Comments on: What is casual?

By: Vimes

Vimes — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:37:31 +0000

So did it hold up ?

By: Marek

Marek — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:42:16 +0000

Asking you for your definition WAS A TRAP. Seriously though, I was poking at your definition just to see how it would hold up. Keep posting!

By: Vimes

Vimes — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:29:37 +0000

Oops, sorry if my post out of context, but I thought that the end of your post was asking us our definition, no necessarily linked to gaming habits.
And no, the smiley is fine even though a bit menacing.

By: Marek

Marek — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 09:20:15 +0000

Right. Everyone has a different idea of what hardcore or casual is. I was just trying to say that yours is probably the most uncommon and unusual, as it relates to consumer behavior instead of player behavior or game styles.

Edit: is it just me or does that smiley look mean instead of happy…

By: Vimes

Vimes — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:55:21 +0000

Well, you’re highlighting what I implied: nobody using the term hardcore or casual gamer about themselves seem to be able to clearly define what they mean. Plus when people conjecture what it could mean for others, they usually don’t agree. There is no way that such label would stick in the gamers’ community if it came from within … so it has to have been artificially input. And that’s my point : to me, hardcore gamer isn’t a term that define how one’s play; that is why it is so difficult for gamers to pinpoint its meaning.
The first time I remember hearing about hardcore gamers was years ago in an interview with a guy from SOE talking about Everquest : he was stating that the hardcore gamers, the one that invested a lot of time and money in the game, were few but they were the one kept the game afloat. Hence the 80/20 comparison.

By: Marek

Marek — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:49:38 +0000

I don’t see how the 80/20 rule can be mapped to casual and hardcore. That only works if your definition of a hardcore gamer is someone who buys a lot of games, which doesn’t seem right.

Such a definition would result in a very different division between gamers than any of the other definitions discussed above. There’s many “casual gamers” who buy expansion upon expansion for The Sims, which by your definition would make them hardcore. A coworker of mine plays games probably only for one or two hours a week, but keeps buying new PSP games all the time.

By: Vimes

Vimes — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:56:00 +0000

To me, hardcore gaming is a nice trap set by the marketers, it’s the 80/20 theory extended to entertainment. It’s ‘well known’ that 20% of one’s clients generates 80% of the profit, and “hardcore gamer” became the label for gamers that belong to this category. And because you need to have hardcore gamer to be profitable, you need to make hardocre gamer a profile everyone wants to aim for. And so, you see all the fuss about PS3 & Xbox 360 being hardcore gamer consoles.
It’s like a myth created by the industry that became true because gamers and developers began to believe it was relevant.

By: Tanukitsune

Tanukitsune — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 17:27:40 +0000

Oddly enough, people consider teenagers who play 20 hours a day “hardcore”, but when you’re an adult, have a job and don’t have 20 hours a day to play games, but you STILL PLAY, you are considered casual…

I’ll call myself and indie retro gamer until all this debacle is cleared up…