Am I a Gamer....? hmmmm

It was interesting during the first day of class when Kevin raised the phase of ‘gamer’.  When I heard the word of ‘gamer’, the very first thing that came to mind was that ‘gamer’ is a word which refers to a person who plays games (of course) but more than for me it was not just playing the game but constantly playing the game.

Just out of curiosity I Googled the word of ‘gamer’ and here is what Mr. Google has to say:

“gamer: gam·er/ˈgāmər/

Noun:

A person who plays a game or games, typically a participant in a computer or role-playing game”.

After reading the definition of gamer. It got me start thinking. Personally speaking, I have never thought or labeled myself as being a gamer. Firstly, I don’t think I have played enough game (games) nor spending enough times on playing games to be qualified as a gamer. But on the other hand, as the gamer refers to “a person who plays a game or games…” simply based on this statement; maybe I could see my self as a gamer?  This thought has bought me to the idea of ‘casual games’. According to the lecture, the definition of ‘casual games’ is tricky, but the core feature is that they are intended to be easy to get into: no jargon, no presumption of prior knowledge or skills. 

Flashing back to the games that I used to play with was mainly Super Marios bros, Tetris, Pac Man etc. All of these games are reasonably easy to play with because all you have to do is to jump and avoid. Casual games are popular in both presents and past period. It’s because they are easy to learn and it dose not requires you with much knowledge of the game. Rules are simple and straightforward and sometimes you can play it with the whole family. Therefore, everyone can play. 

Causal games are flexible, dose not need to pay much attention on to it, a popular game in todays gaming industry would the be ‘Farmville’. I had to admit that few of my friends and even members of my families got very addicted to that game. They have been pretty much playing Farmerville every time they have Internet access. I remember hearing them saying “stop stealing my vegs and fruit” or “ can you please water my farm for me?” 

Farmville was so “powerful” that it made my uncle and my cousins to set their alarms on the dots so that they could weak up in the morning to collect their vegs and fruits before they gets stolen. (My friends’ do waits front of the computer and watching for the minutes and seconds goes by, so they could be the first one to ‘steal’ or ‘pick’ others vegs and fruits. Amazing!) 

It is interesting to see how a game could manipulate on people’s behavior and it’s so powerful that it can change people’s routine or even related them to our daily life conversations! 

Maybe I could say that I’m a gamer in overall, but more likely a causal gamer ;)