Gamers Subculture

By: Clint Jackson

What does it mean to be a Gamer? Gamers are people who play games, but not

everybody who plays games can be classified as a gamer.

Gamer is a title ascribed upon someone who normally spends their leisure time

playing or learning about games[ CITATION The08 \l 1033 ], but within the past couple of

decades, it has been adapted to represent, anyone who actively participates in a

multitude of games. There has been many clichés about what gamers are and one of

these is that they are anti-social and sometimes-downright sociopath, over weight

nerds, however the truth is that the average age of gamers is around 26. In fact, only

25% of gamers are teenagers. About 50% of gamers work full-time. About 36% of

players are married, and 22% have children. [ CITATION MMO04 \l 1033 ]

As technology advances and more computers with Internet connections are

available in homes worldwide, the subculture of online role-playing video gamers has

grown enormously. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) allow

real people to interact & communicate on a global scale with each other in virtual

worlds. These games not only allow you to communicate to people around the world it

allows you to engulf yourself into a rich colorful environment that is filled with adventure,

so while you’re talking to your friends you can also run around a highly developed world

completing quests and killing monsters.

Gamers not only get to run around an artificial world killing monsters and

competing against friends they also get to create their very own unique language. Many
gamers use acronyms to express their thoughts, not simply because there too lazy to

type it out, but because when you’re in the middle of combat it’s hard to stop and type

out a 20 word message telling people where you are at or what you are doing. Gamers

speed things up by shorting the words or abbreviating terminology. Good example of

this is GTG (good to go), BRB (be right back), and even something as complicated as

BOP (bind on pickup.) This language isn’t limited to gamers many of the terms and

accepted understandings have bled over into other activities, like text messaging, chat

rooms, or public forums.