Whenever anyone trots out the “41% of gamers are women” statistic without fail someone will make the comment “sure if you count mobile games” and that always annoys me. Not that people are disagreeing with that statistic, it’s never properly sourced and I care so little about it I’m not even going to try to source it myself but that somehow mobile games are not games. That a person must play one of the already recognized and reputable types of game to be a gamer.
This attitude blows me away, when did we become so closed minded as to what gaming as a hobby is? People always look down on match 3 and bubble pop style games ignoring that while they involve luck (which is common to gaming anything with an random number generation involves luck) they also do involve skill and practice to get good at. In the case of match 3 games it’s lining up combos and setting up for latter matches. In bubble pop games it’s knowing your angles and where to put the bubble for the best pop. Mobile games are also often classified as “time wasters” just something to fill an hour or two before you go do real human bean stuff, but isn’t that what all games break down into? An activity you enjoy between the responsibilities of your life, or as it’s colloquially known: a hobby.
For me the term gamer applies more to enjoyment and dedication than what type of game you play. If someone looks forward to their match 3 game every day and plays it for a solid hour scoring those big combos and moving up into higher difficulty it’s really no different than the COD head playing their 2 hours and trying to improve their K.D.A ratios. We’re all just playing the types of games we enjoy and while the mobile gaming market can be a bit more scummy about respecting players money and time it’s still a viable gaming market. We should be celebrating the fact that Gramma’s, single moms, and people stuck on public transport now have a gaming niche that welcomes them into the fold not donning our monocles and scoffing at them like dirty peasants that don’t what a “real game” is.