Gamer Categories

or

1'm m0r3 l33t th4|\| th0u*

I have noticed that it is common practice amongst gamers to divide themselves into distinct categories, namely "hardcore" gamers and "casual" gamers. However, these categories are not equal, with casual gamers being looked down upon by the hardcore group. This also gives rise to numerous sophomoric discussions of who is more "hardcore." This one-upmanship is certainly amusing, but I think that there is also an interesting dynamic at work here that should be examined. In rough terms, a casual gamer might be someone who only plays a very narrow range of games that apply to a particular interest of theirs, and even then only sparingly. For example, I have a friend on the Academy's football team that has a PS2 and all of two games. One is Madden, and the other is NCAA Football.  The term Casual Gamer has also been applied to those that only play games because it is the popular thing to do, or because it is a way to gain acceptance among their piers. Hardcore gamers, on the other hand, are generally considered to play games as and end unto itself. They may or may not have been gamers since the "old school" days, but they do tend to invest in gaming heavily in both terms of money and time.

The term casual gamer seems to be a fairly recent addition to the lexicon of video gaming, and I would say that it was invented to describe the mass influx of new gamers that game with the expansion of the video gaming market by Sony's PlayStation. To be sure, prior to that there were undoubtedly many owners of older Sega and Nintendo systems that played them hardly or not at all. However, with the advent of the PlayStation, the sheer variety (if not the quality) of games expanded rapidly, and Sony was able to capitalize on its image as a consumer electronics juggernaut to push its system into homes that had never owned a game system. The reaction of many older gamers seemed to be disgust, as they felt these new gamers weren't up to snuff in terms of skill or knowledge. This is elitist thinking to be sure, but I think that some of it was founded in part in that this new wave of gamers were prone to fanboyism, of which I've written already.

However, money talks, and I think the reality of the situation is that a majority of the people playing games today were introduced to the hobby by the PlayStation. Many of those have already begun to grow into the hobby, while others like the acquaintance I mentioned above are still fairly narrowly focused. In the end, I think it is rather silly to point at a fellow gamer and denigrate them for somehow being a less "serious" gamer than oneself. Elitist thinking is natural in all human communities, so it is no surprise that it is present that gaming as well. Given the youth of many gamers and of the gaming industry as a whole, and this sort of pathological name-calling is even less surprising. Don't misunderstand me here, for I think that there is some value in the use of labels such as "casual" or "hardcore." However, I see no reason to make some sort of social hierarchy based on these titles. It is highly unproductive to do so, because in the current atmosphere of one-upmanship no one with enough knowledge to understand the terms will own up to being anything less than a hardcore gamer. The result is an unintelligible mess of people trying to tell you how great they are. It is unfortunate that people forget there is always a bigger fish.

Incidentally, this is one of the reasons that I like Nintendo so much as a company, and feel that they are one of the brightest lights in the gaming community today. As a corporation, they seem determined not to insult the intelligence of their audience with X-treme sports titles and cookie-cutter shooters. Likewise, they are also not above trying to cater to new gamers or casual gamers with titles that appeal to wide audiences and feature gentle learning curves. I think that one of the reasons there is so much anti-Nintendo bias in some corners of the gaming community is that the elitist sensibilities of gamers out there are fundamentally offended by Nintendo's philosophy of catering to all gamers equally. To them, I say "Grow up!"

By: Andy Rucker

* I have no idea what this means either, so don't bother to ask. Yeah, I know I wrote it; what's your point?