we might’ve been talking about… “arcaders.”

May 2, 2019 1:26 PM

The Origin Of The Term “Gamer” By Kate Willaert [A Critical Hit!] “The term “gamer” predates video games by over six centuries. The first known record of the word was found in the English town of Walsall and dates back to approximately 1422. The town’s Code of Laws, written in Middle English, condemned “any dice-player, carder, tennis player, or other unlawful gamer.” Back then, even tennis and football were considered forms of gambling, and thus were banned on any day but Christmas. And then they banned Christmas. [...] So how did “gamer” come to mean “a player of video games?” Let me tell you a little story. It begins in the world of fanzine fandom…” [YouTube]
posted by Fizz (16 comments total)

Bummer that arcaders didn't catch on because "consolers" would make it obvious that to be true to the consoler name you need to treat your fellow consolers with compassion and respect.
posted by aspo at 2:02 PM on May 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

I'm glad to see this here! I know Kate Willaert, she's a walking encyclopedia of comics and games, plus an all-around great person.

On topic: it's interesting to see how the term got appropriated by...basically everyone.
posted by Woodroar at 2:02 PM on May 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Arnie Katz once damned me with faint praise. I wish I could remember his exact wording, it was quality shade.
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:07 PM on May 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is excellent! I've seen some of this history before, but never a complete lineage. A source I've used in research about digital gameplay that covers similar ground is Graeme Kirkpatrick, who analyzes the way that hobbyist magazines did a lot of the work of setting up the "antisocial teenaged boy" framework for people who play games.
posted by codacorolla at 2:24 PM on May 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is a great little stroll through history/genealogy. That being said, how this word/term is being applied in the last 15 years is also interesting. Gamergate has fundamentally changed how that label is perceived in culture. I've seen push back here in comments on MetaFilter, where people dislike being labelled a "gamer" because of the negative connotations it has with gamergate bro toxicity. And I totally understand that distancing because the two are so intertwined.
posted by Fizz at 3:28 PM on May 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is really good so far, and I'm glad to be introduced to a new entertainer/educator. But I was totally excited, hoping that craked.com alumni Katie Willert had gotten back into the content game. (She's currently a producer, I think. So she's doing fine.)
posted by es_de_bah at 3:43 PM on May 2, 2019

We should embrace and retake back the word "arcader" and start using that for those of us who enjoy playing video games and hate gamergate type bros who aren't about embracing openness, diversity, goodwill, and safe online engagement.
posted by Fizz at 4:51 PM on May 2, 2019

Neat.

But.

I'm more of a boardgamer. But I am still a "gamer".
posted by Windopaene at 5:09 PM on May 2, 2019

In many circles, "gamer" is almost an insult. A term of derision.

The rain-on-your-wedding-day of it all is that Gamergate got its name (though not its start) from the Leigh Alexander article that predicted exactly this thing happening.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:16 PM on May 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

Gamergate has fundamentally changed how that label is perceived in culture.

Definitely. Look...I've been playing video games since the 70s. Some of my earliest memories are of playing Pong. I've built an uncounted number of PCs for playing games. I've had at least seven different consoles so far. I am very into the hobby, is my point.

Ever since the shrieking man-babies of Gamergate, though, I no longer call myself a gamer. I don't want to be even accidentally associated with those people.


BOTTOM TEXT
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:28 AM on May 3, 2019

I feel like I should be better equipped to really join this conversation, but kids who use 'gamer' as a badge of persecution complex honor...they're just hard to talk about without sounding either paranoid or stuffy. I tend to think of it as all the anger of punk or hiphop, without the empathy. Which is kinda bleak.
I mean...all kids are pretty myopic and selfish...but usually those aren't held up as explicit virtues.
posted by es_de_bah at 1:59 AM on May 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm more of a boardgamer. But I am still a "gamer".

Nah, that's a cool throwback enjoyment, better to go by "boardster".
posted by gusottertrout at 5:47 AM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I loved visits to my grandparents because breaking out the cards or the board games were just what you did in that household after cleaning up dinner. I didn't mind the shift from "people who enjoy games" to "people who have a material and oral culture about games." The next step to "people who have a gaming culture AND see other parts of that culture as a threat" is where I check out.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 6:25 AM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

If someone uses "gamer" unironically, they're almost guaranteed to be either clueless or toxic.

Truly, we live in a society.
posted by Sangermaine at 6:48 AM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I still remember being surprised when I discovered that when my friends in Reno said "gaming" they didn't mean board games or pencil-and-paper RPGs, but rather gambling.

This new definition is only recently past feeling strange, for me.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 8:14 AM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Six years ago I was getting the strong impression that gambling companies were actively working to be perceived under the umbrella of "gamer"/"gaming" because that lacked the stigma (of gambling) since video gaming had gone mainstream. It's unfortunate that "gamer" was ruined for gamers, but I shed no tears for the undoing of gambling industry PR strategy.
posted by anonymisc at 6:27 PM on May 4, 2019