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So, what is this? Well, I think it's pretty obvious, we need a standardized method of classifying gamers. So I decided to make one. It makes things easier. A lot of these are already pretty standard, so nothing new there. Many of these can overlap, some are mutually exclusive, and there are some very fine distinctions between some, but I think they are all valid. The Gamer Type covers how and what you play, Gamer Era covers when you began and how long you've been a gamer, and Media, what you play. Gamer Mode, reffers to your Online/Offline status.
If you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to add your ideas. These might even be useful in reviews to designate scores based on Gamer Type/Era. Also, remember, much of what's in these is educated guesses or personal experience. This is by no means based on any statistical data, nor are any numbers found herein claim to be accurate. Please also note that this does not take into account economic status, this is an "all things being equal" kind of thing.
As for the name, well, Dewy has that book system, and who doesn't love the Dewy Decimal system?
This term refers to gamers who play intermittently as the name suggests. Gamers like this rarely buy systems at launch, usually waiting for a price drop or even to the closing year of generation of systems. They play only when convenient or when something REALLY grabs their attention. This type of gamer may go weeks, months or in rare cases YEARS before picking up control pad, and when they do, it's not for very long. Perhaps to finish a game that interests them, maybe two, and then they forget about gaming until the next flavor of the week comes along. Gamers like this make up a small part of the gaming population and their behavior is hard to predict since they are by definition, erratic.
Gaming Time: Erratic/Whenever Something Catches Their Interest Preferred Hardware: Handhelds/PC/Wii
This kind of gamer only games when others are gaming. Gamers like this rarely buy a gaming system or games, and if they do, it is only at the insistence of friends. Even so, they are unlikely to play games unless it's at a friends house, or a friend comes over and wants to play. Without a group of friends to play with, this gamer feels little motivation to touch a game pad. This type of gamers makes up a small amount of the gaming community, though more than the Inter-Gamers.
Gaming Time: Only When Friends Are Around/Maybe Once A Month Preferred Hardware: Wii
This kind of gamer has usually forsaken modern gaming for games for games of two or more generations previous. For the most part, gamers such as these are gamers who reach point where they feel "X" factor/company/person/etc. has killed innovation/imagination/etc. in gaming and chooses to return to previous generations of gaming to what they deem to be a better era in gaming. Gamers in this category may still play modern games, but they tend to play games of two generations or more past equally as much or more than modern. In very rare cases some gamers play "Retro" games exclusivey, choosing to completely abandon modern gaming. This doesn't really affect how often they game, and gamers in this category may also fall into any of the other categories as well. This type of gamer makes up a decent amount of the gaming community, though not large by any means, this group seems to be growing slowly.
Gaming Time: Variable Prefferred Hardware: 2-Gen. Old Consoles/ Arcade Cabs
This kind of gamer games in small doses and sticks to simple titles such as board/card/puzzle games. Gamers like this tend to game mostly on pc or on Mobile Devices and avoid complex games, especially with 3D environments. Gamers like this tend to not consider themselves gamers. This kind of gamer makes up probably they largest portion of the gaming community though they are often not seen as gamers by the gaming community.
Gaming Time: 1-5 days a week. Rarely more than an hour a day. Preffered Hardware: PC/Handhelds
This kind of gamer games regularly, but in small doses and tends to focus on mainstream titles. Gamers of this classification may stick to sports games or FPS', and every now and then a more complex or time consuming titles such as RTS' or RPG's. Grand Theft Auto is also very popular with this type of gamer. These gamers are usually reffered to as mainstream gamers and are usually blamed for the lack of deeper content in gaming since they may make up the second largest portion of the gaming community and thus sales. These gamers tend to purchase consoles within the first few years, though most wait for price drops, and do very little PC gaming. They tend to purchase games regularly as well.
Gaming Time: 2-6 Days A Week/On Average 2-4 Hours A Day Preffered Hardware: PS3/Wii/360/Handhelds
This is the third largest portion of the gaming community and they usually get along with all of the other types of gamers since they tend to have a little of each in them. These types of gamers have very broad tastes in games and will play virtually anything presented to them as long as they find it entertaining. They tend to lean to more complex games however, RTS and RPG's, with a healthy smattering of variety. These type of gamers schedule varies, but they love gaming and see it as more than just a method of entertainment, often participating in online message boards and following news and trade shows for the games/hardware of their choice. These gamers are early adopters of the hardware of their choice and buy games often.
Gaming Time: 2-7 Days A Week/On Average 2-6 Hours A Day Preffered Hardware: PS3/Wii/360/Handhelds/PC
This type of gamer takes his gaming VERY seriously. They see gaming as a way of life, and gaming tends to be very prevalent in every aspect of their day-to-day lives, often participating VERY actively in online message boards and following news and going to trade shows for the games/hardware of their choice. These types of gamers tend to be more selective in the games they choose, often shunning more mainstream titles and opting for more complex and/or time-consuming titles. They tend to go for mastery of a title, often playing and re-playing games to experience everything a title has to offer. These types of gamers are usually day-one adopters and buyers of games, often even importers for early release or rare titles. These types of gamers are a minority in the community and often don't get along with any other type of gamer, except the Core Gamers.
Gaming Time: 3-7 Days A Week/ On Average 4-8 Hours A Day Preffered Hardware: 360/Handhelds/PC
This type of gamer is representative of a disturbing type of gamer that, though usually in the minority, tends to set the stereotypical beliefs most people have about gamers, usually due to the fact they receive the most media attention. These gamers tend to be recluses, preffering their game worlds to the real world, and are often socially, replacing any form of real world socializing with games or the internet. Gamers like these favor the PC platform and online gaming, particularly MMO's and are known for obsessing over these titles to the point of mental instability. Gamers in this classification have been known to go on gaming binges of over 24 hours and in rare cases have died due to starvation or malnutrition. Gamers like these can be a dangers to themselves and others.
Gaming Time: 5-7 Days A Week/On Average 8-16 Hours A Day
Preffered Hardware: PS3/360/PC
This category covers the gamers who were first on the scene, pretty much the early gamers who came before the Bit gaming era. Before there was Atari, NES, or SMS, there were even older systems most people don't know the name of, and they played those. These gamers have been around since time immemorial.
This gamer came in with the Atari and lived on the NES, and if you were in Europe, the SMS as well. Though many American gamers also enjoyed SEGA's early offerings.
This gamer came in during the first big boom of gaming. With Game Boy getting big, and Genesis and SNES expanding the world of gaming, followed by tons of flops like 32x, 3D0,TG16 and Jaguar this was a great time to begin gaming.
This gamer is a more recent breed, when games first made the transition to 3D. These are the Saturn/PSX/N64 gamers. Though there were a few other systems. This Generation saw the beginning of the end of SEGA and a whole new world of gaming, with Sony coming to dominate the business.
These gamers came in during the biggest boom in gaming. Where gaming became widely accepted by the masses, with Playstation becoming a household name. This era saw SEGA's last great hurrah with the Dreamcast, and Microsoft's entrance to the business with the XBox.
This is more a placeholder, for whatever this gen turns out to be.
This type of gamer prefers fixed dedicated gaming hardware platforms for their gaming. It offers more power than handheld gaming, but becomes outdated by PC gaming fairly quickly. However it is much cheaper than PC gaming, requiring updates in hardware only every 4-6 years.
This gamer prefers a customizable, non-dedicated gaming hardware environment. This type of gaming usually allows for more customizability in both hardware and software, and is constantly moving forwards technologically. Due to this, this type of gaming tend to be the most expensive method of gaming, but with a larger selection of games and usually better visuals.
This type of gamer, usually a Casual, preffers dedicated mobile gaming hardware environment. Meaning the device they game on is usually battery powered and has an integrated screen. Up until recently this was dominated by the use of cartridges.
This type of Gamer, usually a Simple Gamer, preffers non-dedicated mobile gaming hardware such as cell-phones or PDA's. Meaning the device they game on is usually battery powered and has an integrated screen, but was not designed specifically for gaming.
This type of gamer is a dying breed. These gamers play at gaming establishments with friends or strangers on hardware known as cabinets. With the increase of prices in recent years, this has become a rather expensive method of gaming, moreso than console gaming in many cases as well as a difficult one since it is harder to find locales to fill this need.
This type of gamer feels that online gaming is unnecesary and perhaps even harmful to the industry/gaming experience and plays games with Single Player only.
This type of player avoids games without online components. They feel gaming online with others is the way of the future and that perhaps even physical distribution of games should be done away with infavor of digital distribution.
This is your average gamer with a healthy mix of offline and online gaming.