Cerise Magazine

The debate over “casual” versus “hardcore” players is an old one, but with the increasing popularity of casual games the old rules that defined hardcore as the serious gamers are fast becoming outdated. Will hardcore gaming remain the heart of the industry that drives innovation and creates lasting franchises or will casual gaming overtake it to become the voice of modern gamers?

Casual vs Hardcore Gaming

The casual vs. hardcore gaming debate is a difficult one to tackle, mostly because everyone has their own definition of what casual and hardcore gaming implies. It is my opinion however, that the differences in casual and hardcore gaming stem mostly from the amount of time played and the attitude towards games in general.

Casual gaming, in this sense, refers to people who play for a modest amount of time in a week, and whose attitude towards gaming is more of an activity they can pursue in their spare time, regardless of the type of game they like playing. On the other hand, hardcore gamers may choose to spend most of their free time playing a game (or games); this is related somewhat to their attitude towards games as being THE pastime of choice, again, regardless of the game they’re playing.

While casual and hardcore gaming can overlap with each person’s attitude towards a particular game, in such a way as there are casual Halo 3 players and hardcore Text Twist fans, it stands to reason that a casual or hardcore gamer is defined as one who predominantly leans towards one type of attitude towards gaming (and thus, time invested) over the other.

This being said, my stance holds that as time passes, we will see a shift from hardcore gaming as the crux of gaming in general, to an audience that prefers playing more casually. This is evidenced by two things: the shifting of gamers from adolescence to adulthood and the emergence of bite-sized gaming as a profitable business practice and social phenomenon.

One of the main reasons why I believe that gaming in general will grow more casual as time passes is that most gamers at present will eventually either grow into a position in life that requires less time spent gaming, or simply see past the need for gaming as a constant companion. To that end, I find that my own personal experience is reflective of such a paradigm shift from hardcore to casual.

I can definitely say that, at one point in time, I used to be a hardcore gamer. I was the type who would spend hours in front of the console to complete everything that could be completed within Final Fantasy VII. I spent my free time after school going online to play Counter-Strike with friends. More recently, I was the type of person who’d be willing to wake up at dawn to meet people online to go take on Hakkar in World of Warcraft.

As I graduated college and found myself a job, it slowly dawned on me, and perhaps many individuals reading this might feel this way too, that one cannot spend all their free time playing games. There are commitments to keep, romances to be made, books to be read and responsibilities that need to be considered aside gaming. All of these have to be made within the same 24 hour timeframe that humanity spends it days living out, and it stands to reason that most people would be willing to give up games for other things.

This isn’t to say that they’ve completely given up on gaming. With the advent of save states and casual games, people can still invest some time in games and pick up the same sense of enjoyment they had from playing without investing the same amount of time per day into their game.

This phenomenon, which I call bite-sized gaming, is one of the new realities that have come in because of the advent of handheld games and the Wii. Games such as Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Peggle and Bejeweled have all become commercial successes because they allowed people to have an enjoyable experience without sacrificing too much time.

In the same vein, the ability to save games has also made gaming a more approachable experience, simply because one can take on an epic adventure, such as Neverwinter Nights 2 or Halo 3, without being forced to finish the entire campaign in an evening’s worth of play.

Bite-sized gaming, in the form of handheld single/multi-player games such as Pokemon or short, competitive games such as Wii Sports, also ushered in commercial success. It can be said that this, in turn, also sparked the commercial success of games and game machines that allowed for more bite-sized gaming to continue.

What ties this all into the casual gaming as the more likely future of gaming is that gamers who play casually now also carry the purchasing power to effect the mindset of future generations. A gaming parent, for example, will most likely unwittingly inculcate the value of games as a casual pastime (rather than as an all-encompassing one) to children because of the games that he might purchase for himself and his children. Newer gamers, or those who have recently become casual gamers because of the Wii or the DS in this case, also increase the total purchasing power in favor of casual gaming.

When game companies see this trend, they will work towards filling this need for bite-sized, episodic, or otherwise accessible games. While the hardcore gaming market will always exist, this market must also accept the reality that casual gaming is steadily growing, and games will try and cater to both markets at the same time with the same game.

Whether or not such a future would dilute the hardcore gaming experience is probably best served in another debate, but the future is real: casual gaming is here, and it will influence the market in ways hardcore gamers might never expect.

Rebuttal to “Casual vs Hardcore Gaming”

I think there is little question that casual gaming is on the rise. Anybody who has watched their parents play Wii Bowling can agree that video games are becoming more accessible to people who you never used to see holding a controller. But while the market is expanding, and is important in it’s own right, I doubt casual gamers will dethrone hardcore gamers as the lifeblood of the gaming industry.

While life’s ever-increasing responsibilities can sometimes put a dent in a gamer’s schedule, anyone who truly desires to keep hardcore gaming as an essential part of their existence will find a way. It’s easy to say that the need for a steady job takes away time from gaming, but that belittles the amount of time a child spends in school. If someone who spends 36 hours a week in classes can make time for Mario, there’s no reason they’d lose that time management skill as they aged. And one benefit that school can’t offer: A hardcore gamer with a desk job can sneak in a PSP or download Conquer Online on their work computer to log some sneaky hours when the boss isn’t looking.

Likewise, I think many of adulthood’s other responsibilities simply take the place of those of our youth. We can go out with friends in the time we used to spend at soccer practice. We can find romance on Match.com while playing World of Warcraft. And sleep? Well, we never really got much of that in the first place.

As for save states, I’d say they’re one of the biggest catalysts to becoming (and staying) a hardcore gamer. I admit, Super Mario 3 is the only of Nintendo’s Italian plumber trilogy that I managed to finish in one day’s gameplay. Save points are perhaps gaming’s greatest invention, as we’re no longer forced to rely on threatening notes left on our consoles to warn any wayward family members of the horrific fate that would befall them should they turn the power off. Save states let hardcore gamers game harder - they can truly develop a character and become engrossed in a storyline when they can come back to it day after day.

Likewise, I’m more apt to see handheld systems as further support for the hardcore crowd. While some may see it as a way to get a bit of casual gaming in, I see it more like an emergency booster shot for those hardcore gamers who might have to spend a bit too much time away from their console or computer. Really, we can’t get away from gaming. As a culture, we are so obsessed with it that it leaks into every aspect of our lives. You don’t need to buy a DS to have gaming on the go - all you need is a cell phone. And depending on your destination, you could have gaming available to you when you get there. Dave & Buster’s enjoys immense popularity, thanks largely to those hardcore gamers who are reluctant to leave their house unless there’s a first person shooter awaiting them somewhere.

It’s these gamers, those who see gaming as essential to their personalities, who will inspire their children to view games with the same reverence. These parents spend the child’s infancy excitedly saying how they can’t wait until their kid is old enough to game with them. If a hardcore gamer doesn’t see their own gaming as negative, there’s no reason for them to inspire their child towards anything other than being a hardcore gamer as well.

Most importantly, though, is the impact hardcore gamers have on the greener end of the gaming industry (and I’m not talking about environmentalism). Like any addict, a hardcore gamer won’t blink an eye at spending every spare cent on their habit. A casual gamer is the kind of person who will wander into Best Buy and inquire of the salesman, “I’m looking for a gaming computer…what do you have under a thousand bucks?” A hardcore gamer is the kind of person who will meticulously build their computer from parts purchased from NewEgg and TigerDirect, not blinking an eye at a final hardware cost of three grand or more. And how would your parents have even given Wii Bowling a try if you hadn’t camped outside of Toy R Us all night to buy one? Or spent $150 above fair market price on eBay for it? Hardcore gamers are the ones who buy the newest systems, pay the monthly subscription fees, and buy the most games. While a casual gamer can spend a month or more beating an RPG, a hardcore gamer can burn through it in a week. Even if casual gamers were to outnumber hardcore gamers, their sales numbers still wouldn’t be able to compare.

Still, casual gaming has brought about one major benefit for the hardcore crowd: the more gamers there are, the less stigma there is attached to gaming in general. It’s no longer looked down upon as the hobby of nerdy teens who can’t get a date. It’s beginning to get some credit as a legitimate past time, and for that, I tip my hat to all those casual gamers.

Author’s Response: Bringing together hardcore and casual

While this debate could be settled by the slinging of words, there is one other option that has yet to be considered, and that’s in having an industry that works towards appeasing both hardcore and casual gamers equally with either a larger variety of games, or games that are more readily accessible towards a larger strata of gamers.

Does the increasing number of casual gamers outstrip the hardcore gaming crowd in terms of purchasing power? It’s possible, but it’s safer to say that they’re on relatively equal footing, especially with the assertion that some hardcore gamers are willing to spend more than casual gamers.

The gaming industry responds to consumer interests accordingly. As such, it stands to reason that the gaming industry would also be willing to accommodate a user base that is composed of both casual and hardcore gamers.

Perhaps that’s one thing both Anika and I would love to see: more good games coming out for our respective sides. It stands to reason that it’ll happen too, because the market is already coming out with games that can pique and keep the interests of both parties.

The Orange Box is an example of one such package, as you have games that can easily be approached by both casual and hardcore gamers in one box. As mentioned earlier Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is another game that works well in that respect, as gamers can choose to approach the game from either point of view and still get a satisfying experience.

All in all, while the domination of one gaming type over another seems difficult to fathom, it is safer to assume that we’ll be somewhere in between for the time to come. If that’s the case, then as long as there are good games that come out that cater to both hardcore and casual interests, then there’s no way we, as consumers, can really lose.