pixel for a thought: gamer-to-gamer stereotypes

Thanks in large to the social media revolution, anyone and everyone is playing games. But are they "gamers"? If you read books, does that make you a "reader"? If you watch movies, are you a film critic? The answer to all of these is obviously "no."

So what is a true "gamer"? In my opinion, it's ultimately a unique user-defined term; if you proudly assert yourself to be a gamer, then you are. Unfortunately, the rest of the gamer community can judge you otherwise. Browse any forum or news site and you're less likely to find fans fawning over spot-on cosplayers as you are to find perpetual ping-pong flame wars over the most trivial matters in game culture.

This happens when personalities collide.

Below I have outlined the two primary gamer personalities I have observed from my Internet wanderings and real-world interactions with other gamers.

Hardcore Purist—without these people, we wouldn't have Mac vs. PC, Marvel vs. DC, Nintendo vs. SEGA, not even 4chan vs. the world debates. In short, there'd be no pizazz in anyone's life. Usually dedicated to a particular platform (given what they personally own) or a genre/related group of genres (i.e. zombie, horror, suspense, or survival), Hardcore Purists are the best at what they do. And what they do is—gaming. They pay close attention to the specialized design elements of their area of expertise. If you have a question about unlocking cheats, the best way to take down a smoker in multi-player (hint: not lung cancer), or the real-world tech specs on GlaDOS, a Hardcore Purist is your go-to guy.

However... if you're not a decent gamer yourself, good luck keeping a Hardcore Purist as a friend. If you can't even so much as clear the first level without a retry, much less beat the entire game on anything but Easy or Normal modes, Hardcore Purists will tirelessly mock you until you vow never to play games again.

Friendly Enthusiast—without these people, everything would be for the win and not for the fun. They take an open-minded approach, playing games on whatever platforms or genres are available to them. Occasionally they'll get into the encyclopedic fandoms of a particular favorite title or two, but their primary interest lies in the interactive product. Additionally, their fondness for novelty and positive outlook on the evolution of games means that they're likely to first adopt, or at least seriously investigate, new market products like motion controllers. If it's portable, has a multiplayer feature, or a quirky but addictive gameplay mechanic, they'll play it. They usually balance their gaming time with other amusements like rickrolling. In effect, they are jacks of all trades...

However... and masters of none. Friendly Enthusiasts have a shorter patience span than Hardcore Purists and aren't interested in unraveling the game's structure to discover the meaning of life. They may not even *gasp* finish an entire game before moving on to the next thing. They'll conform to whatever the game asks of them. Their entire, unalterable opinion of JRPGs is based on when they played Final Fantasy X once at a friend's house for an hour or so.

Obviously I've exaggerated the characteristics so that these two types represent ends of a scale. Most gamers fall somewhere in the middle, or they switch personalities depending on the context. I have a friend who'd be considered a liberal-minded genre Enthusiast with the sociability of a Purist.

Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? And where do you fall on the gamer spectrum?