So what is a "hardcore" gamer? And why must we really define it?

[Dodece]

@mike_intellivision

You are confusing mature gaming with hardcore gaming. A common misconception among casual players. The most simple definition of a hardcore gamer that almost all hardcore gamers would agree to is the time element. More specifically a high average of hours played weekly. Somewhere between twenty and forty hours every week. What is played in those hours can be any game imaginable.

That does not mean there are not games that are explicitly directed at this market. Just as their are games directed at a casual market. However for a hardcore gamer those games can run the range. There are a group of hardcore gamers that dedicate months or years to shave a few seconds off of a play through sometimes of a thoroughly dated game. There are others who go through an almost zen like repetition in some games. Yes there are hardcore gamers that will do the same thing for thousands of hours. Those are usually shallow grinders. You have the collector a gamer that just burns through games. Who feels a year was wasted if they had not finished two hundred games.

I do not think hardcore gamers deride anyone, or hold a low opinion of another gamer. Do not confuse elitists with hardcore gamer either. A hardcore gamer is usually pretty obsessive about what they are doing to demean another gamer. Though they do tend to be easily unimpressed, or contrite about a casual gamers experience. I would not call it hateful just placating the way an adult is to a child.