Jaos on 03 September 2008
A lot of pointless discussion... about the definition of 'hardcore'.
The point that Malstrom missed in this article is the different motivations for people to play games. You may play to escape reality and to explore fantasies, or you may play to test your skills and overcome obstacles (like doing sports), and there's other motivations too, like winning (against human players in multiplayer).
Most 'hardcore' players to a degree play games like sports, and that's where (part of the) fun comes from. A game that requires much lower skills than you already have so you can play through without any effort is no fun for most people who seek a challenge.
