Ponder this: what is a real gamer

Go to a beach with a longboard and you’re asking to be deemed old or unfit. Turn up dragging a bodyboard and flippers and you’re considered in many circles a kid. Real surfers use a shortboard, didn’t you know?

Perhaps the guy in your band is frustrating you. He hates Tool. Can't stand Kings of Leon. NoFX does nothing for him. Instead he's amped about house music. What the hell? That's not real music!

With Warhammer Online up and running and a new expansion for World of Warcraft on the way, it’s been especially interesting reading some of the comments relating to MMOs – specifically what it is to be a “real gamer”. Quite a few people have spoken forcefully about their view of the damage MMOs do, the impact on other communities, even the impact on the player themselves. It really got me thinking. Taking a longer view of the MMO vs the world argument, it’s hard not to draw parallels from our own gaming histories. Looking back on my own, I can see plenty:

Early 80s:
Commodore 64/Vic 20 vs Atari 2600/Intellivision. The Commodore computers were machines. Consoles were kiddy and unsophisticated – you can’t type on them and the range of games was dismal. Ergo, real gamers play C64/Vic 20.

Late 80s:
The Commodore 64 is a yawn. Old machine is old. Playing games off tapes? The new Amiga is cutting edge. It has a 3.5” floppy drive built in. Ergo, real gamers move on and play Amiga.

Early 90s:
The Amiga 500 is a toy. “Business” people don’t use them – they use PCs. Grownups use PCs. Ergo, real gamers play PC.

The Super Nintendo console has a heavily censored Mortal Kombat. MegaDrive has the uncensored version. Ergo, Nintendo’s for kids, real gamers play MegaDrive (even if Street Fighter II rocks on SNES).

Mid 90s:
The new PlayStation has Gran Turismo and about a billion games available. Sega’s Saturn has three good games – Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop and Sega Rally. Ergo, real gamers play PlayStation.

Late 90s:
Quake 2 is out. It’s slower than QuakeWorld. It has bigger maps. It has weapon switching delay. It hasn’t a lightning gun. It’s got a weapon that kills people with one shot. Its rocket launcher sucks. Ergo, real gamers play QuakeWorld, not the noob haven that is Q2.

Half Life and Team Fortress Classic arrive. They’re even slower than Quake 2. There’s no speed jumping, no air movement. Real gamers don’t play TFC/Half Life.

Real gamers also don’t play RTSes. They play FPS.

2000+:
Counter-Strike comes out. Your weapons don’t automatically hit where you’re aiming. Speed jumping is frowned upon. Real gamers don’t crouch, therefore Quake 3, Unreal Tournament 2003, Battlefield 1942/Vietnam are for real gamers.

In the “height” of Q3’s competitive phase key players get addicted to Dark Age of Camelot. Real gamers don’t blow their lives away obsessively playing MMOs with freaks all over the world.

Battlefield 2 arrives. Real gamers don’t rely on the tank/flyers to rack up their points, they grab their Spec Ops kit and snipe/explode and harass their way to victory. In the dark days when a Blackhawk could dominate all I get told that real gamers don’t seize the MEC chopper on the Mashtuur City map and ram it into the Blackhawk… but I choose to ignore that advice. A lot.

World of Warcraft comes out. I see why people would like it, but it doesn’t really do much for me personally. Real gamers play Battlefield 2, which in my personal hall of fame has been elevated finally past QuakeWorld to Best Game Of All Time. Then in the lead-in to the first expansion, Burning Crusade I reinstall WoW so I can preview/review the new content, and for some reason I get it. Addiction ensues, all the while plagued by the guilty awareness that real gamers don’t play WoW – they play fast action twitch FPSes like Team Fortress 2 or brilliantly executed efforts like Call of Duty 4. Then I realised: nothing stops me from playing them all.

Console FPS? Real gamers use a mouse.

Singstar? Real gamers don’t sing.

Guitar Hero? Real gamers don’t play with plastic toys.

Wii? Real gamers don’t truck with no sissy underpowered hardware.

And on and on, to the break of dawn. My (long winded) point: we all hold our prejudices about what “real gamers” play, and beyond our circle of mates and players we associate with – it doesn’t really mean squat. The elitism that many of us consciously or not exhibit over games really doesn’t mean jack to a bystander – or even to a unaffiliated gamer.

If someone starts trying to sell me on the strategic beauty of Brood War, I’m listening but the message just won’t get through. Same if I haul aside a hardcore shooter fan and start telling them about how Druid – Warrior is ridiculously overpowered against most other twos combos their eyes will glaze over, just like when I used to try and tell Quake 2 players how nothing beats the feeling of locking down QW Aerowalk and pounding someone by 60.

Our individual motivations for playing vary. With FPS, some guys live for the teamplay. Others love the heroics. When it comes to WoW, I’m split along social lines and a love of causing havoc. I’ve got minimal interest in wandering around fighting computer AI with nine to 24 other people but I totally can appreciate the effort and skill that goes into it. So it goes. When I play FPS, you’ll find me at two extremes: either sniping away or running in all guns blazing. Healing people? Boring. Fixing stuff or supplying people with ammo? Lame. And all the while there’s people around me with their own priorities and specialities. This diversity and choice is something we always cried out for – it’s too late to bemoan it now.

The current discussion and antipathy regarding WoW, WAR and other MMOs will pass. In years to come doubtless they will in turn be held up as the purist’s choice compared to (whatever). And the new title holder will doubtless also reveal idiosyncratic behaviours in lots of its playerbase. RSI for obsessive mobile handset players, deteriorating vision from the tri-D headset – your guess is as good as mine. What I do know is that the same defence will be adopted by the more restrained playing majority: all good things in moderation.

It says a lot for the strength of gaming in general that people have such passion for “their” choices. We’re used to getting heavily invested and advocating our picks. Mac vs PC, Xbox vs PlayStation. RTS vs FPS vs MMO. But at the end of the day, like it or not – we’re all “real” gamers.