Hardcore gamer, does the label mean anything? Even to a gamer?

This week me and my friends of questionable social etiquette at the GameOverCast decided to answer a listeners question. The question being an age old one: Hardcore gamer, does the label mean anything ? Even to a gamer?
It caused a few disagreements between the cast, no one member completely agreeing with the other, we all had different interpretations of what it meant, and if it meant anything at all.
What do fellow gamers think?

Points to think about:
- How do you even begin to define a hardcore gamer
    Is it the type of game/(s)?
    Time spent?
    Skill level/ability at a given game?
    Knowledge of games and the industry?
- If there is such a thing as "hardcore" then what precedes it? Middlecore? Softcore? Casual etc?
- Is it a label people label themselves in attempt to make them seem aloof to other gamers, or as a statement "I am more a gamer than you!"
- Does someone who isn't a gamer recognise the label "hardcore gamer", would it even mean anything to them, would they even tell the difference between someone who has the label and someone who didnt, or would they just see them as a gamer full stop.
- I have friends who wouldn't consider themselves gamers, yet they have spent hundreds of hours of playing football manager, a game. Are they hardcore gamers?
- Does someone who watches 15-25 hours of tv a week class as hardcore tv watcher? Why is it gamers are hardcore? Does a sports fan who plays/watches/reads sports related things all week class as a hardcore sports fan? Seems to me its just gaming that has Hardcore "insert hobby here".

You get the idea. What do you think? Discuss!

Also maybe check out the  Podcast   :), its not quite on the Giantbombcast scale of awesome of course, no swedish salt sweets for a start, but its pretty entertaining ;). This week it features some awesome listener emails, a run down of Fallout New vegas played on the "right" platform (PC), and a fairly random quiz. Oh and one of the cast members(me infact) having to sing "I will survive" by Gloria Gaynor as part of a forfeit.....

Listen   here, its a good listen honest: GameOverCast  .

I think it's a combination of type of game and time spent.  Can also include skill level/ability and knowledge of games/industry.  I wouldn't call someone who plays Farmville for hours on end a hardcore gamer.  Then again, that's my personal opinion and that's because I wouldn't call someone who plays Farmville and those types of games a gamer at all.
 
And yes, sports fans as you described to get called hardcore sports fans.  Or diehard.  That's one that actually doesn't get applied to gamers as much as other types of fans.

Anyone who uses the word, or labels themselves as a "hardcore gamer" is a blatant douche bag. 
 
We are people who play games, there is nothing hardcore about sitting ( or standing you adorable Wii people) infront of a screen pressing buttons.

Gamer's who swallow.

" Anyone who uses the word, or labels themselves as a "hardcore gamer" is a blatant douche bag. "

I don't understand why some gamers have such a hard time with descriptive terminology.  People are even having fits about the term 'gamer' itself.
 
To me it helps classify the type of gamer who might play and enjoy something like N+ as opposed to just playing WoW, Halo, and Madden and those 'mainstream' gamers opposed to 'casual' gamers who may only play Farmville, Nintendogs, or Wii Sports.

I say anyone with a true passion for gaming is a hardcore gamer.

The term could make some sense as a synonym to professional gamer, but in the context it is used most commonly it doesn't make much sense to me.

World of Warcraft and Halo are somehow considered hardcore while the Mario games and most else released by Nintendo in the last decade is not - it is often used as the opposite of a "casual gamer", who is often described as someone who has no interest in games beyond only one or two games (like Guitar Hero or Farmville) - all while a lot of the WOW and Halo players never play anything else than those games either.

" I say anyone with a true passion for gaming is a hardcore gamer. "

Wouldn't "gamer" suffice for that?

Or ludophile in the most literal meaning of what you just described.

cauzuals rr ruining gameing. discus

I really don't like the term "gamer" to begin with. But there needs to be something to differentiate us from Pop Cap.

" Gamer's who swallow. "

Casual gamer: one who puts in only a few hours every once in a while. 
Hardcore gamer: one who plays significantly more often than that, to the point where it could be considered a hobby.
 
I dont see what the big deal is with using each term.
And while I'm at it...
 
Gamer: Someone who games.
Golfer: Someone who golfs.
 
You dont see any golfers complaining about their label. And if they did they could just quit golfing...

I would say that someone who is a "hardcore gamer" is one that spends a lot of time playing Video Games. But, like anything else, the term has been rendered meaningless by internet brats and marketing teams.

I'm a softcore gamer.
 
(no close ups)

Time and money invested in games defines a "hardcore" gamer, but I don't use that term very often.

Hardcore posers is all I see

I don't care what you call me, I'm just a person that plays video games.

Idiotic marketing buzz word.

The term "hardcore gamer" is by itself rather meaningless, as it means different things to different people. Some equate it just to simply playing normal mainstream Xbox360/PS3 games, other equate it to getting all the achievements, other might mean competitive online gaming, some might mean people that care about games, their history, their development, etc. or people hanging around in WoW all day long.
 
It is really only meaningful when it is seen as equating to "not casual gamer". As no matter what kind of hardcore gamer one might be, games are considered an more or less important part of ones life, not something mindless used to waste a few hours.

I would say I'm a "hardcore" gamer. But I don't have any pride or shame in it.

I think there are simply hardcore gamers and casual gamers. However I think these terms have different meanings depending on waht context we use them in. For example if we are using it as a broad term, then just about anyone who uses a site like Giantbomb and follows game news etc, could be considered a hardcore gamer, while your gf or mom who love to play their N64's or Wii's might be casual gamers. If we use the terms to describe the gamer community specifically we would probably consider casual gamers being someone who plays them for fun and hardcore to be someone who plays them competitively.

It's entirely subjective. The most common meanings are used for marketing towards specific demographics. 

When I think of a hardcore gamer I think of a dude who is covered in Monster Energy drink logo's and plays Paintball or goes off roading. Not even videogame related I know. Because gaming aint hardcore anywhere but Korea. Starcraft that is.

" @CptChiken said:

" Anyone who uses the word, or labels themselves as a "hardcore gamer" is a blatant douche bag. "

They sure are.   

i see hardcore gamer as a person that puts a lot of hours into a video game.  they also know a lot about video games.
 
causual gamers are the same, they dont' play to much. i would see these people that only play during the weekend or something.

" I don't care what you call me, I'm just a person that plays video games. "

Hardcore= self entitled douche bag elitist like myself ... yep ... yep :)
gamers= the rest 
Casuals= people who came to games because is "in" as of now , those same people who looked down on us  ....  
 
What can I say.... Im not of the "dont lower yourself like them" , I say heck they started it  , Im fighting back >:(  
Tho this is meaningless in the big picture

I really hate the term "hardcore gamer". You know what? I actually just hate the word "hardcore". When I hear "hardcore" I think of some silly Mountain Dew commercial from the 90's. 
 
I think "enthusiast gamer" is a much more apt label.  
 
Anyway, does it mean anything to me? Not even a little.  
 
Being an enthusiast or being casual has nothing to do with what games you play or how long you play them. I feel like the main difference between enthusiasts and casuals is that for casuals gaming is more of a pastime, just something to do when nothing else is going on. But for enthusiasts gaming is a hobby that they have a passion for and they might choose to game over doing other activities. 

" I really hate the term "hardcore gamer". You know what? I actually just the word "hardcore". When I hear "hardcore" I think of some silly Mountain Dew commercial from the 90's.  I think "enthusiast gamer" is a much more apt label.   Anyway, does it mean anything to me? Not even a little.   Being an enthusiast or being casual has nothing to do with what games you play or how long you play them. I feel like the main difference between enthusiasts and casuals is that for casuals gaming is more of a pastime, just something to do when nothing else is going on. But for enthusiasts gaming is a hobby that they have a passion for and they might choose to game over doing other activities.  "

For me I always see hardcore gamers as people who take the game way too seriously, the ones that stay up until 3 in the morning with a can of energy drink at their side screaming at dudes through the screen. That and those 'super leet hardcore gamerzz on utubes who call ppl nubz on vidz'.

casual gamers wouldn't write on forums and talk about games. It's not easy to define a hardcore gamer, however casual gamers is something that's easier to classify. Casual games appeals to a mass audience. I could go on with a few paragraphs, however there is a difference of course and we all know on some kind of concious, or subconcious level, they aren't the same. A guess a casual gamer might be more into kinect than a hardcore gamer. Most wii owners are casual gamers, yet there is a small percentage of them that do post on forums and are loyal to nintendo, which are labeled as core gamers. I back up my statement by saying these core gamers stuck with nintendo during the gamecube era when it had no casual appeal and didn't sell all that well when they lost alot of support after the N64 era. Then the wii was out, then it sold like hot cakes. I mean the same loyal nintendo followers could only buy so many of the consoles they sold, most of it was driven by casual gamers.
 
My brother is a casual gamers, only plays sport games, forza, halo reach and a gta games. He doesn't like the same kind of games I like, when I showed him how cool just cause 2 was, he's like I don't like learning new things. Or even mass effect 2, it was too unappealing to him because he doesn't like things that isn't rooted in real life which requires too much of a learning curve. I suppose that's why the wii is popular and I think kinect is going to sell to this same audience. Honestly when games sells several millions, it's not because of the hardcore gamers posting on forums, it's thanks to the casual gamers who finds these kinds of games appealing. I'm not saying I can perfect define it, however I know i'm no casual gamer and casual gamers are different, even if we are all in some way all gamers.
 

I dunno but I don't like it.  

" I think it's a combination of type of game and time spent.  Can also include skill level/ability and knowledge of games/industry.  I wouldn't call someone who plays Farmville for hours on end a hardcore gamer.  Then again, that's my personal opinion and that's because I wouldn't call someone who plays Farmville and those types of games a gamer at all. And yes, sports fans as you described to get called hardcore sports fans.  Or diehard.  That's one that actually doesn't get applied to gamers as much as other types of fans. "

Hardcore is an extremely juvinile term
 
Gamer is a slimy marketing term
 
Put them together and it disgusts me.

I like to think of it as willingness to really sit down and master games. Not just play through them once on Normal, put them on a shelf and never think about them again, but actually find all the secrets and tricks to playing the game well. Hardcore gamers do stuff like speedruns and playing shumps past the first loop and learning every character in a fighting game.
 
Of course, by this definition, I barely qualify as a hardcore gamer. But I certainly get a vicarious thrill out of watching them.

i can draw a difference between someone who plays games more than 10 hours a day than someone who just plays like 2-3 times a week.  Someone more dedicated to the hobby because there are some folks who put in insane hours that i can't even imagine myself playing.

Penetration was the factor last I knew. 
 
Can someone be a "hardcore" tv watcher? Or a reader? And if so does it depend on the intensity of the faces you make when doing it?

Hardcore gamer means nothing to me, you are either a gamer or someone who casually plays games like a mom who pops on peggle or bejweled every now and then. 
 
When i hear people talking "OH IM HARDCORE! FUCK CASUAL GAMERS I ONLY PLAY HARDCORE GAMER GAMES" i think of some 13 year old kid who should try going outside once and awhile or some adult who should really go outside and i don't mean that as an insult to all gamers who spend a good amount of time on games a week, the comment is more towards people who literally play game from the moment they wake up to the moment they goto bed and never do anything productive in their lives. 
 
gaming is and should always be a hobby.. i love gaming but some people take it way to seriously and this whole casual/hardcore fuck motion only noobs use X weapon bullshit needs to go.. nobody ever worried about petty shit like this back in the 80s-90s in gaming, it was all about hey lets play some quake, lets play some super bomberman! goldeneye! mario kart! etc., and what i find really funny is by todays standards most of the great multiplayer games on consoles back before we had our 56k modems dialing up friends to 1v1 in SC or hop on some quake or lan some doom, those SNES multiplayer games would be considered casual no no's by todays standards, today it's all about fucking explosions, fucking guts, fucking blood, fucking fucking fuck! all about that M rating! fuck T games! SHITS FOR PUSSY CASUALS! /rant 
 
in short.. be a gamer, stop being a bitch.

 
Gamer: Someone who plays games  
Hardcore Gamer: Someone who plays games... but needs a new term to describe themself because they play multiplayer games or obscure games from Japan

To be honest, the whole word "Gamer" is embarracing. I don't know why, but it just feels so generic. Compare it to any other classification of a sport/activity and you'll see why. Games are so diverse and different that they attract so many different types of people, that to classify them as one would be borderline ignorant and stupid. 
 
I've worked in the industry, I love games and I talk alot about them with people who understand and share my compassion for it. I can come with enough examples of me being known as "that guy who likes video games" and the amount of random people coming up to me wanting to talk about Modern Ware 2 or some other generic FPS that I've never played because they simply do not interest me, and the gasping reactions it in turn has created when I called them out on them basing their 'gamer-image' for their love for any single game, be it facebook or WoW. You are not a movie buff just because you have only seen all of the Sex in the City series, neither are you a 'Gamer' if you sit all day playing 'point and click' Warfare. If being a game encompasses anything, it should at least be an overarcing understanding of the fundamental aspects of what games are, and having a diverse experience with such medium - which is where it all falls apart. Games are fun, if a single game is fun enough for you, then it's fine by me. Just don't mistake me for a fellow man because you spend 4 hours a day trading ingredients so you can have the next big thing in whatever land (Mind you this sounds terribly elitist. I mean it in the nicest way possible. I am a socialist at heart, but that is no common ground for me to get along with another socialist, since that does not base their personality - Hope you can follow)
 
I wish people would just drop the term all together, or stick with core/casual as a means of clarifying a demograph. 
 
But what I hate the most is people using the english term in their native language. Everytime I hear someone pronounce Gamer in Danish, I just want to jump on them like a rabid dog, with a dictionary. 
 
Ohh I almost forgot. As to the Hardcore thing? It's about as an embarracing term as Extreme.

Excellent way to plug your podcast.  I think it's great that you put some effort into this thread rather than just posting a link with the tag "listen to my cool podcast."  
 
I think the term "hardcore gamer" is relative to each of us and how we perceive our own level of involvement.  In other words, if I play 12 hours a week, I might consider someone who plays twice that a "hardcore gamer" while another person who plays just at parties or when they have time to kill, less than "hardcore".  And, furthermore, if I associate myself with a group that I believe is as intensely into gaming as I am, relative to all others who play games, then I might consider myself "hardcore", too.  Now, if I identify myself with a lesser group of gamers who dabble in comparison to the greater population as I understand it, then I wouldn't see myself as "hardcore".  Being a "hardcore gamer" is less about skill or knowledge and more about how I perceive others in relationship to myself.   Because, we are all at a similar level of commitment here on Giant Bomb, most of us probably don't consider ourselves as "hardcore gamers", however if we were to increase our exposure to gamers who are less involved in the hobby, then our perceptions might change.  Not only because of how we measure ourselves against them, but because of how they acknowledge us.  We become "hardcore" because they see us as so much more immersed in gaming than they themselves are.   
 
The word "hardcore" itself doesn't mean anymore than enthusiast, aficionado, or fanatic.  The semantics aren't important, but how a person perceives their placement within a group and within society are.  Equally important is how that group sees the person.  The term "hardcore gamer" describes that understanding between the individual and the whole.  

I think the word "Gamer" should be enough. Regardless of how much time you spend playing or what games you play.

All it means to me is that when someone uses that term to describe themselves, it just means that he/she wants to make himself stand out in a crowd of fellow game playing people. Which is kind of lame.

I make fun of my friend because he thinks maple story is the best MMO in the world and the only other game he plays is angry birds on his Iphone. regardless if we like it or not, there are different types of gamers for sure. And I think it helps developers achieve more focus in their products. 
Similarly you shouldn't listen to a guy who tells you that maple story is the best MMO in the world over someone who's been round the block playing( EQ2, WoW etc...). I think it is important to differentiate.