People can believe what they want. I call myself a gamer, but I have a job and family and can't afford to pick up even half of the games I want to on release, let alone play them. I have to limit my time and purchases and then pick up the rest when I can. If someone thinks I'm not a serious gamer because of that, then they can kiss it.

I consider myself a gamer but just not of the serious grouping. I play games to have fun not just to win. My only purchases every year are not sports and COD, I play rock band forza and other sports. I see what you guys mean since a few of my friends will play COD of Halo 3 forever.

A lot of people say they play games just to have fun, and not to win. But that's kind of unfair to the other people in your group who are trying to win, don't you think?

Playing for the fun of it is what all gamers do. It's why you play the games in the first place. When I join a game of Team Fortress 2, I'm looking to have fun and enjoy myself. But I'm also planning on trying to win. I'm not going to be super serious about it and yell at my teammates.. where's the fun in that? I'm just going to do my best to try and win.

In the back of everyone's mind is the fun of winning. Serious gamers realize this. They understand how that feels and they want to make it a part of their gaming.


Then again, I'm probably just plain out wrong. Point being. Everyone plays games for fun and I find the "I play games for fun" line stupid. That's just me. It isn't... but I find it that way. Ya know?... no? Okay then. :(

I'm first going to make a disclaimer not to pay any attention to the Gamerscore on this account as I was just checking to see if it was even active anymore or my ex-bf deleted it.



Now off the subject of this piddling little gamerscore and on to the subject at hand. In response to the first message on this thread I can understand being frustrated at people who only play the big "Blockbuster" games and overlook the sleeper releases and then call themselves serious gamers when in actuality they just follow the crowd and only play those games which are in high demand. It's frustrating because those are most likely the people who make the Live experience less fun by being utter jerks and who are always willing to argue about rumors surrounding games, even game settings when they are actually dead wrong.



As to what Te1vanni Guard said about how it sucks when people don't play seriously in matches I agree, nothings worse then one person ruining it for the rest of a group because they constantly use the excuse of, "But I thought we were just playing to have a good time, or, oops I'm sorry did I PK you again? My bad!" Such talk INFURIATES me because if you are playing only with the intent of giving yourself a good time play the d@mn single player!



Now to the amount of games being bought per year equaling how serious you are about gaming I do not agree, while I have various other consoles with many games I've only had my XBOX 360 about a year and a half and while I do have a variety of games for it I really don't plan on buying more until I'm thoroughly satisfied with the amount of time and quality of gameplay I've gotten from the ones I have now. Thus I believe being a serious gamer implies more then just buying a butt-load of the new releases every time the next batch comes out but rather savoring the experiences you get from the games you do have and the joy of completing all the achievements in one set game (What can I say I'm a completionist at heart). Another sign I think of a serious gamer is the joy one gets from finding out more about what is going on inside the industry be it a release that's still a couple months to a year off, to watching the gaming shows on G4, to smiling when your subscription to Game Informer, OXM, etc. arrives in the mail.



Being a serious gamer is more about enjoying your experiences in the gaming community while also sharing those experiences with other gamers, and I'm not sure if I've just meandered out into left field with my little post here but my overall point is that I don't believe it's just the type of games you play, the amount of games you own or even the system you own that dictates whether or not you are a "Serious" gamer but rather how serious you the player are about the games you play. To make it completely corny it's not the game you play but rather the way you play the game that shows your dedication to the video game industry.

Not true. I consider myself a serious gamer but I only buy maybe 2 major... scratch that, 2 games of any type a year, IF I'm lucky but that is due to my financial situation. But the type of "gamer" in your example; I might actually agree with you one that one.

I only get upset when someone claims they are a serious gamer if they are trying to get credit in public for it.... for instance... I have a friend that thinks he can beat anyone, on any game, at any time... yet time after time I have played him on every game I have... which amounts to about 133 games for Xbox and about 89 games for PS3.... and only maybe 2 or 3 times has he beat me!!! I mean he buys the Madden games when they come out and maybe COD and thats it..... I spend roughly anywhere from 300.00 to about 800.00 I did this year on games, accessories, and even game apparel!!! I mean the day Modern Warfare 2 came out.... I had already pre-ordered and paid completely off my Xbox 360 Limited Edition for MW2, my prestige edition (just cuz I wanted the cool NVGs) I gave the game to a friend!! And I bought 5 shirts from Hot Topic!!! I do that with almost every game that I play all the time! Including all the HALOs, Left 4 Dead and now Left 4 Dead 2, all Call of Dutys, Gears of War 1 and 2, EA Sports games (football, basketball, baseball, NCAA, NBA, NFL) You name it, I have probably bought it! I mean this is my life and career, games, computers, consoles, and electronics! I am an electronic junky!! I am an IT Specialist/Consultant and I co-own my business with my father and all I do all day long is repait electronics... so I guess if anyone I know would be a serious gamer, it would be myself! Oh and to top off my already busy schedule I normally play on GBs and private matches on more than 8 games...... hahaha!! Oh well Im off for now!!

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xArielsWARRIORx
United States Marine Corps - 24MEU Clan
Semper Fi til I DIE!
CALL OF DUTY Veteran

BTW....I just noticed that I used my new account to post this! So if you want to judge my gaming on my gamerscore, this is the wrong account to do so!

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xArielsWARRIORx
United States Marine Corps - 24MEU Clan
Semper Fi til I DIE!
CALL OF DUTY Veteran

I hate serious gamers. People think they are so good at Halo, COD, blah blah blah. Do you know these "serious" gamers ruined clan support in games these days? Ever since this UNOFFICIAL MLG bullcrap started, games quit caring about clan support. Halo 2 had great in game clan matches, and Halo 3 took clans completely out of the game.

I hate MLG, Gamebattles, and serious gamers who contribute to their stupid services. Who put MLG in charge of everything, anyway? No one, they just started a website and got lucky.

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Programmer, Musician, Astronomer, Martial Artist
www.sedativechunk.com

I dunno, I mean, I used to be able to call myself a "Hardcore" gamer, but anymore, with a bunch of little ones running around, full time job, errands, stuff with my kids school and the like, I can't seem to find time to play as much as I used to. Now mind you, when I do, I'm still playing everything from Tetris on my old green screen gameboy all the way up to Oblivion or GH:5 on my 360, and I still have about 12 systems in between I still play. Just because I don't buy the newest games anymore shouldn't mean I'm not a gamer anymore, should it?

As far as ignorant people go? I understand completely. I've been playing FPS since Wolfenstein 3D was still a shareware product and iD was just trying to get into the market (Curse of the Catacombs anyone?). Nothing irks me more than when someone talks about how Halo or Call of Duty are the greatest FPS games or series' ever. It's like somewhere they completely blew off or never took the time to play Goldeneye (N64), the Timesplitters series of games (multiplatform), Duke Nukem 3D (PC), Rise of The Triad (PC), Deus Ex or even Deus Ex: Invisible war, just to name a few, but to name off all the good FPS ever made, my post would be considerably longer. Eh, you'll have that though. The best plan of action I can say is to take those kids that all they know is COD or Halo, play em at their own game, and then show em what a fragfest is all about.

I don't think I agree with the first sentence of your post. I am one of those serious gamers who only buys a few major titles a year, and for a few good reasons:
First, I have kids to feed. I also have rent to pay, bills to catch up on, and a butt-load of other things I can't afford to let slide. On the rare occasion that I can run to a Game Stop or Best Buy, I usually have had to sell or trade something in order to afford a relatively new game in the first place.
Second, I almost always wait until a brand new game is out for a few months before I buy it. This usually saves me ten bucks with the price drop, and I can usually get a pretty good read on it from other friends who have played it and tell me what they think. If the feedback is lukewarm or bad, I'll usually avoid it, or rent if I'm still curious.
Third and final point is the fact that I'm a 28-year-old teenager. If I don't have to be to work in the morning, or the kids are sleeping in, I'll game my quantum singularity off until I know every location of every hidden item and six different ways to beat the level I'm on, while I'm also on your mom.

For the record, I hate most sports games, and I don't care what time period Call of Duty is taking place in. As a veteran, I only care about the sound my gun makes when it takes a guy's face off at 200 yards. When I play, I'm not happy unless I'm swimming in a lake of enemy blood. Sports games are for pussies who can't hack it on a real court or field, and I think they should require everyone to gain all achievements before they're allowed to talk about "their latest shutout" in public.

As for the rest of your rant, I'm in modest agreement. Keep it real, and don't sweat the posers.