No, You're Not a Gamer

Submission 225

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About

No, You're Not a Gamer is a copypasta in which a user expresses his frustrations with gamers who are less invested in the hobby and enjoy casual games, refusing the recognize them as real gamers. The copypasta, originally posted in the /r/rant subreddit in 2019, has since seen viral spread online, being used ironically and inspiring parodies.

Origin

On March 19th, 2019, Redditor Username6273 posted a rant about gamers who invest less than 300 hours in their games and who enjoy more casual video games such as Stardew Valley and the Super Mario series (shown below). The post was downvoted in the /r/rant^[1] subreddit but received over 50 comments in five years.

Read copypasta

No, you’re NOT a gamer
I’m so sick of all these people who think they’re gamers. No, you’re not. Most of you are not even close to being gamers. I see these people saying “I put well over 100hrs in this game it’s great!” that’s nothing, most of us can easily put 300+ in all of our games. I see people who only have the Nintendo switch and claim to be gamers. Come talk to me when you pick up a ps4 controller then we be friends.

Also DEAR ALL WOMEN: Pokémon is not a real game. Animal crossing is not a real game. The sims is not a real game. Mario is not a real game. Stardew Valley is not a real game. Mobile games are NOT.REAL.GAMES. put down the baby games and play something that requires challenge and skill for once.

-sincerely, all of the ACTUAL gamers

Spread

In early April 2019, the copypasta saw viral spread online through reposts on Facebook,^[2] X,^[3] Reddit and other sites. For example, on April 3rd, 2019, the Facebook^[4] page Pls No Stealy my Memey made a repost (shown below) that garnered over 1,100 reposts and 320 shares on the platform in five years.

On November 30th, 2020, voice actor and YouTuber Aleks Le posted a voiced version of the copypasta. The upload (shown below) received over 2.5 million views on YouTube^[5] and 3,800 reposts and 11,000 likes on X^[6] in four years.

On March 1st, 2024, TikTok^[7] user @sevvenstation posted a Persona 4 meme based on the voiceover that garnered over 500,000 views and 85,400 likes in eight months (shown below).

The copypasta also inspired various parody versions in 2024. For example, on February 3rd, 2024, Redditor greasy_weggins shared a version that replaced "gamer" with "weeb" in the /r/copypasta^[8] subreddit (shown below).

You Cheated Not Only the Game, But Yourself

You Cheated Not Only the Game, But Yourself refers to a viral tweet made by Twitter user @Fetusberry in which he criticized PC Gamer journalist James Davenport for resorting to cheats to beat the final boss in 2019 video game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Starting in April 2019, the tweet has been parodied and used as a copypasta, often in reference to well-known exploits used in video games and lifehacks.

You Didn't Beat the Game

You Didn't Beat the Game and You Didn't Beat the Boss refers to the argument that using a certain in-game mechanic, such as Summons or Bleed in Elden Ring, disqualifies the player from being considered to have beaten the game. The argument, which was used by hardcore Soulslike since 2018, inspired counter-arguments, memes, and parodies.