What Is A Hardcore Gamer?
The vocabulary of gaming culture isn't the most precise in the world, with a lot of words getting thrown around willy-nilly before anyone has really settled on a specific definition or meaning, and two of the terms most bandied about this year are casual and hardore gamer. Now blogger vysethebold from Siliconera is making a documentary about the latter, and wants some reader input.
Whether you consider yourself one or know people that are Hardcore Gamers, I'd like you to base your definition on what you've observed. No textbook definition of what a hardcore gamer is has really satisfied me in really capturing what it means to be a Hardcore Gamer.
For me, the term hardcore gamer is too often used as an excuse for antisocial behavior ("You wouldn't understand because you're not hardcore enough!") or poor design ("This game isn't too hard or annoying, it's just made for hardcore gamers!"), but there's definitely something that separates the vanilla player from the in-it-to-the-elbow diehard, and hell if I know how to put my finger on it. Is it a matter of economics - spend x amount of dollars and you can buy your hardcore gamer status? Is it time spent, obscurity, devotion, or talent? Is it wanking on message boards and blogs until no one can stand the sight of your handle or avatar? Regardless, if you've got an idea, feel free to share it.
Question - What is a Hardcore Gamer? [Siliconera]
Dawdle
Posted to Miscellany on 1 December 2007
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: definition, hardcore gamer, lexicography
My definition of a hardcore gamer is someone whose life is generally game-centric. Someone who checks their gaming blog feeds frequently, and has enough information from first or second hand experience to have an answer for pretty much any video game related question. Someone who has finished all the games they own multiple times.
And, this might just be me who thinks of it this way, but I think truly "hardcore gamers" don't discriminate between companies or consoles, they play everything with any legitimate value, and don't fanboy on one system because it's the most high tech/spec.
Just my two cents~
TOMATO: I would disagree with finishing all the games they own multiple times. I consider myself a hardcore gamer, though I have only finished most of my games once. When you see just how many games I have, then you might understand why.
I think semantic debates are pointless...
"Is ____ art?"
"Is ____ a sport?"
blah blah blah...
Without people arguing over the meaning of words, we wouldn't have a language at all.
When I think of "hardcore gamer," I tend to imagine someone who doesn't just play games but someone who really enjoys the culture around it. Someone who knows their Iwata from their Miyamoto and their Moore from their Kutaragi. Someone who giggles when in a quiet room I crescendo with "Riiiidge Raaacer!" Someone who, although they are now 30 years old and married for 9 years, still manages to find themselves at Toys R Us to get Mario on release day.
Or maybe that's just me. ;)
"Someone who giggles when in a quiet room I crescendo with "Riiiidge Raaacer!""
Does it count if I giggled reading that?
I'm with Tigershard...TOMATO has a pretty good base but there is a certain balancing point between the two...such as (and I'm entirely making up these numbers but using them to give comparisons) owning 30 games and beating them all several times compared to 400 games (and it's not entirely impossible...many old school gamers who kept up with games "since the days" and not sold the majority of their collection to gaming shops could have that number with not too much of a problem at all). Also, one point I'd like to put up for TOMATO's definition is (and this holds MUCH more predominantly for old school games than modern games) is games that literally have no end (Galaga, Space Invaders, Mystery Quest, etc.)...if we're including "beating the game" into the definition, how do we define around those which are never finished.
"Is ____ art?"
"Is ____ a sport?"
Yes, a line is art. No, it's not a sport. hehe
I think I'm a fan of TexCub's definition best, and parts of TOMATO's. There are a lot of varying aspects/traits to ANY LABEL so trying to define them isn't fair: we should all know this!
And I don't think that fanboy and hardcore are exclusive. Since I know a lot of people who are Sony and/or Microsoft fanboys because Nintendo's system isn't "hardcore" enough. Stupid.
I tend to have an aversion to self-proclaimed hardcore gamers, because to me it seems like they find it okay to justify some separation from real society and think that only other hardcore gamers understand. And that they are somehow superior.
To the people playing the games, hardcore gamers are generally people who enjoy games, not just playe them on their bus/train/etc. ride or because they were bored, who had the patience to play a game for 20+ hours to beat it and their lives generally are mostly about gaming. As of now, it's more of a media term for anything that isn't a mini-game. If it takes 10-15 hours or more to beat it, it's seen as a hardcore game, or most FPS's and RPG's are classified as hardcore.