I don't know what makes someone "hardcore". But I do know that in the industry the term "core gamer" usually refers to the so called "young adult male" demographic, while "casual gamer" refers to girls/females.

Hardcore is a negative word, used to describe people who have aren't mindlessly in love with the wii.

I AM HARDCORE......... oh, wait a minute, i still play and love sonic games

does that in any way affect my hardcore credibility?

"Hardcore" gamer? Well, I guess this is a very subjective word, and not everyone will take it to mean the same thing. And to be honest I really dont like the word so much for that reason. What I see myself as is a "veteran" gamer. And in my opinion I consider that to be someone who has consistently played video games for 15 years or more on most consoles and or PC. So that would be at least from the days of the SNES and Sega Genisis onward.

On a side note, I think the vast majority of happy Wii users do not fit in to the "veteran" category, whereas the the vast majority of dissatisfied Wii users do.

Going by the dictionary definition, a hardcore gamer would be a gamer who sticks to the fundamentals of gaming. Given that the most fundamental trait of any kind of game is that they be entertaining, and that most self-proclaimed "hardcore" gamers favor titles which are not inherently entertaining (rather requiring special parameters to find entertainment from them), one could make a reasonable argument that the true hardcore gamers are the ones who only play entertainment-first games like Wii Sports, et. al.

ok , i'm now a hardcore veteran, sweet

A hardcore gamer is a gamer who cares how much games sell :)

But also, generally someone who spends a lot of time playing games. Quality games.

A hardcore game would be a game with complex rule sets, and with content in excess of fifty hours on average. That would probably meet the criteria of most hardcore gamers. Believe it or not the Wii does have quite a few such games. Unfortunately they are of poor quality, dated, and overlooked.

That is actually the sad part a lot of Wii owners actually think their console does not have these titles. Well the console does have dozens of titles that qualify, and a great many of them are not crap. Unfortunately almost all of them sell like crap. They go neglected so developers get the wrong or perhaps the right impression.

I highly recommend Scarface for the Wii. That game is large, complex, and time consuming it is a good hardcore game for the console if only more owners would give it the chance it deserves. That game really is the Grand Theft Auto for the console.

 Mature titles on the Wii just cant hold up to the ones on HD systems.  Thus they are mostly overlooked by veteran gamers. In my case I cant even play those titels because they arent available in Japan.  There are practically not mature titles out here for the Wii.  They have given up on the veteran gamer, instead trying to appeal to kids and newbies. It works for them, but as a veteran gamer Im very disappointed with Nintendo. If anything Wii's current gamers will mature one day and expand the market for veteran gamers.

This is like telling a sophisticated art critique who has been analyzing works by Da Vinci, Van Gogh and others for decades to begin reading comics becausehigh art is no longer in fashion.

Just because both rely on pictures does not mean both are equal or should be enjoyed by audiences of eachother