IGN has an interesting debate

[NintendoMonopoly]

famousringo said:

TheRealMafoo said:
WoW will sell more, that's obvious.

As for the people who think WoW is a casual game, I disagree. WoW is less complex then other MMO's, but the people who play it are the same gamer. Plus, most people who play it check online builds, PVP stats, and techniques, and will spend 30 hours doing an instance for 1 drop (doing it over and over again).

That's not the definition of a casual gamer.

 You should see the WoW boards. The hardcore vs. casual squabbling for developer attention is legendary.

The hardcore are always talking about how they've earned the right to have substantially more powerful gear and deserve more huge raid instances which require massive time investment to complete, and the casuals always complain about how they get left behind and forgotten, with new 5-man dungeons rarely being added and a massive gear disparity between them and the hardcore players. The hardcore claim that they're the "true" WoW players because of their huge time investment, and the casual rightly retort that their $15 a month is worth just as much as a hardcore's $15, even if they spend less time playing.

 Like all the most successful games, WoW is both hardcore and casual. And trying to balance that kind of appeal in a massively multiplayer environment is a huge challenge. For every teenage male obsessing over the perfect PvP build to get that 2000+ arena rating, there's a 40-something electrician helping his kids level up in The Barrens.

I heard of the casual vs. hardcore war in WoW long before I'd ever heard of it in consoles or the wider gaming world.

I agree. They need to come up with a better way, for both groups to band together and freely switch to working in their own factions when they want, without interfering with each other. Something that  can make hardcore/casual gamers respect and appreciate what the other has to offer to MMO gaming. Certainly not an easy task. I think NCSoft does a good job, in that regard, but they offer something completely different to the MMO world than Blizzard. I would think you would find the same type of arguing in any game that attracted 2 entirely different groups.