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What is "hardcore"?
WhiteLantern
Member RarePosts: 3,319
What is a hardcore gamer? How is the term hardcore defined?
Is being hardcore determined by how much time you play? Or by how much time you spend learning to play?
If a person takes a week off of work to play a game during launch week, is he hardcore? If the same person normally only plays for 5-8 hours a week, is he still hardcore?
Is it a person who experiences “high level raid” content 2 hours a day, 3 days a week? Or is it a person who farms mats for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week? Or is it hardcore to raid for 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday while not play during the week?
I specifically ask because people complain that WoW has been ruined for the hardcore gamers. Who are these people for whom the game was ruined?
Other people say Eve is for hardcore gamers. Like who?
Are they basement dwellers with no social life? Are they students who are working 2 jobs to support school and only play on weekends? Or can you only be hardcore if you play 6+ hours a day, every day?
What does it take to be a hardcore gamer? Are you a Hardcore gamer?
Define and discuss.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Comments
Hardcore means nothing. Its simply a title people give themselves to justify that they have more free time to play and master a game then others. The process of games becoming easier to the point of only needing to pop in an hour every now and again vs. 8+ hours in one sitting is the trend that is killing the so-called hardcore, because now other people can look as "cool" as them for less effort and time.
I've always felt the term better described a gaming mode. Hardcore meaning if your character "dies" that's it.
Never felt is was an apt description of a game player. Maybe Korean StarCraft gaming.
Dedicated player or something. Hardcore? Nah.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
I'd say it's several things depending on the what the game allows.
for PvE it's raiding day and night, along with getting what the goal is - like downing a boss or getting the gear that's wanted, or getting to the new and rare dungeon first.
but I wouldn't say that someone that is online 24/7 without getting much results is very hardcore, they way I see it it has to produce some results.
for PvP it's basically the amount of battles you win, amount of kills you have, as few deaths as possible a.s.o.
for RP it's staying in character as much as possible, like always walking when your character would find it natural to walk, never refering to anything outside the game, always respond in character whatever other players say or do.
for games it's that they have very harsh gameplay, like i.e. alot of grinding (wether people like it or not), challenging environment that don't leave much for those that don't achieve, depending on if it's PvP or PvE focused game.
In fact hardcore doesnt say a shit. There are plenty of ppl who say there are hardcore by having a lot of time (no job or no RL ).
For me personaly a hardcore player is a player who learns damn fast and can adapt to every situation ( mostly FPS players ).
I know a lot of players in Darkfall call them "hardcore" as they think time investmen = hardcore, but i can only disagree.
If you would put all on same lvl and let them fight each other you would see that most of these "hardcore" players simply suck and doesnt have player skill / micro managment which a lot of other players have.
In the end every one has to have his own opinion about this "hardcore" crap.
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That sounds more like a good player than a "hardcore" player.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
Hardcore = time invested.
Thats all.
No im not hardcore I play my game less than ten hours a week because i have more important shit to do.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Hardcore = the priority gaming has for you compared to other stuff in your life.
The more important gaming is four you, and the less important other stuff is, the more hardcore you are.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
LOL! This is the best comment by far! And, its very true in my eyes. I enjoy games... but they are NOT the sole provider of my enjoyment in life. For example... I have a wife, and with that comes some very good..... enjoyment.
I would rather invest more time at work to gain that promotion or raise so I have even more financial freedom. Perhaps a cruise in a few months would be nice. A game does not take priority over these things to me.
Hardcore = When gaming is first to all.
I am very confused by this so I bump your thread. When I was growing up 'hardcore' basically meant you got hurt and kept doing it. Injuries from skateboarding; football; shooting each other; hitting eachother with thick thorny vines; riding down hills in tractor tires; jumping off bridges into water from so high you got bruises on your feet; drowning; drag racing. In fact a half dozen of the kids I grew up with died from our so called hardcore activities and I gradually went to video games to have something less hardcore.....and safer.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
You could still say there might be hardcore stamp collectors, if you compare only within that group.
If you compare different groups, like suicide bombers and gardeners, then, well I'd say the suicide bombers are more hardcore.
I guess that shows hardcore isn't allways a good thing.
I (can and have) played games 40 hours a week (normally it's around 20-30 hours), and I don't think of myself as a hardcore gamer.
I play alot, more because I'm single and there isn't much to do in this area. It saved me money in the long run, too.
ScalperOne and maji best described what a hardcore gamer is in my mind.
Also Hardcore has different meanings depending on how it used.
Ah this is a good question.
I would think a hardcore player is someone who is dedicated to the game. Just like a hardcore fan of a book is dedicated to it and will likely defend it to the end.
It is my opinion, that your opinion is incorrect.
For me hardcore is taking it a little more serious, like planning, doing research, trying build/combinations, combos and stuff.
exemple:
A hardcore first will read its foruns before posting
try some build, READ stuff, optimize its time experience while he is playing, that can come either with planning and research and/or lots of time invested, so it´s lower of time wasted (a.k.a deaths, recoverings, go back to town buy consumables, etc...), while a "not-so-pro-gamer" would go by trying and error process, wich can result in more time wasted, wipes, wich can extend the time he may need to conclude a ques/raid, and if this kind player has less IRL time to play this processa can take even longer.
MY 2 cent, any can agree/diagree ofc,
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Dark Souls 2.
future: Mount&Blade 2 BannerLord.
"Bro, do your even fractal?"
Recommends: Guild Wars 2, Dark Souls, Mount&Blade: Warband, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
There is a difference between (1) a player being hardcore; (2) a game being hardcore; and (3) a game being designed for the enjoyment of hardcore players.
For example, you can play Chutes & Ladders 24/7 and be the best player of that game ever. That would certainly make you a hardcore player of that game. But no one considers Chutes & Ladders a hardcore game. And it is not a game intended to satisfy hardcore gamers or one that poses any challenges at the level normally associated with hardcore gaming.
The usual meaning is that whatever the most difficult content in the game is, you are doing it at some level of competence.
Beyond that there really is no accepted definition. Every mmo has people playing it who consider themselves "hardcore." For that game, they may be. But that doesn't mean a lot of other people don't look upon that game as not posing challenges worthy of being described as "hardcore."
I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer. But it's all relative. Some people might think I was.
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The term hardcore isnt a bad thing. Just means you play a game more. These are hobbies after all.
I know if I had the time I would certainly play my game of choice more.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Hardcore (noun)
1.A specific subset of MMORPG players who refers to all other players as carebears. To a hardcore player you are hardcore or carebear.
2.A person who regularly uses the word carebear as an insult to any other player who is not hardcore.
The distinction between hardcore and casual has nothing to do with how many hours are played. The two are related, no doubt, but the reason one person is "hardcore" and another "casual" is far more complicated than simply looking at Xfire stats.
The distinction has to do with emotional attachment to the game.
One could play a game 24 hours straight and still be casual, if the player has no problem leaving the game when something more important comes along. Casual players play games to waste time. If they have a lot of time to waste, they may play a lot and not exhibit hardcore characteristics.
Just this past winter, I saw a lot of activity in City of Heroes last December. People I've never seen before or since were playing the heck out of the thing, but by the time the new year started, they started to drop off. If I had to guess, these are probably students home on break who were just passing the time until the new semester rolled around.
Those are not "hardcore players," as far as I'm concerned. They were only there to waste time until things started moving again. Once they had more important things to do, they dropped off.
One could play for only a few hours a week and still be hardcore, if the player builds his life around those few hours. If he needs his regular "mmo fix" to feel complete, he's hardcore, even if he doesn't play very often. Hardore players don't play games to waste time. They play games as a way of investing time in something that fulfills a deep need. Sometimes this exhibits itself in ways that have very little to do with "hours logged."
For example, I know of several players in EVE who don't actually play very much. They maintain accounts to write on the forums, level up their characters, and do some trading. Sometimes they maintain several accounts doing these things.
That is not a "casual player," in my estimation. They don't actually "play" much, but the game is very emotionally significant for them; so much so that they are willing to multibox for a game they hardly play.
See, I suspect there's a reason that we distinguish players in the same way as psychologists distinguish substance abusers. The difference isn't in terms of how much of the substance is abused, but rather, the role that the substance plays in the person's life.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
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Dude if you stay logged into a game for 10+ hours even sitting in a major city chatting your a pretty hardcore dude.
I take shots at my corpies in Eve all the time. I log out and their online and log back in and they havent logged. Now thats some hardcore shit, doesnt matter what they were doing in game.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
someone else related it to substance abuse...i think thats a lil overboard but might be able to help get the point across.....u can even use any inhibiting substance, let just use alchohol or smoking cigarettes though. keep in mind there are many people who dont got to many social settings and many who dont "indulge". yet there are social drinkers, casual drinkers, troubled drinkers, alchoholics, hardcore drinkers, etc.,. and everyone also handles their liquor differently. some people get drunk easily some dont, some get angry, some get happy, some get depressed, some use it to pass the time more quickly and everyone has "their own drink"....only difference is video games dont impare you directly but indirectly. never heard the tearm hardcore drinker though....dont think people in my city are lame enough to speak like that lol if there are i havent met em at least...plus the ability to drink and handle your liquor and not act like a jackass is praised in high school and college. dont think gaming is really praised as a great asset. i think most people label "hardcore" as "drunk" whereas "hardcore" would really be the ability to know your limits and or the ability to have a good time without drinking. what i think the majority on this site coin as hardcore gaming is really considered being a "gamaholic", or whatever it would be termed. hardcore gaming should be considered the ability to defeat losing odds on a constant basis which most multiplayer games cant even really calculate to a certain point because of so many variables. elo should stay in chess. most multiplayer games incorporate a rock/paper/scisors format which is not hardcore and players in them cannot consider themselves hardcore. achilles killing a new recruit is not hardcore, the myrmidons defeating a lesser squadron of soldiers with less experience is not hardcore, achilles getting shot by an arrow is not hardcore...achilles fighting hector is hardcore. thats what imo hardcore players are. players who strive to prove themselves in equal opportunity settings, who thrive in competitive situations, who are turned off by repetitive, dull, unchallenging gameplay. hence why uo is considered hardcore, no levels just skill sets where of course youd run into lesser opponents but where the chance of running into other "vets or hardcore players" was still a great possibility. having to be aware of your settings, calculating strengths and weaknesses of your opponent, the ability to take 2v1 with pure skills and talent rather than armor and stats (which do play a role but armor plays a very vital role wheres in the past it was a minor role that in 50/50 situations made it 49/51 instead of 75/25). hardcore players are like fighters of the old eras that try to find the one that will kill them (in a fair fight) which in their eyes would be the greatest honor. thats what sandboxes provide that linear games and arena setting games cant account for. thats why elo is bull in arena games imo.