What does 'Hardcore Gaming' mean to you?

I hear the words 'Hardcore'  and 'Casual' gaming more and mroe often these days but I feel that many people have differnent meanings for these term.
 
What does Hardcore gaming mean to you? Do you feel that you're a hardcore gamer and what is the line between a hardcore and casual game? In your opinion is there a gray area between the two or do you believe that it's a case of black/white?

The kind of people who argue in videogame forums over the most banal shit

Sex with my Xbox.  
 
In truth I think it's relative to the people being compared.  I believe someone who only plays one game religiously can be considered "hardcore".  I know there are hardcore WOW gamers and hardcore Halo gamers who don't play anything else.   I guess tenacity, devotion and knowledge of the medium are contributing factors.  If someone was really good and knew everything about Facebook games, would they be less "hardcore"?  Perhaps, by Giant Bomb standards but not by other Facebook gamers or those labeled "casual".  I tend to prefer the term "avid gamer" over "hardcore" these days because it suggests dedication which I think is part of what defines "hardcore".  At least, by my wishy-washy criteria.

The kind of people who argue in videogame forums over the most banal shit

I think there was already was a thread about this ..... needless to say for me at least hardcore =  people who digs videogames and has at least played 1 game of each category and / or knows the evolution of games and can appreciate older games as well (regardless if their designs are no longer up to date)  and are vocal to the industry's direction . Casual = people who rarely plays games , has a minor desire to play more than 1 game a year , only plays the "hot stuff" (COD for instance) or basiqly will dump the videogame come the morning if it is no longer popular. I think it is more of a gray thing

Casual - Call of Duty 
Hardcore - Counter Strike 
 
I think that different games can be pushed into the "casual" or "hardcore" thing, especially depending on how easily you can push the term "video game" away from it. But the difference between a hardcore gamer and a casual gamer has a much blurrier line. For instance, does a hardcore gamer play for more consecutive hours than a casual one? Not always, some people spend hours upon hours of nothing but Call of Duty and sports games. Do hardcore gamers only play gigantic RPG's like Fallout or Morrowind and casuals go no further than Farmville into PC gaming? No, because hardcores sometimes play Farmville and I personally can name a few people who wouldn't even think to call themselves gamers who have played an extensive amount of Oblivion. 
 
Hardcore gaming, to me, is quickly becoming just a catchphrase for people to determine whatever meaning fits their purpose at the time. If I say it, people will generally know what I mean but there's no distinct definition to it. 
 
And at the end of the day I just enjoy video games, whether they're as simple as blasting my best buddies into oblivion with noobtubes or modding Oblivion to include noobtubes* 
 
*If there is actually a way to put guns, especially ones with explosive attachments, into Oblivion could someone please quote me and give a link? I'm American and, like the general populace, love to see shit go boom.

Hardcore is simple to me. Anybody who owns a console, PS3 or a 360, NOT a Wii, and has played games on it other than CoD and AC.

I wouldn't consider Age of Empires hardcore, but Civilization most certainly is. The difference? When I play Civ, I have to keep notes of what city serves what purpose, where my trade routes and trade partners are, how my taxes are being allocated and how those taxes are effecting economic and population growth, and so on.
 
Now, I would consider flight sims hardcore as well, and I'm not talking about flight GAMES like Ace Combat, but rather SIMS like IL2: Sturmovik, Black Shark or Microsoft Flight Simulator. These are 'games' where if you don't know what you're doing you're simply not going to be able to even start playing. 
 
Sit someone down with Black Shark and see if they can even get the helicopter started. Yeah, if you have to read what amounts to a flight manual just to play, that's pretty hardcore. It's not that it's hard, but rather that it takes real knowledge. 
 
And that to me is what hardcore means: a game that requires not just skill and reflexes, but a deep understanding of the content matter.

LIve and breathe video gamez!

Somebody that spends more than 50 hours (give or take) a week gaming?

Casual: Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty and sports games.

Hardcore: Ninja Gaiden on Master Ninja, Demon's Souls on NG+, Big Boss emblem in MGS4

@believer258:  counter strike is not hardcore at all only the Germans make it out to be :P

@ninjakiller said:

Hardcore is simple to me. Anybody who owns a console, PS3 or a 360, NOT a Wii, and has played games on it other than CoD and AC.

AC? Like, Assassin's Creed, or Armored Core? I don't think I'd put either alongside Call of Duty in that same kind of 'casual' bracket... but all this labeling is borderline retarded anyway.

@PenguinDust: So would you consider a hardcore WoW player to be a Hardcore gamer?

Someone who plays video games too much.

It's used so that people who have been games for a long time are separated from the wii/ds/mobile/facebook crowd. I know I don't like these people and definitely do not want to be considered the same as them but I don't use the words hardcore or casual.

@ninjakiller said:

Hardcore is simple to me. Anybody who owns a console, PS3 or a 360, NOT a Wii, and has played games on it other than CoD and AC.

AC? Like, Assassin's Creed, or Armored Core? I don't think I'd put either alongside Call of Duty in that same kind of 'casual' bracket... but all this labeling is borderline retarded anyway.

@PenguinDust: So with that train of thought would someone that is an expert bejeweled player could also be considered a hardcore player.

@TooWalrus said:

@ninjakiller said:

Hardcore is simple to me. Anybody who owns a console, PS3 or a 360, NOT a Wii, and has played games on it other than CoD and AC.

AC? Like, Assassin's Creed, or Armored Core? I don't think I'd put either alongside Call of Duty in that same kind of 'casual' bracket... but all this labeling is borderline retarded anyway.

Assassin's Creed.

@TooWalrus said:

@ninjakiller said:

.. but all this labeling is borderline retarded anyway.

There is nothing retarded about it.

Anyone that considers video gaming one of their favourite past times, no matter what type of video game it is.

Hardcore gaming? - You play GAMES (with an S at the end there), and not following what your friends are playing.

When I hear "hardcore gamer," to me it makes me think of the gamers who play 8+ hours a day.  Then again I would consider myself a "hardcore" fan of NHL 11 being that I play it almost every single night with my club for maybe about 3-4 hours or so.  So I dunno, "hardcore," seems like it could mean more than one thing.   

I'd say the most fitting definition of "hardcore" is simply "not casual", as hardcore itself really doesn't have any specific meaning, it simply means 'deep into it', so it can mean people that play a lot, it can mean people that collect a lot, it can mean people that are really good at certain games, it can mean people that are really deep into the medium itself, instead of specific genres or games, etc. The connecting factor is simply that games matter for those people, i.e. they are more then forgettable side distraction that is good for wasting five minutes while waiting for the bus, but otherwise meaningless.

Enjoying it, loving the lore around it, totally bonkers about it.

Hardcore is simple to me. Anybody who owns a console, PS3 or a 360, NOT a Wii, and has played games on it other than CoD and AC.

Casual gamers are those people who like a said genre / series, and will only play those.  For instance, most WoW/ CoD players are casual, simply because their experience with games is quite limited and narrow.

I think hardcore gamers are simply rhose who play games as a passion . Usually, hardcore gamers will play many hours per day, or at least when they can. , and have a vast experience over many genres.

I think it just means "caring about games in general" as in, looking up some news and looking into previews and things like that, as well as spending a good sum of money on playing games. It's easy to be a hardcore gamer, really.

Only the hardest of hardcore have banana mouth.

@PenguinDust said:

@Da_Madness said:

@PenguinDust: So would you consider a hardcore WoW player to be a Hardcore gamer?

Yes. Back when I was playing WOW heavily, I knew people who knew every detail of the game and had played solidly since the beta. They knew how to kill each boss in every instance and could instruct a group on when to move and where to stand. They could quote you item worth, drop rate and resale value off the top of their head. They had multiple top-level characters each clothing in purples from PvP and Raids. Knowledge of that level does not come lightly and so while some other gamers might know a little about a lot of different games, the sum of each person's understanding in equal overall. Additionally, the time and energy it takes to amass that level of information is surely a sign that they have "hardcore" tendencies.

Wouldn't that rather make them hardcode WOWers? "Gamer" is a much broader term, indicating games in general.

@PenguinDust said:

@Da_Madness said:

@PenguinDust: So would you consider a hardcore WoW player to be a Hardcore gamer?

Yes. Back when I was playing WOW heavily, I knew people who knew every detail of the game and had played solidly since the beta...

Wouldn't that rather make them hardcode WOWers? "Gamer" is a much broader term, indicating games in general.

The term "hardcore" seems to be less popular these days. I think more people just starting to say core gamers, which I think is more fitting. Hardcore, or core gamers are they people that were playing games before casual gaming and gamers existed. I don't think it has to be based on what you play, or how many hours you play. If you are proud to consider yourself a gamer, and part of the gaming community, you are part of the core. If gaming is just something you do for whatevs your casual.

Though in order for gaming to lose its still lingering stigma, and become another social norm of entertainment then the hardcore almost has to disappear. There aren't any "hardcore" movie watchers or "hardcore" book readers really.

You decide your own level of involvement

tools who feel the need to define themsleves by their hobby and ridicule others because they don't like the same toys

tools who feel the need to define themsleves by their hobby and ridicule others because they don't like the same toys

To be honest I think both of these definitions are pretty arbitrary.
 
'Hardcore' gaming is a secret handshake for people who want to distinguish themselves from other Johnny-come-latelys and really depends entirely upon context. Someone who played Counter-Strike or Starcraft to competition standard 10 years ago probably thinks every other gamer in the world is 'Casual', but your average 360 or PS3 owner would probably only attribute the more-than-a-little-patronising 'Casual' title to Wii owners.
 
Short answer: I play therefore I am. Any definition beyond that is of no real use.

Hardcore is where you can see the disk going into the console and hear the console "whirring".  Softcore is more like an arcade where you just play the game but don't see the connections or can change the game.

Nothing.

Like playing with construction waste?

@PenguinDust said:

@Vodun said:

@PenguinDust said:

@Da_Madness said:

@PenguinDust: So would you consider a hardcore WoW player to be a Hardcore gamer?

Yes. Back when I was playing WOW heavily, I knew people who knew every detail of the game and had played solidly since the beta...

Wouldn't that rather make them hardcode WOWers? "Gamer" is a much broader term, indicating games in general.

In my earlier and subsequent posts I said it was all relative to the person asking and the people being compared. It would depend on how broad you want to look at it. WoW is a game, so a person who plays WoW could be called a gamer. I didn't know we creating subcategories for every game that's out there. Hardcore WoWers, hardcore CODers, hardcore Haloers, hardcore Starcrafters, etc... If a person just plays shooter, but doesn't play RPGs, Puzzle Games, Sports Games, and so forth are they then not considered hardcore because their choices aren't broad enough?

It's a question of semantics, your original question was relating to hardcore "gaming"...hardcore in itself just means something done with extreme fervor. As you state, it is dependent on your point of view. To someone who plays no games, someone who plays a single game is a "gamer". However to someone who plays a lot of games, that epithet could seem a bit broad as their interest is extremely specific to a single product in that field.

Much like it would seem weird to call someone who has watched Titanic 500 times a movie buff, but nothing else. I'd say they're a hardcore Titanic fan instead.

Down and dirty.

Peeps be shouting over microphones.