@leo-j

You define a hardcore gamer as someone who buys the best system, plays the best games, and dedicates all of his time to them?

What??

Aside from dedicating all of his time to games, you pretty much described a casual gamer whose basic knowledge of what a "Good" game is comes from magazine reviews.

A true "hardcore" gamer will most likely own every console within a year of their launch and spend their time enjoying games from every genre; particularly games that others might not find as enjoyable. Ya know...like the guys who max out their Xbox live gamerscores. Or the guys who have a save file right before the final boss of every RPG known to exist with their characters at max level....for each different ending.

I won't proclaim myself to be hardcore, but I spend more time playing as many games as possible as opposed to the ones that everyone has in their collection.

 Well you obviously haveing played Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn. Even with the Battle save feature FE is anything but easy. RE:UC isn't exactly a cake walk when played solo, co-op is easier though.

 Very astute post.

No that's a PC gamer that plays WoW 24/7.

A console hardcore gamer is usally one that takes gaming as a hobby, not a necessity.  Normally they spend a lot of money in the gaming market, and own multiple consoles.  The games they buy are normally games that are considered good.  They don't buy by genre.  Actually genres like FPS are more casual bought than hardcore bought, as the concept behind them are simpler than most.   

 Every country including America hates America

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/America .

Logically, a core video gamer would be someone who makes up the foundation of the videogame market. It is these gamers that companies depend on to sell games and make profit. It's the casuals, the people who aren't essential, that make a game sell greatly. Continuing with this train of thought, a hardcore game would be one who is essentially the core of the core. They would tend to buy more games than just a core gamer and play more as a result. They are the steel rod supporting the back bone of the handicapped human body of video games. They are the molten inner core of the planet of video games. They are... that's enough comic book-worthy metaphors and parallelism.

I agree, most games no longer require that extra level of skill few have to be complated, games are designed so almost anyone can complete them.

I guess teens and those in their early 20s label themselves 'hardcore gamers' because tehy have known no different and they presume the games they complete are somehow difficult, when in fact they are not.

People seem to have a short attention span and no patience these days, so I guess if they made the games too difficult they would not have mass appeal and therefore get less sales.

There are very few games out there that require more than a basic to average skill level, the last one I personally found difficult (although it would be called casual because of its type) was Mercury Meltdown Revolution.

most people think hardcore gamers nowadays are xbox players who play "hardcore" games like halo and hitman with blood and gore.

Aren't real hardcore gamers are gamers who played almost all systems, could beat super mario bros in a flash, took hours to master tetris, pacman is a cake walk, etc...

What makes a hardcore gamer, person who plays halo 3 live every night or one trying to beat super mario galaxy the quickest way possible?

Why? Because Wii controls are the best for many Genres including FPS

 I love Nintendo, have since the NES, but I dislike the Wii thats why I traded it in.