My own input: I don't really see people tying their identity so much with their hobby, other than with video games.
I mean, you have occupations: "I'm a pilot", "I'm a firefighter", "I'm a programmer", etc. Which is understandable because that's what you're doing for the majority of your day and life.
The only hobby I could think of was: "I'm a skater". But to me, "skater" also was associated with a bunch of other qualities and was pushed as some kind of lifestyle. Same thing with "surfer".
Is this the same thing with "gamer" then? That we all have some kind of thing in common, OTHER than playing video games (to be honest, I don't play that much anymore).
And those other qualities, I have a suspicion that they're not really positive.
I mean, you essentially have two options:
1) "Gamer" as anti-video game lobbyists use it
2) "Gamer" as in how the video game industry/journalists use it, which sort of feels commercialized. I mean, I sort of associate the term with all those "game news" videos with women in them, or stuff like Spike TV/G4 TV (I mean, Esquire) trying to make "gamers" feel like cool, hipster, popculture/tech savy, "nerds".
To me, "gamer" is just as bad as "girl gamer". It's trying to create some kind of category out of nothing.
