I was willing to go along with the list until they mentioned World of Warcraft. Out of all the games that appeal mainly to the masses, that one is king.
There is no way really to define "hardcore", but I like to think of it like this:
1) High difficulty. Gives experienced gamers a challenge.
2) Innovative or refined. Gives experienced gamers a reason to play it.
It is usually not:
1) Sold extremely well. This tends to be an indicator of high 'accessibility' to non-hardcore gamers. Games that try to really appeal to the hardcore appeals to a smaller crowd.
2) Not an MMORPG. These games gameplay is simplistic at best. There are a lot of non-hardcore gamers willing to invest the time into advancing a character in these games. I compare MMORPGs to a mix between the Sims and Final Fantasy (NES).
3) Not a generic shooter. Casual gamers like to shoot things too. Simple multiplayer shooters like Halo tends to appeal to them. Story driven complicated single player shooters such as Bioshock wouldn't appeal to them as much.
4) Not only pretty graphics. Casual gamers are attracted to pretty graphics. They are often fooled into buying bland games with pretty graphics.
That is all I can think of at the moment. I usually don't think of things as Hardcore vs. Casual. One of my favorite game to play during high school was Tetris Attack. It is a casual game that me and my friend played in a hardcore manner. Why do I have the feeling I'm talking about porn.
