The False Stereotype

There seems to be this perception, even today, that "gamer" means a specific kind of socially inept teenage-to-mid-twenties male. In 2012, the average age of the gamer was 37 years old, and was split fairly evenly between genders.  The only reason that the average age fell to 30 in 2013 was because the annual study increased its scope to include iOS games.  The change in ESA reporting is only playing catch up to be reflective of the population's playing habits... so many people play Facebook or iPhone games, that they outnumber the console hardcore quite significantly. 

Over the next twenty years, the average age of gamers will continue to rise until it matches the average age of the general population.  Like reading books, watching TV, and watching movies, being labelled a "gamer" will no longer be a function of social status or age, it will be something that everyone simply does.  But that doesn't mean that every gamer is the same.

Casual Gamers

Before it was announced, the Wii was known as Codename: Revolution.  Nintendo debuted the Wii in 2006 and it went on to become the best selling console of the last generation.  Being underpowered compared to it's competitors, the goal was not to compete directly, but rather to create market share with inroads into demographics that typically would play videogames. Ex-Nintendo VP Marketing Perrin Kaplan recalled a story on IGN's NVC podcast from just before the Wii launch.  She and her marketing team got footage of senior citizens playing Wii due to the simple innovation of having intuitive motion control.   It was a revolution that set Apple up for their next move.

Just one short year after Nintendo showed the non-gaming world what you could do with a piece of plastic that was smaller than a TV remote, Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone.  Now everyone had (or wanted) an amazingly versatile, mobile piece of tech in their pockets. And you could download Angry Birds, Candy Crush or SpaceTeam anywhere, because the thing had an internet connection.


The Casual Gamer generally likes one kind of game and will play it as long as its simple and they prefer convenient platforms, Facebook games and Phone Games.

Dudebros

There are two seasons for the Dudebro: Call of Duty, and *insert sports game here*. They also play the occasional racing game.  Generally, they play on a single system, the one that their friends play on, usually XBOX or Playstation. There might be a sense of "sports/tough guy" attitude from them, too.  Although there is a possiblilty of racism, misogyny or homophobia in this group,it can include "girl dudebros", and "queer dudebros"  These guys like presentation.  If a game looks and sounds pretty, they'll think its a good game.  Dudebros have a lot of overlap with Fanboys.

Fanboys

Fanboys are really into one company for some reason.  Nintendo has the longest history with this kind of consumer, and the other two major fanboy companies are Sony and Microsoft.  There are still people who swear by whatever system they started out on, or there are some hipsters like me who think that one dead system or another was the "greatest console ever made"

Nostaligia gamers are a neat subset of fanboys, typically of the 16-bit (SNES, GENESIS)era, possibly 64-bit (N64 or PSX).  

Scholars

Scholars are generally system agnostic, playing the games that they find on whatever system they have, typically several current platforms.  They are also open to the widest variety of digital and analog games.  Some play D&D or similar tabletop roleplay.  They generally prefer design elments like art direction and level design over graphics or system specs.  Scholars also can favour certain designers or studios, and sometimes have 3rd rate gaming blogs.

Basement Dweller

This guy gets a bad rap.  He's the stereotypical suburban white male, possibly living in his parents basement or still in high school or college.  He plays something "nerdy" with a high time commitment like WOW or EVE Online.  He's bad with girls and has poor hygene and low self confidence, and has the worst tendencies of all the above types.  Snobby, offensive, rude, you name it.

Does any part of that sound familiar?  All the above game types exist in us all, we have the good and bad tendencies of a lot of different kind of gamers, because we ARE a lot of different kinds of gamers.  People who are the hardest of hardcore at Street Fighter likely can't play League of Legends or DOTA2 very well.   We all like our genres and our systems and we all have our favourite games, and it's okay.

Just remember to respect your fellow human being, and we'll be fine.