I did debian with cinnamon and ran into some issues
This might be important; perhaps consider telling us about the issues you ran into.
I am an absolute beginner to linux
Honestly, you should be fine regardless. But it’s undeniable that -due to Linux Mint’s popularity amongst new users- you’ll likely have an easier time finding solutions to problems you might encounter.
and i’m a g*mer (laugh it up)
Once again, either one of these should be able to suit your needs. You might have to relearn how you access your games, but that’s true regardless of whichever distro you end up choosing.