First off games are meant to be, above all else, FUN. Youre supposed to play em because you have fun with them smile, laugh whatever the hell you do when youre having fun.

My question is why the hell do people say only Hard games are "hardcore"

Id much rather play a game thats normal difficulty have fun with it and encounter a "challenging" situation/boss whatever during gameplay. Then a fucking ridicuoulsy hard game, get frustrated and make me not even wanna play it anymore.

People put up arguments saying they spent HOURS trying to beat a boss or pass a level only to get frustrated and mad but thats what a hardcore game is. A hardcore game is a game the gets you pissed the hell off and makes you not even wanna play it? Seriously what the fuck is that? In my eyes thats just a horrible game.

Some people say that WindWaker was too kiddy and not hardcore and that Twilight Princess was too easy not as hardcore as A Link to The Past was. WTF!?

Zelda is a harcore series. It doesnt have to be hard to be "hardcore." Its fun and challenging at times. Thats what makes it FUN its not a game where you have to spend hours trying to solve some shit and seriously why the hell would you wanna spend so much time doing that? You play keep going have fun and have fun when you meet a slight challenge.

Some people like having challenges and play on Hard Mode or whatever thats FINE. But dont say that a normal game isnt hardcore because its not making you throw your remote at the TV, restart a level, or piss you off.

Whats your opinion in the point im trying to make? I might not have said everything in the best way but do you agree with me do you disagree or somewhere in between.

NOTE - I only use the word hardcore because thats what most people recognize. Id prefer to just use a serious gamer or something like that. And obviously if youre on forums talking about video games youre not the average gamer.;P

Edit - I believe a game should be considered hardcore by the depth of it. Including the story, gameplay, characters, and fun factor it has. Difficulty should not be such a huge deal in naming a title "hardcore."

Because a hardcore gamer is a gamer who is will to keep playing for hours even though they aren't getting rewarded by the game constantly. The reward is playing and trying again, and finally beating it or not.

Just like someone who is "hardcore" anything:

If it is a fan of a sports team, they can go seasons watching and following with out going to the playoffs.
If it is a fan of a TV show, it is having two seasons that suck but watching any way because you liked the first season or an actor.

A hardcore fan of anything
Likes it more...
Knows more about the subject (or is better at the activity, if it applies...
Doesn't need coddling...
is involved in the activity (watching the games, shows, playing vgs) and in activities related to the activity...

... than a normal person.

I think you could make your definition a little more accurate and concise by simply saying that a hardcore gamer is one for whom gaming is much more important than average.  Lots of gamers you may consider hardcore that I know care about silly things like their gamer score, which I'd consider a casual thing.

most HARD games are EPICLY AWESOME=HARDCORE!!!!

I think Mario Galaxy is easy, but it never got frustrating even when you die a few times. Hard games are wicked, but don't make them tedious and frustrating, i still can't get past that friggin chasing soldiers section near the end of Metroid 3 on normal diff. I gave up and that is my grievence with harder games. Hardcore is not hard, it means excessively violent, sexist, language, i think. And that doesn't mean a game is better, just that it has niched itself in to a corner, watch the FPS's try and break out, MS it aint gonna happen son...

Why games should be fun or make you smile? I don't get that, do you watch only comedies and cartoons too?

I consider "hardcore games" to be the ones that can be easily used for competition... That's why most FPS games are classified as hardcore games.. Also RPG's because of the depth of them... Difficulty has very little to do with the title "hardcore" it's basically any game that the "I just want to smile and laugh" player would not play to the full extent of the experience.

Maybe you misunderstand the use of the word 'fun' here. It is fun as in, "That was an enjoyable experiance." He did in fact say, "Whatever the hell you do when youre [sic] having fun." Often if you've enjoyed something a normal response is to smile (obviously not always).

or you could say that for a hardcore gamer gaming is a sport where the higher the difficulty gets the better challenge it is for you to win over that game or that special part of the game that required you to get into hardcore mode just to pass it.

OP: Fun playing games is for when you just want to hae fun playing games, hardcore is when you want to beat something or someone and any cost and put the effort to do so which will be repaid to you in satisfaction when you beat the game/boss/level.

@ OP )

easy games aren't fun to hardcore gamers