And that is why gamers should have both kind of games.

 As I said, I used very broad generalizations to keep a long post from being even longer. Even valid stereotypes are just a center af gravity about which individuals tend to orbit a varying distances. Bu they can be useful for simplification.

I remember many years ago the first time I traveled to Europe. Certainly a relatively few londoners wore bowler hats and carried a black umbrealla but damn site more than anywhere else Ii have been before or since. Certainly not all German Haus Fraus were stocky, wore dark clothing, carried an oversize shopping bag and had those incredible practical shoes, but enough that I never realized where I was. Not all Texans wear boots, talk loud and invite you over for a barbeque 3 minutes after meeting you, but they ain't exactly rare.

Fortunately, there are probably very few sterotypical elitest misanthropist hardcore gamers. But there are enough to keep these forums lively

Exactly, and if you watch the forums you will quickly see that those who own both tend to be much more moderate and tolerant.

Good topic sir, and worth thinking about.

I suspect you are dead right about it being a social phenomenon and about right about the hunter-gatherer/warrior class/tribalism stuff (though I want to think about that a bit more).

But I suspect you are dead wrong about one thing.

That para where you say “Now we have two basic types of gaming console. One type is particularly well suited to immersive, realistic and often violent games. The other has a much shorter learning curve and is much more accessible.”

Because it isn’t about the consoles.

Step with me into a parallel universe for a moment, and imagine that from the outset the graphical power of PS360 was used for immersive, realistic and utterly non-violent games. Endless Ocean, Afrika, Sonydogz and MS Music, say. And imagine that the Wii from the outset had been populated with Manhunt, Madworld and Gears and so on.

It might (just) have been that way. And if it were, all the self-described ‘true gamers’ would be talking up the realism and precision and subtlety of the Wii controls and talking down the sweet, fluffy and, yes, Hi-Def graphics as suitable for people who really don’t know better, who need the easy accessibility of HD because they simply can’t understand that gameplay is king, who need the short learning curve of crappy 20^th century controllers because the Wii controls are too difficult for them.

So it is *all* to do with the tribalism and nothing at all to do with the consoles. Not at all whatsoever.

Excellent post sir. Though I already noticed the questioend group nit picking and feeling threatened that they fall into such groups.

Very astute and I agree completely except for the controller.  It's hard not to accept that the Wiimote is eaiser to learn and more intuitive to use than those analog controllers that I think make it like learning to play a piccolo. And that is one important reason that the hardcore dislike and despise them.

Groups like that do not want it easy for interlopers to be involved. Professions often use language or equipment to make it harder for outsiders to elbow their way in. I was a professional photographer when automatic exposure was developed. It was bitterly resisted and disliked because it meant that the  rankest amateur could get just as good exposures as the professional without running around with a handheld meter. We also had our special language and terminology that marked the "hardcore" photographer even though many terms were totally obslete and useless.

Ah, you take me back a bit with the photography. I remember fiddling with light meters and little rotary card things to work out exposures.

Reason I brought in the Wii controller is I suspect it isn’t as easy and accessible as it looks. Ever noticed posts that go on about how sloppy and inaccurate it is, with gratuitous mentions of ‘waggle’ and ‘flail’ and various equivalents? That is the exact way people talk about things they haven’t mastered (like driving, musical instruments, pool tables and so on). It is inaccessible to the ‘true gamer’ only because it is unfamiliar, which is the exact same reason the PS360 controller is inaccessible to the expanded audience.

The Nintendo genius was to make it *look* unintimidating.

The same way everyone thinks of recorder as an easy instrument, despite it being way harder to play well than, say, the more intimidating-looking saxophone.

(please pardon the font, I am new here and haven't got as far as working out how to post properly yet)

Nice. Good post.

I don't know why you said it was long, but I enjoyed reading your post. It is similar to my thread a while ago about "one reason why FPSs are successful", but yours is well articulated.

The terms hardcore/casual are pretty useless now, and I don't enjoy using them. I enjoy playing games alongside my friends. The so called "hardcore" (isolationist) begs to differ.

Those are some mighty broad generalizations, it's quite funny that I break almost all the rules though they say there needs to be exceptions to prove the rule and that is very true.

I myself love competition and have gamed since I was young, I socialize with everyone though, I'm very opinionated though don't hold to any side but my own which is 90% of the time rooted in facts. I'm in the range of males that call themselves core and below 35 but I do like the opposite sex and not just for the encounters I hang out with whoever I dates friends as well as go see chick flicks and enjoy it, I also have a long list of both competitive male friends but an even longer list of female friends that range from core gamer, to the ones that only play some easy or silly games, to those that hate games.

I could be considered balanced I guess but I have my preferences and like to defend them, and attacks on my preferences usually result in me shutting down the argument with cold hard facts, though that doesn't work on the illogical male stereotype we see many times on this site :D