What is casual / hardcore player?

[Antipika]

Walk up to a woman in her mid-20s and talk about martial arts training. Then try talking about how you spent 12 hours playing a video game. See which one gets you further. Not exactly as though you're going to ask her to join you for a 12 hour gaming session for a first date.

Depend which woman, what you are saying doesn't make sense really. There are woman out there in their mid-20's loving games just as men does.

I mean I've known girls who prefer to play WoW rather than going outside. Who would refuse a dinner invite because "it's raid night". Who would refuse to go to bed before doing "their dailies". And don't say something like "I bet they were ugly" that's also a false statement.

You can be mid-20, cute and be a hardcore player. I won't even talk about professional players. I remember when attending the ESWC grand finals back in 2006-2007 when it was still held in Paris, most of the team members in Counter Strike Woman were actually... pretty attractive.

[Lucifer]

I'm a bishonen and I love video games. I also consider myself hardcore.

[MeowMeow]

Hardcore = The players who beat the content when nobody knows how to beat it through cunning, skill, and devotion of time.

Casual = The players who can only beat content once the hardcore populace has beat it many times and outlined guides for them to follow.

Say what you will, but I've never once seen a group of casual gamers be the first to clear ANY content ever, in any of the vast number of MMO's I've played. It's just how it is. Doesn't mean they are not skilled, just means they don't devote the time or effort to figure out the game, they wait until its all provided in walk-thru form, then go after it on some random weekend.

Casual gamers like to speak down on hardcore players, saying we don't have lives and such, when most of us do work, and are married. Hell, a lot of us play with our families or spouses. I'm single, but I've got a job at least xD Then again, I barely play FF14 currently as it's just too casual for my tastes. I don't like that you can get 50 in 15-20 hours from level 1. Bottom line is, casual gamers never have room in endgame without hardcore players. If the hardcore crowd didn't clear the content a hundred times and make guides for it, they'd never beat it because they don't devote the time to figuring out all the intricate details of each fight.

[AmyRae]

The difference between Hardcore and Casual has nothing to do with the Time they spent on a certain Game.

Its the Grade of Efficiency.

I know Players which are on like 5-8 Hours since Release a day and just have one Class at 50. And i know Players which play less than that a day and got like 5-7 Classes at 50. Would you call someone Hardcare just by the fact he is Online 10 Hours a day? I guess not. Like i said its efficiency and what you make out of the free Time you got. So a Player with like 2-3 Hours a day could also be a Hardcore-Player if he figures a way to optimize w/e he wants to do. I would call myself Hardcore since i use the Time i have Ingame. Its rare that i "just stand around". I do Quests, EXP, Fights w/e i think is the best and beside that i have Family and 2 Jobs. So the argument that someone with Family and Job would never reach the Top is really vague. And i only play 3-5 Hours a day ( at night actually ) as its Top.

I don't think efficiency has anything to do with hardcore / casual. You could be an efficient casual player (executing as much as you can cram into 2 hours is part of the fun!) and an inefficient hardcore player (camped NM for 8 hours, another group came in and stole it the moment it popped /sigh).

I really think the only difference is time spent playing, and even then, there's no hard and fast rule that divides the two. Someone could play hardcore for 3 months and switch to playing casually for the next 5 years, for example.

[Lucifer]

I'm at work right now, haha.

I just don't agree with the concept of a game that has a monthly fee attached but no incentives to make people play for longer than that month. Before people start spewing, yes I know 2.0 is on the way; it doesn't change the fact that this game has been out for a whole year and all the content released within that span; lasts maybe a month or two IF you take your time.

[Nero]

I really think the only difference is time spent playing, and even then, there's no hard and fast rule that divides the two. Someone could play hardcore for 3 months and switch to playing casually for the next 5 years, for example.

I understand your Point, but also if we would say "Someone could play hardcore for 3 months and switch...".. what exactly does it mean: "could play hardcore"? That is actually the Mainquestion here.. while i dont have much Time to spend i would be efficient Casualgamer? So if that would be the case, what would be the difference between me and a Hardcoreplayer?

[Sephrick]

these two threads alone should keep you busy until 2.0 trying to meet that 1:30 ratio, and that's just scratching the surface.

Sorry, what linked were honest and thought expression of a players opinion. Not "QQ threads" try again.

Just because someone has an opinion different than your's doesn't make it baseless whining. It's people like you who troll along and drag a thread down to that.

this forum is absolutely saturated with people who misconstrue and abuse an open official forum as an excuse to mindspew every inane thought they've ever had about the game, no matter how poorly construed, no matter how nonconstructive, as if by having an open forum SE is *obligated* to hang on their every word.

I know you're angry, bro. But it's ok. We'll hug it out and make it through this together!

[AmyRae]

I understand your Point, but also if we would say "Someone could play hardcore for 3 months and switch...".. what exactly does it mean: "could play hardcore"? That is actually the Mainquestion here.. while i dont have much Time to spend i would be efficient Casualgamer? So if that would be the case, what would be the difference between me and a Hardcoreplayer?

As I've said before, the casual player is someone who wants to make progress in the limited time they have. If you can get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time, then you're the quintessential casual player, and the game succeeds at letting you play casually.

Hardcore players simply use what time they have to an advantage. They can reach level 50 faster and more often. They can attempt the Ifrit fight more frequently and collect the gear faster. They can play the market with superior crafting skills and opportunistic ingredient acquisition. They can create more materia, and get more forbidden materia gear either through the greater amount of money they have or crafting it themselves. Casual players can't keep up with this because these activities require substantial time commitments.

[Searious]

I'm a "hardcore" gamer, I have family, friends, school, used to have a gf. I like time syncs, hard stuff, and everything. Sooo don't say hardcore players = "no life" you know, I hate that term. I do have a life, if I didn't I wouldn't be typing this right now. I also just get on a few times a week as well.

I usually say it to counter the "Casual = no skill/want everything to beeasy bull people spout.

[Dragon]

You've got it backwards. Considering that casual players take their time going through the content since they progress at a slower pace, I'd venture to say it's actually the casual players who value the journey more than hardcore players.

It's not casual players spending thousands of hours doing repetitive tasks collecting endgame trinkets. That's certainly the primary activity of hardcore players, however, and there really isn't much a journey to talk about there.

The story and quests are probably the most compelling things to a casual player in an MMO. I can't imagine why you would think differently. Why else would a casual player even play? They aren't the ones in a rush to get to the oppressive endgame grinds, that's for sure.

Yeah, no wonder why it's always the casual player complaining about not being able to get to endgame quickly...