Sorry, I don't play with CASUALS.

[Arcanine]

I'm a hardcore gamer that plays some casual games (as of late I've gotten back into Minecraft). And I'll agree with ones who says "Play games for fun". I have fun when I'm winning and beating the other team. I have fun when I'm not having to deal with a bunch of stupid casual 12-15 year olds (or you could even have a casual 30 year old) on my team dying over and over.

Spoiler:

I don't play Call of Duty anymore (not until MW3, because BO sucks) because the game got so boring and the fact that I would lose games with no fault of my own. Some people say "Oh you win some, you lose some. But get a good laugh because it's all in good fun.", if you think that then that's fine... but I don't hold to that. To me it's not hard to play a shooter and hold a 1.0 K/D once you get used to the controls (and that shouldn't take long). Shooters are 90% brains, 2% weapons, and 7% reflexes. If you have bad reflexes but you have brains about you then you know not to rush around with an SMG, you know to take things more slowly. If your weapon isn't going to win that gunfight then you know to get out of there because you can think. Like I said, it's not hard to hold a 1.0 K/D in any shooter. In Black Ops I've got like a 3.69 K/D in TDM, and a 3.40 overall. In the Gears 3 beta I pulled a 2.0 overall when it was over and I hadn't touched Gears in years. In the Uncharted 3 beta I finished with like a 2.40 K/D and I played the Uncharted 2 multiplayer for maybe an hour like a year before the U3 beta came out.

There will always be a market for both groups of people. My prob is when people try to mix the two together. I don't like casual players on my team on something like CoD, or Uncharted, or Gears. And then run their mouth saying "Oh you're a tryhard" when I'm trying to win. If you don't want to win go play Nintendogs. But at the same time why would anyone go hardcore on a game like Borderlands, or Portal? I have fun with Borderlands, Minecraft, Portal, Rockband. But that doesn't change the fact that I like to win on games like CoD, Gears, Uncharted, Battlefield.
Basically what I'm trying to say is... I play both casual and hardcore games (I'm good at both), I don't have a prob with casual and hardcore players. But keep casual stuff to casual games, and hardcore stuff to hardcore games.

 

[NatureKeeper]

I play games to have fun. That's right. FUN. That means I'm a casual gamer, but that doesn't mean I don't know much about what I'm playing. I know IVs, EVs and all that crap, in Pokémon for example, but I am not good at utilizing them. I play casually even with "hardcore" games, for the sake of it.

 

[LightOfTruth]

You play a game that is fun to play :)

 

[Late]

I just hate when people categorize gamers like this. Does it really matter if you're casual or hardcore? I'm pretty sure both play games because they enjoy gaming and also wanna keep fun. At least that's what I do.
I personally can't fit myself in either category. I play almost every kind of games.

I think no one ever even talked about hardcore and casual before Wii came.

 

[mondays suck]

I play excessively but could hardly care less about optimizing my game and such. Well, not entirely, I do always keep an eye for exploitable mechanics. Fun, fun. I never play online multiplayer and when playing about anything in MP with friends, we almost always team up against the AI.
This probably makes me one of the worst kind of casual I suppose, but I wouldn't want to change that. I admire players that have the patience, dedication, etc required to play a game professionally (unless they are arrogant about it), but I couldn't do it myself.

 

[Legendary Silke]

I do not believe that such a distinction should exist - in the end, gamers are gamers, end of story. There's no need to categorise people based on game preferences. And there's always some kind of overlap - the lines are pretty fuzzy when you consider the overlapping stuff. As long as someone is having fun, that's great. Doesn't matter what type of game - it's all subjective.

 

[(=Nemesis=)]

Edit: Removed this part because no longer relevant. :3

Also, just for some context on what's making me think about this - for example, Super Smash Bros. There are two ways people generally play: they either play in a random stage with items turned on, adding the element of chance to a casual game, or they play in the stages with little to no variance, and turn all items off to focus entirely on the skill of the player. I've often seen arguments where a "hardcore" player of the game won't play with a "casual" unless the casual agrees to the no items, no complicated stages rule, while the casual doesn't want to play unless they can add the element of chance in because they don't feel like they can measure up to the other player by skill alone - or maybe they simply don't find it as fun. Anyway, that's what I think of when I read the posts on this thread, lol.

100% ditto. I practice in "hardcore mode" - that is, no items and on Final Destination... but I'll play with other people on whatever stage they jolly well like. With whatever items.

While I'm on the subject, I think the most fun thing to do in Super Smash is pick the smallest stage you can find, and set items to frequent Pokeballs and nothing but. It's complete pot luck who wins, but it's brilliantly fun.


I like to think of myself as playing hardcore games in a casual manner. I tend to despise super-easy games disguised as hardcore (CoD 4 being a recent example - only CoD I tried), and at the same time, I also loathe games where obfuscation and counter-intuitive logic pass themselves off as difficulty (Metal Gear being a... heh heh... solid example).

 

[Empty Pot]

I personally hate the whole gamer label system. Mainly cause I'm casual and a hardcore gamer. Sometimes I feel I need to be laid back, betray everyone on my team, have a teabag party with randoms.

But then I will play serious, play seriously dependent on k/d. Achievement hunt. And all the good stuff.

 

[Orophin]

No offense to anybody here who plays fighting games competitively, but majority of the people I've met who play fighting games competitively are elitist jerks.

I'll use Smash Bros. as an example since it was already brought up. I get that in your tournaments, you want to eliminate chance from the equation as much as possible to focus on the skill of the players. But that doesn't mean EVERY time you play the game, you ONLY have to play by those rules. Those of us who don't play fighting games a lot don't want to always be stuck in a scenario where there is basically no chance we can win. Its not fun, and its the fastest way to make me stop playing a fighting game. Casual players like items because its fun, it gives some variety to the game.

Its just that I see so many players who are basically like, oh, you just play this game causally? I'm so much better than you. -_-

 

[(=Nemesis=)]

Those of us who don't play fighting games a lot don't want to always be stuck in a scenario where there is basically no chance we can win.

It's exactly the same for Pokemon, but where the stakes are considerably lower. You essentially have two choices. Become more competitive, or steer clear of ruthlessly competitive players. Any competitive player worth competing with, would be only too glad to set up a game on a dynamic stage with items galore, and even to use a character they don't have experience in. Losing the game won't be a disaster for either of you. The game's as fun as its players allow it to be, essentially, and it is the duty of greatly skilled players to allow newcomers to have a good time.

Rather than simply assert their dominance. Which is a bit pathetic.

 

[Orophin]

It's exactly the same for Pokemon, but where the stakes are considerably lower. You essentially have two choices. Become more competitive, or steer clear of ruthlessly competitive players. Any competitive player worth competing with, would be only too glad to set up a game on a dynamic stage with items galore, and even to use a character they don't have experience in. Losing the game won't be a disaster for either of you. The game's as fun as its players allow it to be, essentially, and it is the duty of greatly skilled players to allow newcomers to have a good time.

Rather than simply assert their dominance. Which is a bit pathetic.

Yeah, thats pretty much exactly what I was getting at. Completely crushing casual players isn't going to get them interested in the competitive scene. And sometimes it can take a long time. I'm just getting into competitive pokemon now, but I've been playing the games since Gen 1 first came out.

 

[MisterBlue92]

I'm a fairly casual gamer, I only ever play with friends. The only games I can play quite well (in my opinion) are Mario Kart Wii and Pokemon (providing you don't mind a Gen IV double battle and giving me about a month to build my team)

 

[Kura]

I don't mind casual games. I have hope that new gamers will eventually graduate onto to bigger and better things. A gateway drug of sorts, but in a more positive light.

Games are about having fun, and if you have more fun playing Cooking Mama than you do Uncharted, then all power to you.

Basically this. I think all games should be given a chance. And all gamers shouldn't ridicule others for liking the games they do just because it's more "casual" per say. It's all about personal taste and what people enjoy <3

 

[greg0915]

I wouldn't say i'm a Hardcore gamer but i'm certainly an Avid gamer, i play PS3 and Pokemon games usually well into the early hours (3 AM -4 AM) and i'm ranked about 450 in the world on 007 QOS for PS3 ^_^

 

[Alternative]

Ugh, I hate the term of casual and hardcore gamers. Games are out there to have fun, and shouldn't be labelled unless done so correctly. To me, a casual gamer is someone who plays games casually. If they feel like playing any game at a random time, like if you were working a casual position, then that would make you a casual gamer. There's nothing wrong with the difference in gaming, and the genre you play doesn't make you "hardcore" or anything in the gaming world.

Just because you dedicate a lot of time into a game such as Call of Duty, or Starcraft or anything else which has a major competitive edge to it, and popular, doesn't make you a hardcore gamer. It just means you play those sorts of games a lot. Being a hardcore gamer to me means you're open to any sort of game, not by the genre of game that you play. If you're passionate about games, and you play a lot of different genres and different games in general, that's what I believe makes you a hardcore gamer.

 

[Ephemeral Euphoria]

I'd have to say more hardcore than not at this point TBH but I prefer going through a game one mission at a time instead of blazing through everything in one day.

 

[Althea]

I've...never really understood the whole label system for gamers, honestly. The line between casual and hardcore in a general sense has become significantly more defined with the introduction and success of the Wii and what you might call "family" gaming, and the rising popularity of the "party" genre of games, but I don't see how being someone who prefers games of different genres that didn't exist a few years ago makes you "casual" or anything of the sort.

I find the idea of a hardcore gamer ridiculous. You're hardly hardcore if you play games constantly, or have a preferred way of playing (i.e. self-imposed restrictions, hard mode the first time around, 100% completion, achievement/trophy hunting, etc) or anything else; it's just how you prefer to play games. Someone claiming they're a hardcore gamer, to me, just sounds like a snob, because it gives a distinct "I'm better than you" impression. Ultimately, as people have said, games are supposed to be fun, and just because someone has fun with them a different way doesn't mean they should be criticized or given such a derogatory/ego-inflating label for it.

 

[shengar]

Hardcore and Casual aren't defined by the games they play or how many games they play. But on how they take gaming into more serious demeanor or not. People who try to get perfect Stars on all stages of Angry Birds have to be called hardcore gamer despite the industry label Angry Bird as casual game. People who play CoD series in easy just for some shooting and the story also counted as casual gamer.

Short version is:
Hardcore Gamer: Usually play on Normal-Hard difficulty, usually play multiplayer regularly, still play the game post story if possible, try to beat all the challenge the game have, etc.

Casual Gamer: Usually play on Easy-Normal, rarely plays multiplayer that too competitive, if the game story is done they also done playing the game, etc.

Hardcore gamer, although they play for winning can have their own way of fun too. Both hardcore and casual gamer shouldn't ruin each others fun

 

[iPod iPhone iPad iPiss]

Ahh... the domination sound in TF2 as I backstab an elitist AND his medic..

 

[Polizard]

For me it is not really a difference between casual and hardcore i just require my online partner to have some skill the other day i was playing Dead island and i got partnered up with someone who sucked he kept dying always insisted on driving and kept crashing into walls it just killed me. So for me i just require a partner with skill cause i know some causal gamers that are awesome and i know some hardcore gamers that fail at life.