can't i play COD4 for a week straight and then not play for 4 y ears and then play again and be on same page with goal of getting better at multiplayer?

u can go years without playing counterstrike and then one day the itch comes back and you can jump right in and play...sure u may be a lil worse than before, but u won't suck if u were good in the past

The only game(s) that "require commitment" are the World of Warcraft games. You can play bioshock for one week straight, drop it for 4 years and randomly decide to play it again.

edit: D'oh! 

^same can be said for halo and many others

Why can't people just enjoy all types of games like me? That way there would be no hardcore vs. casual BS which to me makes no sense. A game is a game, if it's a good game, I'll give it a try!

But the thing is, you really can't. If you quit halfway through the story, chances are you have no clue what you were doing xD Better to just go re-hash it. And call of duty's multi-player is based off getting skill upgrades and what not. Of course most multi-player experiences are based more off the casual player within the hardcore player anyway in my opinion.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that games like Halo or Call of duty have a said path to follow, they don't just lay out the criteria of the game and have you pick the destination. They have a start, a finish, and a defined route to get through it. The point of games like smash brothers or monkey ball for me was to unlock all the events, then play them when my friends are over. Never once did I care about beating either game lol.

Strange, I would rather to have a game like portal never end, or a game like call of duty (although I don't like shooters that much), I would much rather it go on than finish.
Different tastes. I like enjoying the experience more than reaching the destination.

See that only applies to me sometimes, I'd rather have a defined story (most of my favorite games are RPG's, or Action/Adventure games), then maybe have a multi-player. But unless your shooting for a multi-only game, please god focus on the single player! I do have my casual moments, and I play casual games rather frequently, but I definitely understand the line between the two.

So according to what you say, portal is a casual game right?
Oh then I am a casual gamer, not hardcore.

Here is a problem most people don't take into consideration. The distinction between the game and the player.

Hardcore games/casual games

Hardcore players/casual players



A hardcore player can play a casual game. The example being someone playing Carnival Games for weeks straight.

A casual gamer can play a hardcore game. The example being someone playing COD4 for an hour a week.


However, the bigger issue is simply that there are no real distinctions between a hardcore game and a casual game because very few actually require a hardcore gamer or casual gamer to enjoy them. Each player puts forth whatever amount of commitment to the game they wish.

What most people try to categorize as hardcore or casual is the overall tone or theme of the game. However this is a completely arbitrary point as noted above in the examples but one that has been propagated by the elitist gaming journalism and accepted under false idealisms by elitist gamers who feel they require a distancing of themselves from 'casual' games.


So to answer your question, is Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz hardcore? It is if you play it as such. If you put the effort into it, it's hardcore. If you play it casually, it's casual.

In other words, games are not hardcore or casual by their content but by the means in which the player plays them. If you can surmise a better definition than that, I'm willing to listen.