Posted: 1/24/2015 6:01 PM
Post subject: Are TASers "gamers"?
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TheYogWog
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I don't really care about labels that much but I came across a video this morning that left me wondering if and where TASers might fall within the increasingly broad term, gamer. Here is the video in question. I'm probably not alone here when I say there's times when TASing is the only "game" I'll play for months at a time, and that's not really playing it properly then is it? Is that gaming or is that TASing?
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Posted: 1/24/2015 6:49 PM
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TASeditor
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TAS Editor Manual wrote:
You have to stop being a gamer and become a researcher.
I agree with this line. You could be the best gamer and not good at TASing. Gaming and TASing are very different from each other. Both "work" with games, but both have different goals in mind. Depending how your TASing looks like you can be more on the gamer (viewing the game like a gamer would do) or more the TASers (abstract the game) type. But I still would call TASers TASers. And personally I don't want be called a gamer.
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Posted: 1/24/2015 8:55 PM
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SomeAnonGuy
Joined: 1/22/2015
Posts: 13
Though I agree with that snippet from the TAS Manual, I don't see why TASers can't be considered gamers either. Any good gamer would apply a bit of research to the game they're playing. People become better gamers by trial and error, which can be considered researching. It's just that TASing would be gaming on a whole different level. That, and people seem to like labels (or to be labeled) for some silly self-righteous fulfillment, which the author briefly talks about to a degree. The "Us vs. Them" argument. We play video games, be it by breaking it, beating it, or casually playing it. At this rate, we'll end up with so many labels that it'll be just as confusing as all the different genres of metal, and the ensuing arguments that it will provide. But by his ending definition of a gamer, I could be considered one. :D So there's that. I'll take that ego boost.
Posted: 1/24/2015 9:15 PM
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Patashu
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There is a very large overlap between TASers and speedrunners. To me, it would be like saying someone who composes music in a DAW but can't play a song on an instrument live is not a musician. To me they still are, just a different kind.
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Posted: 1/24/2015 9:50 PM
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SomeAnonGuy
Joined: 1/22/2015
Posts: 13
Patashu wrote:
There is a very large overlap between TASers and speedrunners. To me, it would be like saying someone who composes music in a DAW but can't play a song on an instrument live is not a musician. To me they still are, just a different kind.
Very well said.
Posted: 1/24/2015 10:50 PM
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thatguy
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Posts: 506
I hate the word "gamer" - chiefly because it encourages an "us and them" mentality which can put off newcomers to gaming and blinker those who already play them. Oddly enough, no other group of hobbyists seems to take such aggressive possession of their hobby. You would never see a bookworm or an amateur chef or a wife swapper telling other people that they couldn't share their hobby with them, or that they didn't deserve to because they were a "filthy casual". Anyway, TASers are gamers because they all play, or have played, video games conventionally too. How else do you get into TASing?
Posted: 1/24/2015 10:57 PM
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AntyMew
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thatguy wrote:
Oddly enough, no other group of hobbyists seems to take such aggressive possession of their hobby. You would never see a bookworm or an amateur chef or a wife swapper telling other people that they couldn't share their hobby with them, or that they didn't deserve to because they were a "filthy casual".
People still say "filthy casual" unironically?
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Posted: 1/25/2015 3:55 AM
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jlun2
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Anty-Lemon wrote:
People still say "filthy casual" unironically?
Or plebians. And in my experience usually in multiplayer games.
LLCoolDave wrote:
This seems to be competing for the "Worst looking TAS of 2011" Award.
Posted: 1/25/2015 1:24 PM
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ALAKTORN
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TASers aren’t gamers, gamers play games, TASers TAS games. They are astronomically different things. The fact that most TASers also play games is an aside, such TASers would then also be gamers.
Posted: 5/4/2015 5:43 PM
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xy2_
Editor, Experienced player (818)
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I consider TASers as artists.
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Posted: 5/4/2015 7:49 PM
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Aqfaq
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Posted: 5/4/2015 8:35 PM
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Gfx
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Is such a thing even possible?
Posted: 5/5/2015 2:44 PM
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Warp
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
A gamer is someone who plays video games as a hobby on a regular (or at least semi-regular) basis. There can be different types of gamers, such as casual gamers and hardcore gamers (although the definitions are rather obviously fuzzy and fluid). There is probably no TASer who does not regularly play video games as a hobby. Thus they are all gamers. (Although I could argue that making TASes doesn't itself make you a gamer, unless you do it regularly. It's just that most TASers also play video games normally, which makes them gamers.) Another way of seeing it would be that a gamer is a consumer of video games.
Posted: 6/11/2015 3:43 PM
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TheYogWog
Editor, Active player (376)
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There are 2 types of gamers: Those who TAS, and Casuals. Hope you've enjoyed my attempt at humor.
Knuckles does, what Sonican't.
Posted: 6/11/2015 7:01 PM
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Derakon
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
TASing can be viewed as turning videogames into puzzle games (and it can also be viewed in many other ways, e.g. as an artform). So if puzzle games are games, then TASers are gamers. :) But really it's a question of how you identify yourself. Would, say, a construction worker think of themselves as a carpenter because they occasionally have to cut a 2x4 to length? Arguably that's carpentry, but probably the construction worker thinks of themselves as doing construction, not carpentry.
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Posted: 6/12/2015 10:38 AM
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Warp
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
One could say that in practice all TASers are gamers, but that doesn't have to be so. It's perfectly possible for a non-gamer to make a TAS.