Full FeedTen worst things to get a hardcore gamer for Christmas
So what do you get the gamer who has everything? The real question is, what shouldn’t you get him?
For those of you who are worried about getting the wrong gift for that hardcore gamer you love, here is a quick list that should help point out some bad gift ideas.
Top Ten Worst Gift Ideas for the Hardcore Gamer
10. A Book. They do enough reading during the game, especially if playing a good role-playing game. Frankly what gamer has any extra time to dedicate to A Tale of Two Cities?
09. Nice clothes. A Hardcore gamer never goes out on the town, more or less out of his room. Besides, they have an image to keep up.
8. Mittens or boxing gloves. They restrict the movement in your fingers and are bulky. You can’t possible hold a controller and press buttons while wearing them so they are, in turn, useless.
7. Board games. The only people hardcore gamers know are either busy playing games themselves or are people they only talk to online. So unless the board game is on the computer, they would have no one to play with.
6. A needlepoint kit. With both hand (and sometimes feet) being used at all times, this wonderful craft would just go to waste.
5. A gym membership. All the exercise a hardcore gamer needs can be done with either Wii Fit or Dance Dance Revolution. Plus they never leave their house.
4. DVD player. Almost all the new systems can play DVDs and the PS3 can play Blu-rays. Besides, games take up most of their time so the hardcore gamer does very little DVD watching.
3. Gift cards - ...to a store that doesn’t sell video games or accessories. Lets be honest, that would just never get used.
2. A salad spinner. It’s a lame gift, don’t buy it. Ever. For anyone.
And the worst gift idea for the hardcore gamer,
1. Tea. Tea is simply never hardcore.
There you have it. A little gift guide that you might want to print out and carry along with you when you shop, thus avoiding any embarrassment or angry gamers this holiday season. When in doubt, always remember; gift receipts are your friends!
Read [Chris.Pirillo.com] Also Read [N4G.com]
Keep up with the latest gaming goodness! - 
Subscribe to our feed
Important Importables
Jenni Lada brings us information about all of the groovy new gaming imports from around the world.
Firstly, why do you define a “hardcore gamer” as male? There are plenty of “hardcore” gaming women. Judging by your name, you are female (correct me if I am wrong, please). The fact that you write for a videogame blog surely indicates that your interest in videogames is anything but casual. The fact that this blog has a healthy representation of women writers further proves the fact that hardcore gamers are not necessarily male. For all of these reasons, I find the lack of inclusiveness of women in your opening sentence _extremely_ surprising and puzzling.
Putting aside the fact that I find the categorisation of gamers into “hardcore” and “casual” misguided and silly…
Tea. Seriously? I know this list is a humourous undertaking, but it seems extremely American-centric. You’re completely ignoring the fact that tea is consumed in vast quantities by millions of people of all ages in the UK and Asia, and there are definitely loads of hardcore gamers amongst them.
on December 12, 2008 at 09:45 PM - LINKI didn’t intend it to be only male’s, that’s why i said “they” a lot. If I said “he” it was simply because i wasn’t paying attention.
Yes I am female, and YES I am a hardcore gamer@ I would never want to insult myself so i am sorry to all those i offended, including myself.
And again sorry, i was not away tea was actually hardcore. My bad.
on December 13, 2008 at 02:01 AM - LINKDance…. Dance…..... Revelation….......?
brb, seizure
on December 13, 2008 at 01:47 PM - LINKI love tea.
on December 13, 2008 at 02:27 PM - LINKI am a core gamer. Someone who keeps games in his heart and loves them very much.
Most of my time is spent gaming.
I love books. And I usually wear clothes for myself, not for others. And I would consider getting a robe a very nice gift.
Also consoles don’t play DVDs or Blu-rays from different regions.
A boardgame sounds pretty fun too.
But I don’t like everything else :P
And what exactly is the definition of a hardcore gamer?
From your article it sounds like it’s a very isolated person (except online :P).
on December 13, 2008 at 02:45 PM - LINKI rarely go out too but I just don’t like how the word hardcore sounds :P
I thought that the conclusion of this article was a little anti-climactic. The number one gift to avoid was tea? Certainly the salad spinner should have been number one and tea could have been number five.
In any case, to the person who complained about this article being about “men” and not “women”... you need to understand that this has been a grammatical problem for a very long time.
Referring to a single person as “they” is grammatically incorrect. “They” implies a plural representation of many people. So, saying something like “If your spouse is a hardcore gamer, they probably won’t like a book” is grammatically incorrect. In this case, the pronoun “they” would imply that you have multiple spouses, which is only possible in Utah.
There is no pronoun (other than “it,” which is rude sounding) which specifies a person of unknown or unspecified sex. So, the way most writers get around this problem is to simply choose a sex and stick with it. If you’ve ever been involved with paper and pen RPGs (such as Dungeons & Dragons,) they often imply that the gamer is always female. This was simply a choice made for reasons of grammar, not meaning to be anything else between the lines.
So, the fact that this article used “he” and “him” did not concern me one bit, because I understand this is a trick of grammar, not implication. Too many “he or she” and “him or her” phrases would really lower the quality of the article… and if the article was written completely in the “he/she” form, I’m sure someone would have complained that it left out the guys.
So, people should just relax a bit about the whole pronoun usage. As for the article itself, I think it had some promise but just missed the mark. Maybe instead of tea it could have been milk. What hardcore gamer would willingly drink milk? Unless it’s chocolate milk, of course.
on December 13, 2008 at 02:49 PM - LINKI love tea…. And I consider myself pretty hardcore… you guys must have had crappy tea…. lamers
on December 13, 2008 at 03:10 PM - LINKWhy is everybody taking this so seriously? They are obviously not hardcore gamers if they get this offended. :D I enjoyed your article.
on December 13, 2008 at 06:12 PM - LINKI’m not a hardcore gamer, probably; softcore at best. But my god, people, if you think that tea is not the worst present to receive then you have never been given tea. I have been known to enjoy a cuppa, and every year, without fail, I receive at least one ornamental set of tea. The problem isn’t the stuff itself: I don’t mind it, no one actually _minds_ tea. Rather, the problem is that it invariably comes in these nice, big, heavy boxes that just scream out “new game” or “new cell phone” or new _anything_that_isn’t_tea_. It is, if you’ll pardon my pun, the ultimate tease of a gift. It leads you on, makes you think it’s something special, then WHAM: five different kinds of dried things in paper sachets. So rock on, Ms Moen. I hear you.
on December 13, 2008 at 07:16 PM - LINKTea will never be as hardcore as espresso.
And ZapoAM is correct - a wrapped box of tea under the tree would be a total letdown. Especially if the person who wrapped it did it in a manner that made it look like something better.
on December 15, 2008 at 12:04 AM - LINKNote to self: never mention “tea” in an article again!
and thanks for the comments, you guys are awesome
on December 15, 2008 at 02:36 AM - LINKLmao, imagine them playing all day then took a break and drank tea in an Asian stance/fashion. x]
on December 15, 2008 at 06:45 AM - LINK