I suppose everyone’s definition of what consists of a hardcore player and a casual player differs greatly from each other.
Some say “I’m casual” yet they show up to raids on time, repaired, consumables ready to go.
Miss Arioch says the following:
I don’t consider myself hardcore.
I am a casual that takes raiding seriously.
If you have any emotional investment in something, if you take anything about a game seriously, if you care at all about what happens in the game, you don’t get to call yourself casual anymore.
Take Peggle. If you are casual, maybe you’ll boot it up sometimes, shoot the ball around, bask in the glory of the shiny splosions. But as soon as you start thinking about how to get higher scores, as soon as you restart to try and clear the board, as soon as you look at the pegs and say “hmm… how can I best utilize my special power?” you are no longer casual.
A casual is someone who does not take the game seriously. Every single person reading this blog is not a casual, at least by my simplified definition.
As soon as you look at a test dummy and go “hmm…”, as soon as you check wowhead for anything, as soon as you even consider consulting a spreadsheet or theorycraft tool… that moment right there is where you crossed the line from casual to… something else.
I, for one, no longer think that there are only two sides. It is not black and white, it is not casual versus hardcore.
I’m certain there are those who are casuals. The type who dork around in STV on their hunter, chatting with friends.
There are definitely those that are deserving of the “hardcore” label, guilds like Ensidia who are willing to have 15 warlocks stand outside who’s soul purpose is to provide soulstones for as many people as possible.
Very, very few of us fit neatly on either side of the spectrum.
You know…
Why do we even need labels at all?
We’re all gamers. Some of us play six hours a day, some six hours a week. Some of us are male, some of us are female. Some of us are in Russia, some of us speak French, some of us are fifty years old.
Who cares?
Let’s just abolish this whole idea of casual and hardcore. Let’s abolish impossible to define, ultimately subjective labels.
I’m twenty, I’m white, I’m Canadian, I play WoW a whole bunch and I blog about it.
Who gives a shit?
Or we could go with percentages…
I’m 30% casual and 70% hardcore?
There could be spreadsheets with weighted values: show up to raids on time is 13% and if you have your reagents there is a 1.03% modifier (multiplicative). If you’re repaired too then it’s a 3% modifier (but that one’s additive)…
I’ve always looked at hardcore as the Ensidias of the world or at least raiding 5 days a week with a leader screaming “50 DKP minus” when someone does something stupid; the top 5% of the players.
I don’t see myself there, so that left me with casual or scrub. Casual sounds better.
“Why do we even need labels at all?
We’re all gamers.”
Ummm… isn’t that using a label? 😉
Anywho…
My problem with the term “casual” is that people try to pin one meaning to it. The thing is, “casual” doesn’t have one specific meaning. It is a broad term, with a few loose meanings.
ie:
cas⋅u⋅al /ˈkæʒuəl/ [kazh-oo-uhl] –adjective
1. happening by chance; fortuitous: a casual meeting.
2. without definite or serious intention; careless or offhand; passing: a casual remark.
3. seeming or tending to be indifferent to what is happening; apathetic; unconcerned: a casual, nonchalant air.
4. appropriate for wear or use on informal occasions; not dressy: casual clothes; casual wear.
5. irregular; occasional: a casual visitor.
6. accidental: a casual mishap.
You don’t have to meet all those criteria to be considered casual. If suddenly you “care” about your character, it doesn’t mean you’re not casual. It just means you care. You really only have to meet one of those definitions to qualify as casual.
I don’t mind people using the terms casual and hardcore. They need to identify with a group and those terms are fairly reasonable. It just becomes an issue if people try to say there’s a clear-cut line between the two. There isn’t, there’s a lot of gray in between. And people just need to be okay with that.
Heck, same argument could be used for the term “gamer”. Someone who fires up Rock Band every time they have friends over wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves a gamer, but I’m sure someone’s definition would say they are. /shrug
(PS: I also realize my last few comments here have been argumentative… I’m not trying to be difficult, honest! Just trying to offer another perspective… )
For the definition of labels, look at it like the difference between peanut butter and a specific brand of peanut butter.
A “gamer” is someone who plays games, whether it’s WoW, Counterstrike or monopoly. A gamer is peanut butter.
Whereas a casual would be like Kraft peanut butter.
I suppose that when we are dealing with subjective definitions, we need to keep an open mind. If we try to simply hold it to one, and only one, rigid definition, we’re going to have problems.
Euripedes,
I’m in your court about the fact that the majority of players fall into the middle ground, somewhere between the perceptions of truly casual and truly hardcore. With examples such as Ensidia for harcore, and multitudes of ideas of casual, there is a huge grey area between the two for majority of players to fall into. Like Arioch said above, maybe it’s a spread, and not just simply a binary “You are or you aren’t” classification.
I think the more interesting thing to do with this type of a classification is to look at where you perceive where you are now, and where you were before. The shift from casual to hardcore, or vice versa, is a fascinating idea to me – what caused the change? What thinking patterns are different given your new ‘status’? How much offline time is dedicated to the game, now, versus before?
These types of questions seem to offer up more ideas of what’s going on in a player’s mind than simply “Hardcore or casual?” can. And I think it will also show the broad range of Hardcore or Casual players out there.
And to answer my own questions:
Hitting 80 and being invited to raid with a decent group caused my change.
I’m much more critical of myself when it comes to performance, and critical of others actions as well – a friend of mine has said my view of groups has a bit of an “Elitist” feel, because I expect a lot of the people I’m grouped with (not intolerant, but easily frustrated when ‘basic’ job functions aren’t’ being done properly).
As I am writing this from work, a lot more of my offline time is spent looking up, reading about, and researching things dealing with WoW. I’m kind of like my guild researcher/loremaster for stuff on the internet. For questions about class/quests/raid encounters/etc., a lot of my guildies come to me, not because I necessarily know it all, but because if I don’t, I can damn well find it out there.
And so, I’ll have to say I’m Hardcore Casual. Or maybe Casual Hardcore (like the blog.) I play a lot, do a lot, but I’m surrounded by people who play more and do a lot more. But I’m good at what I do, and that’s Hardcore enough for me.
My 2 yen,
Akiosama
For the example of showing up prepared, that can be due to caring about the game. Or, it is due to caring about the people. A social player might not care all that much about loot or progression or any of that; but their friends do and they aren’t going to hurt their friends by being unprepared.
I dislike definitions for casual which reduce it to little more than “doesn’t care.” Would someone play peggle and click aimlessly or never read the instructions? That’s not casual, that’s just uncaring.
A person can care about WoW without moving in the direction of hardcore.
Even dictionaries can’t agree on a single, immutable definition for words and terms, and it’s their only function to try and define things.
I’m warming up to the idea that it isn’t really possible to truly define anything subjective.
It’s not black and white, it’s not even greyscale. We’re dealing with a whole spectrum of colours here.
I’m a twenty-seven year old female who raids on a boomkin. I care enough about my raid to want to do well, which involves at the very least number crunching and DPS testing. My raid is currently on Crusader’s Coliseum, 25s on normal and 10s on hard.
I don’t like hunters at 80 that wear spellpower gear, or priests that roll on agility pieces. I’m more patient of people at lower levels and people who are willing to ask questions at any level instead of trying to noob through something they don’t know.
When I PvP, I do so with the view of obtaining pvp gear because I’d like to not completely suck and pvp gear/resilience will help meet that goal.
I roleplay, I’m on an RP server. However, I do not play catgirls or vampires and will openly mock anyone that does.
You could call me casual, you could call me hardcore, or somewhere in between. Frankly, if you don’t call me “hey, b*tch”, I’m ok with whatever.
By your definition, I think that personally I expect too much of people. If you are not repaired/Don’t have food/Flask and so on, You damn well better have an engineer friend standing next to you to buy it all (Which is usually me).
Perhaps that is simply for raiding. Instances – I expect nothing. They could have one of those bird-counterweight-water things prodding a single button and I would think “Yeah, alright, I can see he is going with that”.
Casual and Hardcore for me are so intertwined it is difficult to isolate them, as people have said. I think it’s better that way. Everything is based on perspective, right?
I disagree, wholeheartedly. First, because you have real-life responsibility doesn’t mean you can’t take the game seriously. I am a casual player because I have things far more important in my real-life than a video game, but I take the game seriously when I have the time to engage in that aspect of my life.
In fact, I suggest that if most players had more real-life responsibilities they wouldn’t be such jerks in-game. You can definitely tell the people who actually have a “real-life” vs those who simply do not.
But hardcore/casual gives us such easy handles to explain our frustrations with the game design, how it does or does not meet our needs, and why it caters to the great “other.”
I’ve never associated hardcore/casual with ability to play a class, but rather, to the time that someone has to commit to the game. I’d find the hardcore/casual definition you suggest as grossly oversimplified, making the definitions invalid, and thus worthless.
I have a hardcore heart, but a casual amount of time. I love reading blogs, searching the web for ways to play my toons better and continually tweeking my spec, gear and spell rotations (and this blog been a GREAT help over the years…Rip, you rock, thank you for what you do!).
But like others have mentioned, RL intrudes constantly. Being married with two kids, I get a couple hours each night, usually when I should be sleeping, to play.
So I usually consider myself a hardcore knowledge, casual play time player.
Aeon: I definately know what you mean about being able to tell the difference between those with a RL and those who do not. I count myself lucky that I have always fallen into mature, adult, realistic guilds.
“afk for 5 min, baby aggro”
“no problem”
“15 warlocks stand outside who’s soul purpose is to provide soulstones for as many people as possible.”
Incredibly Lame Pun alert!
I wish I could say that was intentional. I caught the pun myself only after I had typed it, and tried to type out the proper spelling. Twice. Both times I typed it as “soul” accidentally, so I left it.
I think some people like to use the term “casual” to cover up doing things that are perhaps not completely ethical in the real world. Saying “dude its just a game” when you left 24 other people hanging around waiting for you to show up is a classic example of this. Most people wouldn’t do that to a business meeting or soccer club for example, however the fact that its a game makes this completely acceptable when your are a “casual” in a “casual” guild.
Also I get the feeling that if they keep telling themselves that they are casual it means they can’t then be slotted into a nerdy/geeky stereotype either.
Obviously not everyone who defines themselves as casual is like this, just the same way not everyone who defines themselves as hardcore is an elitist moron.
Gevlon actually made a great point recently about how a lot of people who say they are casual and “don’t have time for raiding”, nonetheless spend a crapload of time on alts and the like.
(For the record I have nothing against those sorts of people, heck I’m probably one of ’em, I’m just pointing out the issues associated with the term.)
So yeah.
It may be that people who say they don’t have time for raiding simply don’t have the ability (for whatever reason) to sit there for 3-4 hours, several nights a week.
Others simply don’t want to be tied down to raiding, because they have other things in the game that they want to do – PvP, arenas, farming, instances, levelling alts, playing the AH, RPing, standing in Org selling their wares, grinding reps or chasing achievements – whatever. Raiding is a big time commitment, and not something you can usually do on a whim for 10 minutes at a time, unlike the rest of these things.
I personally sometimes go to a raid and think, “I wish I could just go play an alt tonight.” Or “uh, it’s 7pm already, and I haven’t had a chance to do my dailies today! There’s never enough time!” – yet I play probably upwards of 40 hours a week. How is it that I am having problems finding time to raid?
I spend a lot of time making money because it’s a fun mini game for me. I have a friend in guild who constantly whines that he never has enough money because he spends all his time PvPing. He claims that he doesn’t have time to make money. He *does* have time – obviously – since he plays as much as me or maybe even more – but it means he would just have to prioritise moneymaking over his PvP for a while, and he chooses not to. Instead, he’ll keep complaining that he never has the time.
My point is – I’ll bet there are bunches of players out there who play for 40 hours a week who still claim to not have time to raid (because of all the other stuff they fill their time with). I know I often feel that way.
…. If only I could get out of raiding, I’d have time to play the game!
You know, I’m almost 40, my wife hates the game and I play, sometimes, at 4 or 5am just to get some time in. Its a lot of fun, I raid during the summer when everyone is out and the gear usually gets me through the winter. I have two level 80 toons and am working on my third. Sometimes I feel like doing quests, sometimes I want to do dailies, sometimes I want to craft and i always help people when they ask…
Its a great way to get away from the real world, kill time and think about something else for a while. I read elitest jerks, I watch videos, I read a bunch of blogs – mostly just because its interesting, not too hard to be decent and its fun to talk to my VP level co workers that have no clue what I’m talking about 🙂
To label is Human..
We label everything from peanut butter to “rock” bands.
You could argue that you cant be casual and play WoW….
Would you casually commit to a subscription game?
The grey area is ultimately caused by the number of check boxes that are possible in WoW.
Read info: yes/sometimes/no
PvP: yes/sometimes/no
Raid: yes/sometimes/no
Instance: yes/sometimes/no
Come prepared: yes/sometimes/no
Alts: 1/5/10/49
etc..
If I say I’m “casual”, it very possibly means I see myself as someone who’s not overly concerned about this or that patch note, not going to yell at people for honest mistakes, not going to spend 80 hours a week playing, not going to respec just because the flavor of the week is 1.2% ahead on simulators, that I play for fun.
If I say I’m “hardcore”, it may very well mean that I expect people to be prepared and knowledgeable, that they put out over 1000 dps in heroics, that I’m interested in tackling harder content, that I like a challenge or PvP, that I do try to improve my DPS or avoidance or MP5, that I read blogs like this.
Note that none of these traits are mutually exclusive.
So whichever term someone identifies with has more to do with other associations. I don’t want to see myself, or have others see me, as obsessed with the game? I want to emphasize my social network and dicking around having fun? I’ll call myself casual. I don’t want to see myself, or have others see me, as a scrub/nub? I want to emphasize my accomplishments, progression, or arena skillz? I’ll call myself hardcore. So too for anyone else caught up in this great casual/hardcore false dichotomy.
There’s nothing objective, or even rational, behind the distinction, nothing that *makes* someone casual or hardcore. People have this vague idea that it has to do with playtime or DPS or PvP, but really it has to do with appearances and insecurities.
heh… 1000dps on heroics =)
I’m not going to lie to you, I am hardcore at heart, maybe even a little elitist. I don’t see that as a bad thing, nor do I find that the members of my guild being casual and saying “it’s just a game” is a bad thing either. I just don’t rely on them for anything I consider important because by their own admission they don’t care enough. I saw an awesome quote somewhere that said:
“Yeah it’s your $12.75 a month but it’s our $306 and we think your a Jack Ass”
That was about 25 man raiding but the point is if you don’t share their mindset then you should have no expectations that they are going to think of the game the same way you do. I don’t hold it against casuals that they under perform, I just lower my expectations.
On an adult gamer site that ai frequent, I have decided that I am an “Avid” gamer. (I blogged about this a *bit* a few months ago, but only periferally)
I’m not hardcore because I simply don’t have THAT level of skill or THAT level of devotion/dedication.
However, on the “casual” side… I game too much to be casual, and I definitely get riled up, and (on aoccasion) will get very invested (ie OBSESSED) with some particular game. So I am “more”gamer than a casual gamer.
Where does that leave me/us?
For me the term “avid” seems to be best. It may (by the dictionary) seem very similar to hardcore, but it doesn’t have the same subliminal meaning:
av⋅id /ˈævɪd/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [av-id]
–adjective 1. enthusiastic; ardent; dedicated; keen
YMMV
🙂
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