Hardcore is not a dirty word

[Madruk]

And I would say that from a design stand point everything you mentioned is not "hard core" but poor design. Basically, I can spend several hours in game just playing around in Ul'dah making my LS mates laugh by dancing in my skivvies. I did this the other night for 7 hours, is that "hard core" I put in a lot of time and effort making my friends laugh and it was rewarding too, It took me 3 hours to rank my lancer from 6 to 15, grinding the crap out of dodo's solo, I guess that was just casual. Time spent doing something does not make something hard core...it is just time you will never get back that you could have been doing something actually fun.

Different strokes, different folks. Most equate hardcore as accomplishing something within the game as far as progression, not dancing naked. However you could in theory say you danced hardcore. Just not that you are a hardcore dancer. This is acceptable.

[Pandastirfry]

Different strokes, different folks. Most equate hardcore as accomplishing something within the game as far as progression, not dancing naked. However you could in theory say you danced hardcore. Just not that you are a hardcore dancer. This is acceptable.

and that would be my point all along. Hard core is a state of mind, not a tangible, empirical thing!