The Insult: “Gamer”


I spent 15 minutes trying to come up with a clever introduction to this post, but I’ll be completely honest… I’m not a writer, I’m a gamer first, then an entrepreneur. I’m here trying to answer the big questions people ask me every day. To be brief, I’m the Founder of GAMURS, but I’ll introduce what we do later in the post.

Many people ask me, “Why gaming? Why are you focusing on helping gamers? They have everything they need.” Something that most people don’t understand is that us gamers don’t actually have everything we need. We are under-catered. Please let me explain.

I grew up with games, playing my first version of Mario on my old Nintendo when I was 4. All throughout high school, playing, mastering and conquering games had consumed my life. I’d log nearly 60 hours a week on RuneScape, and then some Xbox if there was some time left. Gaming was my passion, hobby, and probably, my most valuable skill. While everyone was out partying, I was with my party in-game, doing something other than socialising. The reality of the situation was that my friends were in both dimensions, virtual and physical. I was social, but I was different.

One of my usual 12 hour gaming sprees

At the time, MySpace and Bebo were prevalent. They made up social media up until 2008 hit. Facebook had just landed in surrounding areas, everyone flocked towards it. 3 social networks, all purely made for socialising with your real life friends. This seemed natural to me, yet I wasn’t the earliest of adopters. This didn’t strike me as odd until 2010 when one spectacular thing happened — I achieved the maximum level for a skill on RuneScape. My first reaction was to share the event! With excitement and adrenalin flowing through my veins, I went to share a photo of my achievement on Facebook. A moment that all my game-friends and I worked for (with me beating them) is definitely something to share… Yet, something prevented me. Did I really want to show my school friends what I actually spent my time doing? I didn’t.

Why did I stop? Well, there were (and are) many answers to that question. Although I’ll leave you with one, embarrassment. Gaming has always had certain connotations linked to it. If it’s casual, nobody really cares. If you’re a dedicated gamer, the ideas that come to mind include “nerdy”, “geeky”, “antisocial” and “loner”. Who really wants to be paired with these notions? Ironically, 1.2 billion people globally are considered gamers, that’s 1 in 6! Yet, I ensure you that until recently, people would shy away from labelling themselves a gamer.

Since the adoption and expansion of competitive gaming, more people are becoming open about their other identities. That’s exactly what gaming is, a second identity. My real name is Riad, but I’d have at least 15 gaming identities that I can claim are mine, and all are equally important to me, just as they are with hundreds of millions of other people. Platforms such as Twitch and Youtube are giving gamers a place to connect, but there needs to be more. These content platforms allow gamers with large followings to connect with their fans, and a place to for competitive gaming to expand. This is identical to Twitter and its usage by thought leaders. Though, the problem that is still critical and significantly affecting hundreds of millions of gamers is simple, but unaddressed. What if you’re not a popular gamer? Facebook isn’t just for celebrities. Gamers need a dedicated platform to share with the people that matter to them! Forums and console-dependent communities are not enough. Why should we use a different account on different websites for every game we play? There’s a social network for nearly everybody:

  • Soundcloud for musicians
  • Dribbble for designers
  • Twitter/Facebook for social
  • Yammer for corporations

This is what we’re working to solve at GAMURS. GAMURS is a social network helping passionate gamers share their content, meet likeminded players, and keep up to date with all their games, in one site. With Facebook style social features, players can freely engage with each other, and their games. Rather than having to hide their true identity, they can share exactly what they want. No more feelings of embarrassment or exclusion. Gamers can do what they love to do (smashing boxes, scoring kills and breaking records), and then show it off with the people that care. We give players like ourselves a comfortable home for all their games and game accounts, we know what it’s like to have to hide, but not anymore.

We’re still very early stage, with a BETA opened at https://gamurs.com — we’re always looking to get in touch with gamers to chat about what we can do to make it easier to be a gamer. We’ve spoken to 1,500 people, and we want to talk to even more! Contact me personally at riad@gamurs.com!