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Discussion The term “consumer” needs to go.

Clix

Clix

Chain Chomp
Banned
So this is my first thread here, so apologies for any awkwardness in my writing, English isn’t my first language. Also, today finally felt like a proper autumn day so I’ve had a cider with fireball and am now having a brown pumpkin ale :D

So I want touch on something that I’ve seen only really pop up in the last few years in gaming that’s been really rubbing me the wrong way.

Consumer.

I really hate that word. People suddenly overnight started using it instead of enthusiast or hobbyist, or whatever else. I hate the term in the context of our hobby with a burning passion.

There are several resources, but I will provide one here regarding the term and the negative effects the use of it can contribute to ourselves:

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/should-we-stop-referring-to-people-as-consumers.html

True, the term has a very strict definition, especially in regards to a business perspective. That being said, no other hobby has such a base that just loves referring to themselves as consumers as that of gaming.

Film? Literature? Music? Fine arts? Stamp Collecting? Very rarely. Oh, you may say, look at film threads on specific forums (especially RE). Sure, you’re right. But you only really see it in certain specific movies that are by their nature part of a specific fandom (MCU, Star Wars, etc.). But you will be hard pressed to find any film or book head refer to themselves as a consumer regarding their hobby.

In other words, I see games as art. Yes, there’s a business behind it. There is also a business behind film and literature. I don’t care about that very much outside of that I want to see creatives and developers I admire make a great game.

It’s a term I hate and it’s only recently within the last few years where it has just overtaken gaming. Every time I see someone refer to themselves or us as consumers, I give a bit of a side eye. Just rubs me the wrong way. Also, with the ever increasing hostility and negativity within this hobby, I see a clear correlation. The article above touches on that a bit. It also makes it seem as it’s disposable like a microwave. As if it’s not a creative output, but just a product to be used and discarded.

Sorry for getting on what seems to be on a soap box, but it’s been on my mind for quite a bit. So for your own sanity, for your enjoyment of this great hobby and of this fantastic artistic medium.

Someone here in another thread mentioned that value means something different to every individual. Like any other medium, I understand everything costs money. I’m not arguing that nor whether something has value to us or not. It will vary from person to person, and gaming like other hobbies is not immune to feeling disappointment.

But please, stop referring to yourself as a consumer. It really will change your perspective on the enjoyment of the hobby in general.

I’m probably about to get slammed hard here, but it’s been on my mind.

Cheers!
 
I thoroughly agree. It's such a demeaning and cynical word to use so casually. I hope that it is dropped from the Famiboards lexicon.
 
I guess this is an unpopular opinion, but even though games are art, over the years I've realized that I sometimes care more about games as "toys" with mechanics that you can play around with and less as art. I'm less interested in games as artistic expressions of the developer as I am games as boxes to play around with different tools given to you by the designers, unless the game explicitly has a very high focus on narrative. In this sense I think it might be more apt to call yourself a "consumer" of games if you're looking at games like how you look at a car more than how you look at books. It's like how someone would call someone buying sports equipment a consumer of that sports equipment.

Also usually I use the word "consumer" if I'm talking about games at least somewhat from a business perspective.

Otherwise, I mostly agree with this impulse, and I'll try to use it less in other contexts. I think part of the reason people might use it is just trying to find other words to indicate the pool of people interested in a game after the word "gamer" has gotten tainted by GamerGate and the "gamers rise up" memes. I guess "player" would probably work just as well in most contexts, though, but I can't think of any words other than that (and "people who play video games" is usually awkward phrasing and sometimes just comes across as though you're embarrassed to use any other phrases). But "players" is still probably a good replacement most of the time.
 
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Completely agree. It blatantly breaks people down to nothing but a means to an end for companies' profit (not that we're under the illusion we're anything else to them). It's nearly as bad as "Human Capital Stock".
 
GamerJM said:
I guess this is an unpopular opinion, but even though games are art, over the years I've realized that I sometimes care more about games as "toys" with mechanics that you can play around with and less as art. I'm less interested in games as artistic expressions of the developer as I am games as boxes to play around with different tools given to you by the designers, unless the game explicitly has a very high focus on narrative. In this sense I think it might be more apt to call yourself a "consumer" of games if you're looking at games like how you look at a car more than how you look at books. It's like how someone would call someone buying sports equipment a consumer of that sports equipment.

Also usually I use the word "consumer" if I'm talking about games at least somewhat from a business perspective.
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I mean, they are toys to me as well. I always consider them as such, BUT, the great thing about games is that it’s like film in the sense, they call film the ultimate affirm as it combines acting, music, fine arts, photography, writing in its own medium.

One can argue that games also do the same, but more, since it is also a toy. It’s what makes the medium so fascinating to me.
 
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I have no problem with art forms (including videogames) using the term “consumer” for the people who buy/consume it.

There is definitely consumerism going on in the industries that utilize that term.
 
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It can be both. Everyone who drives a car can be a consumer of automobiles, but not everyone is a car hobbyist pimping out their ride or collecting classic cars.
 
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Eh, it’s an industry like that all others, chases profits and appeases shareholders.

Your place in that reality is as a consumer, whether or not you choose to accept it.
 
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I call myself a videogame enjoyer.

But I'd never refer myself as gamer or anything like that. I don't see the problem with the term consumer as, well, we're consuming a product.
 
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"Consumer" is a word that has been borrowed from high-level economics discussions and the use of it by enthusiasts to talk about their hobbies and other people who participate in that hobby feels like a reflection of a kind of capitalist mind sickness
 
Ultimately, that's what we are from an executive/suit's point of view.

As long as you don't refer to yourself as a consumer, you're good lol!
 
I mean the sentiment is understandable but it's important to be aware that the relationship between the people who buy and play games and the people who make and sell games is a consumer based one, in order to make sure that people aren't being taken advantage of as well as to understand the power the public has.

No one is saying your relationship with your hobby must be dispassionate but when games publishers are pursuing anti consumer practises such as DRM, live services, planned obsolescence and so on then it's important to address our power as consumers comes from our spending and participation in the economy.

If we as consumers exercise that power by refusing to support exploitative companies and game mechanics then it protects the artistic and economic integrity of the industry and the games themselves.
 
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Seik said:
Ultimately, that's what we are from an executive/suit's point of view.

As long as you don't refer to yourself as a consumer, you're good lol!
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Which is what I touched upon. I see to many in the hobby refer to themselves and others as such when not even discussing the business side of the medium. Just does not sit well with me.

I do think the article is an interesting read, because of the negative impact it can have on the self if one approaches it as such.
 
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Yeah, I totally hear you on this. Something about the word just sounds murky and dehumanizing.

What’s funny is (linking this to Nintendo), if you go back and watch Reggie Fils Aime interviews, the guy would say “consumer” at least every other sentence - it’s actually kind of funny when you look for it.
 
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Yeah it's kind of weird to refer to yourself and others like that for a hobby. Feels like people have let the business side of things control the narrative too much. I feel like things get even more mangled with anti-consumer practices and when to properly use the term or trying to call something pro-consumer or whatever.
 
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Gaming is such a monetized and consumerim-oriented hobby, It's no surprise people see themselves as consumers first and foremost.

You have to spend 400$ for a new console, 70$ for a game to go with it, 70$ a year to play online and an uncountable amount in DLC, microtransactions, vattle passes, lootboxes or however other way game devs are coming up to monetize your engagement even more.

It's bad to engage with art as a product but much of the art we're engaging with are, in turn, only treating us as a consumer. Nothing to say. "Apolitical". We, the audience, only serve and are only expected to be a source of money and "engagement".

So I get why gaming enthusiasts call themselves like this, even though I dislike it.
 
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