LogFAQs > #970357653

I'm not entirely sure young gamers even exist.

The term "gamer" tends to imply more than just "person who plays games". It implies someone who defines their personality and lifestyle by gaming. The sort of person who isn't just playing tons of different games, but who is also listening to game soundtracks, watching videos about games, laughing a game-related memes, telling game-related jokes, buying game-related merch (and when I was a kid, eating game-related cereal!), and generally living a life where gaming has a huge influence.

Does the younger generation now have that sort of personal identity in significant numbers? Sure, they play games (even if it's only Fortnite), but it feels like they're much less inclined to define themselves or have their interests revolve around gaming as a whole in the way the gamers of the past couple of generations did. Obviously I'm judging solely based on anecdotal evidence from kids I know via friends and family, but it seems to me like everyone young are way more inclined to define themselves more by Internet culture in general and not by games - even the ones who do play games.

It almost feels like the rise of casual gaming in general and mobile gaming specifically have sort of killed the mindset of the gamer who defines themselves by gaming. Now gaming is just something you do, rather than who you are.

I could be wrong, though - I'm not spending most of my time playing online games trying to chat up teenager gamers to ask them about their lives. Not least because that would be kind of creepy as fuck.