Casual games and non-gamers who sometimes play games are normally more attracted to thinks they can relate to in real life.  Harcore gamers tend to look beyond reality and are willing to take a chance or are more opened minded to games that take a little more "understanding."  These are generalities, but please bear with me and you'll see where I'm coming from.

When you are hardcore into a hobby or a lifestyle, you're willing to take the time, energy, effort, and resources to maximize your experience given your circumstances.  You can take a hardcore baseball fan that has his favorite teams, but he appreciate the sport as a whole while still respects the other teams and rival teams of his favorites.  Now let's say he decides to buy a console to play baseball games and pretty much buys only baseball games for his console.  Would he be a hardcore gamer, or would be be a hardcore baseball fan who's using console games as one avenue in expressing his love for baseball?  Because baseball was his drive to play baseball games, I would classify him as best a casual gamer if that.

And we all have our preferences whether they are found in real life or not.  But the hardcore gamer respects most if not all gaming types.  It doesn't mean he has to like and play all genres.  But if he is willing to look beyond the obvious and to appreciate and give credit where it is due, there is a good chance that gamer is hardcore while expressing a noticable chunck of his life to gaming.  One franchise I like to use as an example is the Katamari franchise.  Simple concept: you are a little prince who rolls around a sticky ball to make it bigger in a given amount of time with "cartoony" graphics.  What sort of idiot would play a stupid game like that?  If more people would take the time to try its mechanics, the layout of the stages, and strategy in trying to roll up as big of a ball as possible in a limited amountof time, thatperson might find the intergration of its gameplay elements quite entertaining.  Unfortunately, most casuals/non-gamers are either too afraid, too stupid, or just don't think it's worth their effort to get out of their comfort zone.

but that's just it dude, gaming is our life, and if you can understand that, well than that's your problem

Damn... I forgot to make a joke about Hardcore gamers being nerds playing games all day long who will never have sex with an actual girl/guy thus never propagate..

yeah,HARD baby HARD.............................lmao

lol banned for trolling the hardcore

Hey, this gamer has been palying games since 1977.  This gamer ia also heavily involved in his church, has a full time job, married, and is expecting his first daughter early next year.  So there.  Ha!

:)

It's definitely not dying on PC: Steam's sales increased 200% in the last 10 months, Year-on-Year.

Besides, consoles never had much of an hardcore background. If you want to play hardcore shooters, turn to PC.

 I agree but I think there is a difference between hardcore gamers and hardcore games. PC games has always  lean more toward hardcore than console. Yet a hardcore gamer can enjoy both more hardcore games as well as more casual games since they often spend a lot of time playing games.

It's unfortunate how the definition of "hardcore" got warped in the last few years.  It's the gaming media like G4.  Now it's just about testosterone levels - or the kinds of games that appeal to 11-23 year old males (shooters, tons of violence, Xbox Live/PSN, etc).

I consider myself more of a niche gamer than a hardcore gamer.  Most of the games I play have sold less than 500k copies WW.

Exactly, these are the people who spend all their money on games and keeps the industry what it is and profitable. Your grandma cannot sustain the game market by herself, like many seem to believe.

Cue everyone who disagrees with me and cites that the industry is about to die because Malstrom or someone else said so despite record sales of consoles and software.