It doesn't mean anything. The definition changes all the time.

That your hard to the core.

How many licks does it take to make to the center of a tootsie pop? How many hours does it take to 100% Final Fantasy VII? Only the hardcore know.

Games aren't hardcore or casual. They are awesome or lame, easy or hard, intense or subdued, deep or shallow.

It's the very fiber of my being... I eat hardcore for breakfast lunch and DINNER!!

hardcore gamers are nerdy people with over9000 penises and hentai-themed rooms in their houses who eat little babies and rape kittens and vice versa every morning

Hardcore is just the buzzword to distinguish traditional gamers from the expanded audience.

What does tardcore mean?

There is literally no such thing as a 'hardcore' game like we've been saying lately. I hate that term.

There is definitely a use for the term 'hardcore gamer', but all it means is that you're someone who's really into games. There is no such cult as 'the hardcore' and no revolution of 'the casuals'.

There is such thing as a 'core' game, used in reference to a game designed for people who've been playing for a long time. However, pointless button combos or overly-complex controls do not make a game 'core'. Games that a core gamer finds fun are core.

So what exactly are "core" games, i.e. what games do core gamers find fun? I ask this because any time any TP publisher tries to appease the "hardcore gamer" on the Wii,  they come with another (on rail) shooter.   

 See, that's the thing.  It's not that gamers don't like light-gun games, as evidenced by no one flaming House of the Dead or Ghost Squad.  But here's an example: EA releases Dead Space on Xbox 360 and PS3.  Wii gamers want to play Dead Space with motion controls.  EA announces 'Dead Space', but instead of an atmospheric horror game where you have to use tactics and your character's decisions are in your hands, they make a game where everything happens automatically and you point and shoot.

There's nothing inherently wrong about Dead Space: Extraction (in fact, it'll probably be a very fun game) but a core gamer who saw that game on a 360 and wants to play the same game with pointer controls would be very disappointed by this news (I know I was).