Casual Gaming the New Hardcore

The Guardian Gamesblog has a post up discussing the reality that the realm of the casual gamer now has its own element of the hardcore about it. From the article: "Traditional hardcore gamers need only pop along to [a] Game [store] to get their latest fix. Either that or they can head over to an importer like Lik-Sang and take their fill of Japanese 2D shooters. Casual gamers must trawl the web for reliable shareware sites or friendly communities of like-minded chess fans. There are very few magazines addressing their needs, no one is interested. Now that is hardcore."

Comments

But...

[atezun]

I thought the defination of a casual gamer was someone who played games merely for a few hours of enjoyment each week on any genre. A hardcore gamer whose speaciality lies in puzzle and logic games is nevertheless a hardcore gamer. since did one have to play an FPS to qualify as a gamer?

Do they not get it?

[RM6f9]

As a casual gamer myself, I drift from game to game, site to site - it's not about being hard-core anything, it's not about finishing the latest FPS release faster than anybody, it's about passing an hour or two with some distracting entertainment.

Period.

The only thing remotely hard-core about it is a stubborn refusal to commit to anything more than finding a fun game and playing it for only as long as it remains interesting.

A really good (read:attempting to be objective) central reference site to sites/games worthy of trying out would probably be a worthwhile addition to the bookmark list.

"hardcore gamer"

[ZephyrXero]

The term hardcore seems to be in a phase of shift. Originally, when games weren't quite as popular, it was fairly easy to assume someone who spent lots of time and money playing video games was a "hardcore gamer". Now that the causal gamer market has exploded, this is no longer a valid metric. "Hardcore gamer" now tends to mean people who are conisours of gaming. People who play games because they are fun and of a high quality level rather than the latest marketing fad. The term "harcore gamer" is now more akin to the term "film buff".