• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Can we switch "Gamers" to "Players"?

Oppo

Member
Like many of you I still wince a bit at "gamers" because it feels like a slightly diminishing label, assigned by news media and the like.

I prefer, and say, "Players" instead. It has deeper roots in the actual nomenclature of the hobby (Player 1 get ready, etc) and actually feels a bit more descriptive to me, in the way that actors in a play are Players, playing a role. Plus the verb is actually Playing – "Gaming" has the same issue as Gamer. No one says, oh my wife is gaming Splatoon. She's playing.

I know language is a fickle, liquid thing, and I am certainly tilting at windmills but this one, I feel we could alter the course, if we really wanted. Use Players. You Play Games.
 
I think part of the problem is just the fact that people are using it as a label for themselves. That there is nothing more interesting or valuable about themselves than the fact that they play video games, so any perceived threat on video games is a threat to their very identity. Changing the specific word doesn't necessarily change that.
 
I prefer Client.

Sounds all fancy when you start talking about disappointing the client. Upsetting the client. Satisfying the client.
 
I find people that are offended by the label a bit silly. I play games, I'm a "gamer". I have no qualms with it. Call me a geek, nerd, whatever you want. I don't give a shit, it won't stop me from enjoying my hobby.
 
In certain circles, a 'player' could be slang for a promiscuous male, which doesn't fit the general image of a 'gamer'. Not speaking from experience or anything. *cough*
 
I will never understand why gamers feel so insulted at being called a gamer. It's just a word to describe someone who plays games a lot. Other hobbies have their own terms but they don't freak out over it.
 
If I didn't dislike the term gamer enough before, the gamergaters made sure that that I want to puke a little in my mouth every time I hear it now.
 
In certain circles, a 'player' could be slang for a promiscuous male, which doesn't fit the general image of a 'gamer'. Not speaking from experience or anything. *cough*

zjbToJe.jpg

Skisonic will have words with you...
 
Like many of you I still wince a bit at "gamers" because it feels like a slightly diminishing label, assigned by news media and the like.

So you just wanna give up on an entire word because some people used it in a negative context? How weak is that?
 
Top Bottom