Gamer 'type'

[Mo-Nercy]

A gamer in our context is typically someone who enjoys and play video games. But in recent times the phrase 'casual gamer' has come about to describe those who don't religiously spend hours upon hours every day playing video games; 'hardcore gamers'.

I'm wondering whether these two delineations are in actual binary opposition to each other. Does one have to be a casual or a hardcore gamer with no overlap? Is there a middle ground? And also, is one 'type' of gamer superior to the other? Are hardcore gamers justified if they scoff at casual gamers? Is it all dependant on how much you play? Or do the kind of games you play suggest what kind of gamer you are?

If you were to ask me if I was a hardcore gamer or not, a voice inside of me would want to reply 'yes', because I do usually play some variety of video game every day, but outside of the Final Fantasy series, I don't actually have a lot of games that you'd typically associate with the 'hardcore'. If you looked at my collection, you'd see fighting games, racing games, some sports titles and a few music-themed games. Of the current generation of consoles, I have a PS3, yet I don't own a game of the Uncharted series, I haven't played MGS4 or any of the CoD games. So I can't be a hardcore gamer, right? Or am I just a hardcore gamer who likes specific genres? Your choice of game shouldn't impede you from being considered a hardcore gamer over a casual gamer, otherwise those people on YouTube you can 100% Through the Fire and Flames aren't getting the recognition they deserve.

I should end this post before my ramblings become gibberish.
But taking into consideration what I've been saying, what kind of gamer are you; hardcore, casual, something in between, something else entirely? Or is the whole premise of distinguishing between hardcore and casual silly in the first place?

[Quindiana Jones]

In my opinion, casual gamers have a method of playing games and sometimes play them. Hardcore gamers play games A LOT. But, I also think there are a few sub-categories of hardcore gamer. The first is the freak in a darkened room, removing himself from society because games are more fun. The second, and more common, are people that often play games competitively, such as the infamous MLG gamers. They play games and are very good at them, so much so that they are the "pros" of gaming. This category also has the less impressive hardcore gamer, who simply excels at one game or type of game and plays that type exclusively. I think this counts as a hardcore gamer even if they only play games as much as casual gamers.

Most people are something like myself, I think. The middle ground. I enjoy and play a variety of games, and can pick up any game and become good at it in a short amount of time. However, I'm certainly no pro, but I don't care because that's not why I play them.

I think everyone has moments where they become a Tier 3 hardcore gamer. Sometimes, we're enjoying a game so much that we put a bizarre amount of effort into it; taking notes, formulating plans etc. I've done this with Fallout 3 and Oblivion, trying to create a god-like character*. You could say I did the same with Halo 3 for a while, trying to get all the achievements (MUST. GET. KATANA. DON'T. KNOW. WHY. BUT. MUST.).

*I totally got it in Oblivion, for the record. 100% Resist Magicka and 100+% Reflect Damage. xD

[KentaRawr!]

I'd reserve the term 'hard-core' for people who play video games not often, but rather, with diligence. The kind that keep an eye on the fan translations, and rip out a nub from their SNES to play imports. The kind who don't cry foul when they lose in a competitive game. The kind who know... the truth!

:magus:

[Yeargdribble]

I definitely think there is a spectrum and it's not even a linear one. There are types of games you expect are only for the hardcore. But even among those there will be people who feel more hardcore than others because of how much time they spend in multiplayer or working on achievements while you might even have the types that would be considered casuals playing the game.

On the flip side, there are definitely more hardcore gamers that still play some flash games here and there or maybe even play Farmville type stuff on Facebook. Recall that there was a time long before FB and before a time when flash games were for housewives when only true "gamers" even bothered with such online games.



However, I'm a bit of a hypocrite too. My wife was talking about another teacher at school who was like "Oh yeah! I'm a gamer!" before talking about some version of pocket Sudoku she played occasionally. She'd even considered getting a Wii (she owned no consoles or portables... I suggested the DS over the Wii).

Of course, my wife and I both scoffed at the idea that this lady who played a tiny bit of Sudoku on some monochrome device she picked up at the Wal-Mart checkout line for $3 bucks was a "gamer."

Is that too harsh? Should gamer also include grandmas who do bingo or middle-aged men who sit around and play poker on Saturday nights. I just feel like the term gamer doesn't connote to include such things.

[Pheesh]

I certainly think you could have just one video game in your whole collection and still be a hard-core gamer. But I kind of associate it with how much time you spend playing video games, and how much effort you put into getting 'uber 1337' at those games, not how diverse of a gamer you are.

I would say I'm in the middle ground as well. For the most part I will end up playing a video game of some form daily or at least once every 2 days. I get relatively good at whatever I'm playing, and if I really like the game then I will start to look into the nooks and crannies of it. But I'm not freakishly good at games, and I don't buy the special edition game packs that come with little figurines and what-not.

EDIT:

Should gamer also include grandmas who do bingo or middle-aged men who sit around and play poker on Saturday nights.

No, those kind of games are definitely not representative of what gaming is in this day and age. However if there's grown men playing D&D on saturday night then that's a different story.

[Madame Adequate]

I'm not sure that the terms themselves are the best which could be chosen, but I know that I am on the more 'hardcore' end of the spectrum. I've been playing games for over 20 years now, and I appreciate them as much more than simply entertainment (As a whole; many individual games are just entertainment, but so are many movies, books, etc.) I devote a majority of my free time to gaming, I generally don't limit myself to genres too strongly (Though I of course have preferences), I spend a considerable amount of my monetary resources on them, and they are not something I just "do" in the way I just happen across a neat TV show. It isn't merely that I play games, or play them a lot, or play certain genres. I play them with a knowledge of them going back a long way, an ability to desire to compare them and think critically about them, and they are a core component of who I am, for better or worse, a referential and experiential touchstone of what has made me me.

I don't really scorn 'casual' players per se. I do however scorn companies for pursuing them when, let's be quite honest about this, they have absolutely no brand loyalty or love of the industry. Wii Fit might be fun for some but if anyone honestly believes that housewives will sacrifice X, Y, Z to get it once the initial hubbub surrounding the Wii has passed, I challenge them to prove that assertion. I absolutely will still buy games despite being a student on a tight budget. Maybe I'm being an elitist jerkass but the reality is that I am an enduring customer who will stick with the industry, even if not a particular company, through thick and thin. But this is predicated on there being games I want to play, and I've seen nothing offered by Wii, Natal, or the PS3 motion controller that I require them for. I can do it all on a regular controller. So I do complain about the direction of the industry because it's somewhere I believe has little potential (And what potential it does have, in strategy and management games, is unlikely to be top of any priority lists). They are, in short, spending money on something I'd rather they didn't.

On the other hand I'm not some neckbearded mouthbreathing troglodyte who thinks that any game less complex/difficult than their chosen ambrosia is for, at best, cultureless philistines. I honestly don't understand people like the inhabitants of No Mutants Allowed, RPGCodex, or that one person I saw over at the Space Empires V forum who declared in as many words than anyone who likes any game less complex than SEV is retarded.

[Yeargdribble]

Yeah, I'll echo that last bit of MILF's statement. I hate the types of people who think you're a puss if you don't turn the game to ultra-hard-nightmare-rape mode on your first play through to make you more of a man.

I also don't inherently have trouble with casual gamers or gaming. I don't think gaming is heading for another collapse like that of the early 80s. I think the industry is not only strong and larger, but it's more diverse. I'm also aware that the casual games that take nothing to produce and bring in huge revenue are good for hardcore gamers at large. This puts money into the pockets of the companies that supply budgets for the more serious games that core gamers want. It's just like how EA makes a ton from their sports titles every year. I couldn't give two s**ts about those games, but they do provide scaffolding for games like Dead Space.

I'm actually pretty annoyed with the doomsayer hardcores talking about the plague that is casuals. As long as the producers don't turn 100% of their resources (i.e. income largely from casual games) to the production of casual games, I'm fine. They should be smart enough to understand the importance of diversification so I don't see this happening. I hate digging through shovelware as much as the next guy, but it's it comes with good and bad.... and hey...some retailers are refusing to carry some of it... so yay!!

[Vermachtnis]

I should end this post before my ramblings become gibberish.
But taking into consideration what I've been saying, what kind of gamer are you; hardcore, casual, something in between, something else entirely? Or is the whole premise of distinguishing between hardcore and casual silly in the first place?

Oh I'm something else entirely. I may dump around 20-30 hours into gaming a week, but I don't think I'm hardcore. Cause I don't look down and berate people for playing games differently. And my idea of hardcore gamer kind of over lap with those Stop Having Fun Guys.

Not only that, but Hardcore gamers have super tight nostalgia goggles on and everything past there favorite game/system/character has ruined gaming forever. I've been playing games since I was four. I'm almost 22 years old now, that's 18 years. I've learned a few things, but most importantly is to take games as they are instead of comparing it to every other game you've played. It's more enjoyable that way. Second most important thing is to not let anyone influence your opinions about a game or genre you like.

[Pheesh]

Oh I'm something else entirely. I may dump around 20-30 hours into gaming a week, but I don't think I'm hardcore. Cause I don't look down and berate people for playing games differently. And my idea of hardcore gamer kind of over lap with those Stop Having Fun Guys.

I don't necessarily think that all hardcore gamers are like that though. Certainly there is a large sect of them that think they're god's gift to gaming (and they're usually the same one's who have big fan-boy console wars; I mean, I'm a Sony man, but I'm not going to make a fudging 10 minute video blog about it). But if you ever speak to some of the really highly recognised Tekken tournament players, or see their posts on the Zaibatsu forums, then they're actually pretty down to earth, and are often willing to give advice to less advanced gamers.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Casual = newfag
Hardcore = oldfag

Either way they're fags. Lol.


In all seriousness though, it's definitely more of a spectrum than anything else. I wouldn't exactly say I'm hardcore, at least not anymore, but I'm not really casual. I play lots of different games and spends lots of time on them, not necessarily very consistently though. If all you play is Wii, you're probably a casual. If all you play is Rock Band/Guitar Hero, you're probably a casual. Even if you're really good and/or play a lot of those, that wouldn't really make you a hardcore gamer because that's only one small aspect of gaming.

[Shiny]

I'm an all around gamer. I play everything from Wii Sports to Halo to RPGs that require countless amounts of your time. I am better at certain games than I am at others. For instance fighting games . It's probably because games like Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter, and Mortal Kombat are the first games I ever played along with Sonic and Mario of course. Playing so many types of games is great because I don't get bored playing one type of thing.

I think of casual gamers as people who like to play games as a more social thing and that's why I think Wii appeals to them more maybe. Hardcore gamers are apparently the ones that play on insane modes and actually care about getting as many Xbox gamer points as they can. I don't really have much of an opinion about casual gamers, but people who consider themselves hardcore annoy me.

[Depression Moon]

How do I annoy you?

[Mirage]

Like that ;o.

I think you're casual if you play a game that is instantly fun there and then, and when you quit the second something isn't fun anymore.

Hardcore gamers are those that put up with hours of boring crap to excel at the game later. Like Disgaea grinding. Or WoW grinding for that matter. Maybe practicing an FPS because it's fun to win against others, even if the actual practice isn't fun.

These are of course not absolute definitions of either terms, but probably at least *one* definition of them.

[Jessweeee♪]

Hmm...I'm not quite sure what my own definition is. I would consider myself a "gamer" but when asked if I would join the gamer's club here at the university, I said no because I didn't think I'd fit in with the other "gamers."

[Bolivar]

Both terms are obviously meaningless.

At the DICE convention/conference last week (the week before last?) David Crane (Pitfall) and David Jaffe (God of War) were on a panel about casual and downloadable games. They remarked that the majority of the games in the 1970's and '80's were actually casual because they were targeted (and succeeded in attracting) people from all age and gender groups outside of teenage and young adult males. I remember when I was young, it was my Dad who got me into the NES, and when he wasn't there, my mom could get me into a game of Mario and play some of it with me. Neither of them could be bothered to play games today.

At the same time, the term "hardcore" gamer is a joke. 10 years ago, I thought a "hardcore" gamer was someone heavily involved in the mod scene, who could set up and run their own server on Half-Life/Counter-Strike with bots and a custom map list. Someone who played or made fan translations of unreleased JRPG's was hardcore (like Kentarou said).

Saying MLG gamers are hardcore is an even funnier joke. MLG and GameBattles gained popularity with Halo and Call of Duty, who's aim assist is so blatant it compromises the ethos of their multiplayer modes (When your cross-hair is moving on its own on an enemy who's behind cover, you're not playing a great competitive game anymore). CAL and OGL are what I would consider real "hardcore" professional gamers.

The mainstream gaming media would have you believe someone who plays SmackDown vs. Raw, Halo, Madden, and Call of Duty is a "hardcore" gamer. I actually like those games, but it is hard for me to imagine that they aren't as casual as it gets. People like to term Wii owners and Facebook gamers as casual gamers. They're not - they're not "gamers" to begin with. They're people who consume various different mediums, some of books, some of movies, some of music, and some of games. The Wii is only as popular as it is because of the "Oprah effect". Once that group finds the newest exercise routine, or cooking appliance, or mainstream author, their Wiis will be in the dumpster next to their Twilight books and Michael Moore documentaries.

Of course some people want you to believe that games have finally broken into the mainstream after years of oppression (because their salaries depend on it).

But, again, there were "casual" demographics in the 1970s and 80s....