Who are the Gamers?

Video games have changed over the last 30 years from simple PONG and Space Invaders clones into a multi-billion dollar industry where games are on par with the relentless Hollywood machine that has been churning out pop culture for nearly three times as long. The people that play them have changed, as well. No longer are video games relegated to the basements of pimply nerds that have never seen a boob and spend their nights debating long and hard over the merits of D&D 4th Edition versus 3rd. Now, moms are gamers. Grandmas are gamers. Nerds are... still gamers. My cat is a gamer. Vin Diesel is a gamer. Spielberg is a gamer. Obama has a Wii. A recent study claims that American adults today have a 50/50 chance of being a gamer. So what is a "gamer" now, anyway? It doesn't seem like it should be a stigma on your popularity anymore, does it? If so, then half the country is unpopular. And Obama would have to be uncool, too. The only reason he got elected is because he's so cool! What is a gamer today, then?

MTV thinks they know. They had an episode of True Life profiling professional gamers, including one guy who works the "underground" circuit... the dank, seedy underbelly of the digital world that Miyamoto pretends doesn't exist. The real pros (at least at Halo) were teenage gangsta wannabe types that dropped out of school to play games for a living. Sounds like a pipe dream for the average American that has to hold down a full-time job.

Spike TV thinks they have the answer, too. The Spike Video Game Awards bring movie and TV celebrities (Lindsey Lohan? Really?) to the stage to give awards to games and people they've probably never heard of. Sure, the average celebrity probably looks a whole lot better on a poster than the average gamer does, but the commercialization of video game award shows may have the same effect on "real" award ceremonies (like the Interactive Achievement Awards) that the Wii's influence has had on the term "gamer."

Maybe Lionsgate knows the answer. Gamer, a movie about - gamers - is coming out this fall and will star Gerard Butler. Nothing like a little more press for our favorite pastime, eh?

Wikipedia has a fun little article on gamers, labeling the different groups, segregating people who play games into neat little social circles... but isn't the new "everybody can play" Wii mentality supposed to destroy these labels? It won't happen, but we can hope, can't we? However, many "hardcore" and "pro" gamers would hate to be included in the same group with people that just want to play a quick game of Peggle or Mob Wars before bed, and many "casual" gamers don't even consider the few stolen moments of their lives to be actual "gaming."

If you read this blog, you are probably a gamer. If you are an American, you are probably a gamer. If you have the kind of expendable income that could feed an entire third-world village for weeks at a time, you probably waste that money on selfish things... like games. You pay for an experience, an escape. An escape from what? That's what makes us all different. But in the Halo or Call of Duty lobby, we can all be friends sharing similar experiences, as gamers. Awww, sweet togetherness.