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Notes -
It's actually a link in the chain re: marketing as well, with it being timed at the tail end of the realization that identity marketing worked better.
The golden age of marketing (late 80s, 90s) was marked by the selling of ideas. Concepts. Celebrity marketing. Be Like Mike, Da Bomb, Wazzzup, Got Milk, Obey Your Thirst. It was aspirational marketing; you bought the product because you wanted to be like X, or because you liked the idea.
The thing that really changed this was Starbucks. Suddenly they weren't selling an idea or an aspirational goal but an identity. People wanted to be seen as the kind of person who hung out and "worked" at Starbucks, with the complete Starbucks yuppie kit - smart casual or nerd casual clothing, grande latte, iPhone, Macbook. Young people sitting in Starbucks chairs pretending to work or to be creative with their expensive laptops. The decor, environment, chairs, everything built to make it an attractive environment that furthered the illusion. That was the real secret sauce behind Starbucks' success, not $10 lattes. The shift is noticable: you bought the product because you were that type of person. Instead of selling what you could be, they sold you something based on who you were (or who you thought you were).
"Gamer" was both a term for someone who played video games and a marketable identity. If the marketers could identify what that was and cater to it, then make money off it, then of course there would be fights about who gamers were.
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