What justifies the "casual" label?

I see this term being used loosely and thrown around a lot on these forums.

Is it just a label based on how much time you spend in the game? I work full-time but I try to get in a few hours any night I can.

Or, is it based on how you USE your time in the game? I imagine there are lots of people who don't even bother with leveling their class/job and focus on crafting/gathering/making gil.

Help me understand because it's a term that I hear being used derogatively quite often.

From what I've seen in this and other MMOs, a 'casual' is someone who isn't dedicated to trying to progress in the end game stuff. So even though I might play the game 5+ hours a day, I'm still considered a casual because I'm not a raider. It's just another label to make people feel superior to other players.

Yeah, realistically it's just someone whose goal isn't to be at the forefront of progression (or anywhere near it a lot of the time).

Its just as they say. On top of my job, I play 7-8 hrs daily but still I'm considered casual as I haven't cleared endgame up to the raids.

I label a casual as anyone who doesn't want to put effort into progression. For example, people who would pay gil for a Titan run or complain that a particular content is too hard and should be nerfed so they can get gear as well.

Casual =/=bad is false. People saying they play five or more hours a day and accomplish nothing are just bad. The big bad elitists can spend five to eight hours a week to beat all the content.

Casual is someone who has time constraints and can not put in much time for playing. This usually leads to the casuals not raiding, which is where this line got blured and bads began claiming themselves as casuals since they also don't raid. I have known plenty of casual players in mmos that were still doing progression raiding.

I consider a casual (such as myself), someone that doesn't play on a determined schedule with end-game goals in mind. I don't at all use the term to gauge someones skill-set. A casual can easily be able to out-play anybody else. It's just how much time you dedicate to the game, or a particular goal-oriented group. I'm capable of measuring up to any elitist once I learn the boss fights.

Currently, I'm more worried about success and working on crafting/gathering while my BLM is chillin' at 30. When I do feel ready to raid, I'll kick it in gear and look for a dedicated raid group.

Casual to me is someone who participates in end game content but does so at a level under performing of someone who's more hardcore. E.g. someone who expects to get a seat in a raid mon-tues that can't play wed, thur, fri when the FC's raid times are mon-sat 8pm to 12am eastern time. Casual might also refer to someone who tries to do titan but can't handle the amount of people failing on it and gets frustrated and requests a nerf.

Really a casual player is someone who rolls through content in a game and just wants to have fun and doesn't want to do a lot of work (not fun) to experience the content. They buckle first when something is hard. They are more likely to leave groups after 10's of wipes due to some elitism rage from someone else. They are overall more skiddish in feedback and don't handle criticism well and are emotionally driven. They don't except advice from others if the advice is not being given in a positive manner.

So they are casual: Not putting as much effort into something; Requesting things be brought down to their level; Complaining about elitism from the more hardcore players (who are are equally as frustrated in the opposite direction); Complaing something takes to long; Requesting bans against legit players that just want people to try harder and have run out of ways to positively communicate that;

I get that some people don't have a crap ton of time to play the game. IF so, join a casual FC with raid times that fit your schedule, don't try to join the servers best progression FC with 30 hours+ of mandatory raid time every week. And then don't complain about the content being the way it is because said FC won't take you and you feel like your missing out, that get's you labeled as casual.

People just need to accept that this is an MMO and an MMO requires more time from a player than any other game genre. If you don't have the time, maybe consider playing something that's not an MMO.

It's become the bogey man to toss out whenever a game does something you feel you don't like. Levels don't take months to gain? Casuals fault. Can solo some things? Casuals. Bad attitudes in game? Casuals (even though the worst offenders here are those who consider themselves hardcore).

It's a meaningless term now. It used to mean people who played short sessions a day, if that much, usually not too interested in progression or endgame and usually don't frequent forums. They are also by far the largest majority in any game, much to the dismay of people who consider themselves hardcore (who usually aren't really).

Casuals are interesting creatures. I myself could be described as a casual, or perhaps a quasi-casual.

Casuals can either carry an MMO to greatness or destroy it entirely.

The one thing I know about casuals is they don't *actually* want to play a P2P MMO that is as casual as they think they want.