>>12016907
>"Gamer" is a manufactured identity
Sort of. It's modern meaning emerged in the early 1970s where a gamer (short for wargamer) was the player of tabletop minature combat games. Proto-D&D precursor game called "chainmail" was the root of it all. This directly branched off into TTRPG (D&D), modern board games with advanced rules, and computer gaming (milsims and RPGs dominated PC gaming in the 70s and 80s). All three subgroups inherited the "gamers" label, as did wizards of the coast with the emerging CCG industry which spun off from TTRPGs. All of them refered to the players as gamers.

Arcade and console players were not widely called gamers at the time. Nintendo power magazine and early gamepro used the word "player" almost exclsuively when adressing their readers. Menus and title screens mention "player 1" when you drop in a coin. Meanwhile computer gaming world and PC gamer used the word "gamer" more as they were still mostly covering SSI war sims, rpgs, flight sims and strategy games early on whxh stuxk to the wargaming roots and the same core audience.

At some point all videogame players became gamers as an identity, when it became socially acceptable as OP mentioned. But it used to refer to a specific kind of gamer.
Tl;dr
Panzer general had gamers, mario had players.