I figured it out. The hardcore love toys and stories, casuals love games.

[lestatdark]

theRepublic said:

lestatdark said:

RolStoppable said:
The hardcore don't like to lose, that's why. That's also why they love achievements so much, because it makes them feel like they have accomplished something great for beating the first level.

They are like a little child playing with their toys and making up their own rules, so that they can always be the hero and win. And just like a child, they get angry when you point out that they only win, because they set up the rules in a way to make themselves winners no matter what happens.

The entitlement to finish video games didn't exist back in the day. Nowadays it's omnipresent.

Speak for yourself. I'll be damned if one of the biggest points of my VG "career" wasn't beating Super Ghouls and Goblins on the professional difficulty back in the SNES days, without any of the crappy Save States modern emulators have. I consider it a bigger achievement than every I ever had on this generation and the last two combined.

I think you missed his point.  What Rol is saying, is that back in the old days there was no guarantee that you were going to be good enough to get to the end of the game.  Or even good enough to see most of the game.  With the current generation, most games are easy enough that just about anyone can finish them.

I understood that, but my comment was also in line with the rest of his comment. Back in those days, finishing a game such as Ninja Gaiden, Crystalis, the original Zelda, Ghouls and Goblins, Contra, Battletoads, etc, was itself an achievement, even if it was only for personal gratification. Of course, not a lot of people can say that they finished X, Y or Z game from that era, but those that do felt a sense of achievement higher than anything this past gens have ever given. 

Probably the sense of entitlement to finish a game wasn't present on most gamers before, but to some, finishing a game was all that mattered, no matter the difficulty, no matter how long it would take. At least that was true for me and still is nowadays, no matter how easy and dumb-proof the majority of gaming has become.