Topic: What is an hardcore game?

First let me apologize for my english, it's not always easy to explain myself.

I want to ask a question: what is an hardcore game?
I ask this because i keep reading how Wii is "casual", and in other forums like those of Wiitalia the division line seems always about mature content, the competitiveness and how much hours are invested in gaming. I feel this is completely wrong.

I don't have the XBOX360 and in don't have the PS3, i play with the PC, with the Wii and with the DS. So, where is the line between casual and hardcore?

Why is Fallout 3 (i have it for PC) considered HC, while Trauma Center it's not? The first have a great freedom, it's a great game, but it doesn't add anything structurally to gaming. More of the same. The second is really original, it's not so deep and have some problems. As a game lover i feel more comfortable with a truly new approach than a classic gameplay with better graphics (and actually i played more with F3 than TC!). If we speak about movies, it's like telling me that Apocalipse Now is more casual than Saving Private Ryan. That Little Miss Sunshine or American Beauty are more casual than American Pie. That Traffic is more casual than Trainspotting or Shining is more casual than Hostel.

Little King Story always comes to my mind. I think it's weird, my girlfriend at first told me it's "childish", but i bet a kid will have more troubles with it than with Half Life 2.

Maybe really HC games are nearly dead? Look at the sales of game like Knights in the Nightmare or Space Invaders Extreme. Any HC gamers should have a copy of this two games. Maybe i understand it wrong, i always put an emphasis on difficulties level, re-playability and originality, and to something that pushes limit conceptually, like the analog joypad. Damn, most of my friends don't know how to spell Joypad! Maybe Nintendo sell so well because now it's a ... "remote"!

Maybe it's a generation gap? I still remember when the first PS came, how the Nintendo people labelled it as casual compared to the N64; at least here, internet didn't was so popular so i don't know how this was in America or in England.

Someone said, time is what you make of it. The same couldn't be said for game?

I hope nobody take this as a fanboy rant, my intentions is to discuss the games and games culture, not the platform.

I consider a game hardcore when it's awesomely fun, makes you want to play it more, and makes you hate to turn it off. It has its own unique challenges, and usually they are not optional to progress, which means you have to drive your skill into every situation to beat the game.

A casual game to me is a game that's nice and fun to play, with some challenges that aren't necessarily must-do things. They are usually easier, which allows you to enjoy a laid-back game experience.

Some people call games "Casual" if they do not like it, because they think that because of the reasons I mentioned above, the game is boring. So basically, if they call Super Mario 64 "casual" they are calling it boring.

That's how I see it anyway...hope it helps.

Perspective

Hardcore is a game that has a core, which is hard.

...Dude.

Odnetnin has a good answer.

Why do you strive to be labeled a hardcore gamer anyways? Can't we all just be gamers?

Stupid discussion.

Ah, but we're discussing hardcore games.

But a game is a game. If it's good, play it.

Still retarded, guess I just got lost in his declaration of hardcoreness with the championships and mayor and what not. Who the hell cares, as mario said if the game is good what does it matter how it's labeled.

Ok, maybe i should take another lesson in english
This is not about how much hardcore i am (this part was most like a presentation and i removed it, it's irrilevant in my question, there is nothing special being mayor if i am the only one who will want to make it, and in Switzerland a championship is with other 10 people, not 1 milion), but about how the games is perceived in today's market. As Odnetnin said. Why there is this distance in the media?

I write "Someone said, time is what you make of it. The same couldn't be said for game?"

"Hardcore" and "casual" are nothing more than labels created by marketing suits to sell titles to fanboys of each, who, in turn, perpetuate those labels in discussion forums by assigning them to other potentially similar games.

It's all a sham.

Your English is fine, Alza - you have it right: GAMES are not hard core or casual, GAMERS are - and I'm guessing most are both depending on the mood they're in, the level of competition, or how they feel about the game, etc.. Welcome to the site.

Last time i got into this discussion, it ended sour.But I think i hardcore gamer is more of a lifestyle than it is a term or label.Really anyone who LOVES video games can be considered one.Some of these guys who play world at warcraft online everyday all day,no job, no life can be considered a hardcore gamer as well.

edit: we are talking about hardcore games? anything from the 80's arcade...

i dare someone to go to ign forums and say that hardcore and casual gamers are just labels. count how many time they call you a noob

@briunj04 - Ur such a noob

@briunj04 man those forums are filled with...pricks. I never made an account because anything i may say will just be flamed .

If you throw a game against the wall & it doesn't break then it has a hardcore. Sorted.

There are no hardcore games, only hardcore players.

I think that there are no hardcore games. And no hardcore gamer. Only people who think that they are.

Hmmmm. A hardcore game would be one which is difficult even in the early stages for gamers that play games often and as one of their main hobbies (or rather their actual main hobby period). It also would have to have a fairly long playing time.

That's what I would have thought anyway.