In Retrospect

     In spite of the fact that we tried to cover the evolution of the gamer hero over the last 2.5-3 decades in such a short time, I think we actually covered a lot of ground and touched on a lot of key points.  During our discussion of two of the first mainstream movies that featured gamer heroes it had already become apparent that there were always going to be two types of gamer hero:
                         The Standard Gamer Hero
                         The Hacker Gamer Hero

     The standard gamer hero is fairly self explanatory, covering all gamer heroes that rose to meet a challenge and win through their interaction with actual video games.  The hacker type is a variation of the first, seeing as how these hacker types were always some way or another involved in gaming culture as well.  The more we followed movies forward along the time line, one of the most significant aspects of these types of movies seemed to be the fact that they were trying out different identities for gamer heroes.  The Wizard had a traumatized little boy who was able to prove his worth through gaming and a whole social network of hackers in the movie Hackers.  Movies like Tron had stuck the gamer hero's foot in the door of mainstream media and now people were beginning to explore and get a feel for who and what truly represented a gamer, and ultimately a gamer hero.

     Throughout this period novels were also written whose protagonists happened to be gamer heroes as well.  The gamer hero isn't very prolific in either film or print however people are exploring it more and more.  Through this exploration and discovery we find ourselves realizing that the identity of the gamer hero can vary greatly.  This, in my opinion is due mainly to the fact that, for example, anyone in a story that's into gaming (or forced into gaming) can become a gamer hero, whether it's a skinny white kid that lives in a trailer park and plays the same arcade every day like Starfighter or if you're a convicted murderer letting someone use you as an avatar for a chance at freedom.  This leaves the possibilities wide open for who a hero can be or where they are from.  They don't have to be a super spy that works for the government  to be included into the gamer hero archetype.  In fact, I believe it would be an accurate statement to say that the archetype of the gamer hero is partially characterized by the range of possible candidates that can fill the role.  This is hugely beneficial to the archetype as it provides adaptability.

    Finally there is the discussion of whether or not the gamer hero is truly an archetype that has been adopted by American culture.  In my opinion there is no question, it is a hands down yes.  Not only do we have the pop culture legitimizing spoofs contributing to the gamer hero's resume, but stories starring gamer heroes are beginning to be able to be viewed as making fairly significant commentaries on our society.  The mere fact that the people are trying to speak through gamer heroes and contribute to our culture and/or comment on our society is all the proof I need to be certain that the gamer hero is here to stay, and hopefully for a very, very long time.