Q:
For ages, many discussions, debates and arguments in this forums often involve the above terms. However, there is one major problem when utilizing those terms, that is everybody has their own definitions for those terms. Exactly because of the different definitions, any discussions, debates and arguments that involve those terms as the basis often don’t seem very productive.
To give an example.
“Casual”
Some people define casual as players who play few hours per day. Yet, there also people who consider players that play a lot of hours as casual because they’ve shown casual attributes.
“Hardcore”
Some people define hardcore as players who play a lot. Some people addon to that definition as players who spend huge amount of time playing and enjoy highly difficult contents. Some people again addon to that defintion by including gaming common sense such as team play and gaming etiquette.
“Semi” (Semi-casual or Semi-hardcore)
Inbetween casual and hardcore but this term is rarely used. Still, it is mentioned, but what makes a player semi?
The question to everyone is, what is your definitions for those terms?
Also, many guilds too often use those terms to describe their guilds but what do they mean by those terms?
I just consider them useless labels and apply other labels to people using useless these labels. :P
Labels are weird things. My play sessions often span from 14 hours to 20 hours, from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep, but a large amount of that time is putting into leveling alts, talking to guildies, doing random collections, dressing up my characters and so forth, only bit of actual content I do is my daily fractals and a pvp match or 3. Would I be considered a hard-core player or a casual?
what messes this definition up is people using ‘hardcore’ and ‘softcore’ to try and describe a person (usually as a form of insult), when actually its a definition of how a player prioritising a game in relation to everything else in there life.
My best stab would be
“A Hardcore player is someone who commits to regular scheduled contiguous sessions for a sustained period of time and prioritises these session over almost everything else in his life. Everything else is casual.”
So for example , a player playing 30 hours a week at his leisure is casual in that he comes and goes as he pleases, but plays a lot. He does not feel bound to a commitment., but may commit to stuff if it suits. A Hardcore player on the other hand would commit to play those 30 hours in long scheduled sessions, and would very rarely break from the schedule, and may possibly show withdrawal symptoms in extreme cases if his personality is prone to addiction.
(edited by vesica tempestas.1563)
But these isn’t just any label, game companies too design games to a target crowd while using these terms as part of their consideration of the crowd they are targeting. Of course, different companies too have their own definition of those terms.
that’s why you have to look past the subjective and focus on the core aspects that define what is ‘hardcore’ , especially when its part of marketing campaigns or bickering on forums.
“A Hardcore player is someone who commits to regular scheduled contiguous sessions for a sustained period of time and prioritises these session over almost everything else in his life. Everything else is casual.”
in otherwords how a real life player prioritises a game in relation to everthing else in his life.
I define them all as being beneath me. I am the Alpha and Omega of all GW2 play. I have transcended to a higher state of play; I am not longer playing the game, I am part of the game.
They are styles of gameplay not amounts of playtime.
A “hardcore” gamer simply takes the game seriously. They do all they can to solve the riddle of the game (we call this theorycrafting) and find the most efficient way to do things. Most of these players are the ones on YouTube with build videos who are actually popular.
A “semi” would be someone who wants to complete the riddle of the game but isn’t so drawn to it. I would be considered one; I enjoy playing the game for it’s build diversity and trying new things and finding the best way to handle myself as a player in certain scenarios but am not concerned with max DPS or being who the team needs at the moment of twilight. Think, “Interested but not obsessed”.
A “casual” is someone who just plays the game to play the game. They often follow others around or build guides not giving two-pennies how the logic works and just practice rotations rather than really think about what they are doing. This is not bad, nor does it make them bad players, but they are not after the riddle of the game but just want to piggyback on those who are.
It’s just like in real life. There are those of who invent the martial art / exercise routines and study the kinesiology of the body intensely, those who are interested in and dabble with new techniques and create their own workouts to work for themselves, and then those who just buy a video and follow along. In the end it all works out.
I would say a hardcore player is someone that is a really good at the game, constantly tries to improve and participates in things like record runs.
Semi -hardcore is a bit of a broad definition but I think it usually applies to someone that does want to be efficient but doesn’t take the game as serious as real hardcore players.
Casual is your standard staff guardian or minionmancer necro that likes to upscale events by being completely useless, or pugs that think AP is a good indication of skill
(edited by bladex.9502)
I have no definitions for them, because they’re such useless terms.
I sometimes play a lot, sometimes a little. Liadri was a fairly easy kill for me (without using a cheese build), yet I’ll never run a raid. I’ve busted gank squads in WvW alone, but hate sPvP. I like to earn rewards and have done so, many times; but I can’t touch things with awkward timers very often (HoT maps, Tequatl, etc).
If I can’t even tell what I am, how the hell am I supposed to tie others to these words?
This is exactly why I don’t like these terms. They can be useful ‘short hand’ if a writer takes the time to define them and then sticks to those definitions within a piece, but there is huge variation between definitions.
At one extreme anyone who plays any MMO, or even any RPG, would be considered a hardcore gamer because right from the start it’s much more of a time commitment and requires understanding much more complicated mechanics than the puzzle and basic action games you can get on phones.
But even within a genre it’s not always clear, especially if that genre is MMORPGs. Take me for example, in some ways I’m obviously a casual player: I have a full time job and other hobbies, including other games so the time I can commit to this game is limited and I don’t always play even when I can. On top of that I much prefer PvE to other game modes and I’m in no hurry to complete anything in particular (I pre-ordered HoT, didn’t get stuck on the story at all and I only beat Mordremoth for the first time yesterday because I didn’t get around to it until now) and I have no desire to compete with anyone else. Sometimes I spend entire play sessions climbing the scenery and taking screenshots, just because I feel like it.
On the other hand I always have a huge mental list of things I want to complete and it doesn’t bother me if they’re going to be long, difficult or expensive. I’ll go after things that other casual players tell me they’d never even attempt. Examples include beating Liadri, completing every WvW season (although the last one was laughably easy), making a legendary and planning to make more, taking a ‘break’ from making a legendary by making ascended armour instead, grinding out 100,000 candy corn during Halloween (for the mini Gwynefyrdd) and “winning” a mini llama by entering the Tournament of Legends. If I want to do it I’ll go after it without hesitation and I’ll manage it sooner or later.
I think I’m definitely closer to being a casual player according to most definitions, but I never quite fit them either.
In my mind if I tried to define it it’d be more like a 3D graph with different people appearing at all different points, creating a whole spectrum of play styles rather than 2 simple polar opposites.
This is Guild Wars 2 the most casual MMO on the market, don’t think we have to worry about labels on this game. Some people play more than others, simple as that. This game is not some hardcore complex difficult game that requires you to play a lot to understand lol.
Spvp is casual and easy in comparison to other products on the market.
WvW is easy to get into
Pve is casual
10 man raiding while more difficult than GW2 normal pve, it’s fairly easy to get into compared to other MMOs.
So at the end of the day don’t worry about labels, it’s GW2 just have fun. Some people just have issues and use labels as a cheap insult to make themselves feel better.
For me, the difference between casual and hardcore is in attitude.
Casual play is just for fun, kittens and giggles and so on. Not worrying too much about anything or putting a lot of effort in due to not having enough play time, interest or ability (or some combination of these).
Hardcore is the opposite. Min-maxing, achievement huntin’, gotta be the very best and have and do ALL the things kind of gamer.
Of course, the vast majority of us fall somewhere in the middle of these extremes.
Serious post now…
Well as you asked…
I have killed the Vale Guardian 4 times but have issues with Gorseval, not that I don’t want to kill it but my guild leader decided it was best to get people who hadn’t managed it past the Guardian first. Actually I agreed on that.
I have completed all of the story and open world content, on multiple toons. Dabbled in PvP, although I am not good at that and WvW, where I seem to be a better than average player.
But I suffer from medical problems that make playing much harder for me than most other players.
I don’t have much interest in builds either. So where do I fit in?
Obviously I am not a fanatic, which some people seem to be. I doubt very much if I fit into the term ‘hardcore gamer’, but I do play more than many who would fit that name.
I don’t even think I would easily fit in semi, I’m far more in the belief you should play how you want.
Truth is it is often very difficult to say what a player is even on this vague scale.
Serious post now…
Well as you asked…
I have killed the Vale Guardian 4 times but have issues with Gorseval, not that I don’t want to kill it but my guild leader decided it was best to get people who hadn’t managed it past the Guardian first. Actually I agreed on that.
I have completed all of the story and open world content, on multiple toons. Dabbled in PvP, although I am not good at that and WvW, where I seem to be a better than average player.
But I suffer from medical problems that make playing much harder for me than most other players.
I don’t have much interest in builds either. So where do I fit in?
Obviously I am not a fanatic, which some people seem to be. I doubt very much if I fit into the term ‘hardcore gamer’, but I do play more than many who would fit that name.
I don’t even think I would easily fit in semi, I’m far more in the belief you should play how you want.
Truth is it is often very difficult to say what a player is even on this vague scale.
But you are a posterchild casual. You play the game but you aren’t about the game. This is plenty healthy and it doesn’t effect skill level etc. You’re just defined as casual.
Labels are weird things. My play sessions often span from 14 hours to 20 hours, from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep, but a large amount of that time is putting into leveling alts, talking to guildies, doing random collections, dressing up my characters and so forth, only bit of actual content I do is my daily fractals and a pvp match or 3. Would I be considered a hard-core player or a casual?
You’re like me. I consider myself a hard-core casual. That is, as a casual player, I’m pretty hard core.
Honestly these are modifiers for types of play, not types of play itself. You can be a casual in terms of time but hardcore for playing certain types of content. Conversely you could play 3000 hours and never done a fractal or craft ascended gear.
The question to everyone is, what is your definitions for those terms?
Also, many guilds too often use those terms to describe their guilds but what do they mean by those terms?
I assume that people never mean the same thing with those terms, so I deliberately avoid using them in the forums. The point of a word is to help communicate an idea and “casual” and “hardcore” aren’t able to do that anymore — instead, they lead to off-topic discussions. Similarly, “elite” and “veteran” aren’t very useful either.
Instead, I’ll describe what I mean:
When reading someone else’s post that includes such terms, I’ll look to see what they are describing and try to restate what I think they meant. A lot of times, though, even in context, it’s unclear what point they are trying to get across without knowing exactly what they mean by the term.
tl;dr I try not to use the terms because they don’t have a common definition when discussing GW2.
Isn’t this thread interesting? We get to learn about the different perceptive of those terms. I have seen numerous people using those terms and other terms in a ambiguous manner when come to debate, argument or discussion so they can achieve a upper hand even if the whole debate, argument or discussion no longer makes any logical sense.
I think those terms, base on the context, can have really different meanings. When comes to a player context, not the game itself context, I think the difference between those terms will be physiological level.
Hardcore Player
I think this term is the easiest to define, most people will have the impression of a player that achieve the most.
Semi
I think is a toned down version of hardcore, tone down in the area of time commitment due to real life commitments. That is to say, other than any things that require a lot of time to achieve, they possess many or most of the hardcore attributes.
Casual
I think the main physiological difference between casual and semi is the awareness towards game community. Afterall, in MMO, able to work, help and assist each other in terms of group, team, guild and so on are very important. It is exactly because of one awareness to the people around them, one will then try to improve themselves, offer to help, more understanding and so on to make the environment more engaging and fun or at the very least, less frustrating for others. However, I think casuals really lacking in this area. Many casuals do not have this concept of give-and-take and in the worst case, utilize the take-and-take. To give some examples what I mean by being not aware of the gaming community:
The list can go on and on but I’m sure you get the idea.
There are also solo players but I find solo players as rare individuals in guild wars 2 because a good solo player will understand not to bother others and will make necessary exchange (trade off) with others while achieving their goals.
(edited by SkyShroud.2865)
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