What makes a gamer hardcore? What is the difference between a casual gamer and a hardcore gamer? These are the kind of questions that keep me up at night when I am not busy envisioning a T-Rex with Sharks for arms.

Ignoring my penchant for cryptozoology for a moment, it does seem like there is a lot of talk lately about the casual, core, and hardcore market. It seems as though every publisher and developer is worried about how to best appeal to each market. There are literally billions of dollars at stake.

But why would the rest of us care whether someone is a hardcore or a casual gamer? Shouldn’t we leave it to market researchers and corporate executives to worry about that kind of thing? If we are really gamers shouldn’t we be too busy playing games to worry about it?

Blame it on Nintendo or the success of the iPhone if you want, but these days publishers are realizing that there are fortunes to be made by making simple, easy to use games that cost pennies to develop. For some gamers, there seems to be disdain for these simple, easy to pick up and play games that the Casuals enjoy (as if there is some inherent nobility in understanding the intricacies of Obscure JRPG’s combat system). If you haven’t heard it for yourself, it is difficult to convey the sheer disgust that some gamers have for these casual games and the gamers that play them. As if your enjoyment of “Bejeweled” diminishes their love of “Devil Summoner 2.”

I realize that there is a difference between someone who spends 20 minutes a week playing “Peggle” on their iPhone and someone who spends 200 hours completing every sub-quest in “Dragon Quest VIII.” But what about the Madden gamer who has won the Super Bowl for 30 straight seasons in Franchise mode? Does that level of dedication merit the distinction of Hardcore? What games do you have to play to be a hardcore gamer?

How much time per week does a gamer have to spend playing games to be considered hardcore? Does hardcore-eryness require a mastery of games or simply a love for them? Does someone who spends hours researching the Assassin’s Creed wikipedia page merit hardcore status? Is there an hourly quota someone has to hit per week? I think if someone has a passion for gaming, whatever the game might be, that person can call themselves a hardore gamer.

The other day at the store I work at, a customer was talking about BlazBlue. He was saying that people who buy it on Xbox 360 are stupid casuals and that the hardcore get it on PS3. Ignoring my own similar feelings towards the Xbox 360 D-pad, I wonder why do we get so caught up in this kind of thinking. We get trapped into us versus them; this exclusionary thinking separates us into our disparate camps. We define ourselves by who is not included in our group, the boundaries for who we are become based on who we are not.

We get too caught up in labels and trying to define things. Instead of just letting them exist on their own merits. I see this at so many levels of our lives from music to people, we have become obsessed with labels. “That guy is emo!” “She is a total goth.” “I can’t stand that band, they are too popular.” “That game is only for frat boys.”

This kind of thinking splinters people apart. We become defined not by who we are but what we associate ourselves with. There is a gigantic difference between judging a game based on its own merits and judging a game based on the people who play it. Would so many people disparage “Halo” if it hadn’t caught on with the college frat boy crowd?

If “Halo” sold half as many copies would it be a “better” game? Why is it that the more popular something becomes the more likely many of us are to condemn it. This permeates all aspects of our culture from books to films to video games.

Underground things are awesome and popular mainstream things are dumb. Tell your hip friends that you really enjoyed the latest episode of the Bachlorette or American Idol and see how they respond. If they admit they actually like them, they will feel guilty about their enjoyment as if there is something wrong with enjoying something that other people like. The same holds true for the Hardcore crowd. Admit that you enjoy Grand Theft Auto and Halo and they’ll scoff that you only play “popular” games.

How can we get away from this kind of thinking? Is there any hope? What are your thoughts, gentle reader?

Tags: Casual Games, hardcore, iPhone, Madden, peggle, ps3, T-Rex, Wii, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 9:57 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.