Guild Wars 2

TheDaiBish.9735:

Depends on how you define ‘casual’ or ‘hardcore’ really.

If it’s in terms of difficulty, than the majority of it is casual (although you could probably raise the difficulty for yourself by intentionally limiting yourself).

I don’t, however, tend to agree that ‘casual’ and ‘hardcore’ are terms that should be applied to how difficult content is, but to play-style (time spent, investment into learning ect). For example, crafting. Someone can craft casually simply to get gear as they level, or they could aim to unlock every single recipe in the game, and not use guides for cooking.

Another note, challenging content isn’t ‘hardcore’. Both casual and hardcore players alike can enjoy challenging content. It’s more of a case of how they approach it. A casual player might use a guide, try for a bit and then go off to do something else before trying again, while a hardcore player might try to work out the encounters for themselves, or keep at it until they’ve done it.

Pretty much this. ^

I don’t think Hardcore / Casual is a good metric. It’s way more complicated than that. This game is too diverse in terms of what it offers. Personally, I’ve identified at least 6 different kinds of groups that could all be called hardcore.

Dungeon Runners
WvW Soldiers
Loot Hunters
Alt Enthusiasts
PvE Explorers
PvP Gladiators

So I don’t think it’s as easy as catering to the hardcore or casual. All of those groups could be called “hardcore” but each has different needs and wants that are sometimes directly opposed to each other.

It’s not an easy job

vic.7065:

Araris.7839:

I’m sorry… Really? This game is as casual as it can possibly be. I think Liadri may be the most difficult PvE element they’ve added and even that just takes a little practice, a little effort.

I had no idea people were complaining about personal story but having solo’d my personal story up until the final mission on several classes, I can safely say it’s doable for virtually any class. (Personally done it on Guardian, Warrior, elementalist, Mesmer, and thief.)

It may just be that you’re too casual… For even the casuals. There are a mere handful of challenging fights in this game.

Learn to play, the game was made for casual play, and apparently some can’t even manage that. It’s sad.

You obviously have no clue what casual means in gaming terms.

You appear to be confused, let me help.

A word can have multiple meanings, and in this case, it especially does. While the word casual in gaming terms began as a term to describe how much or how often a player played said game, it slowly became something else.

Over time, the term took on other meanings, lack of skill, desiring easy content, etc.

I simply used the latter since the OP was referring to game difficulty in several areas of his post, comparing the features of “hardcore” vs “casual”.

I hope that clears it up for you, feel free to message me if you need help with any other words.

araris ftw

At the state of the monent, Guild Wars 2 conssts of 2 things..

1. For Hardcore players

And

2 For the Survival of the Fittest.. (as a Fragile Vulnerable Ranger Class, that’s where I fit).

Onshidesigns.1069:

Hardcore players think casual players are unskilled.
Casual players think hardcore have no life.

I don’t have problem with either. But I do have a problem with players who only grind content for a reward. They are not playing the game for fun and will destroy the game. If Anet caters to them.

How do you know it’s not “fun” for them?

Do we have a “hard” definition for “fun” now? I thought it’s subjective and varies from one person to another.

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

The overall game is very casual (pve) they are trying to draw hard core players back, they gave it a sniff and most left. But that should not reflect on the game, they are the 1%r’s. They never stay anywhere long, they always fly back to WOW and stand around til something new comes out. It’s the locust effect.

The OP is talking about Skilled players. Skilled players aren’t “running back to WoW”, they’re running back to Counterstrike and Arma and Dota2 and DarkSouls… and I don’t really need to list every single game that still requires more skill than WoW obviously. But this isn’t about Time investment at all or even rewards. The most skilled players still aren’t the most rewarded ones. But “skill” isn’t always “perfection” either…. It’s also about things like: PC Performance, Latency & where you live, Rote & Adaptive memory, raw Reflexes, Control Devices, and of course general server-competency & Guild-mates too when it comes to Group activities (or Fractals).

Skill doesn’t always imply some kind of Uber Mensch.
It just refers to level of Accessibility…

Easy. Being casual or hardcore depends on how much time you spend in the game. A person can be casual yet still complete difficult content. And a person can still be hardcore yet complete casual content.

Everything GW2 has done so far has been casual. Think about it. Time-gated content. Dailies. Monthly’s. Diminishing rewards. Everything Anet has done so far limits the amount of time you can spend doing a certain event of the game. Remember what I said above? Casual/Hardcore = Time spent in game. When Anet limits the time you can spend doing an activity, boom. They’re forcing you to be a casual player.

In WoW, you were considered “hardcore” when you spent a massive amount of your time earning armor, money, or some other item. People said, “Dude! You must be seriously hardcore if you got that gear”. Heck, you can even check the definition of hardcore on dictionary.com. Hardcore: Unswervingly committed. Dedicated. Each of those has to do with the amount of time you spend. If you’re committed, then you spend time with it. Same with dedicated.

The moment Anet adds content that isn’t time gated or limited in any way is the moment where they add hardcore content.