't played any of them enough come close to considering me being 'finished' with them.

ZeroJones wrote:

An idea I've had for a little while is that alongside 'casual' and 'hardcore' - as broad labels, natch - there's 'Nintendo gamer', for we are not either of those two. Anyway, I am a Nintendo gamer - I'll play any Zelda (except for a couple... you know the ones I mean), Mario or main series Pokemon game, and will pick up most Kirby titles, Metroids, Karts, etc. I also dabble in JRPG's, puzzle games and 2D platformers.

Let's be honest: this is me.

Balladeer wrote:

ZeroJones wrote:

An idea I've had for a little while is that alongside 'casual' and 'hardcore' - as broad labels, natch - there's 'Nintendo gamer', for we are not either of those two. Anyway, I am a Nintendo gamer - I'll play any Zelda (except for a couple... you know the ones I mean), Mario or main series Pokemon game, and will pick up most Kirby titles, Metroids, Karts, etc. I also dabble in JRPG's, puzzle games and 2D platformers.

Let's be honest: this is me.

I was actually going to to replay back to your first post balla as you put I'm a gamer who doesn't play very many games. The Nintendo release schedule, I wasn't going to say what your thinking I'm going to say but using Zero as an example as you said about Nintendo release schedule and yeah this year over the two systems they've published very little but Zero who is also just in the Nintendo ecosystem (mobile as well but we will forget about that for a second) & from what I gather is also a busy chap having to mark homework etc yet he often posts in last game I finished thread or what I'm playing as far as I know he's playing at the moment Freedom Planet & Binding of Issac and from counting classic were on other systems at the moment but he's Yes'd likes of Batman Arkham City, Thomas Was Alone.

That there is far more even on the Wii U's limited library part from just what Nintendo's bringing, I known you've some games from others like Year Walk as it came recommend from Zero and you didn't like it (not sure) but maybe you trust Zero's or whoevers opinion on these games not published from the big N.

And what I know of you two I would 100% go Balla is a Nintendo Gamer but Zero now I wouldn't I'm not sure what though.

Balladeer wrote:

ZeroJones wrote:

An idea I've had for a little while is that alongside 'casual' and 'hardcore' - as broad labels, natch - there's 'Nintendo gamer', for we are not either of those two. Anyway, I am a Nintendo gamer - I'll play any Zelda (except for a couple... you know the ones I mean), Mario or main series Pokemon game, and will pick up most Kirby titles, Metroids, Karts, etc. I also dabble in JRPG's, puzzle games and 2D platformers.

Let's be honest: this is me.

Please note, all: I am not an alt account of Balla's.

Rumours that I made an alternate account of mine admin. to take full control of the forum are completely unsubstantiated.

Completely. *cough*

The casual and hardcore thing is odd. Because to me, somebody who plays Call of Duty every night would be more hardcore than somebody playing Mario Golf on Gamecube once a week.

Subconsciously, I want to be a Nintendo only gamer, as I love Nintendo, but it would limit my fun. I currently play Xbox 360 once or twice a week (usually PES online) and I’m playing Mario Galaxy with my daughter at the weekend. Every now and then I’ll boot up a retro game like Chrono Trigger or Crazy Taxi, but I don’t have the money or the time to be a true retro gamer. I don’t have either to be a collector, even though I’d love to. And I don’t have the money to buy a PS4 or Xbox One – I recently sold my Wii-U as I’d rather have a bash on the 360 than force myself to like the latest first-party Nintendo release.

I would say I’m just a gamer, one who wants support Nintendo but can’t at the moment. If that makes sense…

I'm a forum gamer

That is, I spend 20% of my time playing games and 80% of my time talking about playing games on forums

^ I am also this.

Much like buska said this has changed for me over the last 5 years or so, for example I wouldn't usually go anywhere near turn based rpgs but these days I'm willing to give anything a fair go and because of that I tried the Indivisible prototype on ps4 today.

It's combat is a hybrid of turn based commands and using simple button combos & it was great fun.

I'm a bit of a lazy completionist gamer. I set out to complete a game 100%, get all the trophies/achievements, beat it on the hardest difficulty and then inevitably I give up half way through.

OrangeRakoon wrote:

I'm a forum gamer

That is, I spend 20% of my time playing games and 80% of my time talking about playing games on forums

Balladeer wrote:

^I am also this.

Yup. I spend more reading / talking about games than I do playing them. This evening I've potentially got free, before the Direct, so I could be playing something right now; but I thought I'd better check up on all the forums and news sites etc.


I don't think I can categorise myself. Reading what everyone wrote: I have to play all of the major Nintendo games, but won't touch JRPGs. I like Dark Souls, Minecraft and FIFA, but not Call of Duty; I want to get to the end of every game I start, and ignore whether I might be bored of it, but I won't ever try and get Achievements/Trophies/Stickers. I like quirky alternative PC games like the Stanley Parable and Jazzpunk, but Papers Please and Soma are a bit much.

The_Jaster wrote:

Much like buska said this has changed for me over the last 5 years or so, for example I wouldn't usually go anywhere near turn based rpgs but these days I'm willing to give anything a fair go and because of that I tried the Indivisible prototype on ps4 today.

It's combat is a hybrid of turn based commands and using simple button combos & it was great fun.

I wrote a post about that game on the kickstarter thread, was pretty good I thought.

I'm not on these forums as much as I was a few weeks ago, because I've a new job and can't access the site via their wifi. But I tend to find that I frequent news sites and forums more often when I'm feeling a little 'burnt out' on playing games - a strange feeling I get every so often when I look at my library, knowing full well there are a few untapped good games in there, but just can't muster the will to play them.

I'm still interested in games though, so I'll spend time I could be gaming reading through news sites and such.

Jimbob wrote:

...won't touch JRPGs. I like Dark Souls...

????

(yes okay it's a heavily western influenced action RPG but still)

It's now it's own genre though the Souls-like not JPRG which is completely diffenrt but the issue of them may be down to the combat in them for Jim but ones like FFXV may fix that issue if that's the issue.

I'm more on the casual side now I guess

OrangeRakoon wrote:

Jimbob wrote:

...won't touch JRPGs. I like Dark Souls...

????

(yes okay it's a heavily western influenced action RPG but still)

Yes, sorry - I know it's Japanese, and an RPG... I basically mean, in a slightly ignorant sense, "turn based" or "sort of turn based when you get closed to a thing that means 'baddies are here' ".

Because it's Japaneses and a RPG doesn't mean it's a JRPG, same as Child of Light was made in France or was it Canada doesn't mean it's not a JRPG.

It's what would of been sort of an action RPG but now because there's a bunch of games like it most say Souls-like.

A lot of games on Kickstarter are JRPG's but made in the west.

But what your saying a JRPG is, is kinda right yet some like FFXV for instance is all real time.