Sharpe
07-13-2002, 02:11 AM
There's been several threads recently that have brought up the topic of casual and hardcore gaming. I think these terms are poorly defined, don't really adequately describe what most users of ther terms are trying to discuss, and often lead to incorrect assumptions.
Specifically, in the MMORPG context hardcore is often used to mean "someone who games a vast number of hours per month" while casual means "someone who games less hours per month". In the context of hobbyist games vs mass-market games, hardcore is often used to mean "a serious gamer, with a lot of gaming experience who considers gaming a primary hobby" while casual often means "someone who doesn't normally play games but happens to occasionally buy a Hunter, Barbie, Myst or Sims game". We are really talking about different categories here.
For example, I think there are a lot of serious "experienced" gamers who've been gaming for years and consider gaming a primary hobby and yet cannot spend that much time gaming (I definitely fall into this category). I would not consider myself a "casual" gamer by any stretch, and yet I cannot come close to the hundreds of hours per month that a "hardcore" gamer might spend. Also, sometimes the "casual" gamer term is used to lump together both "dabbling" gamers (who play a bit here N there but don't consider gaming a primary hobby) and non-gamers who don't actually buy or play games regularly but may happen upon a game (often bundled with something else) and play *that one* game in vast numbers.
Obviously there are infinite ways to break people into groups, but I am focusing on describing folks for the gaming market, in terms of level of interest in gaming, and amount of time spend gaming. To cover those topics I think we need 4 terms instead of just hardcore and casual. For want of better terms, here are the 4 terms I can think of right now. If you have better ideas, let em flow :)
Hardcore gamer: a gamer who is very serious about gaming, considers gaming a primary hobby, is very familiar with games, and also plays a LOT of hours per month. I will arbitrarily assign 100 hour/month as the defining amount.
Hobbyist gamer: a gamer who is also very serious about gaming, considers gaming a primary hobby, is very familiar with games, but due to (job/spouse/child/other) spends less than 100 hours per month gaming.
Casual gamer: a gamer who enjoys gaming occasionally, who is aware of games and may get wrapped up in a particular game, series or genre, but does not consider gaming a primary hobby and is not very familiar with games and game history. Casual gamers are responsible for the occasional "big hit" game of a normal (ie hardcore) game type like WarCraft, Diablo, Red Alert etc.
Mass Market: the rest of the public the 90+% who don't generally buy or play games but may occasionally happen upon something that strikes their fancy. Generally speaking the type of games that "cross-over" (like Barbie, Hunter, Sims, Myst) to the mass market are considered drivel by the hardcore & hobbyist gamers, while the mass market considers "hardcore" games to be a niche market driven by obsessive nerds.
I know, I know, I'm splitting hairs and being semantically picky. But I DO think there is a sloppiness in using "casual" gamer so much, and that sometimes we obscure the issues we are discussing by using ill-defined terms.
Dan
Specifically, in the MMORPG context hardcore is often used to mean "someone who games a vast number of hours per month" while casual means "someone who games less hours per month". In the context of hobbyist games vs mass-market games, hardcore is often used to mean "a serious gamer, with a lot of gaming experience who considers gaming a primary hobby" while casual often means "someone who doesn't normally play games but happens to occasionally buy a Hunter, Barbie, Myst or Sims game". We are really talking about different categories here.
For example, I think there are a lot of serious "experienced" gamers who've been gaming for years and consider gaming a primary hobby and yet cannot spend that much time gaming (I definitely fall into this category). I would not consider myself a "casual" gamer by any stretch, and yet I cannot come close to the hundreds of hours per month that a "hardcore" gamer might spend. Also, sometimes the "casual" gamer term is used to lump together both "dabbling" gamers (who play a bit here N there but don't consider gaming a primary hobby) and non-gamers who don't actually buy or play games regularly but may happen upon a game (often bundled with something else) and play *that one* game in vast numbers.
Obviously there are infinite ways to break people into groups, but I am focusing on describing folks for the gaming market, in terms of level of interest in gaming, and amount of time spend gaming. To cover those topics I think we need 4 terms instead of just hardcore and casual. For want of better terms, here are the 4 terms I can think of right now. If you have better ideas, let em flow :)
Hardcore gamer: a gamer who is very serious about gaming, considers gaming a primary hobby, is very familiar with games, and also plays a LOT of hours per month. I will arbitrarily assign 100 hour/month as the defining amount.
Hobbyist gamer: a gamer who is also very serious about gaming, considers gaming a primary hobby, is very familiar with games, but due to (job/spouse/child/other) spends less than 100 hours per month gaming.
Casual gamer: a gamer who enjoys gaming occasionally, who is aware of games and may get wrapped up in a particular game, series or genre, but does not consider gaming a primary hobby and is not very familiar with games and game history. Casual gamers are responsible for the occasional "big hit" game of a normal (ie hardcore) game type like WarCraft, Diablo, Red Alert etc.
Mass Market: the rest of the public the 90+% who don't generally buy or play games but may occasionally happen upon something that strikes their fancy. Generally speaking the type of games that "cross-over" (like Barbie, Hunter, Sims, Myst) to the mass market are considered drivel by the hardcore & hobbyist gamers, while the mass market considers "hardcore" games to be a niche market driven by obsessive nerds.
I know, I know, I'm splitting hairs and being semantically picky. But I DO think there is a sloppiness in using "casual" gamer so much, and that sometimes we obscure the issues we are discussing by using ill-defined terms.
Dan