I wonder how much of that is due to a certain amount of perceived social stigma being attached to the 'gamer' label? We have biased reports coming out saying things like the links between gaming and aggression is stronger than between smoking and lung cancer (actually a misquote of the original seriously flawed research but this is what the media ran with) and a general belief by media that we are either socially retarded geeks or that 'only children play games'. One of my fellow gamers is very careful not to mention his hobby at work for fear of it having a negative impact on how his co-workers perceive him. Is it any wonder then that the label 'gamer' is not often self applied in more general social settings?

It's "Bahat" not "Barat."

I actually agree with this guy. I would understand myself to be a gamer, but I hate the term gamer used as a subculture because it makes people sound elitist, and also act elitist. I find people who call themselves gamers close themselves off to a specific subset of games also, which is not good for diversity in games. (eg we don't all want to be making fps's).

@Ian Uniacke We must travel in different circles then, my experience is almost exactly the opposite. All the 'gamers' I know and communicate with have multiple platforms (PC, XBox etc) as well as playing multiple video game genres from turn based play by email games all the way through to popular multiplayer FPS. They all also play tabletop RPG's, party games and board games. They all delight in finding new and interesting games to share with each other and lament the bland sameness of the majority of popular games. While the people who don't really consider themselves as gamers play only a couple of games on the one platform (solitair on PC, Wii Sports, Friday night poker etc) and tend to stick to common genres. Similarly they don't like admitting to others that they are gamers for fear of the social stigma they may attract. I will admit to some elitism in our behaviour though so on that count I would agree, but it is mainly expressed to each other and very rarely towards non-gamers.

I'm trying to remember... who was it that drew the distinction between "gamers" and "people who love games"? I think that was a very illuminating moment for me, and feel that it has some bearing on this situation.

I think a better term would be PLAYER rather then "gamer", a "gamer" is a teenage frat boy / nerdy kid, a PLAYER can be anyone.