Being a gamer is something that many people identify as in different ways. While many media publications would consider everyone that picks up a smartphone app for a few minutes is a gamer, others would suggest you need to own a PC or gaming console, while others still would require you to have played some of the medium's classics to be considered as such.
Which is why it's not exactly clear how useful it will be for Ted Cruz's presidential run to call himself one. Especially since he doesn't appear to be playing much more than Candy Crush and Plants vs Zombies at the moment.
In an interview with the Daily Beast he claimed to have always been a gamer, having played on the NES and Atari 2600 back in the day, as well as many classic arcade games. His college years were apparently spent playing a lot of Super Marios Bros until the early hours of the morning, though today he doesn't own a console as apparently he would struggle to get off it if he did.
He does play the odd iPhone game with his daughters however.
It's difficult to imagine how much this sort of statement will help Cruz's campaign. He's not going to appeal to hardcore gamers with those game shout outs and casual players are unlikely to care either way. So will name dropping Candy Crush really make much of a difference?
Image source: Wikimedia
