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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 2nd Feb 2016 at 5:04 PM
Default "You are not a real gamer!"
In a discussion about how bad female gamers are treated of male gemers I said that my experience was different. I belive that at least half, maby more, of the players and the modler are femal and that no one ever had said a bad thing about me or my gender. As a fact a never have seen any mean comment at all in over 10 years of playing and be in community discussion. The other participating in the discussion asked me what game I played "I play Sims." And the respons was "Sims is not a real game."
So, now do you know!
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Instructor
#2 Old 2nd Feb 2016 at 6:43 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Lofn
In a discussion about how bad female gamers are treated of male gemers I said that my experience was different. I belive that at least half, maby more, of the players and the modler are femal and that no one ever had said a bad thing about me or my gender. As a fact a never have seen any mean comment at all in over 10 years of playing and be in community discussion. The other participating in the discussion asked me what game I played "I play Sims." And the respons was "Sims is not a real game."
So, now do you know!


Hmm... interesting. BestBuy, Walmart, EB Games/Gamestop, Microplay, Target, CD Keys, Kijiji, and Amazon all beg to differ, but what do they know?
dodgy builder
#3 Old 2nd Feb 2016 at 8:08 PM
lol, it's the usual kind of attitude. They don't really know what kind of a game this is though. They are probably the kind that kill their characters for fun ... oh s*** so do people in this game? I mean ... uh.

Just kidding. They probably play those shooting and killing games. In Sims you have to run yourself basically, while they have (usually) a set objective to run for. Find this thing or that and release this person to win this price. I think it's booring, but then I'm a creative person and don't need anyone to tell me what I should do Actually I prefer to figure it out for myself. Sims is also so much wider in what you can do with it, because you decide yourself what to do.

The subject of them vs us is old as forever as well. I mean everyone has this urge to separate themselves from others. When that's said the sims community is different in that there is way more girls here. Most games are very dominated by boys. That means of course that those girls probably have more troubles with the boys trying to exclude them.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 2nd Feb 2016 at 8:31 PM
It's nonsense to dismiss a game as "not real" since we play it.... Reminds me very much of the kind of grandstanding little kids will do. We don't need to buy into anyone's definition of a "real game". We know we're "really" hooked into our games.

Addicted to The Sims since 2000.
Scholar
#6 Old 2nd Feb 2016 at 8:35 PM
Well, to those people, they probably associate gaming with a certain set of attributes and The Sims, being a simulation game, doesn't follow those. That doesn't make it any less real than any other game, of course, but that's probably how they think.
Top Secret Researcher
#7 Old 2nd Feb 2016 at 10:00 PM
Yeah, my response to "not a real gamer" is first "Oh, really?" and secondly that I also play RPGs and grand strategy games, so that shows how much *they* know. I've been a gamer since the mid-1970s.
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 2nd Feb 2016 at 10:48 PM
Retail places largely target males to sell games to. Who says a female gamer can't like Call of Duty or Dragon Age: Inquisition?
A gamer is a gamer no matter their gender, race, age or creed.

As for The Sims, I have also heard that it isn't a game. To me it feels more like a game rather than a simulation.
Who can I kill next? What achievement haven't I gotten yet? What object will my insane sim talk to next?
dodgy builder
#9 Old 2nd Feb 2016 at 11:18 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SusannaG
Yeah, my response to "not a real gamer" is first "Oh, really?" and secondly that I also play RPGs and grand strategy games, so that shows how much *they* know. I've been a gamer since the mid-1970s.


Did you have them on tapes in those days then. Home computing happened later don't it. It's so silly thinking about it, how new this hobby of ours is. In Rome I was looking at paintings from 14 and 1500 lol.
dodgy builder
#10 Old 2nd Feb 2016 at 11:21 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
The real problem is how EA thinks and many suspected that EA doesn't think Sims is a "real game," hence refuse to invest in the resources for Sims as they do with their other "games."


As most companies they think about the bottom line. Money rules.
Scholar
#11 Old 2nd Feb 2016 at 11:44 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Volvenom
Did you have them on tapes in those days then. Home computing happened later don't it.

So Arcade games aren't real games...? Because those were around as early as 1972.

Personally I pledge guilty when it comes to the "not a real game" attitude. I'm a gamer for 27 years now and I think only bought the first Sims game so I could brag I had been there when the trainwreck happened. Instead it was love on first loading :lovestruc
However, even today I still feel hesistant to buy my Sims games in a store. I either order them online or ask my mom to go shopping with me, so she can carry the offending package to the cashier. Reason is, I'm female and do not want to provoke reactions along the line of "Oh, right, she's a woman, women like hidden objects games and The Sims." So I take care to be seen only with "real" games as to not tarnish female gamers reputation even more. Silly, I know. Mom's more relaxed than me in this regard. However, despite buying my Sims games she isn't interested in playing them. She doesn't believe it's not a real game, it's just not her kind of game (nothing to kill and loot in it).

Funny thing, the only fellow male gamers who know I play the Sims... play it too
One confessed that he's running Sims 3 like an aquarium in free will and the other protested at my meak "I play the Sims, you know, the chick's game" with "That's not a chick's game! I used to play that, too!" So from my experience The Sims are something like a guilty pleasure among guys.
Top Secret Researcher
#12 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 12:25 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Volvenom
Did you have them on tapes in those days then. Home computing happened later don't it. It's so silly thinking about it, how new this hobby of ours is. In Rome I was looking at paintings from 14 and 1500 lol.


I played video games at a video game parlor in the 70s. On cassette, and then on floppy discs that were actually floppy, on a Commodore 64 in the 80s. On the smaller, stiff "floppy" discs in the 90s, and then games that came on a CD-ROM. It's been an evolving odyssey from Pong, Space Invaders, and Centipede on down to the present. (And on evolving formats, from DOS to Mac to Windows in different flavors.)
One Minute Ninja'd
#13 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 12:27 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Volvenom
Did you have them on tapes in those days then. Home computing happened later don't it.


Hey, I was playing a sorta text version of Star Trek on a multiuser PDP 11 in college back in 1975. On a teletype as the terminal. With the star field maps generated on paper with asterisks (*) and the ship was a caret ( ^). Written by the students in the department (well, I'm not sure where the original source code came from, it was pretty customized to the system though). Computer gaming is essentially almost as old as computers themselves (OK, granted not on the ENIAC during wartime, at least that they'll admit to).

Fun fact. The first documented computer game was actually an early version of Pong developed at the Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island, NY in 1958. No, I never played that version, I was only like 1 at the time. But computer gaming was still a thing even as early as the 70's. Just perhaps not in the form we now view PC gaming.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 1:33 AM
Quote: Originally posted by AncientRome
A gamer is a gamer no matter their gender, race, age or creed.
This sounds like the beginning of something Seussical.

Addicted to The Sims since 2000.
Forum Resident
#15 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 2:55 AM
eh.. there's no such thing as a real gamer. The definition differs from person to person. If you define yourself as a gamer, then that is what you are.. and if not, then you are not. Anyone who says otherwise is not a real person.

When an engineer says that something can't be done, it's a code phrase that means it's not fun to do.
Lab Assistant
#16 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 4:26 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
The real problem is how EA thinks and many suspected that EA doesn't think Sims is a "real game," hence refuse to invest in the resources for Sims as they do with their other "games."


Sims doesn't have competition, unlike all the other games. Shooter games are a dime a dozen, so if they want to make money they need something ultra fantastic. Now look at the Sims.

- They have a loyal fan base who not only buy their products, but enhance them without asking for any compensation whatsoever.
- Fans/modders create free stuff without EA needing to spend any resources. Yeah... Freebies and the gamers love it.
- There isn't any competitive game that comes even close to the Sims. They don't have to worry about losing our support, unless they royally mess up.

EA/Maxis has little incentive to spend major resources on a game that sells with minimal investment. Would they profit from spending more money to build a better game? Likely not, as simmers will buy whatever they release. They will lose a few here and there, but those numbers are peanuts. They'll put their resources into other products and boost sales for those games.

It's all about profit and has nothing to do with a disregard for the game. Maxis LOVES the Sims.
Lab Assistant
#17 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 4:35 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Volvenom
Did you have them on tapes in those days then. Home computing happened later don't it. It's so silly thinking about it, how new this hobby of ours is. In Rome I was looking at paintings from 14 and 1500 lol.


I've been a gamer since Ping! Who remembers when 'Ping' became more high tech and introduced hockey? My friends and I wore out our first set of paddles that we had plugged into the TV. Mind you, the tv never looked the same again. The little 'Ping' background became a permanent fixture.
Lab Assistant
#18 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 4:54 AM
A gamer to me is someone who plays multiple games in multiple genre's as a main source of recreational time.

Playing one game in my opinion doesn't make someone a gamer.

Playing sims doesn't disqualify you from being a gamer, but I wouldn't call someone a gamer if they 'only' play the sims.

My mom only plays Candy Crush. She is not a gamer.
Scholar
#19 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 7:55 AM
Seems more like a mindset you'd only find on Gamefaqs or those kinds of sites, mainly because I doubt anyone with that condescending yet hilariously oblivious grandiosity mindset has stepped outside into the real world for months. I know it sounds bitter, but I've always considered the "hardcore gamer" to be one of the more garbage subcultures.

I don't know about the audience demographics of The Sims, but I always figured it was pretty 50-50 split, at least here. Besides myself, I know a lot of other guys that play it. Sims isn't really dedicated towards just female players or male players, just people who like to build, design and of course play as a vengeful, cruel and controlling god.

I'm writing a TV series, yeah. It's a cross between True Detective and Pretty Little Liars.
Instructor
#20 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 4:50 PM
Quote: Originally posted by pirate_wolf_12
Seems more like a mindset you'd only find on Gamefaqs or those kinds of sites, mainly because I doubt anyone with that condescending yet hilariously oblivious grandiosity mindset has stepped outside into the real world for months. I know it sounds bitter, but I've always considered the "hardcore gamer" to be one of the more garbage subcultures.

I don't know about the audience demographics of The Sims, but I always figured it was pretty 50-50 split, at least here. Besides myself, I know a lot of other guys that play it. Sims isn't really dedicated towards just female players or male players, just people who like to build, design and of course play as a vengeful, cruel and controlling god.


Why is it that people think The Sims is just for girls? I've always found it to be refreshingly unisex.
Theorist
#21 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 5:24 PM
Quote: Originally posted by TRobbins
A gamer to me is someone who plays multiple games in multiple genre's as a main source of recreational time.

Playing one game in my opinion doesn't make someone a gamer.

Playing sims doesn't disqualify you from being a gamer, but I wouldn't call someone a gamer if they 'only' play the sims.

My mom only plays Candy Crush. She is not a gamer.


For me this seems about right. I am a gamer (by pretty much anyone's definition of the word I'd think) but I treat The Sims more like a hobby than a game. With other games I tend to play them to finish, beat or master them and move on to the next so the Sims is unique in that regard for me.

Now we just need to define Simmer and Real Simmer and we'll be good to go.
Scholar
#22 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 6:29 PM
The way I think about it is that I am lucky that I am female so I am 'allowed' to love all kinds of games.
But honestly, I can't take comments like 'it's not a real game' seriously - it's a game, and it exists. And I play it. I also play shooting games and rpg games and all other kinds of games.
I'm female and I happen to love 3rd person sneaking games AND the sims, and it's nobody's business but my own.

So be it. Move. ~Jason Bourne
Simblr
Theorist
#23 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 7:21 PM
To me, you can be a gamer if you only play one game, and Google agrees, their definition is: "a person who plays a game or games, typically a participant in a computer or role-playing game."
Someone's obsession level with playing a game or games, is how I consider if someone is a "gamer". If you only play 30-minutes per week, I don't consider that a gamer. If you play every single day, for hours, I would consider that person a gamer.

Resident wet blanket.
Instructor
#24 Old 3rd Feb 2016 at 7:40 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Honeywell
Now we just need to define Simmer and Real Simmer and we'll be good to go.


Simmer: Someone who either plays completely in isolation or posts to the Sims official forum. They make a family or two and maybe play once or twice a month. They kills their sims for fun because they don't know what else to do.

REAL Simmer: Someone who posts on Mod the Sims, mods, gets into heated debates about game development politics, plays constantly, and can name every major Sims character.
Field Researcher
#25 Old 4th Feb 2016 at 3:11 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Volvenom
Did you have them on tapes in those days then. Home computing happened later don't it. It's so silly thinking about it, how new this hobby of ours is. In Rome I was looking at paintings from 14 and 1500 lol.


We bought our first computer in the 70's. It was a Pet, and used cassette tapes. I played TicTacToe and Hangman on it. I copied the games from a book of programs I bought in a book store onto the cassette tapes. My husband bought the computer because he realized early on that his job would soon be computerized (radio engineer), and that he had better learn to deal with them.
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