Just how casual is casual anyway?

[Pieturli]

I am so fucking tired of the whole casual/hardcore thing. Have you ever noticed how almost everyone who identifies themselves as being hardcore-anything tend to be really unbearable human beings? You know the kind. They constantly have to remind everyone how FUCKIN HARDCORE they are.

These people exist in all hobbies and lifestyles I think, and I really can't stand any of them.


Can't we just agree that we like games? I wish video games could get to the point where they are no longer "a thing".

 

[Naeras]

You're a casual if you don't play video games at a professional level.
With one hand.
Because you're playing Dark Souls with the other one.

Obviously.

 

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Is it just me or does anyone else winch when they hear someone describe themselves as a "hardcore" gamer? It's such a dreadful turn of phrase! Why don't we define ourselves by the love of the medium rather than trying to prove how skilled we are at it. We don't label people as "hardcore film viewers" or "hardcore readers", we label them as cinephiles or bibliophiles. Why can't a similar term be used for gaming instead?

It doesn't matter if you prefer playing Dark Souls on easy mode, or would rather play Dragon Age: Origins on "casual", as long as you love the medium it doesn't matter.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Casual gamers are people who think games are supposed to be played for fun. Hardcore gamers are people who understand that games are serious business.

 

[Jacob.pederson]

I love all kinds of games. From flash dress-up games to bioshock to obscure retro titles and everything in between.
One of my favorite developers is 'Nitrome' and they make fun, colorful browser based flash games.

But does playing these make me less of a gamer? I've been playing since I was a little girl, Doom and wolvenstein were some of the first games I ever played and have at least 7 consoles with a decently sized libraries for them lying around, so by most standards I'm a 'hardcore gamer'.

While I enjoy playing wii games and pick-up and play games as well, so I'm actually casual?

I my opinion a gamer is someone who plays games as a real hobby. No matter the game or platform. So why do we keep on labeling people? Is it just snobbish, or is there truly a difference that causes a problem?

And why is the casual market being looked down upon to the point that the word 'casual' is used almost as an insult? Is it a good thing that people who never would have played otherwise get introduced to our #1 favorite pass-time? Or is it hurting and crippling the market by causing games to be easier and more accessible.

What's your opinion?

Here is my definition . . . although I vastly prefer the term "enthusiast" to "hardcore." I consider my wife to be a casual gamer, despite her 350+ hours in Skyrim for the following reason: she can go 6 months without picking up any game at all. I have difficulty going 6 hours without booting up something. Perhaps "addict" vs "well adjusted" might be better terms

 

[LAGG]

Really, gaming being more accessible is by no means a bad thing. More people enjoying games can only be good. I do kind of wish that there were a few more games that bridged the gap between "casual" and "core" games, but that comes more from a selfish desire to have more people playing the games I like so that more of them will be made than any issue with casual games themselves.

That's kind of the opposite of the thinking that leads the aversion for the A-word (Accessibility). To make the games you like be played by more people as you want it to, there is (or the marketing departments of publishers believe there is) a need for streamlining (dumbing down, casualizing) the games and make them more "cinematic". By the time more people is playing the games you like, they aren't games you like anymore.

Anyway, that's where the indie scene grows: there's an underrepresented market (hardcore gamers) of which they themselves are part of. So they have the motivation to make the games they want to play, and there's the market demand for those games since the big guys are going after the movie-only crowd.

There's always a short period of less interesting games, but the market always balances itself out, even in the AAA side of the industry as new IPs with more realistic sales foresight come to replace the tiles that change to chase the bigger market (Dead Space replaces Resident Evil, Dishonored replaces Bioshock), so we can't say anything of this is bad. A better ecosystem is always a good thing.

There's no problem with people playing Farmville or anything. The problem is the next Civilization being turned into Farmville to appeal to their players. And that's how the publishers think of gaming, they don't care for games just for numbers. Still, by chasing the casual market they're competing for people's attention against movies, music, hotdogs...

Still holding hopes for Thief 4, but I won't expect much of it until playing a demo.

Or technically: You are a casual unless you are a professional gamer.

I was going so say basically the same, that only e-sports are hardcore. But you don't need to be professional to be involved in e-sports, there are many amateur players, teams and leagues and I would never discard them as hardcore gamers.

But can you also say that speedrunners aren't hardcore? Or player that take on no-guns or no-save challenges? Or players that do the most insane tricks but don't compete? Or players that join or coordinate bug events like the 100-man parachute jump in BF3? Certainly not. So there's a lot more beyond just e-sports.

 

[Squidbulb]

God I hate people like this. Just because I enjoy Civilization doesn't mean I can't occassionally chill out and play Angry Birds during a bus ride or play a neat little browser game while I wait for a file to download.

And I don't have a problem with people who only play games like this. They can play whatever they want, it's none of my business. Maybe they'll move onto more "hardcore" games eventually. It doesn't really matter, anyway.

The assumption that playing hard video games automatically makes you a better person is just confusing and obnoxious.

 

[Darkasassin96]

I think terms like this lose theyre meaning when you analyze them like this. Theyre not meant to be serious terms just a little shorthand to describe a game and a person based on what games they play, if people take this a bit too seriously then thats not the fault of the terms. Neither of them are bad terms just descriptions of people or games that everyone understands when spoken in conversation.

 

[wooty]

I always interpreted casual gaming as every now and again gaming. A group I seem to be moving further into in recent times.

Gone are the days when I would spend 10+ hours a day gaming. I'm now too busy with work, work, studies, exercise, drinking and getting slaughtered by girls at pool.

In terms of your argument though, I think casual and hardcore are just yet more phrases concocted in order to keep internet arguments alive and used as a lazy "insult" within the gaming community. They seem to have replaced the old put down of "it's/that's/you're gay", which is pretty sad in itself. I remember I once read a quote somewhere that said "There are no such things as hardcore gamers, there are only shut-ins". It does make me smile that one.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Casual is jeans and a t-shirt, you know everyday wear. Just don't wear thongs/flip flops if the dress code is smart casual, that calls for a closed toe shoe, maybe even a dinner jacket or vest with jeans. Hardcore would be a milliary or police uniform, and even more hardcore if it is a costume

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

It doesn't make you 'less of a gamer' that's a really silly way of looking at it.

That said, I think there are games that could be defined as 'casual', but I think the casual/hardcore thing is more a mindset than to do with the actual game. For example, I know a load of guys that play CoD, aren't that interested in the story and like to shoot shit. They'll play it for a bit, then go off and do something else. On the other hand, I know people who played through CoD games, getting into the story and getting a deeper experience from it. You could probably do that with a lot of games, I just used CoD as an example because I know people that do it.

That's why I think it's silly to say casual gamers are 'less of a gamer'; they could play twice as many games as a 'hardcore' gamer, but still be 'less' of a gamer. That's just bollocks.

 

[TAGM]

I think the line between "casual" and "gamer" sort of lies like this:

Do you actively put aside time in your life to play games? Do you play games when you could actively be doing something different, and not, say, when you're just sitting around waiting for something? Then you're (most likely) a gamer. If not, well, you're (most likely) casual.

And hey! nothing wrong with either of them. Casual just means, well, you don't find gaming as important as, say, other hobbies. And that's cool, that's why we HAVE other hobbies - 'cause different people like different things.

 

[Pink Gregory]

"Y'know, Casuals, 'dey game like DIIIS! and y'know, y'know Hardcores? 'dey game like DIIIIIIIS!"

 

[thesilentman]

I define casual as a game that is a timewaster. I usually fire up those kinds of games out of pure boredom, and it's safe to assume that many other people do so too.

Now, I don't believe in hardcore gamers. You're only hardcore if you're a pro DOTA/League/Starcraft/other player, and even then, anyone can enjoy games. There's no need to differentiate a whole class of gamers because they prefer to play different games.

 

[I.Muir]

Hardcore gamer is anybody that buys video game paraphernalia, owns + 50-100 games and plays for an more than a couple of hours a day.

 

[Glaice]

When I think casual I think crap like Facebook games and minor tablet/mobile games.

 

[Weaver]

The label is stupid, but I think it's a layered meaning, in that casual gamers and casual games are two different things.

A casual gamer is someone in which gaming isn't really a hobby, but more of "I'm going to kill 15 minutes on my phone waiting for the bus."

A casual GAME, on the other hand, is a game designed to waste time for some quick, stress free fun.

However, I'd claim it's possible to take what are casual games very seriously.
Some people are hardcore into farmville. While I think it's silly, I can't deny them that they treat it in a pretty legitimate way.

ALSO NITROME MAKES AWESOME GAMES!

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

You're casual when gaming isn't a hobby for you. If you play simple games and take them seriously, that's fine. Plenty of simple AAA games out there. But if you can go a few months happily without gaming at all, you're probably casul and level dexterity. I personally play a number of mobile games, and it didn't occur to me that made me casual until I overheard someone telling someone else mobile games weren't real games, which is blatantly false.

And btw, casual games are not just games that casuals play. That's a different kettle of fish.

 

[Sarge034]

Normally I don't care if people are "casual" gamers or not. I believe a "casual" gamer only games to waste time and normally only plays app games and facebook games and the like. While any other type of gamer honestly does it as a legitimate hobby. I do start to mind when the "casual" gamers start trying to influence games they will never play. Just because they like to play app games don't mean ALL games gotta be app games. However, by that token just because other gamers play more "hardcore" games don't mean ALL games gotta be "hardcore". Live and let live, separately.