GamerS

Historically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. More recently, however, the term has grown to include players of video games, eventually becoming more associated with this group than the original, at least in mainstream culture . While the term nominally includes those who do not necessarily consider themselves to be gamers (i.e., casual gamers),^[1] it is commonly used to identify those who spend much of their leisure time playing or learning about different games.

There are many gamer communities around the world. Many of these take the form of web rings, discussion forums and other virtual communities, as well as college or university social clubs. Stores specializing in games often serve as a meeting place to organize groups of players^{[citation needed]}. Prior to the emergence of the Internet, many play-by-mail games developed communities resembling those surrounding today's online games^{[citation needed]}.

In October 2006, the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) was established as the first non-profit membership organization formed to represent American computer and video game consumers. The ECA was formed, in part, in response to the seemingly imbalanced representation of the games industry (e.g., the ESA, IGDA and others) in comparison to game consumers in the United States Congress.^[1]