A hardcore gamer is a person that plays hardcore games hardcore games are games with fair but exceptionally hard gameplay. Its hard because it has clever and difficult gameplay and is not hard because you glitch through cliffs while jumping and die or because enemies can fire through walls etc. (thats why there is HARD in hardcore)
People have to distinguish between "casual" "mainstream" "hardcore" (it would be better to have easily accessible and non-accessible games instead of the C/H debate tho.)
Casual is stuff like "Final Fantasy All the bravest" you can play a short session and its not to complicated.
Mainstream is stuff like Call of Duty etc. You can compare those to stuff like Transformers or 2012 (movies) its mostly visually impressive for the "simple" people out there. As said it is impressive but not that challenging. (i'll explain why the GAME itself is no challenge later)
Hardcore games are games like alot of mario games (the harder ones NOT the NewSuperMario series!!!) most games from the arcades, stuff like super hexaon or all those bullet hell games. Really challenging games.
(not because another person you meet online etc is the challenge but because the game itself is a challenge. I mean you can invite the worlds best Wii Sports player and he will be a serious challenge for you but this doesnt make Wii Sports a hardcore title its the same reason COD is not a hardcore game the Game is not the challegne its other players. I can also find people that can fart louder than me this also doesnt make farting something hardcore right?)
About the accessible non accessible games. It would be smarter to drop this stupid hardcore casual crap and just talk about how accessible a game is for people that are new to this type of game etc. Angry birds accessible but you can fail alot (like in old arcade games) this is why Angry Birds is not a casual game even tho you can play it in short bursts. Its simply accessible because the gameplay is obvious and actually simple yet challenging.
