A gamer is, in a general sense, one who plays and enjoys games.
Overview
The term is often used in reference to players of computer and video games, role-playing
games, trading card games, and/or wargames. These types of games tend to attract more devoted bases of players who invest more time and money
into the games than more casual games, such as parlor games, card games and board games. An
exception exists in games involving gambling, although the addictive qualities of such games relate to the gambling more directly than the actual
gameplay.
There are many communities of gamers around the world. Many of these exist in web
rings, forums and other virtual communities, as well as college societies. Many stores specializing in role-playing games,
trading card games, and/or wargames serve as a primary outlet for meeting other players and organizing groups of players. Prior
to the emergence of the Internet, many play by mail games developed communities similar to those that can be found among today's online games.
Video gamers
A gamer is, by definition, one who plays video games, although the label of gamer applies to more aggressive and active
players, but not to the point where one may have an addiction to video games.
Typically, they engage in role-playing, warfighting, or platform games on either a personal computer or a video game console,
such as the Xbox or the PlayStation
2.
PC gamers
PC gamers are those who play video games mainly on a PC. PC
gamers on more than a casual level fall mostly within the 14-30 age range, although there are a few groups or clans of old people
who enjoy playing in tournaments and others at home. Few games are released for the Macintosh or the Linux operating systems, so PC gamers most often use a PC with Windows.
PC games started out as text based, due to limitations of the
computer. At this time, however, these were not refered to as PC games; most were
role-playing games and referred to as such. As computing power increased and operating system sophistication increased, some
games started using static pictures to accompany the game's text. As Windows became the dominant operating system, games started
using more graphics to provide more immersive and user-friendly experiences.
Today PC games continually push the limits of consumer-level computing power because they require a great deal of resources,
such as memory, processor speed and specialized 3D
hardware.
Many gamers assemble custom computers. These can be in a conventional case, or they can be highly customized, with features
such as windows, lights, vents, grills, etc.
Some examples of PC games are:
Console gamers
Console gamers play games on specialized gaming devices which connect to a television set and use a game controllers to play. These games are more attractive to children and casual
players because they tend to be simpler and easier to use than PC games. Also unlike PC games, console games tend to contain less
coding errors, or bugs, then PC games, as they have a stricter quality
assurance process and more debugging. This increase in software quality is due primarily to the fact that console games cannot be
as easily patched as PC games.
Console games began with Pong. Pong consisted of two paddles and a block
representing a ball. Today, console games are just as graphically advanced as PC games.
Earlier games for consoles were released on systems such as the Atari 2600
and the Colecovision. The games for these consoles were made up of more
pixelated graphics and were low resolution. They used a 2D interface and were rather simple, many involved walking around and
shooting at an enemy.
In the 1990s the games started becoming popular again when Nintendo, a Japanese company, joined the business with the
release of the Nintendo Entertainment
System. This console was more advanced and featured much better graphics and games than the predecessors. Later the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo were released
and were the most popular consoles for some time.
Both these systems used cartriges containing the games. Each "cart" had one game, or (less often) a collection of games. The
carts would be inserted into a slot on the console.
Newer console arrived by 1995 using the higher capacity of compact discs as their media. The first popular disc-based console was the PlayStation, released by Sony who
just joined the gaming business. Later the PlayStation competed with the Nintendo
64, and the Sega Saturn and, later, the ill-fated Sega Dreamcast. They all featured 3D graphics and began to stray away from the common platformer game as first-person shooters became more popular. Today the
three current competing consoles are the Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo
GameCube, and Microsoft Xbox. Today's consoles have moved from CDs to higher capacity DVDs to contain more game content.
Video games are enjoyed by people of every age and they are becoming more popular as time moves on.
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