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"Gamers" are a strange group of people.

thief183

Member
In any other Hobby there is a kinda of a rule that you want to know every aspect of that hobby, I'll make an example.

If someone love running with cars or love cars in general 9 times out of 10 they know how the engine works, wich breaks are better and most of the time they know every single aspect of the "racing" anvironment. Same could be said for example for Chees players, a real hobbist in chees know the name of the champions, knows the movsets and all the stuff that ... I don't know cause I don't play it...

This "rule" can be applied almost to everything, but not on videogames.

In our Hobby most of the people is just ok with playing it, they don't care for what mouse you use, the response time, how graphics technology works, they just play.

I mean there are ppl that play games at the easy level!?!?!? When I'll have to do it I'll just stop playing :)

And this pisses me off :D

My PC is a state of the art machine, I love my hobby, I love the games, I love the tech, I love the hardware. I saved money to buy the best mouse around, the best keyboard, the best Videocard and everything else, I keep it clean and don't install any bloataware of any type.

Gaming is my hobby and I want to know everything about it, it is not even an expensive one compared to other stuff (cars or coins for example).

Why do you think is so hard to find someone so "into" in this hobby?
 

Animagic

Banned
In any other Hobby there is a kinda of a rule that you want to know every aspect of that hobby, I'll make an example.

If someone love running with cars or love cars in general 9 times out of 10 they know how the engine works, wich breaks are better and most of the time they know every single aspect of the "racing" anvironment. Same could be said for example for Chees players, a real hobbist in chees know the name of the champions, knows the movsets and all the stuff that ... I don't know cause I don't play it...

This "rule" can be applied almost to everything, but not on videogames.

In our Hobby most of the people is just ok with playing it, they don't care for what mouse you use, the response time, how graphics technology works, they just play.

I mean there are ppl that play games at the easy level!?!?!? When I'll have to do it I'll just stop playing :)

And this pisses me off :D

My PC is a state of the art machine, I love my hobby, I love the games, I love the tech, I love the hardware. I saved money to buy the best mouse around, the best keyboard, the best Videocard and everything else, I keep it clean and don't install any bloataware of any type.

Gaming is my hobby and I want to know everything about it, it is not even an expensive one compared to other stuff (cars or coins for example).

Why do you think is so hard to find someone so "into" in this hobby?
I can understand this. I used to feel the same way but now I just want to play a game after work or before work with my coffee and move on with my life.

I think there’s room for both extremes and everything in between with game playing enthusiasts
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
"I mean there are ppl that play games at the easy level!?!?!? When I'll have to do it I'll just stop playing :)"
ohhh fuck right off. What do I always have to challenge myself?

Other part is interesting - I know many people who play games but most of them do not know shit about any hardware and 99% of games. They just play fifa or so on. I would not call them gamers.
And not everyone that play video games is a hobbyist
 

thief183

Member
I have a family, work and chores. I play on easy, there a problem?

Yes!!!! I got a family a work too, not kids tho, and I will never play on easy :p

I mean, games are software. Did anyone actually get into gaming because they loved hardware so much?

Nope, you get into gaming for the games, but I can't understand how somone doesn't have the curiosity to get deeper in the hobby.
 

Fare thee well

Neophyte
I'll never understand caring about how other people play games, especially single player games.

Sure, if a dev makes their game hard, easy, or optionally both, they have every right. But who really cares what people choose after that fact.

It's equivalent of going out to casual tennis players and barrating them for not trying to play ranked tournaments.
 

thief183

Member
"I mean there are ppl that play games at the easy level!?!?!? When I'll have to do it I'll just stop playing :)"
ohhh fuck right off. What do I always have to challenge myself?

Other part is interesting - I know many people who play games but most of them do not know shit about any hardware and 99% of games. They just play fifa or so on. I would not call them gamers.
And not everyone that play video games is a hobbyist

You always have to challange yourself, always.

I guess btw that the ppl that play FIFA don't frequent this forum.
 

Danknugz

Member
What you say is probably more the case for console gamers, but with PC most gamers are actually quite knowledgeable and it’s rare to find someone who hasn’t built at least part of their Pc unlike all consoles which are basically boutique PCs that come prebuilt, require no knowledge about computing.
 

thief183

Member
I'll never understand caring about how other people play games, especially single player games.

Sure, if a dev makes their game hard, easy, or optionally both, they have every right. But who really cares what people choose after that fact.

It's equivalent of going out to casual tennis players and barrating them for not trying to play ranked tournaments.

While I always try to enter ranked tournaments even at 37 Yo, :D, that wasn't the point I was just comparing other type of hobbies and how ppl live them with gaming.
 

elliot5

Member
Car hobbyists are able to get their hands into the system and physically interact with the engines, watch videos breaking it all down, etc.

Software, and by extension video games, are not that accessible unless they're open source. You have to become a pro developer or hobbyist developer making things in UE/Unity/whatever if you want to learn more about how games work like how a car lover learns how cars work as a hobby.

You can also watch GDC presentations, SIGGRAPH presentations, etc if you want to dive deeper. A vast majority of people are just passively playing games, like how most people passively drive cars without the need to go deeper.
 

thief183

Member
I don't. It's not work. I like to play uncharted 4 on easy to swing around and have fun shootouts.
When I want to play dark souls, I play dark souls

I mean, everyone plays how they want, but then again, the opinions on a game will change a lot, cause the difficulty level is part of the experience.

Also wich opinion os more valid? the one that played the easy mode or the medium? Or even the hard mode?

When somone write a review on steam or metacritic or any other place, they will not wriet how they played it, so their opinion becomes... nothing more than a rant.

The thread btw wasnìt about that, that was just a bad placed joke.
 

Phase

Member
Yes let's lump everyone together...

There are all different types of gamers. I, for one, love finding out how hardware/software works. The more I know the better informed I am and can make better decisions. You have techies and casuals and everything in between. Look harder, those with deep interest are all over the place.
 

thief183

Member
Yes let's lump everyone together...

There are all different types of gamers. I, for one, love finding out how hardware/software works. The more I know the better informed I am and can make better decisions. You have techies and casuals and everything in between. Look harder, those with deep interest are all over the place.

I agree, and wrote it down here only cause this is a forum for ppl that are really into the hobby.
 
Well , it's personal and for the most part the stereotype plays a big role cause by your pov you immediately ignore the age factor as well as other common factors cause by its nature it's forgiving and unconditional to build relationships with the online community, call me if I'm wrong but the online community on pc is legit and all other platforms are just fake and I don't care how much you chit-chat with someone you met playing a console ,it's never going to last , pc is superior on this part hands down.
 
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Phase

Member
I agree, and wrote it down here only cause this is a forum for ppl that are really into the hobby.
You asked why it is hard to find others with great interest in the hobby. I'm saying it's not hard. You're on here, so there's one place. Go to any tech forum and find a million others. They're out there.

I will agree that it is much harder to find others in real life with the same interest level.
 

kevm3

Member
There's ton of gamers who like to delve into hardware or software, hence all of the modding that goes on in games or people dumping thousands of dollars on the graphics card alone.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
There are tons of people who use cars every day, but don't know how they work. Similarly, there are lots of people who play chess but don't know the names of the champions or moves. Same with gaming - there are tons of people who play them every day without knowing how they work.

Is OP just gatekeeping?
 

Excess

Member
In any other Hobby there is a kinda of a rule that you want to know every aspect of that hobby, I'll make an example.

If someone love running with cars or love cars in general 9 times out of 10 they know how the engine works, wich breaks are better and most of the time they know every single aspect of the "racing" anvironment. Same could be said for example for Chees players, a real hobbist in chees know the name of the champions, knows the movsets and all the stuff that ... I don't know cause I don't play it...

This "rule" can be applied almost to everything, but not on videogames.

In our Hobby most of the people is just ok with playing it, they don't care for what mouse you use, the response time, how graphics technology works, they just play.

I mean there are ppl that play games at the easy level!?!?!? When I'll have to do it I'll just stop playing :)

And this pisses me off :D

My PC is a state of the art machine, I love my hobby, I love the games, I love the tech, I love the hardware. I saved money to buy the best mouse around, the best keyboard, the best Videocard and everything else, I keep it clean and don't install any bloataware of any type.

Gaming is my hobby and I want to know everything about it, it is not even an expensive one compared to other stuff (cars or coins for example).

Why do you think is so hard to find someone so "into" in this hobby?
I'm like this, but I think you may be confusing gaming as a hobby with what the overall goal of the hobby itself.

With cars, the goal is performance, other than aesthetics, so you naturally need to know how the vehicle works. With chess, you need to understand the rules of the game to win. With gaming, much like chess, you need to understand how game mechanics work, and that's what we all have in common. There are universal game mechanics that tend to be transferable to other games, and we try to understand what the game is asking of us and how to complete those tasks.

I think where learning how the hardware works is where you take it one step further and understand how the performance of hardware actually affects the gameplay itself, ie. FPS, peripherals, input lag, etc. But in the end, it's still about understanding gameplay.
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
In any other Hobby there is a kinda of a rule that you want to know every aspect of that hobby, I'll make an example.

If someone love running with cars or love cars in general 9 times out of 10 they know how the engine works, wich breaks are better and most of the time they know every single aspect of the "racing" anvironment. Same could be said for example for Chees players, a real hobbist in chees know the name of the champions, knows the movsets and all the stuff that ... I don't know cause I don't play it...

This "rule" can be applied almost to everything, but not on videogames.

In our Hobby most of the people is just ok with playing it, they don't care for what mouse you use, the response time, how graphics technology works, they just play.

I mean there are ppl that play games at the easy level!?!?!? When I'll have to do it I'll just stop playing :)

And this pisses me off :D

My PC is a state of the art machine, I love my hobby, I love the games, I love the tech, I love the hardware. I saved money to buy the best mouse around, the best keyboard, the best Videocard and everything else, I keep it clean and don't install any bloataware of any type.

Gaming is my hobby and I want to know everything about it, it is not even an expensive one compared to other stuff (cars or coins for example).

Why do you think is so hard to find someone so "into" in this hobby?

This part is incredibly lame and out of touch. Ok great, that works for you, but not everyone games that way. There are others who only like easy mode for certain games due to limited gaming time, etc.... Me, i play most on normal, some on easy. But i also have played through all the Souls games and Bloodborne as well, so i enjoy a good challenge and here's the important part.....when i have time for it.

It doesn't make me or anyone else LESS of a "gamer" than you are because we choose to play games differently. It's a hobby and is for fun, it's not a pissing contest. If you like all games, then i assume that includes cellphone games. I think those are the most UN gamer type games ever created, but to each their own. My point is, noone gets to define who is a true gamer based on what they play or how they play things.
 
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thief183

Member
There are tons of people who use cars every day, but don't know how they work. Similarly, there are lots of people who play chess but don't know the names of the champions or moves. Same with gaming - there are tons of people who play them every day without knowing how they work.

Is OP just gatekeeping?

True, but those people are probably not frequenting this forum...
 

GreatnessRD

Member
In any other Hobby there is a kinda of a rule that you want to know every aspect of that hobby, I'll make an example.

If someone love running with cars or love cars in general 9 times out of 10 they know how the engine works, wich breaks are better and most of the time they know every single aspect of the "racing" anvironment. Same could be said for example for Chees players, a real hobbist in chees know the name of the champions, knows the movsets and all the stuff that ... I don't know cause I don't play it...

This "rule" can be applied almost to everything, but not on videogames.

In our Hobby most of the people is just ok with playing it, they don't care for what mouse you use, the response time, how graphics technology works, they just play.

I mean there are ppl that play games at the easy level!?!?!? When I'll have to do it I'll just stop playing :)

And this pisses me off :D

My PC is a state of the art machine, I love my hobby, I love the games, I love the tech, I love the hardware. I saved money to buy the best mouse around, the best keyboard, the best Videocard and everything else, I keep it clean and don't install any bloataware of any type.

Gaming is my hobby and I want to know everything about it, it is not even an expensive one compared to other stuff (cars or coins for example).

Why do you think is so hard to find someone so "into" in this hobby?
Specs or it didn't happen.
 

thief183

Member
This part is incredibly lame and out of touch. Ok great, that works for you, but not everyone games that way. There are others who only like easy mode for certain games due to limited gaming time, etc.... Me, i play most on normal, some on easy. But i also have played through all the Souls games and Bloodborne as well, so i enjoy a good challenge and here's the important part.....when i have time for it.

It doesn't make me or anyone else LESS of a "true gamer" than you are because we choose to play games differently. It's a hobby and is for fun, it's not a pissing contest. If you like all games, then i assume that includes cellphone games. I think those are the most UN gamer type games ever created, but to each their own. My point is, noone gets to define who is a true gamer based on what they play or how they play things.

I already stated that that was bad placed joke, also "true gamer" is something that you will never heard coming out of my mouth.

I was just trying to compare the gaming hobby with other hobbies and highlighting the differences.
 
This "rule" can be applied almost to everything, but not on videogames.
Is that really true? I'm pretty sure it applies to most hobbies that consist primarily of consuming content other people have made, whether it's video games, movies or books.
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
I already stated that that was bad placed joke, also "true gamer" is something that you will never heard coming out of my mouth.

I was just trying to compare the gaming hobby with other hobbies and highlighting the differences.

Ok i took the true part out of the "true gamer" phrase for accuracy. It doesnt make that stuff you said though any less out of touch. I'd say any hobby is the same, really. Noone should be able to judge someone's passion for a hobby based on the differences in how each person enjoys it. It's lame.
 

thief183

Member
Specs or it didn't happen.

The gaming one is:

I9 9900k at 5ghz (I got an I9 10900k at work that I switched cause I needed it for rendering)
Asus Prima z390-p (as I said I had to switch the processor and so even the motherboard)
Asus Strix 3090 gaming OC (that "gaming OC" makes me a reall gamer :p)
32 Gb ddr4 corsair 4200
SSDs and HDDs for recordings
Case Corsair Crystal ...I don't remember the name...)

and other stuff.

But that wasn't the point of the thread :p
 

Aion002

Member
Games are just bigger.

You can be a video game fan and only play on pc or a console, without ever caring about everything else.


Heck, there are many people that loves video games and only play sports games, people that buys a new PlayStation or Xbox just to play Fifa, Madden or NBA every year without ever feeling the need to play a Halo or Uncharted.

Video games are just too big to be compared to chess or most other hobbies.

Also, most people doesn't give a shit about the hardware because they enjoy the games, discovering and mastering the games... If the console or pc is working on magic or alien tech, most still won't care, because if it's working and they can play the games they want that will be enough.

In other words... It's mostly all about the games.


People that cares about the hardware are the minority... And that's great... Because you know... A brand new console with the latest tech without games is mostly just a Netflix or Spotify player in the end of the day.
 
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I think this OP, while well intentioned, has a somewhat flawed premise.

In any hobby, you'll find a general audience, and then an enthusiast segment with ever-increasing amounts of passion, attention to detail, and "strive for perfection" in their hobby. Gaming is no different.

Take retro gaming, for example:

- It has to be original consoles. If not original consoles, the lowest enthusiasts may settle for are FPGA clone consoles of very high fidelity
- Can't just be stock AV cables, have to be either SCART RGB or component cables... Made by *specific* manufacturers
- Can't just plug component cables directly into the TV. They have to go through an upscaler, and the upscaler has to provide a lot of features to maintain image and sound integrity, as well as low/no lag.
- For those plugging their cables directly into a TV, it has to be not even a regular CRT, but a PVM/BVM. (Although, given how difficult those specialty TVs are to find at reasonable prices, some enthusiasts settle for higher end "consumer" CRTs like the Sony Trinitron line).
- Given the rise of bootleg carts that look like the real thing, a lot of enthusiasts know what to look for and open carts they buy secondhand online, to make sure they're not fakes
- .... etc etc etc

On the other hand, those wanting to get a quick retro fix just buy an SNES/Genesis mini, plug it directly into their TV, and call it a day.

I remember when I was hardcore into classic rock. I followed (and still follow) the music and musicians, but you'd have people that only played original analog (or mastered from an analog source) records on their sound system that went upwards of $10k (and even more).

There's a spectrum in every hobby.
 

Fake

Member
Came to a gaming forum and call gamers a strange group.


c07.gif
 

01011001

Banned
that's why we have the term core gamer. everyone else is the casual gamer kind you described

loke the people that comment in tech focused threads but that still don't get how checkerboard rendering works and say shit like "1440p checkerboarded up to 4K" 🤣
 
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Zannegan

Member


Just as with any entertainment medium, there are people who enjoy the process and people who just enjoy the product. While one side of that spectrum (and where you draw the line is always arbitrary, lol) clearly knows more, that doesn't necessarily make them more "true" as fans. The folks who aren't as into gaming may just value their time more than I do. =P
 
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Jeeves

Member
Can't have software without hardware. Hardware is the magic sauce that makes it all possible.
But being knowledgeable about hardware isn't going to deepen one's appreciation of the software. Not the same way that nerding out about game design might deepen one's appreciation of games. Which is another topic casual fans tend not to delve into. It's strange to me that OP is more concerned with people's interest in hardware rather than the finer points of the software.

But then again, here on GAF it usually feels like people are more enthused to talk about hardware than anything else.
 

JSoup

Banned
The difference is the hobby part of this hobby came way later and it's not even 40% necessary to understand how things work. With cars, models, crafts, etc. there is an aspect of learning built right in and is required to participate. Video games don't really have that bar for entry. It's a consumer product with no real expiration date, to be enjoyed and discarded in favor or acquiring the next thing. Sure, you're going to find people who are all into the minutia and making/building their own stuff, but that's not going to apply to the majority in this case.
 
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rofif

Can’t Git Gud
I mean, everyone plays how they want, but then again, the opinions on a game will change a lot, cause the difficulty level is part of the experience.

Also wich opinion os more valid? the one that played the easy mode or the medium? Or even the hard mode?

When somone write a review on steam or metacritic or any other place, they will not wriet how they played it, so their opinion becomes... nothing more than a rant.

The thread btw wasnìt about that, that was just a bad placed joke.
ok I won't drag it out. I understand it was a one off joke.
I just think that it's not a player problem how he played the game as long as it was enjoyable. Developers who give option for difficulty levels usually clearly label their recommended as "normal" and so on.
If players goes on easy or explorer mode. They should understand it might be easier than developer intended but it's there if you want to maybe experience a story or graphics.
For example, Soma has this "safe monsters" mode which I absolutely love since the scare comes from atmosphere of existential dread and not monster chases. So now I can enjoy it without being annoyed.
But FEAR I play on highest difficulty without crosshair because I feel more immersed and AI is so good on harder difficulty
 

thief183

Member
But being knowledgeable about hardware isn't going to deepen one's appreciation of the software. Not the same way that nerding out about game design might deepen one's appreciation of games. Which is another topic casual fans tend not to delve into. It's strange to me that OP is more concerned with people's interest in hardware rather than the finer points of the software.

But then again, here on GAF it usually feels like people are more enthused to talk about hardware than anything else.

The interest in hardware was part of what I intended.

I'll make another example....

Wait a second, actually if you take every single game as an entity it becomes more clear.

I play Hunt showdown, I know every single thing about the game, damage drop distances, angles, every single trick, and actually most of the players do... they might not get anything about the hardware but they get deeper in the "software" and mechanics part.

You made a good point.
 
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