The total gamer

[Panzer Tacticer]

Occasionally I interact with people I have met online, in a mode off site from where I met them. And you THEN get to find out what else makes the person tick.

And most of us I think it is safe to say, are likely not molded entirely by our games.

I came here for the Nintendo DS discussions because I have one, and I like it.
I can't claim to be much use in a discussion connected with the PS3 or the XBox 30 or the Wii, as I don't own any of the 3 main consoles. It's not that I don't like them, they just don't offer me anything.

But I am much more than my gamer side.
I play computer games from a good spectrum of choices, and have been playing them (sort of) since 1990. But I never really gave a damn about computer games until like 98-2000.

I've a long history of board gaming wargames going back to the later half of the 70s.
I've a long history of being a rolegamer about as long, although I get to rolegame a great deal more, and even at 46 I still play regularly (it's just a different experience playing with oldsters than as teens

).
I've loved making models for years, and still love it.
I've a great obsession with war movies, documentary films, scifi and various super hero films.
I love books with a passion. Mainly science and high calibre scifi with a solid dose of 20th century military literature.
And the recent decade has seen me become a very well stocked anime nut

I've always been a mainly indoors type, not the sort to "hang out" downtown.
I love the outdoors, I just rarely get the pleasure.

But the above is what makes me the gamer I am.
It all counts.

I can love a well made wargame. I am an avid fan of the rolegame genre.
My love of models means I am a builder, so yeah world building games and me go together well.
My interest in media means I can appreciate a visual experience if done well.
And my love of scifi means I can "get into" a good adventure game too.

But today I'm 46, no longer a teen.
It was my age group though that gave today's teens most of the genres they enjoy

You wouldn't have a great deal of what you have without me and my peers.
Still, 46 is what it is.
I'm a dad now, not a teen, and time is not something us older guys have in great quantities.
Still, being that I am the dad, I am not likely to complain about having an allowance that sucks

I want games that respond to my needs as my needs require them.
I want games I want, and I want them even if they might be expensive.
My preferences might not coincide with the easy volume demographics of the teen market but so what.
If you can sell twice as many teen titles as you can titles of interest to a guy in his 40's so what.
A teen groans the second a game costs more than 40 bucks.
To me 40 bucks is just 40 bucks. If the game is great and costs 80 bucks, well, it's just 80 bucks eh.
I spend 80 bucks routinely. I likely will drop 80 bucks a month just buying my family common snacks.
I begin each month with close to 2000 bucks (before bills n stuff). I end up up each month with a few hundred I can spend on what ever floats my boat.
Just the other day I dropped 80 bucks on a couple of models just because I felt like getting them.

So if I want a game, and the developer says "nah it's too expensive" do they think I really care?
I'd have paid 60 bucks for Panzer Tactics and not thought anything odd about it. That it only cost 30 was cool of course. But I wonder, when they priced it, did they do that because a teen wouldn't pay 40? Did they really think a teen really gives a damn about Panzer Tactics in the first place? I rarely see a teen even acknowledge the game exists let alone say anything nice about it. They think it's "boring" appears the common sentiment.

I'm a gamer, I just happen to be an old gamer.
I want my games with turns, because turns are better for people that only have a few minutes here and there.
I don't have the privilege of no work and no family responsibilities.
I want my games even if they can't sell in vast numbers. Make them good and I can pay twice the price and not whine.
Remember "I" am the guy that teen gamer is getting his money from

Think of how much easier it would be to make PS3 sales if the teen never had to ask for the PS3 in the first place. Maybe dad wanted it in the first place

But you need to make my games too eh.

 

[FAST6191]

Alright then.

My entire life I have been surrounded by people who make/fix/alter/improve things which then led me into the area.

I was given books, tool kits and electronics kits from a young age and learned/was taught the use them.

I was however vetoed from a chemisty kit, chemicals are everywhere though so it did not stop things at all (between kitchen cupboard stuff and cleaning supplies you can make just about anything).

I have the luxury of no job and family commitments but in reality it means I have no money but lots of time. This means I moved more into the computer/electronics world than I perhaps might have (big sheets of material do not have reset buttons that are quite as easy to work).

Computer games. Been around them as long as I can remember and was part of the reason I got into computers. This coupled with the facts above means I can tolerate most things but will tend to bend them to my will (something that becomes more and more complex/involved as time goes on).

Outside: I do not do heat very well so will tend to avoid such situations. Cold/dark/night/snow filled and I am away. Likewise I have a great desire to see new places (even if they are bound to be hot).
Referring to your "down-town" I generally avoid others or places where I can not blend in. Probably due to the skateboard I like concrete more than mountainsides.

Things that prevent me from doing such things tend to not gain my respect (this amounts to the law and health and safety droids) but I throughout this I find myself drawn to function over form.

All this tends to mean I favour complexity and find the "binary" choice (light and dark, good and evil, for and against........ almost demeaning).
Such a position gets reflected in my choice of books, films, games and TV shows. This often means I appear to side with the "evil" characters but in reality "evil" tends to find itself shades of grey. Genres then become fantasy, sci fi and crime due to the abundance of "complexity" in them (why watch Star Wars when there is Dune).
If the above traits can be considered broad then those are the traits of people I get along with/consider my friends. Age is not really a factor either in my outlook (being older or being younger has never granted me a thing I desire and I have been taught things by both old and young alike).

Money. If I have it and it is worth it at the time (the scale is arbitrary) I will buy something but my life have given me many methods by which to avoid outlay of cash.

 

[PizzaPasta]

I've been into video games since I got my first NES in 1988 when I was 8 years old. Before then, they weren't so accessible to me seeing that I could only make an attempt at playing my Dad's Atari 2600 but he was way too into Pole Position and I could only sit and watch.

The only other outlet for video games back then were the arcade games that used to be way more prominent in movies theater lobbies and malls but trying to get my Dad to give up a quarter was harder than trying to convince him to give up the 2600 controller.

When I got my NES, my parents were both working a lot more than before so my Dad had less time for video games than he did with the 2600. But, he would still sneak in a game of Super Mario Bros. after he ordered me off to bed. My NES soon became my best friend, I lived in a neighborhood that had very few children my age and most of them were jerks so I often chose to spend my time in a dark basement getting my ass butchered in Ghosts 'n Goblins.

I go through periods now where I take turns with my hobbies. I really only like music and video games and it's usually one or the other. Since I got my DS, my guitar has found its way under my bed and has stayed there untouched for about two years now. My DS is more fun to play and I don't have to worry about pissing off the neighbors as much as I do when I buy a new fuzz pedal. Now, they just have to hear me shouting "OBJECTION!" or "BLUE, GODAMMIT!" at the top of my lungs.

Strangely enough, I share an affinity for both music and video games but I can't stand most rhythm games. I play guitar but I loathe Guitar Hero or anything similar.

I do have a high appreciation for video game music though, especially from the earlier NES days and I'm obsessed with Hip Tanaka.

 

[saxamo]

I thought this was suppossed to be about what makes us who we are outside of games...?

 

[Panzer Tacticer]

I thought this was suppossed to be about what makes us who we are outside of games...?

An easy error, on reading my article Title I can see how that might be possible too.;