| Chrizum said: I still don't know exactly what hardcore games are... please help me. |
I would consider all those games part of my vague quality-based descriptive "traditional core" Basically, a traditional-core game is one that embodies that quality level of what used to be core gaming on SNES/GEN/NES. I don't think any of them are hardcore. Hardcore, to me, equates to a necessary level of devotion, and relies on an level of entertainment that doesn't come from factors like Score (of any kind, be it kill ratio, time, etc), fun, or usefulness.
Hardcore, I believe, relates to a reward-based motivation that is incurred from the triumph over difficulty, the victory is the reward, and the technival prowess that is required serves as an empowering motivation.
That being said, there are several games that share this basis, but in another way it's easy to see how some of the games above could be played in a hardcore way. To reiterate, there are hardcore games, but there is also a way for the gamer to make a game hardcore.
Example of hardcore games:
Civilization
Pirates!
Bullet hell games like touhou or ikaruga
Shin Megami Tensei games
Demon's souls
Some fighters, most notably, the ones involving hundreds of moves or extremely fast gameplay
Custom League gaming modes in sports games.
