Are you a casual gamer...?

[Grey Acumen]

My view on Hardcore and Casual is possibly a little different than most people.

a Hardcore gamer refers to someone who, when listing their three top priority activities, will have gaming in one of those places. They will invest a signifigantly greater amount of time and money for playing games.

Casual gamers are those who have some other combination for their top 3 activities, like the average person might be "Job, Significant Other, TV" or "Job, Significant Other, School" or "Job, School, TV" or "school, after school club activity, TV"

In my eyes, Hardcore games are those which require you to devote a large and usually constant amount of time and focus in order to best enjoy. The easiest test to tell if a game is hardcore is if you can play it only 30 minutes a week and still know what the hell is going on.
For example, take Smash Bros. If you play against friends every day, then stop playing for about a month, and then come back to it, it will be very unlikely that you will be able to compete at the same level as your friends.
In MMORPGs, if you take a month long break, people who you had formed parties with would likely be many levels above you with new items, leaving you at a disadvantage.
In games like Baldur's Gate II, if you take a month long break in the middle of the game, it will be very unlikely that you can remember where the heck in the storyline you are, and what areas are yet to be explored.

On the other side are casual games. Like sims or some mario games, puzzle games and things like Wii sports. These games can all generally be played in short periods of time and set aside to play later, without being put at a disadvantage or losing track of the storyline.