There is a difference between the core gamer and the hardcore gamer. The core gamer is a matter of self-indentification. If you identify yourself as a gamer, note it as one of your hobbies, one of the things that defines you, then you are probably a core gamer. Follow the industry, keep up on what games are best, know your tastes, play regularly, and incorporate it into your lifestyle. A hardcore gamer is a core gamer, but a core gamer is not a hardcore gamer.
A hardcore gamer is a different level of avid, someone who is part collector, but also plays his collection, someone who attempts to optimize their experience every generation, someone who has a Wii, 360, PS3, PSP, and DS, and are up on all of them. The hardcore gamer is the rarer, more obsessive breed of core gamer.
There is the Traditional Casual Gamer, that friend you know who bought a 360 for Madden or Call of Duty, or bought a PS2 for SOCOM, or a GameCube for Smash Bros and Mario Kart. They don't play avidly and keep up with things, but they do play core games
Finally there is the New Casual gamer, which is the gaming media's stereotype of a Wii owner. Someone who plays Sports or Fit, or Bejeweled or Tetris, Scene It or Guitar Hero. The new breed of casual gamer who are only into gaming due to the recent developments towards mass-market-dom.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
