What do you consider "hardcore" gaming? Has the term been beaten to a bloody pulp yet?

[Renkinjutsushi]

Mind jumping around randomly, thats a sign of a hardcore gamer...

 

[Mr.Expendable]

In my honest opinion there are very few games out there I still consider "HardCore".
To me the term "Being a HardCore Gamer" is a dude like me who spends most his free time with a console controller in one hand and an imagined breast in the other to counter the immense loneliness he feels while he waits for the next skill in EVE to finish.

So a "HardCore" game, in my opinion must be so addictive and entertaining that it makes a man want to throw his social life away and spend all day in front of whatever form of gameplaying technology he prefers, kicking the living shit out of some poor innocent creature who probably doesn't deserve, and the last hour before he goes to sleep on forums talking about how much he enjoyed it.

There are not all to many games out there today that give me the same satisfaction as I felt when I was blasting away my friends in other cities with an over-sized Concrete Donkey in Worms. I soon become bored with the same "oh, no... here comes another face hugging brain-crab-thingy" repetitive action scenes, as seen in Half-Life 2 and the "I don't know who this guy is, but I'll kill him anyway because I'm such a bad-ass." mentality as seen in Kane & Lynch.

I miss the days when they made games so much fun that you didn't have to think about plot or graphics or quality of sound.
I miss ignorance...

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I find "Hardcore" to be a stupid moniker really but I do feel that the proliferation of mindless "casual" shite requires something to counter it.

To me a game that epitomizes "hardcore" and stands out is No More Heroes on the Wii.

It is a game for gamers, not for people who like to pick up a game now and then, it's fast, frantic and ocasionally rape your brain hard. "Hardcore" games require you to do some work to finish them, either spending time to work through a story, or replaying that super hard bossfight. "Hardcore" games require a commitment to play, you have to be interested and involved and usually have trouble simply picking it up and putting it down.

Also, owning pretty much any Shin Megami Tensei game classifies you as Hardcore in the RPGer circle, mostly because those take commitment and dedication, sometimes to both find and play.

 

[Renkinjutsushi]

Nope, Ignorance is still around, his name is a synonym for shrubbery, and his controller has a big red button.

 

[Renkinjutsushi]

I think the word "Casual" is going to replace the word "Hardcore" as the mosyt overused term in gaming lingo. Either that or far in an apocalyptic future there`s a war between the green and red dressed "Casualists" who fight their enemies using big rubber balls, and the "Harcoricites", strange hunch creatures who attempt to hit you with a strangely ergonomic rock.

 

[Rappletek]

the term "hardcore" game is false, no game in its self is "hardcore", on its own it does nothing it is something to be played and as such the player is the accountably "hardcore".
however the term "hardcore" gamer has been beaten to a bloody pulp, sodomized, then spat out at every minute that a geek wants us to try to take them seriously. and as a note to that.. it doesnt help.. at all.

so then having said all of that, by implication and the act of playing a game it could be classed as a game can be played in a "hardcore" manner (this is discounted when the game has a "hardcore" difficulty setting and generally isnt in anyway harder) and as such there are certain restrictions upon this:
- length of game
- difficulty (including those in the previous statement)
- Mainstream games (the more mainstream the less "hardcore" it could be making the Halo series about as "hardcore" as mango body butter. however a note on 'mainstream'; if its being played by someone who picks up a control pad to organize his soccer squad in some form of excel spread sheet then its probably mainstream, where as the final fantasy series is played by many but is not mainstream as the many who play it tend to be extreme fans of the series and those who either dont know of its existence or are the pre-mentioned sports game playing gamer)
- general quality of the game (for when it was released)

there are many other restrictions all down to opinion, but by just these things Bioshock is not hardcore its length is pitiful and its difficulty is non existent, it was also marketed so that every grandmother thought she might even play a bit

------------

so things i have done will be marked in **...

*- When given a difficulty choice, do you pick the hardest choice you can?*
- Do you not get why Ninja Gaiden is supposed to be so hard?
*- Have you played and completed Contra, Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden (NES and Xbox versions) AND Battletoads?*
*- Have you been playing games since the 8 bit era or earlier?*
*- If not, have you bought older machines, emulated, or otherwise found a way to play all the good old classics?*
- Can you rattle off names of obscure, japanese games for systems that existed for two weeks in 1997?
*- Do you love Shin Megami Tensei, but still consider the persons who can cross the above one off geeks?*
*- Do you consider any given game or game series worse the more popular it gets?*
*- Do you consider videogames serious enough to care about and spend hundreds of hours and THOUSANDS of dollars on, but find anyone who whines for hours upon hours about the medium's problems on forums to be idiots?*
*- Have you ever sat through at least FOUR separate games you hated extremely but still refused to put down, because you haven't completed them yet?*
*- Do you consider the Xbox 360 achievment points to be worth about as much gaming "street cred" as saying that you have genital herpes?*
*- Do you feel an extreme need to outdo any given gaming feat you hear of or see? ("He completed Sonic the Hedgehog in 10 minutes, picking up only two rings? I bet I can do it in nine, without using any at all!")*
*- Do you lament the loss of hard-as-nails gameplay that doesn't mean quicksaving and quickloading every five seconds?*
*- Have you ever considered passing out from gaming all night a mark of honor?*
*- Have you ever realized that you haven't had any other beverage than coke or red bull for two full weeks?*

so erm thats two i cant say that i can/have done... on which note.. the ninja gaiden series bored me and constituted as one of the four separate games (and for that reason many people would discount anything i say .. but really i dont care.
and my lack of knowledge of japanese games only comes from attempting to have a real life and not filling my mind with names of games i'm not going to play.
a gaming all nighter isnt that much of a badge of honor when i pulled a 73 hour gaming streak, i held that as gaming honor. (this only applies if your eyes dont bleed at the end)
gaming competitiveness is for example a friend of mine who tried to out do my 73 hours at the end of which his eyes did bleed..

 

[tiredinnuendo]

@tiredinnuendo - I can finish the original Contra and Super C (As it was called in the US) without the Konami code. I also usually wind up finishing with more lives than I started with. Does that count?

I could beat Super C, but original Contra is damn impressive. Hats off.

- J

 

[laikenf]

@tiredinnuendo - I can finish the original Contra and Super C (As it was called in the US) without the Konami code. I also usually wind up finishing with more lives than I started with. Does that count?

I could beat Super C, but original Contra is damn impressive. Hats off.

- J

How about Life Force without the Konami code, The original Ninja Gaiden, and did you guys forget about Super R-Type for the SNES? Now those are hardcore.

 

[Rappletek]

Oh and on another note MMORPG's;

if we the the term "hardcore" to instead of being a phrase in youth culture meaning good or intense, in instead apply the same thought to it as with other things, then MMORPG's are "hardcore" in the same way their players are addicts like some heroine hooked junkie.

The "Hardcore game" is the "Hardcore drug" and they player is no longer a player but a "Hardcore addict" and that in its self is like the bloody pulp we have beaten the "hardcore" phrase to

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Try Gradius III without the Konami code.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

I pearsonaly think that a hardcore game is a game were you really feel like your the character rather than just some guy(or girl) sitting your room(living or otherwise) like it's realy you swinging the sword or shooting the giant laser gun to kill zombies or space aliens or whatever.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

@tiredinnuendo - I can finish the original Contra and Super C (As it was called in the US) without the Konami code. I also usually wind up finishing with more lives than I started with. Does that count?

I could beat Super C, but original Contra is damn impressive. Hats off.

- J

How about Life Force without the Konami code, The original Ninja Gaiden, and did you guys forget about Super R-Type for the SNES? Now those are hardcore.

I beat the original Ninja Gaiden (and Ninja Gaiden 2, for that matter, never bought three), but I don't think I ever played Life Force. I guess Contra just didn't mesh with my playstyle or something. I stand by my claim in another thread that Battletoads is the pinnacle of unfair console gaming.

- J

 

[lightbulbthief]

a hardcore gamer is a gamer who takes an active interest in the industry the oppisite to a casual gamer who will buy games if they see it in a shop and like the pretty cover or their mate recomends it,

 

[Sixties Spidey]

You hardcore? Try beating Ikaruga on Hard With no credits, and one life! five of the hardest levels you will ever play in your life.