Hey guys, after reading a post in which a self proclaimed 'hardcore' gamer sat a'top a massive horse and sprayed pools of bile about casual gamers I got to thinking. What classifies a casual or hardcore gamer? Either side generally has quite a skewed view on the other with the casual market calling the hardcore gamers boring and sad and the hardcore calling casual gamers stupid and loud.

I think that part of the problem comes from the fact that we only have 2 groups to classify people into, this doesn't seem like enough to me for millions of gamers. In my eyes there should be 5 groups.

Casual: Someone who plays games for fun and doesn't care about how good they do. Can play any game for any amount of time
Hardcore: A gamer who's sole ambition is to be the best at a game and do very well.
Veteran: A gamer who's been about for quite a while. 10+ years maybe?
Pseudo-casual: Someone who plays for fun but does care about their score a little
Pseudo-hardcore: Someone who plays to be very good but also for a bit of fun.

I dont want this to turn into a slagging match. Just a conversation about the current gaming demographic.

As for me, I would place myself in pseudo-casual. I play a fair amount but play for fun and to do silly things with friends online.

Well I voted pseudo-hardcore. If I play a game, I want to do my best at it, and I will put in some time to improve. But it isn't the be all and end all for me either. I would also fit into the 'Veteran' category I guess, I've been playing games since I was 4, back in the days of the NES. Good times, good times.

I voted veteran. My first system was the NES when I was about 2 or 3, I've been playing since. I would also fit into pseudo-hardcore, because I just play for fun, not to be the best.

Veteran. Although I got into the console games pretty late (N64) I've been playing PC games since they were on the floppiest of floppy drives.

I don't consider myself hardcore because I'm not competitive, and I don't consider myself casual since I play most games to their fullest.

I consider myself pseudohardcore as I am somewhat intensive when it comes to my gaming, but I'm not so competitive that I must be placed highly on the leaderboard.

The names could use some work... casual and hardcore are concepts that have been flogged to death many times over.

Anyway, I'm a veteran. Started with NES and C64. Weird combo, now that I think about it.

Well, I voted Veteran since I meet the criteria, but I'm more or less pseudo-casual as well. It's all about fun, mainly.

Lately, games just stopped appealing to me, it's all degenerated into playing Barbie with your online characters. The fact that some people are arrogant online because they spent xx hours of grinding so they can show off some dumb title/achievement, then act all elitist on my ass, also made me like online games less.

I still prefer older games, and occasionally still play them. Current gen games just don't interest me, so I bothered getting some more hobbies again.

i voted veteran

even though im only 17, ive been playing since 'Goldeneye' on the nintendo 64.. great game :)

pseudo hardcore. i game allot, but i do other stuff outside.

I play a game to enjoy it. If I'm compelled to complete it then all the better. Once I get to a point where the game feels repetitive or too difficult I'll fuck it off for something else.
The only game I've been determined to complete despite it being bastard hard is Shadow of Rome. Which I still haven't completed.

Vet & Psuedohardcore.

Pseudocasual for me. I game quite a bit, but not to be the best.

Also, I'm a veteran.

I fit Vetren (been playing for 10 years exactly =] ) and Pseudo-hardcore, I like to do well, but having fun is more important, but I still hate to lose!

Pseudocasual - I play games purely for fun, mainly single player because they have story incentive as opposed to "do it because you can" and to be better than others. I have no sense of competition and am content not being the best but i do not completely disregard score. In tetris i try to score as much as i can. In games i still want to win and when i do play multiplayer i have more fun if i win at least as much as i loose.

Veteran. I've been playing since I got a Commodore 64 in the 90's when I was 5 years old.
It's hard to actually put yourself in a groop. I like to play more casual games such as Zuma. I like to compete in Dead or Alive and Shadowrun, (consoles) CoD4, DoD, WoW, WAR and AvP (PC). I also like just sit bak and have fun completing a singleplayer game for the gammeplay and storyline, Mass Effect, GTAIV, AC, Oblivion, Dark Messiah etc. And I also like to challenge myself with games like Ninja Gaiden and the such.

I don't feel like a hardcore gamer. I do however use a huge amount of time gaming. It's really tough to see my self as anything but a gamer really. I'm gonna play and enjoy ever genre and aspect of gaming so sticking myself down in one place just seems odd :)

Hope my brain fuck made sense to you.

pseudohardcore; simply because I don't have to be the absolute best at every game I play. Just a select few.

Veteran coz I've been playing for a while, yet I don't consider myself "Hardcore".

Veteran because I spend ages on games and I'm very competitive and overly aggressive to my fellow man on games.

I said pseudohardcore, but I suppose I could push myself into the veteran limit. I certainly remember playing Elite, the first ever truly 3D game. However, even though back then I enjoyed gaming a lot, I wouldn't really have described myself as a gamer.

I'm not competitive, but I seek to do the best I can in games, and I love teamwork, so I voted 'Hardcore'.

Wow...i feel slightly old...my first real gaming started with the Atari 800 computer; the Atari 5200 was the first real console i owned though.

EDIT: So yeah, i voted veteran. I play cause...that's what i do.

How exactly are we defining "veteran"? 5 years? 10? 20?

Veteran. Been playing ever since my parents got me an Atari 2600.

Redlac: Slaying Monsters, Rescuing Princesses and Saving the World since 1989!

Veteran with a dabble of Hardcore - Nintendo Entertainment System away!

NES, Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, N64, Dreamcast, PC, PS2, Xbox 360 and a Wii.

I don't mind if its hard, just the opposite I love it!, but I hate grind. At least a big chunk of the experience is beating something/someone.

I said Veteran, although it's only just about. Really I'm probably more hardcore/pseudohardcore.

Pseudocasual, I put. I play mainly for fun, but beating most people is satisfying =)

playing a hardcore game does not make one a hardcore gamer.
I think hardcore gaming is also the effort and amount of time spend in playing games and collecting them.
but then again I see casual gamers as people who play popcap games at work and own a console mainly because it can play movies.
But I'm not the judge here.
I'm a veteran

I say hardcore, since... I just am. Video games is serious business.

veteral also ... been playing... since 16 years ago... hope that reach the bar

Veteran/Casual.

Veteran: my very first game was a text-MUD that I played...sometime in the early '80s, I think. I don't know what year for sure, but it was before my parents split up. And my first console game was Pong on Atari. The first console I bought for myself was my PS2, though...When I moved out after college, I just stole the PS1. It was that or the cat, really, and I figured that not only could I go visit the cat, I could also more easily afford the PS1's non-existant vet-bills.

Casual: I play games because I enjoy playing games. I don't care how well you do, or what you think of how I did. I don't go home and switch on the PS because I want to beat someone at gameX, I play because I need to relax/want to blow off some steam. Probably that's why I've never been tempted to enable any of the online features of my PS2 and probably won't if I buy a PS3 at some point. I simply don't care what the rest of gamerdom does, when I play it's about me. To put it bluntly; I do it to get away from you all for a while, screw you if you think that makes me less of a "gamer" than you are.

I picked Hardcore but I fit into veteran too. I play games a lot. Every cent I make goes into my hobby/addiction. I'm 17 and have been playing since I was a young on'. My first console was a SEGA Megadrive but I had my dad's Commodore 64 before that and I 'borrowed' my friend's N64 and uncle's PS2.

I'm a veteran gamer, if you'd like to say that, but I turned more casual as I realised they're nothing but toys so I just play to enjoy these days. If a game trys so hard that there's no possible way to enjoy it (Army of Two for me) then I dislike the game. I quit caring about graphics and intense gameplay and such, I just play to have fun.

i picked veteran. gaming is a part of what i do but by no means would i say that it defines me or that i view myself in opposition of non-gamers.