What kind of gamer are you?
What kind of Gamer are you?
New research shows a huge increase in the amount of people who call themselves gamers. But what type are you?
Gaming doesn’t just involve classics like Doom and Paperboy anymore – you’ll find everything from running your own online farm to conquering the underworld of a fictional city in the virtual world nowadays.
It’s no surprise that almost a third of the UK population think of themselves as proper gamers – the rapid surge in technology has enabled us to play via the web or our smartphones. According to new research from ELSPA and the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE), the 16-19 age group includes the largest amount of gamers – 74 per cent enjoy playing on a regular basis.
Sixty per cent of 20 to 24-year-olds consider themselves gamers, but a whopping 25.4 per cent of adults in Europe do too. This is a phenomenal amount, and shows just how accessible the industry has become.
But what type of games are they playing – and more importantly, what’s on your wish list this summer?
Passionate about puzzles?
The Nintendo DS and DSi brought electronic puzzles into the mainstream and even introduced what is widely seen as a mental wellbeing aspect to gaming.
Brain training and Sudoku remain popular for those who may have previously just done the Sunday crossword by hand. Some 65 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they were puzzlers.
Ready for RPGs?
The sprawling metropolises seen in games such as Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption give more power and flexibility to the discerning gamer who can dip in and out of a non-linear challenge as they please, fulfilling everything from in-game pinball to massively complex heists.
Online multiplayer only?
Online gaming sites are now used by almost 60 per cent of those questioned, with another 37 per cent using non-gaming website and social networking applications. Popular titles include Farmville, which even tells Facebook friends how your green fingers are getting on!
ELSPA and the ISFE said these “new gamers” are “steering away from the traditional shoot-em-up genre, preferring to challenge their cerebral cortex rather than their hand-eye co-ordination”.
But what do you think? Drop us a quick comment below.
7 Responses to “What kind of gamer are you?”
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techno-mole says:
I like a load of different games, from spore to bioshock, racing games, space sims, games like x3 reunion and loads of other stuff, not much into on line games though, I do have some guild wars games though.
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I am an RPG’er.
Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead are not RPG’s – they offer little to no choice. Look at Mass Effect (which is about to be turned into a film!) and Dragon Age as examples of truly epic RPGs!
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Wills Bithrey says:
I’d say I’m a *proper* gamer, although I don’t play as much as I used to, just because I don’t have the time. The game I ever played online was Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. I played literally hundreds of hours online (as well as playing as part of a small & friendly clan), starting with a 56k modem then the *incredible* boost to 512kb/s ADSL. Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty (1), Battlefield 2, COD4 then ensued after a few years. Infact maybe I’m more than a gamer, I’ve always been very “techy”, and have created / written several small – large scale mods for games such as Medal of Honour (I created a server side sound mod which was rated highly on FileFront for example, as well as creating a “Desert Combat – Top Gun mini mod for me and a few friends to mess around with, to a complete overhaul of the Silverstone circuit environment in Grand Prix 4 (which has, to date had probably in the region of 500+ hours development time spent on it so far) & many other ventures as-well. So I like to think I’ve done a fair bit. I’d really love to get into working for a game company, specifically working on Formula 1 titles (*Are you listening, Codemasters?*), or something similar, but I think I’d be interested in almost any serious game-dev job to be honest, I just have a real passion for games – which stemmed from a very early age.
My favourite types of game are FPS (Battlefield Bad Company 2 currently, and soon the new Medal of Honor I assume
), Simulation (GP4, FSX and F1 2010 (hopefully!!)).Are there many other gamers who also enjoyed creating mods for their favourite games? It’d be interesting to know
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After spending around £1300 on my gaming setup, I like to play the most graphical games I can. GTA4 and Crysis are probably what I play the most.. but I also enjoy some online poker if it’s “background” gaming while I’m meant to be working. Bad Company 2 is a new addition to my 100+ games list and is one of the best first person shooters I’ve ever played! Medal of Honor and Rainbow Six are also very good games but only for multiplayer as their single player modes are pretty boring.
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James Edmonston says:
I’m definitely an FPS kinda’ guy.
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Errol says:
I don’t consider GTA4 or RD Rpg’s. i’d consider Aion, World of warcraft and the like true RPG’S (Albeit, MMORPGS)
I’m a MMORPG kinda of guy but that doesn’t mean I role play….
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Tom says:
i consider myself as a gamer
a real one. To me, a real gamer has to be PC (not xbox or ps3) but thats me being harsh
i do take gaming quite serious. I have successfully run a cod4 team called derp! and it was one of the most popular servers on cod4 and known within most of the community. I have gived my fun days up now and have focused on taking cod4 serious. Should hopefully be attending some LAN’S soon
To me, a gamer doesnt need to have an amazing rig or even be good. A gamer is someone who loves gaming. Weather it be on a phone, psp, console or PC. Its a growing thing and i think it can unite people from different backgrounds. Technology has improved so quickly :/
