In Adrienne Shaw’s article “On Not Becoming Gamers: Moving Beyond the Constructed Audience”, there was one line that really stood out to me. She writes, “sometimes interviewees said they were not gamers because they did not play certain types of games such as games with deep narratives or games focused on killing.” For example, she says that someone could play a puzzle game every day and a violent game every once in a while, but still not consider themselves a gamer because they do not really think of the puzzle game as a game.
I thought this point was very interesting because it is something that I have always thought when I think about who a gamer is. When coming into this class at the beginning of the semester, I did not think of myself as a gamer at all and have never thought about myself as a gamer. I thought a gamer was someone who constantly plays more violent games such as Grant Theft Auto or Call of Duty. However, after taking this class, I understand that there are so many different kinds of games and there are games that I would not have previously really considered a videogame. For example, I would not have really considered a twine game as a game, but now I see how it is a videogame. This class has made me realize that videogames are definitely not limited to violent games and that a gamer is not only someone who plays violent games because there are so many other kinds of games you can play.