Game Players

Not fundamentally different than anyone else spending their time before they die. Could be doing a lot more with your time, like learning essential life skills, but there are worse things you could be doing. Depending on the game you could learn critical thinking or become better at problem solving.

The stigma from playing games is pretty bad, though. They're rapidly declining in quality aswell, probably since 2002 or 2005 depending on your tastes. Doesn't help when people call themselves 'Gamers' though. What's with this stereotype that their supposed to be an intelligent "bunch"?

In reality smart people aren't attracted to hours of repetitive digitally induced stimuli as lifestyle. Everyone claiming to be "hardcore" that I've come across is unemployed, lives with his (there is no her) parents, awkward, unfit, socially inept and can barley string together a grammatically correct sentence while maintaining eye contact.

Possibly the most entertaining activity one can partake in while sitting down. You can tell a lot about the nature of people by playing games with them that have no real consequence. That being said, the majority of chronic gamers are pathetic wastes of potential.

It's not a hobby, just like watching movies isn't a hobby. It IS a fun activity to participate in with friends. Anyone who identifies themselves as this just wants a label to identify their escapism with. It's just back-warming collectivism to make their addiction seem OK. Like people who smoke marijuana identifying themselves as "Stoners".

People that game and only game are a problem and are pathetic. They just take up space. Some more than others. Comparable to any addict. Who thinks they're intelligent? Maybe some say that about RTS players; being good mostly involves brainless repetition for years. Some of the best strategists and thinkers in the world have logged over 9000 days honing their skills. Stay away from the FPS freaks- those are the ones that will be able to kill you in 20 seconds with a remoted controlled robot in 30 years.

It's hard not to correlate intelligence with specific genres when you see so many of one type of people into a specific genre. If there are no intelligence differences, then for sure their are other mental diffrences. People who play CoD religiously probably have very quick reaction time, but little to no critical thinking.