When someone says "games", what's the first thing that comes to mind?

I just lost the game

For me I'd probably assume it was video games of some sort if someone said they were 'really into games'. That's speaking as someone who knows a lot of hardcore boardgame players.

That said context is everything...

Homestar Runner

My relationship with my mother

Board games.

Without context, the "are you playing games with me" meaning

Mind games

My toxic ex

War Games (watched it not long ago)

Joshua/WOPR: Greetings, Professor Falken.

Stephen Falken: Hello, Joshua.

Joshua/WOPR: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?

For me personally "gaming" is a combination of tabletop and vidya roleplaying and strategy games. Generally I like very cerebral and slow-paced stuff.

What's weird is if somebody tells me they are into games, I immediately assume they are into genres of games I don't enjoy like FPS, action games, MOBAs, etc.

Homestar Runner saying it.

Video games.

Arcade games!

Videogames of any sort is my default assumption - usually for tabletop games I'll say tabletop games, or a more specific category (TTRPG, board game, etc.)

We like both, so usually we say "cardboard" when referring to table top games

Super Mario

It depends who I'm talking to.

If I'm talking to an older person, I might think of arcade games or mobile games.

If I'm talking to a millenial or gen z, i probably think of a console.

Even though I mainly play on PC, it's usually not what people around me are referring to

Quit playin' games with my heart

Both, I sometimes ask if I am unsure. I try to assume the context and sometimes know they mean video games. But sometimes its tabletop

The Olympic Games was the first thing that came to mind.

My friends and family know that I often play PC games so if they ask me: what are you playing these days? I assume it's PC games or at least phone games.

games are tabletop games! video games are video games.

Same for me. PC games. I grew up playing games on PC. My first beast was a Pentium 200Mhz with 32MB of RAM.

The many theme songs of the long slumbering Idle Thumbs podcast. I miss it so.

When I was a PC gamer, I would think of PC games. Now that I have a PS5 I think of PlayStation.

I think of my mother and her actions. She's one of those people who enjoy conflict, so she invents problems.

Games People Play

Card games, like cribbage, uno, etc

Skyrim

Board games, particularly Monopoly and Parcheesy