Words Of Wisdom said:
Resident_Hazard said:
I've felt for a while that there are actually 3 classifications for gamers:
Hardcore, Pop, and Casual.
Hardcore gamers just love games, classic franchises, new and old technology, and tend to hold onto their stuff. They like a wide range of franchises, typically, and still play older-style games (such as Shmups). I consider myself hardcore. I still have all my systems (although, my Playstation is not my original one, and my original GBA had to be tossed out because it broke) and pretty much all my games. If I weren't getting ready to move, all my consoles would also still be hooked up. Hardcore gamers are also the completist freaks that will work for achievements or 100% completion--that kind of thing. Hardcore is where you'll find some of the console fanboys.
Pop gamers follow whichever system is seen as "hardcore popular" and they tend not to stick with something for long. They buy only the "most popular, currently highest-rated" titles, and don't hesitate to trade in older titles or systems to get new ones. They do not see the charm in old-school throwbacks (something like, say, Viewtiful Joe or Geometry Wars), "art-house" kind of titles (Mad World, Killer7, Okami to an extent), nor are they interested in niche titles like Pikmin, Beautiful Katamari, Ikaruga, that kind of thing. They may be very superficial, and this is where you may find a lot of graphics whores and HD freaks where visuals are more important than gameplay.
Casual gamers are those who either don't have the time, patience, dexterity, or flat-out ability to play more complex "normal" video games. They like one-off titles, mini-game collections, traditional non-game kind of stuff (like Brain Age, Singstar, Wii Sports, DDR, etc). Casuals do not tend to shop at GameStop or specialty stores, and generally, don't play online nor do they download titles. They may hold onto games or systems for a while (after they stop playing them) simply because they don't know what to do with them or don't know about places like GameStop, Game Crazy, etc.
As per the article, I've believed for a long time that most Wii owners were hardcore gamers--so I'm not surprised. I just hope Nintendo properly supports us. Now, WHERE'S OUR FUCKING HARDDRIVE, NINTENDO?! |
I'd like the half a minute it took me to read that back. I disagree with your classifications and your negativity when viewing them. |
It's just a classification. You can disagree all you want, there was no negativity put there at all. Human beings are classification animals. We classify all parts of nature, and all animals. Humans are just another animal, and from my observations, there are three different types of gamers. Some people will no doubt not easily fall into one category or another, but classifications are general and work for the masses, not always the specifics.
It's much the same with music in that there are hardcore music fans, pop music fans, and casual music fans. Or what have you--movies, the like.
For hardcore, it's practically a lifestyle.
For pop, a passing hobby and they aren't so into it that it is a lifestyle--they like it but follow the more popular easy-to-reach side.
Casuals like but only take a passing interest. A casual music fan doesn't really own a lot of albums, and they're happy listening to basically whatever radio station.
I'm basically "hardcore" in all my interests as they are all serious parts of my life. I just take everything pretty seriously. I don't get this will offense you feel about being classified. It's not like I came to your house and tattooed your classification on your forehead and forced you to only be involved with like-people. You angry gamer.
