Hardcore gamer, does the label mean anything ? Even to a gamer? DISCUSS!!

[tardcast]

This week me and my friends of questionable social etiquette on a podcast we do decided to answer a listeners question.
The question being: Hardcore gamer, does the label mean anything ? Even to a gamer?
It caused a few disagreements between the cast, no one member completely agreeing with the other, we all had ddifferent interpretations of what it meant, and if it meant anything at all.
What do you guys think?

Points to think about:
- How do you even begin to define a hardcore gamer
Is it the type of game/(s)?
Time spent?
Skill level/ability at a given game?
Knowledge of games and the industry?

- If there is such a thing as "hardcore" then what precedes it? Middlecore? Softcore? Casual etc?

- Is it a label people label themselves in attempt to make them seem aloof to other gamers, or as a statement "I am more a gamer than you!"

- Does someone who isn't a gamer recognise the label "hardcore gamer", would it even mean anything to them, would they even tell the difference between someone who has the label and someone who didnt, or would they just see them as a gamer full stop.

- I have friends who wouldn't consider themselves gamers, yet they have spent hundreds of hours of playing football manager, a game. Are they hardcore gamers?

You get the idea. What do you think? Discuss!

 

[Siyano_v1legacy]

Hardcore gamer feel to me really pejorative
What I think it put into the category a person who play more than a certain of time and play certain type of game, I don't think you can become "hardcore" by just playing flash games.
Hardcore seem to be tend to the FPS genre and are the one liking Halo and CoD, some are tend to RPG and MMOs such has WoW
if you friend played hundred of hours on a game it all depend of the time span of those and would not really put him has a hardcore gamer
I guess to some extent you can add knowledge but that more lenient and bow to the side of "geek"
I guess their no real answer of when someone become an hardcore or not, it just depend of how many game he play, how many time spent on those and does he prefer a genre than just play everything?

 

[Motiv_]

A gamer to me is someone who plays a video game. I think it should be that simple. If you don't, you risk pulling the same thing that's being pulled on most metal videos nowadays.

"They're obviously hair metal!"
"No they're not you goddamn hippie, they're obviously grungecore."
"Stfu, it's pretty obvious they're death metal"

Can't we just call it metal and leave it at that?

 

[Bravo 21]

with me, hardcore is just a running joke between me and some friends, because we all say we're really hardcore gamers, or gangsters, or something, while knowing that it is almost as far from the truth as possible

 

[Blood Countess]

I find the term hardcore gamer to equal elitists and fascists in my opinion but that is my view

 

[Ashcrexl]

i always thought hardcore was just a gamer who wasnt casual. i always thought casual was a gamer who plays pop cap games exclusively, own a ds with only brain age and pokemon. maybe nintendogs.

I see hardcore gamer as someone who plays games until the end, on decent difficulty and who explores the world and wants to achieve more than the strict minimum. To really want to get the most out of the experience, so to speak.

examples of not hardcore gamer:
playing Fallout on EASY
playing Forza with driving assists
getting all bronze medals in Trials HD and never going back to try for silver or gold

if they even TOUCH fallout, i would consider them a hardcore gamer.

 

[fletch_talon]

I think its all in your head.
If you consider yourself hardcore for a legitimate reason then you are.
And there are numerous legitimate reasons for being a hardcore gamer.

You might:
-Play the most difficult games on the highest settings and complete everything 100%
-Play games ranging many different genres and different consoles/eras.
-Be absolutely devoted to one series, or possibly even a single game that you spend time perfecting your skills with.
-etc.

Personally, I have a wide range of tastes, am interested in the history of games (though I'm no expert) and often spend my spare time hunting down rare/sought after games not as much to play as to be able to say I own them.

EDIT: I want to make it very clear that some peoples requirements (namely the "must play on higher difficulties") are stupid. I frequently play on the easiest difficulties, I don't need frustration in order to enjoy a game, in fact it has the opposite effect. Give me a game with minimal challenge (it needs to give the illusion of challenge at least) and a good story and that's the game for me.

 

[oplinger]

Hardcore gamers to me...are the gamers that take their gaming seriously.

...Actually that's exactly what it is. If you lol around and say "it's just a game" you're probably not hardcore.

Sort of like a hardcore drinker. If you have home remedies to stop hang overs or prevent them (like eating spoons of bacon grease.) you're really hardcore.

It's not the amount played, it's not the games you play. It's the attitude you have towards your games.

 

[Lightslei]

If you're a 'hardcore gamer' you're a prick when it comes to games. You play a game, you're a gamer.

 

[King Kupofried]

To me being a 'Hardcore' Gamer is like the idea being 'Cool'. You can be identified as it, but if you have to actually tell people you are, then you are probably not.

I would define a hardcore gamer as the types of people you see who manage incredible feats of skill in games. Crazy speed runs, flawlessly completing difficult challenges, doing things like defeating an incredibly powerful boss using no armor, a joke weapon and taking no damage.
Something to aspire to or admire for those who play games enough to care about them. Not something you become simply by playing a lot, beating a game on a high difficulty or clearing all the content or by taking your TF2 matches far too seriously.

Other than hardcore, it's just gamers. That's all it is to me. Even the hardcore gamer title I don't like, I'd rather just call them 'Incredibly skilled' since they all seem mostly used for people to act condescending to one another. I've been playing games for a good 3/4s of my life and I have never considered myself more or less of a gamer than anyone else (There are of course people whom I feel completely inept as a gamer in comparison to though).

If you play games, you're a gamer, that's the way I see it.

 

[badgersprite]

I always assumed hardcore gaming included most of what we would consider the gaming community. Basically, my definition was always a) someone who plays games for the challenge as well as the rest of the experience, ie, playing with the intent of beating the hardest difficulty, or gaining a sense of mastery over a game, be it achievements or just getting good at multiplayer, or even singleplayer, and b) someone who has an active and ongoing interest in gaming - that is to say that you play video games often, even if they're not a wide range of titles, or not recent games.

So, yeah, pretty much everyone who identifies as a gamer is a hardcore gamer, or has those tendencies to at least some degree. That's just my take on it, though.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I tend to think of it as more a choice and an interest in not just playing games, but knowing about them and the industry behind them as well. This is why I personally don't consider, for example, the diehard Halo or CoD multiplayer players to be hardcore gamers (just as with the football manager case given in the OP). Certainly they may be hardcore Halo or CoD (or football manager or Farmville or etc.) players but they aren't hardcore gamers.

It's sort of like a baker who has memorized and perfected 100s of different cookie and cake recipes. He may be an amazing and dedicated baker, but he's not necessarily a full blown chef.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

A Hardcore Gamer is a label given to people who want to say that they're better than just any gamer.
Basically one who gets very competitive in a game, obsessively competitive.

 

[Legion IV]

Its simple really. You play competivly your a hardcore. Do you practice your game then go to a tournament? thats it for me. Lol the people here seem pretty insecure why do you care if people dont consider you a hardcore or theres people hating on people who call themselves hardcore gamers. Its simple are you driven by compeition? If so then ding ding your a hard core. Do you do crazy hard speed runs or No damage S rank on Devil may cry or do things that are hard not just for the acheivment, your a hardcore then.

 

[SturmDolch]

It's a step below professional in my opinion. Professional to me means you play games for a living. Hardcore, you do other things for a living but still play games as a competitive sport.

Hardcore gamers play games such as CS:S, SC2, WoW, and other competitive games.

It's not necessarily a bad thing. But some of them can be those fat nerds who eat greasy hot pockets all day while lewting teh epix then /spitting your corpse, or double-headshotting everyone with a deagle while spraying nekkid pix all over the walls and t-bagging their enemies, or raging like Idra.

You get idiots in every group. But not all hardcore gamers are idiots.

 

[Creator002]

examples of not hardcore gamer:
playing Fallout on EASY

Ha ha. I play Fallout 3 on easy and plan to do so with New Vegas.

OT: Hardcore gamer? I can consider my friend one. He's an achievement maniac, achieves the highest rating online, plays on the hardest difficulty and finds every secret, even if it takes him forever. His life is spent at University and on video games That, to me, is a hardcore gamer.