Quote Originally Posted by John_912 View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Del Murder View Post
Where is the line?
I think a hardcore gamer is someone who buys a lot of games, plays them obsessively, and refuses to sell them because that person is a collecter. I think a casual gamer is someone who buys only a few games here and there and that person just plays them every once in a while, also I think casual gamers will sell their old games if they're in between pay checks and they need money.
Though I feel John touched upon a few of the requirements I feel there is a little more. I think hardcore players prefer challenge, the more insane the odds the better. DMC3 and Ninja Gaiden are wonderful examples of games that truly showed a clear line of who was hardcore and who is just casual.

I also don't believe hardcore is just for general gaming though the more insane tend to be very versatile. But hardcore can be relagated to one genre. I know several die hard hardcore FPS fans but they have never played anything else. How can they when they have marathon sessions of Halo, early morning is dedicated to Gears of War, Timesplitters is played to spice things up and finally a good old dose of Golden Eye 64 so they can remember their roots... There good people but lord knows I don't talk gaming with them.

Hardcore gamers are collectors and many like to import and most love to scour the game shops for rare gems. (I'm still looking for a copy of Elemental Gearbolts and FF:Mystic Quest).

But I believe the hardcore are the type of people who have a generally good knowledge of gaming and though they are warrant to have differing opinions and taste. Most agree that the main problems with games these days are originality and fun. They want games that reward you for putting time into them, hence fighting and rhythm games are saturated with hardcore gamers.

I feel a true casual gamer is someone who wants to just "pick up and go" and wants "instant satisfaction" from their games. They want games that have reasonable play times so they are not entitled to invest too much time. They want moderate to fairly easy challenge. They are easily swayed by flashy graphics and obvious "cool" factor. They need streamlined mechanics that require little skill to use efficiently.

Basically a casual gamer doesn't really want to earn anything in there games. They want to be great to begin with, have their money worths in fun play time and then ditch the game and never speak of it again.

A hardcore gamer enjoys the satisfaction of learning and building up to be good at their games. It's all about the satisfaction of putting effort into their games and knowing that it was actually challenging to accomplish it. They are also known to pick up and play games several times cause they actually you know... enjoy the game.

A hardcore gamer can be known to sell their games (hey, the rent is due and you only have so many pints of blood ) but they probably hold onto a few games they cherish like a mother would her child. I've known guys who sold their game systems but actually kept their favorite games for the system. I also feel that a casual gamer can be known to have a rather large collection as well, they just have dust on theirs...