^ indeed

Hardcore games can have many players too.

Nah, only experienced gamers.

Your statement means you hardly played other games. My father plays Freecell so much he is a hardcore player. 

When did you play? Because Nexon made some drastic changes to the gameplay

For me a multiplayer game is almost always, with a few exceptions, more hardcore than a single player game because playing against human opponents is infinitely more challenging than against AI. Just go to mlgpro.com if you want an idea of how deep and hardcore games like Halo are. When your competing for a $100,000 in a proffesional gaming circuit I guarantee you that the competition is more hard core than anything most of you have ever experienced.

Again there are a few exceptions with games like Ninja Gaiden but in general what I say is true.

I stopped playing after they implemented that new exclusive North American island (can't remember the name) and made Unagis and Blue Screamers useless. What a shitload of f***. >_>

^Multiplayer games are indeed usually more Hardcore than singleplayer games.

But if you want to see the most hardcore games, look at Counterstrike and Starcraft.

Their competitive scenes and competitive popularity are unbeatable.

Since the release of zakum (2-3 years ago i believe) warriors have reported that a Z-helms' extra 15 luk drops their exp loss from 10% to ~5-6%. how long ago did you play?

In defence of maple - I've never seen a boss fight so...intriquitely made as Pink Bean, a boss that can kill every ranged character in the room unless they are crouching under a really low (specific) platform, while the rest of the party keeps it's aggro by making it face to the right, otherwise it rapes said crouching characters.

^you know, as opposed to the general strategy in most games of "avoid this attack, dont attack it when it does this, or kill xyz target(s) in the room when you enter / whenever they are spawned" that i tend to see in most other games.

though that being said...other then seeing people spend thousands of dollars on a FREE game i dont see why it ranks as hardcore...just a lot more of a grindfest more than anything else.

as for the rest of the list - i personally define hardcore by games that are fun to play, hard to master, and still fun way after its released. By that logic these games belong on this list, just..not there. as in - not in the top 10 to say the least, other than starcraft. how is it that halo 3 / call of duty / counter strike get their mention but team fortress 2 gets passed over exactly? especially if you mention team-based games such as WoW (atleast, without the team aspect then you are a lonely lvl 80 PvPer, tops). meh.

I can't believe Horntail got replaced by this:

http://blog.shizuyue.net/img/posts/pinkbean2.png" width="91" height="60">

eff you, Pink Bean's adorable. :P