gamer n.

a participant in a war-game or role-playing game; a player or creator of such games

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Gaming

  • 1973 J. Dunnigan Outgoing Mail in Strategy Tactics Magazine July/Aug. 44/2

    In other words, we reach some 50,000 gamers now (making allowance for non-gamers who read the magazine and the thousands of gamers on our mailing list who do not subscribe). The subscriber profile has not changed much since we had 10,000 subscribers and it looks like the profile won’t change much as we approach 50,000 subscribers. Our estimate of 100,000 active gamers in the country still seems reasonable.

  • 1977 D. Hargrave Arduin Grimoire (verso front cover)

    About three years ago fantasy role playing games began to become extremely popular among gamers of all types.

  • 1978 S. Perrin et al. Runequest 3/1

    We have tried to make these rules easily understood by anyone interested in the concept, not just experienced gamers. If you are an experienced FRP gamer, take those portions you can use and ignore the rest.

  • 1986 G. Gordon in Amer. Fantasy Fall 63/3

    I cannot recommend Pendragon for beginning gamers. The game mechanics are not all that complex, but there is a lot of information to deal with.

  • 1988 S. McCrumb Bimbos of Death Sun iv. 42 Sharyn McCrumb bibliography

    Since Diefenbaker lived in Ontario, most of his fellow gamers had to rely on correspondence and a severely limited phone budget for contact with him.

  • 1991 Locus Nov. 63/1

    The gamers provide cautionary examples about getting too caught up in games.

  • 2019 B. Morris SLAY vii. 130 Brittney Morris

    I think Black gamers deserve to have a safe arena in which they can play freely without having to deal with racial slurs and the threat of violence to them should they win a campaign.

Research requirements

antedating 1973
Earliest cite

Jim Dunnigan, "Outgoing Mail"
Research History
Enoch Forrester submitted a 1976 cite from Timothy Kask in Dragon Magazine.
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1986 cite from a game review column by Greg Gordon in American Fantasy.
Kay Shapero submitted a 1979 cite from the rules for "Runequest".
Kay Shapero submitted a 1977 cite from David Hargrave's "The Arduin Grimoire, Volume 1".
Edward Born submitted a 1973 cite from an article in Strategy and Tactics Magazine,"Outgoing Mail" by Jim Dunnigan.
Bee Ostrowsky submitted a 2019 cite from Brittney Morris.

Earliest cite in the OED: 1981.

We would like cites of any date from other sources.

Last modified 2024-11-17 00:09:25
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.