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Thread: No such thing as a Casual or Hardcore gamer

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    Default No such thing as a Casual or Hardcore gamer

    I think the whole casual and hardcore gamer argument is stupid.

    If you play games your a gamer no matter what you enjoy.

    If you have 1 game or 100 games your a gamer. As long as you enjoy your games thats all that matters.

    I think the term "hardcore" was made up by people who think they are better then everyone else because they play more niche games then mainstream.

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    i think you may have a point, but the fact is, there are certain degrees to it, its not just your either a gamer, or not a gamer....i dont know ANYONE who hasnt ever played one game ever in their entire life...so does that make them as much of a gamer as me, someone who plays games every single day? of course there is a difference, weither you want to call me a "hardcore" gamer, or jut a plain gamer, its just a name, a preference...and also people who rarely play games, tend to play only the popular games at the time...its just a fact
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    Well yeah thats true. Everyone has played games at 1 point.

    How about I say some people might play games less then 5 hours a week and some may play more then 30 a week.

    1 may own 1 game and the other may own 100.

    I think the bottom line is if you enjoy that 5 hours or 20 hours or whatever a week, I think that makes you a gamer.

    Madden or Shenmue, People are going to buy what appeals to them and that makes them a gamer.

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    Default Re: No such thing as a Casual or Hardcore gamer

    Quote Originally Posted by AdoptApet
    I think the whole casual and hardcore gamer argument is stupid.

    If you play games your a gamer no matter what you enjoy.

    If you have 1 game or 100 games your a gamer. As long as you enjoy your games thats all that matters.

    I think the term "hardcore" was made up by people who think they are better then everyone else because they play more niche games then mainstream.
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    Well put! There is no definition of "hardcore", so I say just be your self and if you don't like what people are playing Discuss it on the dp forums. But in a orderly fashion.
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    Wellll, "Casual" and "Hardcore" is a descriptive label that in and of themselves are not derogatory. As Avenger said there are degrees of gaming and to just call one a "gamer", while correct, doesn't really do a good job of describing that person's like of video games.

    "Casual" gamers (in my experience) typically play games as a pasttime, not unlike reading a book, watching TV or going out for a walk. If their game system died it probably won't break their stride. They probably never heard of Ralph Baer, possibly thinks the Atari VCS (usually known as "The Atari") was the first game system (and if you told them it wasn't they may not really care) and may only associate with Miyamoto's work rather than know his name.

    There are many other "casuals" that one can identify with like the casual sports fan. They watch a sport or two, know the teams, know the basic rules and probably has a favorite team with maybe a team T-Shirt. That's about it. They don't memorize stats, how many Super Bowls a team won, what player had the most memorable plays, etc. Basically both camps ENJOY their past time, but they don't LIVE it or have it part of their lives.

    The negative connotation of "casuals" applies to those who seem to snatch up the current trend without a thought and turn what many in the industry see as crap games into instant money. That trend then starts a machine that takes a while to stop as other companies quick hop on the bandwagon and start cranking out similar titles to try and cash in on the craze, no matter how much the originator sucked. Years back it was the "Deer Hunter" craze where the games were pretty much "point and click" shooters that required very little skill and had very little to do with actual hunting (other than the shooting part, even as a non-hunter I know it takes more than just shooting). The games flew off the shelves much to the bewilderment of veteran gamers and industry critics alike. In recent time it's the big product tie-in hype machine for games that were extremely and painfully bad 'n buggy: see Atari's Matrix game.

    The most common act "casuals" are linked to is supporting the release of average to half-assed clone games. Honestly, if people didn't buy the clone games, would companies even risk putting them out anymore? There are tons of FPS and RTS games on the PC with "sim" type games coming up the rear with its fledgling clone army. Consoles are getting their fair share of "me too" titles as well. And people are buying them in enough quantities (even the shoddy ones) and seemingly sight unseen where it sends signals to publishing companies to crack the whip on developers to make more of the same to rake in the money. Even if most of those people found that those games weren't worth the price of admission, they already did the damage.

    Now "hardcore" isn't necessarily a badge of honor. It's another description. A hardcore gamer typically intertwines gaming with their life. Many play video games a lot, probably have more than one system, probably read (and possibly keeps) one or more titles of video game magazines. They typically watch the trends of games and keeps up to date on news, feeling great when a game of interest goes gold or gets upset when a game of interest gets delayed. Many also collect games/systems/manuals and such-something the casual gamer probably wouldn't do. They more than likely know who Ralph Baer is and could probably rattle off the founders of Activision from memory. They probably know almost every major system that's been released and has probably played each one. They typically aren't afraid to try something different from the mainstream and don't mind spending the bucks to get what they want. They typically don't set up their entertainment systems for the best movie experience, it's mostly about the games. They most likely eat, sleep, breathe, talk video games.

    The negative connotation of "hardcore" is actually rather different than "casuals". The negative picture is painted not entirely by outside viewpoints but with the help of those who designate themselves as "hardcore". They are the loud obnoxious bunch who label themselves but don't really back it up except that they "spent a lot of money on their games". Typically they designate X Game or X Genre as "crap" just because they don't like it and then try to make it sound like their view is the Gospel Truth even if it isn't correct.

    Like anything, it's all about context and how one perceives it.

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    Default I have to disagree

    I truly believe there is a difference between the casual and hardcore gamer. There is a difference between someone who plays games on the side, and someone who lives to just play games. Some hardcore gamers can come off as really arrogant and stuck up, but the bottom line is that they truly are "different" than most other gamers. For example, I dont consider myself a hardcore gamer, but a hardcore collector. I wouldnt classify myself as a casual collector, for I have a whole room of games dedicated to the hobby. I dont consider that caual at all, for many collectors just dont have that(but many have it on this site ) This is just an example. As for the topic irritating you, I am sorry that you feel that way. I have learned from some previous topics mentioned, that there will always be people that claim and say things that piss you off. I myself am learning not to judge an entire click of people just because "some" people of that click say stupid things. It is hard to do, but I myself am working on it. Again, I truly feel that there are many different types of gamers, and all are welcome. It is ok to classify differences as long as all are accepted equally. I feel that this site does a good job of that and that I am personally working on ti myself.
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    Would you consider some gamers, if they become collectors like some of us here, to be considered more hardcore?

    Just a thought.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kaine23
    Would you consider some gamers, if they become collectors like some of us here, to be considered more hardcore?

    Just a thought.
    Well, yes, because if you are a casual once in a while gamer than of course if you start collecting you become more of a hardcore gamer because otherwise you'd be a packrat who buys stuff and never ever uses it.

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    I think the discussion we had about a year ago is still the most subtle with great arguments on both sides. The thread is found here (and I might add, w/o personal attacks which makes us focus on substantive reasoning):

    http://www.digitpress.com/forum/view...=18483&start=0

    Great arguments are here also by all contributors, and YoshiM gave a modest, well-thought-out and careful summary of his position.

    I'm glad that the term 'mainstream' seems to be replaced slowly by 'casual' gamer as I have suggested for a long time now becasue it's a more neutral term; but we have to be careful not to transfer the negative connotations of the old term to the new term.

    Each term, 'Hardcore' and 'casual,' has indeed negative and positive connotations, and I want to get rid of them. I still think they should be used in the most neutral way possible, and that means simply the time spent playing games. Nothing more and nothing less.

    A neutral use of these terms would also make clear that there are merely level-of degrees differences between ALL gamers in every suggested aspect w/o making questionable assumptions.

    There are still problems using the definition in my sense, as ADOPTAPET gave some hints (there are more); but nothing compared to questionable assumptions about knowledge about games and game history, incorporating game experiences in your life, recognition of game quality, spending habits, gaming habits, certain geme genres or games, influence levels of PR and images on buying patterns for games and systems.

    We simply don't know a bit about bi-variate and multi-variate relationships of all of the above mentioned factors! That's why we speculate, and that's we fill our wishful preconceived beliefs into the hardcore and casual term; and that's why the discussions about this issue easily become lilttle cultural wars at times, and ideological rather than realistic.

    I'd be extremely careful making assumptions before we actaully know hard data. Maybe publishers, developers, and console companies have reliable hard data on this; until we don't, I'm very careful. My experience with data tells me that there will be BIG surprises if you could actually look at data. Mostly reality doesn't fit well in our categorizations, even if you try to be objective.

    Let me just take two factors.

    1. Who tells us that players who have knowledge in game history (add here reads magazines, reviews, overview of past and current market situations, etc) are the ones who actually play the most? If you read books and magazines, the less time you have actually playing games given a limited time budget. Same goes for collecting.

    2. If the counter-argument to 1) is that both (knowledge and playing games) go hand in hand or re-enforce each other, then the Q is who is hardcore and casual? On the one extreme end of the spectrum we have the player who only plays games and knows nothing about the history of games (overview about other games, companies, knowledge about the current market situations, etc), on the other extreme end of the spectrum is the gamer who doesn't play at all but reads about past and present of videogames.

    Who is hardcore and casual of these extreme gamers? and who should be regarded hardcore or casual of the vast majority of gamers who fall in between with all level of degree-differences?

    These are just Qs for two related factors, merely one realtionship. It becomes even more puzzling and questionable when it comes to all (around 15) bivariate relationships, and truly revealing when it comes to a multivariate analysis how relatively important lots of these different aspects are for gaming habits.

    It will become even more questionable if we'd analyse the relationship time spent playing (replace with knowledge/gaming habits/consumer awareness/reading level/information level) with playing specific game genres (from sports to RPGs, additionally add the identification problems of preferred gameplay elements by different gamers considering the increased blurry lines of game genres in the last ten years).

    If I play a SSX3, I don't know what gameplay elements I prefer the most, the sheer "shallow" racing and speed, the graphics, the exploration of the mountain, the levelling-up, the joy of the control mechanics, the tricks you can pull off. Probably it's all of the above, imagine how difficult it would be to categorize me as a casual gamer or hardcore gamer based on just playing this one game. First we don't know zilch about preferred gameplay elements by whom and how they relate to all other aspects for the two types of gamers, and second how are we to decide which gameplay elements should be associated with hardcore and casual gamers?

    If playing time should be considered just ONE among many other aspects to define the two types of gamers, then the Q is how are all of these aspects related to each other in order to justify the suggested aspects?

    I speculate that the suggested separation lines between hardcorers and casual gamers would turn out so blurry that the distinction doesn't make sense at all.

    The hardcore/casual distinction has probably little to do with reality. Nah, the wishful and suggested distinction is probably nothing more than a conglomerate of our criticicism and praise of the games and game industry; we need a channel to to let off steam about the positive and negative aspects of the industry of the past and present, and therefore we paint two ideal types of gamers on a wall because we psychologically need these two simplistic categories to come to grips with uncomfortable feelings about aspects of the game industry today.

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    Default Re: No such thing as a Casual or Hardcore gamer

    Quote Originally Posted by AdoptApet
    I think the whole casual and hardcore gamer argument is stupid.

    If you play games your a gamer no matter what you enjoy.

    If you have 1 game or 100 games your a gamer. As long as you enjoy your games thats all that matters.

    I think the term "hardcore" was made up by people who think they are better then everyone else because they play more niche games then mainstream.
    can't it be this simple. i don't think we need the dictionary definitions

    ... maybe that makes me a casual gamer but i think im just a gamer

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    Some people are into games more then others.

    Personally I have a lot more systems and games then my friends. Thing is when we are all playing Halo or Street Fighter or whatever, at the end of the day we all had agreat time regardless of who's into the hobby the most.

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    Default Re: No such thing as a Casual or Hardcore gamer

    Quote Originally Posted by AdoptApet
    I think the whole casual and hardcore gamer argument is stupid.

    If you play games your a gamer no matter what you enjoy.

    If you have 1 game or 100 games your a gamer. As long as you enjoy your games thats all that matters.

    I think the term "hardcore" was made up by people who think they are better then everyone else because they play more niche games then mainstream.
    Stop licking my brain!

    I've been having this argument with people for years now. What you said at the end is almost exactly what my Gamefaq and G4TechTV.com signature says.


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    mmm well i agree there are different degrees, like for instance, at my work i generally get 2 kinds of people looking for video games....there are those who come in at least 2 times a week and by like 50 dollars or more worth of stuff every time, and talk about gaming like its religion....then i guess those guys who only know 3 things in life - PS2 - GTA - Sports and thats the extent, they come on maybe 2 times a month if that. Now theres a difference, the last guy would be a casual gamer, he doesnt give a fck about games really, he'd rather be out doing anything else - the first guy you know has games beyong games and plays then alot , alone or with other people. Although i wouldnt call that "hardcore" he's not a casual gamer
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    In my experience the terms "casual gamer" and "hardcore gamer" are simply titles given by fellow gamers/friends. If one is calling themself a hardcore anything it'll lead to trouble with someone somewhere down the road.

    I've been called hardcore by friends, and yes, I do like the term. But thing is, it's my friends calling me that, not me calling myself that. They are showing respect to me as a gamer, and I appreciate it.

    It's when people take these titles too much to heart that there's a real problem with them, just like with any title.

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