What is a game

I have been trying to think of what a gamer is and if i am one. I don't play many games, but the one game i come back to time and time again is a game called civilization. I've played it in it's various iterations for close to a decade and forsaken the chance of aquiring a tan for many a summer. I love this game, as a way to relax or pass the time, but not to the point that i would preach to anyone about the virtues of it over another game or past time. I do not exclude people from my life for not loving the game. I can stop playing it whenever i want, often for months or a year or more. I have other interests. To me this is what seperats me from a gamer.

The notion I have of a gamer is someone who incorperates the game or genre of game into an essential part of thier self and deifys it, to the exclusion of almost every other thing in their life. In this sense I see no difference between a gamer, a petrolhead, a fashionista or a football fanatic. It's the same state of mind in regards to different stimuli. There is nothing wromg with focusing on just one thing and pursing a lifes passion, but there is a very fine line between passion and addiction.

Why the media choose to focus on video games as the modern source of this state of mind has probably got to do with the comparative novelty of the video game culture. Because this culture is not well understood by the main stream it is very easy to lable, through anxiety and fear, video games as something promoting the ills of society, convieniently forgetting that they mearly reflect something that has been part of the humanpsyche for mellenia, for good or bad.