Here are a few things that have been rolling around in my head and felt the need to let loose with them. I consider myself a hardcore gamer and an old school gamer. My gaming addiction all started back on the Atari 2600 and my addiction to Pacman, Pong, River Raider, Frogger and Pitfall. I lived the era of Pacman fever and felt the pain of bad Mario movies. I was the first generation at actually grew up playing video games. Old man voice, ” When I was a kid all we had was a joystick and a single button and we liked it that way.” I remember when a friend and I used to use his dad’s access to the state’s bulletin board (before the internet) to download games like load runner for his Tandey pc. So I’ve played video games of all sorts both pc and console my whole life.

One thing at has bothered me in recent years is hearing the industry’s definition of “hardcore” gaming and that’s someone that buys X number of games per week. That definition sounds a little self serving coming from the industry that is trying to sell you $60 games. Used to the line between hardcore and casual gamers was time spent playing but that line has been skewed with the increase in the casual gaming market with games like Bejeweled etc. So where does that leave us? Does your wallet define you as a hardcore gamer? I think the definition should be redefined.

I think now the title of hardcore and casual should no longer be about style of play, time spent or money invested in games but about passion. I think the difference should be about whether you care about game censorship, government regulations and the survival/evolution of gaming a as whole. You are a casual gamer if you don’t care if they stopped making games tomorrow. You are a hardcore gamer if it’s apart of your identity and the culture you thrive in. It’s an attitude and state of being and starts with the statement that, “I’m a gamer.” It’s a passion for gaming and not restricted to just video either but CCG, RPG and tabletop. We’re all gamers.

The transition we are struggling with is the emergence of video gaming as being mainstream. This won’t change anytime soon but will continue to grow. And even though we wished it was just the few of us “hardcores” the reality is that the more people who play the greater the chance it will continue to survive. There are all kinds of games and systems that have failed and faded into obscurity and being mainstream keeps that from happening as long as people love it. I was running a gaming store (video, rpg, ccg, tabletop) when 9/11 occurred and the gaming stores began to dry up all over the country. We went from having Wizards of the Coast stores across the nation, to wiping out even local stores that were traditions in our communities. It could happen to video games someday if public interest fades so it’s good that more people are playing and the industry is growing. I still don’t think how many new games you buy a week defines you as hardcore though it helps with gaming companies bottom line. And I don’t consider you casual over the game style you choose. It should be defined as an identity and a segment of our culture. And if you can say around the peers you work with that you are in fact a gamer then you probably have want it takes to be considered a hardcore gamer in my book.

-Wes

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 10:03 am and is filed under Columns, Sections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.