Gaymer or gay gamer is an umbrella term

Umbrella term

An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or grouping of concepts that all fall under a single common category. Umbrella term is also called a hypernym. For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields...

 used to refer to the group of people who identify themselves as gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

, bisexual, lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

, or transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

ed and have an active interest in the video game community, also known as gamer

Gamer

Historically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. Since they became very popular, the term has included players of video games...

s.

In 2007 Chris Vizzini, owner of the gaming site Gaymer.org, sought to trademark the term gaymer with respect to online communities.

2006 University of Illinois

In 2006, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign sociological study looked at the gay gamer subgroup focusing on the profile of a "gaymer" and concerns they have regarding the perception of them in the gaming community and visibility of gay characters in games. The study's author noted the level of prejudice that gaymers endure: "Gay gamers experience a double edged sword of prejudice... The mainstream gay culture and media is not supportive of video games. Then you have the video game culture that is not supportive of gay culture. So you have these people stuck in the middle who have this double edged prejudice." With about 10.000 respondents the survey exhibited a reverse bell curve of gamer sexuality, with most people identifying as either completely heterosexual or homosexual. Only a "very small minority" of the respondents to the first survey supported the use of the term gaymer.

2009 Full Sail University

In late August 2009, Full Sail University student Paul S. Nowak began the second survey of gaymer play preferences at NewGaymerSurvey.com as research for his Master’s Thesis in Video Game Design. "Since Jason Rockwood's survey in 2006 was the first of its kind, it got stuck with the burden of proving to the academic community that the gay gaming community even existed. Now that he's been successful at that, we can make a more in-depth study of what exactly gaymers want from their games," said Nowak. Nowak also said, "The differences [between the two surveys] are apparent right from the beginning. Rockwood and I have very different backgrounds. My expertise is design and, unlike Rockwood, I have been a gamer for over 20 years. That difference is reflected in my study. Being the second survey in the field, I am able to shift my focus onto questions of content such as plot, genre, customization and other in-game experiences." While the results of Nowak's survey are still pending, the survey team reports that over 7000 people have participated in the survey to date. , Nowak is seeking publication for his findings from those first 7000 responses.

Media coverage

Video game magazine The Escapist

The Escapist (magazine)

The Escapist is an online magazine covering video games, gamers, the gaming industry, and gaming culture. Published by the Themis Group, it was edited by Julianne Greer up to June 30, 2009, then by Russ Pitts through September 2011, and is currently edited by Steve Butts. The Escapist was first...

 devoted Issue 222 to gay gamers and characters with the title "Queer Eye for the Gamer Guy" (similar to the TV show title).

The MMORPG

MMORPG

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

 game The Lord of the Rings Online dropped a planned online marriage feature because of the controversy around restrictions on same-sex and inter-species marriage. The online magazine for gaymers GayGamer.net commented that, while J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

 was a devout Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

, his stance on gay rights isn't known as the topic wasn't a public issue at the time.

See also

• LGBT characters in video games
• Pink money
  Pink money
  Pink money describes the purchasing power of the gay community, often especially with respect to political donations. With the rise of the gay rights movement, pink money has gone from being a fringe or marginalized market to a thriving industry in many parts of the Western world such as the...