Casual Gamer, Hardcore gamer and the third way

[kujoe]

Originally Posted by Nosauz

If you don't want to take a game serious that fine, but some people enjoy high skilled competition, just check the guarena, and dota, if you want to just mess around u just pub it, but if you want people who know all the builds laning theories and character stats you go to gaurena, the same goes for CS, if the damn server is called CPL practice match and you go in expecting people to play around then you are sorely mistaken. For many of "us" we enjoy the competition and thats what makes games interesting, does it mean I don't play casual games? Hell No, I play geom wars, world of goo and whole slew of other "casual" games, and hell for most rts I'm pretty casual, its just some aspects of MP such as the competitive nature is whats interesting. Same goes for Unreal Live, its basically a leaderboard where everybody is nuts with the rocket luancher and everybody bunny hops like their some god at the game, does it make the game any less fun? No because for me that environment really gets my blood bumping and the adrenaline/dopamine really flowing to my brain.

I honestly don't understand what you're responding to. Whether one considers games as serious business or not isn't the point I was trying to get at.

Like I said before, outside fanboy bickering (which seems to be the experience of where you're coming from) labels such as "casual" and "hardcore" are used in describing types of gamers, their preferred games and so on. These are merely catch-all descriptions more general than genre specific ones such as fighting gamers, sports gamers, etc. On the other hand, this is why some people dislike these terms, because "hardcore" and "casual" are too general that they engender "us vs. them" discussions. But the "casual" is part of the market now—whether one likes it or not.

The fact that people can distinguish what a "casual" game even is (not to mention, continue to use the term itself) already asserts its distinction and audience. Let's not delude ourselves that the term is completely meaningless. Casual games are here, shovelware or otherwise. They exist, so do casual gamers who like to play them.

With that said, I agree that if you like games and play them as a hobby, you're a gamer in one way or another. That's that.

[Benoit]

Nosauz was replying to what yezhanquan said.

Nosauz, don't lump online console gaming together. There are plenty of online console games where you can choose your server.

[Nosauz]

Yea but when you look at the most popular, with the "best" integrated online play that is halo 2, halo 3, gears of war, you have these shitty matchmaking things that don't let you play ranked games on the maps you want, or the modes you want in the time constraints you want. The inherent flaw with console gaming is if you dc you cannot get back into the game like a pc which is pretty stupid. I'll just say this, as an owner of all the next gen consoles and a owner of a decent gaming rig, I just find that my experience online is a lot better on the pc than console. Plus I have genres like RTSs that are really dependent on their online components that aren't even offered on consoles. The whole matchmaking thing drives me nuts, basically the guys who run live get to decide, who you play, what you play, how you play, basically they tzars of the console gaming world. Ok pc online is a cluttered mess but thats not the point. Anyway just wanted to say that yes I know most online portions of consoles are not the same but from what I've played and expereineced its expereience is quite inferior to the pc(Ie halo 2, halo 3)

[yezhanquan]

My personal preference is still playing with the AI, no least because my connection sucks too much for MMORPGs. Been replaying Diablo 2 recently. Gave me a pleasant surprise as to how much I enjoyed the levelling.

[Jan-Poo]

I still think that those who don't really understand the difference between hardcore and casual player probably have never played a MMORPG before.

I remember an article i read once, this might give you the idea. That article was in the blog of what you can identify as a "hardcore" player who was part of what is known as "end game guild". This guy was talking about his friend that decided to leave the game. His article was kinda funny because it looked like an eulogy. Anyway he was saying how he respected his friend and remembered him as a true "hardcore player". To explain this, he described an episode when both him and that person where doing a mission of some sort that apparently required a lot of time to be completed. At a certain point the friend of the blogger fell asleep while playing. One might argue that if someone is playing to the point of falling asleep in front of a PC he is already far beyond the level of "casual player". However the author of the article had an even more refined idea. After all people that fall asleep playing MMORPGs are not that rare, and usually when they finally wake up, they understand that they reached their limit and they go to bed. But the guy we are talking about was on another level, he woke up and he resumed playing! That's when the author of the article thought: "Wow he is a real hardcore player!".

I would also like to mention this article:
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/08/...onium-war.html

And i quote the most relevant part:

after 18 real-world hours of combat, were forced to admit defeat when members of the LS began "passing out and getting physically ill.

Now i know what's the reason behind all the people that already posted here who are against distinctions between casual players and hardcore players. But when you see things like those you must accept reality. People that go that far for a game and people that only play to have fun, are not the same thing, no matter how you want to look at it.

Now if you want to discuss about "hardcore is wrong" or "hardcore is right", "harcore is cool" or "hardcore is lame", that's a different matter.

I personally thinks that "hardcore" is fine as long as one doesn't destroy his social life and his health, and as long as he doesn't do that just to boast himself in front of others and acts as an elitist bitch (unfortunately to my experience that is often the case).

[Bane Rieko]

I'm more of a casual gamer. I play just about anything, but I don't take it seriously (or too seriously). I've played MMORPGs, but I never stayed with any for very long, though I'm hoping to find a game I can be a bit more serious about. My brother might be hardcore though, he plays everything and anything and it seems his personal life revolves around games.

The only thing I'm hardcore about gaming wise is playing visual novels or anything related to visual novels. From doujin games to hentai visual novels, I play them ALL.

[Guernsey]

So there is no such thing as a "casual" or "hardcore" category of gamers?

[Knight Hawk]

To me the definition for a "Hardcore gamer" would be someone who spends a great deal of time playing game(s) with extensive knowledge of said game(s). A casual for me, simply put, would be someone with limited time to play.

Jan-Poo: I used to be like that back in middle/high school when i had LOTS of free time but nothing out of the ordinary spending ungodly hours in that game but dang how i miss it, been 3 to 4 years since i left, no longer had the time for it.

[TrueKnight]

From business and market share perspectives most hardcore gamers are those of 360, ps3, pcs and maybe some bit of psp and nds. While casual ones are mostly wii, nds and psp. Some example of colleagues of mine who considers gaming only revolving around wii Sport, fit and mario kart while myself around CoD, Tales, FFs, Gears and RE and bunch of other stuffs. So yeah you can distinct them. As for the market share on the entertainment industry on gaming division alone 60-80 % of them belong to casual gamer, while rest are hardcores.

Yeah I consider myself as hardcore because I don't consider gaming only resolves around wii Sports and yada yada.

Interviews by Gamespy years back,

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/701/701787p1.html

[Sides]

"Hardcore gamer" to me is someone who plays all type of games, regardless how crap they are. Those people are the little fraction out there, who buys games that would never be a commercial success. Blockbuster games like FF, COD, Unreal XXXX, PES, FIFA and so on are actually targetted towards the casual market. Most of the labled hardcore gamers, will stick to the game mechnics they are familiar wit. But in reality it, imo, is not really about hardcore or casual actually, it is about conservative and open minded gamers.
But no, i would never consider myself either as hardcore gamer oir casual gamer, don't believe the marketing hype, i'm just a gamer.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by Guernsey

So there is no such thing as a "casual" or "hardcore" category of gamers?

I think i can compare this question as asking "so there is no such a thing as a "liar" or a "honest" man?"

You can identify the extremes of those definitions but there is a wide spectrum in between, and even if you place someone in a category doesn't mean he's always lying or he's always telling the truth. The same way a hardcore gamer could be pretty casual with other games and viceversa.
Humans are so different that it's not possible to divide them in perfectly precise categories, there's always gonna be a few blurred cases. Just use the definitions of Hardcore and Casual as you would normaly use similar distinctions: beatiful/ugly, evil/good, rich/poor, intelligent/stupid and so on...
To say that everyone can be clearly placed in either of them is wrong. But to say that those definitions do not exist is also wrong.

Originally Posted by Knight Hawk

To me the definition for a "Hardcore gamer" would be someone who spends a great deal of time playing game(s) with extensive knowledge of said game(s). A casual for me, simply put, would be someone with limited time to play.

Jan-Poo: I used to be like that back in middle/high school when i had LOTS of free time but nothing out of the ordinary spending ungodly hours in that game but dang how i miss it, been 3 to 4 years since i left, no longer had the time for it.

Yeah the same apply for me. Except i had a lot more free time during my university studies rather than my high school years XD.