Hardcore, Casual ......how do you use these words?

[Raistline]

I would say hardcore vs casual is related to what style of games the person place and the dedication to the games they have.
For example, a casual gamer is someone who plays Minesweeper and solitaire or maybe even some Wii Sports. They may dabble into some sports games or something that seems really cool every once in a while, but does not dedicate a lot of time or thought into gaming.
Whereas a hardcore gamer, plays everything from Battlefield and MW2 down to Mario and LBP. They are willing to try any game and spend a lot of time playing the games as well as researching new games. They are the ones that dedicate years of their lifetime in the pursuit of their gaming. They will spend their hard earned money and time for peripherals and everything else.

I also think there is the third class of gamer which I wold denote as an Average gamer, they play the new cool games that come out, they may not finish all the games they buy, and gaming comes secondary to most things in life. The average gamer has no problems spending a 4-5 hour shift of gaming when they have nothing else to do, but will not chose gaming over most things.

I lay probably halfway between average and hardcore. This is mainly because I work at a job that allows me to look into and research games as well as spending a lot of time on it. So i only partially fit the hardcore side, but then again, I also have a $100 gaming mouse. Does this mean I have too much money to spend, or care about gaming too much. I can't decide.