This is the question that I get asked most when telling people about what I'm doing - which of course is understandable as its not a phrase you hear every day.

"Specialty Gamer" is an idea that refers to areas or styles of games and/or gaming that are typically made with a very specific type of crowd in mind, and are not usually well marketed/known to just everybody. For example: light gun compatible video games, pinball video games, imports, RPG's, scrolling shooter games... Other phrases often used are hardcore/core gaming or niche gaming, I'm sure some players may have their own names for that too. A common characteristic (but not always) of a Specialty Gamer is someone who grew up thru many generations of gaming - meaning its often the more basic games that the person grew up with and will always stay signifigant. So that person will look for other games with that same kind of core gameplay. Pac-Man is a perfect example of a core game, Galaga and Street Fighter are two others.

I think that when I tell people about Specialty Gamer, the people that are core or niche gamers themselves, know what I'm talking about. Typically, its people that are not as familiar with video games and only know of Madden, Halo, Mario, etc... that I need to explain the idea a bit more. Its most other people like that that are Consensus Game Players; people that stick with the established, highly publicised games. If you are a consensus game player, then you hae a much easier time finding games you want than I do. But if you are a consensus game player, maybe you can look thru Specialty Gamer and meet someone that suggests a cool uncommon title similar to your favorite major release you never would have heard of otherwise. That's basically my reason for starting Specialty Gamer - for game players to help other game players discover interesting games they might have missed. If you only want to read about the games even your moms and dads know about, you'll easily find a ton of websites that will talk a lot about the same kinds of stuff - so there's no reason for me to repeat what's already there.

I made up this little page just to help answer the one question I'm asked most (and maybe a little bit tired of explaining over and over...) so hopefully that covers it. I didn't want to make this a place for me to go on and on about what Specialty Gamer is as a website and a business. If you want more info, please check the About page or the Biz Prog Log for goals of Special Gamer as a website and a business.

Anything you'd like to say? Feel free to contact me at brianmoy@specialtygamer.com

Thanks,