Why Can't We All Just Be Gamers?

Much as I love the video game industry, it is rife with imperfections. I could talk video game politics all day, but that's an editorial for another time. One of the biggest problems with gaming lies within the very community itself. In a perfect world, all that play video games would be called "gamers" but sadly, the world we live in is not such a place and thus things mare not so cut and dry.

In order to set gamers apart from one another, we've been divided into sub classes. While I could expand the number further, I've decided to stick with three to keep it simple. There's the casual gamer, the one that likes to play for a few hours and then move on to other things. Girl gamers, girls that game, pretty self explanatory, that one. And then there's the hardcore gamer, the gamer that eats, drinks, sleeps and breathes video games. All of us are bound together by the common interest that we share, yet the wedge between the gamer classes grows ever wider. So why can't we all just get along? Because the hardcore gamers are not having it, that's why. The hardcore take issues with any class of gamer that does not side with them.

Yeah, because stinking up the place
is the true mark of a girl gamer. 

To the hardcore, casuals are what's wrong with gaming. Casuals aren't as dedicated to the hobby as the hardcore and they ruin the industry by not showing the same level of enthusiasm that their hardcore brethren do. See, gaming is super serious business and not being as invested in the cause is a serious crime. The po-po is already on their way to your place to shoot, pistol whip, beat and arrest you, not necessarily in that order. I'd call the hardcore crowd the vocal minority, but in the internet age everyone and their mother has a megaphone and like it or not, their raging voices will be heard. 

The industry has created this false image of what a girl gamer is supposed to be. If the girl is drop dead gorgeous with some big boobs, then she's obviously faking it because real girl gamers don't look like that. Tara Babcock is an extremely attractive woman who loves video games. She works in the gaming industry and is also a model. But according to some hardcore gamers, she's just a slut fishing for views on her YouTube videos because she's showing her big booby cleavage. I know it may be hard to believe but girls that dig gaming and look like Tara are out there. Why is Tara not allowed to be interested in the same things we are because she has the looks of a porn star/super model?

She's obviously a fake girl gamer. I mean, what
girl gamer is that hot with boobs that huge? 

Even the hardcore are not exempt from slandering one another. All sorts of bile and vitriolic comments are mucking up Facebook, Twitter, forums and YouTube comment sections because someone happens to still like Nintendo games or because they don't. Gamer A isn't playing the same games as Gamers B-Z so that undoubtedly makes Gamer A a loser for not having the same taste and he/she should kill themselves.  

I despise the fact that we've had to dived gamers into types. Hardcore, girl, casual. You know what I think a gamer is? Someone that plays video games. It doesn't matter if you're really into them, somewhat into them or happen to be female. If you like video games, you're a gamer. I love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I don't have a huge collection of figures or the comic books but that doesn't mean I'm insulting the rest of the Turtle fanbase by not having all of the aforementioned. Rather than being satisfied that this amazing hobby is being enjoyed by so many others, you've got a seemingly large number of people taking shots at others for not being like them.