Are MMO meant for the hardcore?

SynEater

Just a thought I had when I was reading a DFO thread and the words "HARDCORE" kept coming up.

Are MMOs meant to be for the hardcore? are they for building communities and living a almost virtual existence. Where pvp does have its place when you fight for something cause your avatar would fight for that cause and not because you want to gank soem noob for kicks?

 

Or is it more now of just getting to the whole max lvl getting the power toon and start stabbing blowing anything that moves.

I love my FPS to all the way back to Doom and now with CoD4 and CS. I shoot to kill and know the environment that I am in. All the communtiy crafting crap is cut away to simpy kill or be killed.

SO now what do you think? do the "Hardcore" belong in MMOs or FPS or another type of game play?

Note: this is not a shot at any game but just my own thoughts.

Ilvaldyr

Depends on your definition of "hardcore" really.

I've always found it interesting that the dictionary definitions of the word include:

"Unswervingly committed; uncompromising, dedicated"

"Stubbornly resistant to improvement or change"

"Intensely loyal; die-hard"

Or to put it in another, more MMOG-friendly term: Fanboi.

Just something to mull over.

Patternizer

Originally posted by SynEater


Just a thought I had when I was reading a DFO thread and the words "HARDCORE" kept coming up.
Are MMOs meant to be for the hardcore? are they for building communities and living a almost virtual existence. Where pvp does have its place when you fight for something cause your avatar would fight for that cause and not because you want to gank soem noob for kicks?
 
Or is it more now of just getting to the whole max lvl getting the power toon and start stabbing blowing anything that moves.
I love my FPS to all the way back to Doom and now with CoD4 and CS. I shoot to kill and know the environment that I am in. All the communtiy crafting crap is cut away to simpy kill or be killed.
SO now what do you think? do the "Hardcore" belong in MMOs or FPS or another type of game play?
Note: this is not a shot at any game but just my own thoughts.

 

Hardcore in my opinion is as subejctive as typical and casual .... For me I am hardcore, yet for 3-5 days i played nothing, as for which genre is the most "hardcore" depends i know some people live and breathe for RTS or TBS or Simulations, are they not hardcore?

SynEater

I don't want to use "fanboi" or "carebear"

 

What i meant was Hardcore pvper and I should have posted that in the original post

Dibdabs

PvP'ers aren't the only "hardcore" - especially in damnfool carebear PvP systems that have zero risk to the people involved (cough, WoW, cough), but that's another story.  There are Hardcore raiders and also people who are hardcore as in they play MANY hours a week.

misternifty

I have a coworker who collects console gaming units and plays tons of games.  He takes a couple hours every evening to play, tries all sorts of stuff, and enjoys online cooperative game play.

These games are of no interest to me, and he pretty much doesn't want to play MMOs, but we have some great conversations about gaming.

MMOs and hardcore are a false debate in my opinion.  People play MMOs for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with how much time they put in every day or how skilled they are.

1. Social opportunities (whether combat or not)

2. Persistent world.

3. Willing to make a mental investment in the long-term developement of the character, whether you play 15 minutes a day or 6 hours a day.

MMOs represent a tiny fraction of the gaming market.  It can't be about time and skill, because skilled players are putting lots of time into other stuff.  MMOs are for people who like MMOs and what they have to offer.  The idea of hardcore is one that should be dropped imo.

Josher

Considering how many people play WOW that has both a casual and hardcore component and how many play ONLY hardcore MMOs, is there any real question?  MMOs were never really meant for the nerds and geeks with no life.   If they were, Vangaurd, Darkfall and Eve would be dominating sales.  MMOs are meant for everyone.  Well not exactly everyone.  They're not meant for people who just want to play for 10 minutes at a pop=)

Czzarre

I dont believe that MMOs as a whole are meant for 'hardcore' players only. I believe there are situations where hardcore is more beinificial. HOwever, I think that many players expectations upon entering a new MMO or expansion  (Like darkfall or WOTLK) are hardcore. If players hold their expectations of a MMO to their playstyle, they will find a more enjoyable experience

Zippy

All MMO's have super fast leveling, require virtually no time commitment and lack challenge. MMO's are dumbed down for the casual gamers and the 15-25 year old ADD kiddies.  The kiddies in their 20's simply do not have the skill or patience to play anything else.  Everything has to be fed to them.  They need constant excitement and no thought.  Which makes MMO gameplay centered around flash rather than substance, emotion rather than thought and easy fast rewards rather than work and meaningful achievement.  MMO design is simply driven and run by the lazy casual gamers and the 15-25 year old kiddie crowd.

Yipple

It is a misconception that everybody who plays MMORPG's are hardcore they are not.

A hardcore gamer buys and plays loads of games and likely has multiple systems, they can of course play MMORPG's too.

A casual gamer is someone who buys and plays one or two games and plays it for a long time, there is no difference between someone playing Bejeweled all day every day for a year or World of Warcraft they are still classed as casual (even though they are playing in a hardcore fashion) and someone who plays either of this games for 10 hours a month (that would be casual casual!).

It's a subtle, but important difference.

Dr.Rock

They are meant for whatever part of the market they are aimed at. It is blinkered and self centered thinking that makes people believe everything has to fit them.

Torik

Originally posted by Dr.Rock


They are meant for whatever part of the market they are aimed at. It is blinkered and self centered thinking that makes people believe everything has to fit them.

 

Exactly.  Too many people seem to be under the delusion that every MMORPG is meant to cater to their desires and those that do not are made for 'losers'.  They thik that if you are not playing at the same 'level' as they, you are playing the game 'wrong'.  It's like someone training for the Olympics in track and field belittling someone who just likes to jog in the morning.

nightbloom

Originally posted by Yipple


It is a misconception that everybody who plays MMORPG's are hardcore they are not.
A hardcore gamer buys and plays loads of games and likely has multiple systems, they can of course play MMORPG's too.
A casual gamer is someone who buys and plays one or two games and plays it for a long time, there is no difference between someone playing Bejeweled all day every day for a year or World of Warcraft they are still classed as casual (even though they are playing in a hardcore fashion) and someone who plays either of this games for 10 hours a month (that would be casual casual!).
It's a subtle, but important difference.

 

That cant be right...  I dont buy any games because its a challenge to me to play free or beta games.  I play the same game day and day out but try anything at least for a week or two.  I probably game far too much by any definition yet by your statement, Im a "casual gamer". 

I think HARDCORE is how you play, not what you play.  If you have a drive to succeed at your game, no matter what it is, that transcends daily life at times then you might be a HARDOCRE player.    Casual players are the ones I call "Weekend Warriors" because the need to succeed just isnt there for them.  Be it high ranking, high level or whatever, if you just HAVE to be that then you are probably HARDCORE.

 

 

SignusM

 The original MMOs were more about immersing yourself in the world and building a community because you NEEDED eachother.

 

Modern MMOs are so mind numbingly easy they are more casual single player or small group experiences. So its not so much about what MMOs are about, but what era of MMOs players joined. The original MMO veterans are mostly adrift because there are a sparse few games that cater to them. Many are very liberal in saying that these veterans have no place in the new MMOs, because MMOs should not be chores or second jobs. These people really missed the point of the pioneer MMOs.

 

The genre has changed. The golden age of MMOs is long passed, but slowly some originality is starting to leak back into the genre. That being said, its sort of too late already. MMOs are now massive commercial behemoths and the majority of people playing them expect and want WoW clones (or at least that's what the major MMO companies think) and the veterans are lost in a sea of housewives who picked up WoW because of its easy all reward no risk policy.

 

Its not so much that MMOs are for the hardcore, its just... MMOs aren't what they used to be. 

rokknroll

  MMOs were never really meant for the nerds and geeks with no life. 

 

Erm...yes they were...UO, EQ?  Online versions of pen and paper rpg's without a license(i.e rights to D&D) , a gaming genre defined by geekiness, nerdiness and often percieved by the masses as "no lifers".

Sure, MMO's now have matured beyond that, most players dont even know what RP is, let alone how to do it.

Also, given a large enough sample size, any statistic can be derived, "hardcore" as defined earlier doesnt apply to this circumstance surely? 

If kid A wants to believe he's "hardcore", let him. 

Find people who dont have an epeen to waggle in your face.  I remember the metal scene was the same once, the "hardcore" fans deriding the tourists becuase they werent metal enough. 

Punks do it too, as do academics, scholars, binmen, and all bloody mammals.  An instinctive urge to belong to a defined clique just after our balls drop.  And when you are in the "in crowd" everyone else becomes a target of hate or irrelevance because your clique is *the* clique.

Are MMO's meant for the hardcore? no more so than any other activity teens engage in.

Are MMO's meant for you?  Hell Yes! For every 10 "1337pwnmobiles" , theres another 10 sitting quietly thinking " are there others out there like me? "

Yipple

Person A who plays one MMO for 500 hours is a world away from person B who owns an XBOX360, PS3 and a PC and owns 100's if not 1000's of games. Person A is a casual gamer, playing hardcore. Person B is the truer definition of a hardcore gamer.