Gamer lables -- why

[Fluffya]

The word "hardcore" is often miss use. It quantify the amount of time put into something.

Hardcore gatherer: red scrips, favors, log every day.
Hardcore crafter: red scrips, high end recipes, craft every day.
Harcore player: play every day.
Harcore raider: Alex Savage every day for fun and challenge.

Casual gatherer: do it for fun or comodity.
Casual crafter: do it for fun or comodity.
Casual player: play once in a while for fun.
Casual raider: log once a week for Alex Savage.

Someone can be "Hardcore" without raiding. Someone can also be "Casual" even if he do Alex Savage.

[Souto_Nami]

In general, people want to beat difficult things for the challenge, gear and other rewards, it's only the casuals who believe that the evil raiders do it for e-peen and to look down on you. If you actually think the raiding community cares enough about you to go beat raids just to look down on you, you have issues.

FFXIV enforces this distinction too. Alex Savage is the only hardcore content in the game, everything else is casual/easy and there is currently no midcore content at all.

You realize by calling out "casuals"by not only generalizing but by assuming that " casuals" don't have the drive or skill to want to beat difficult things that you're making the problem between the two worse right? Though I will say the game does indeed extremely separate the difference between easy and hard content.

On topic though, I don't mind categories as humans we're going to do it regardless. What I mind is the words we choose to categorize each other. Instead of naming different gamers by the free time they have to play games and leaving it at that, we also (stupidly) tie it into skill.
Instead of the term casual depicting someone who has a busy life and plays games at a casual pace. It gets tied to difficulty, not being able to play difficult games, or lacking the skill to do so. The term hardcore is also just wrong to depict someone with more free time and gets tied to having greater skill which is wrong. The only difference is in how quickly either one will go through a difficult game.

For example, I only have about an hour to two a day to play games. It took me about two months to beat each of the souls game but not because I lacked skill, I lacked time.

I don't know what people like you do to have such less free time. 1 or 2 hours is not enough for me to do anything meaningful, I simply wouldn't bother.

Work and family time for the most part. "Anything meaningful" varies as I'm obviously not beating a boss in every sitting but with a small amount of thinking about what I'd like to do or where I'd like to head every day helps to always move forward and never stall. I honestly have more fun in these small sittings than when I have hours to play as I find it easier to get frustrated in long sittings when I get stuck on a difficult point. Feels I have more freedom to think on what went wrong or what I (or in an mmo case what the party) could do different to clear the content.

[Twilite]

Those labels been around before there was FFXIV and even FFXI. You just haven't played certain MMOs to see them before then.

For example, I only have about an hour to two a day to play games. It took me about two months to beat each of the souls game but not because I lacked skill, I lacked time.

I don't know what people like you do to have such less free time. 1 or 2 hours is not enough for me to do anything meaningful, I simply wouldn't bother.

[Reinha]

I don't know what people like you do to have such less free time. 1 or 2 hours is not enough for me to do anything meaningful, I simply wouldn't bother.

It depends on what kind of work a person does and how much responsibility they have over different things. And of course, how much they care about their own well being.

Example. Wake up at 6, shower, do hair and makeup, get breakfast ready and eat it, travel to work. Work 8-16, pick up kids / go by the shop, home at ~17. Make dinner, eat it while chatting with kids. Do some quick housework and go to the gym / jogging, back by 19:30. Prepare tomorrow's work (school lesson / presentation / report etc). Chat and cuddle with spouse. Whoops time flies and it's now 21:00. That leaves 2 hours of playtime (unless spouse wants to cuddle some more...) in order to get a healthy amount of sleep. And when you have no gym for the day there's helping with kids' homework, stuff to do around the house or errands to run. Friends may want to come by. And this example doesn't even include taking care of pets or ill family members, and hanging out with the kids.

So it's a choice between either giving up gaming altogether or playing casually. To me playing casually is still more meaningful than watching tv or reading facebook, so I wouldn't completely give it up. I'm still a student so I can usually make time where I need it, but I'm not looking forward to preparing materials for 6 school years at the same time once I get a job as a teacher... D:

[Aniforani]

It's strange, I remember when I was young playing NES games was a way I made some of my friends I still have today. None of us cared how good the other person was, it was all about having fun and bonding over a common interest. In my college dorm I can recall gaming with people on my floor and even then skill level was never of any concern. I guess when the person with the other controller is not in the same room as you people just don't want to treat them like another human being. Instead you just create a label for them based on their performance.

[TouchandFeel]

I don't know what people like you do to have such less free time. 1 or 2 hours is not enough for me to do anything meaningful, I simply wouldn't bother.

24 (Total hours in a day)

-8 (sleep)
-9 (work)
-1 (commute)
-2 (chores: cooking, cleaning, laundry, pets, etc)
-1 (hygiene: showering, brushing teeth, etc.)
-1 (misc: because random stuff always comes up)

Remainder: 2 hours and that's not even including trying to maintain an exercise regiment or factoring in any extra social interactions such as hanging out with friends.

Would I like to play this and other games more? Yes, of course. Do I have the time for it? Most of the time, no. Real life takes precedence, as it should.

[Gilraen]

The problem I have with gamer labels is that they tend to be incredibly black and white with one side accepting no other interpretations. You see this alot in the parser threads, an inordinate amount of pro-parser people asserting that good players use them and those that don't aren't good players. Players come in too many flavors to quantify in a black and white manner and the whole notion of labeling only serves to make those doing the labeling out to be compensating for something.

[Azazua_azura]

The problem I have with gamer labels is that they tend to be incredibly black and white with one side accepting no other interpretations. You see this alot in the parser threads, an inordinate amount of pro-parser people asserting that good players use them and those that don't aren't good players. Players come in too many flavors to quantify in a black and white manner and the whole notion of labeling only serves to make those doing the labeling out to be compensating for something.

This is pretty much what I'm getting at, the negativity with the lables.


Thanks for the great replies btw,ut please keep it civil I don't want to see this turn into a flame fest, no one persons opinion is wrong. So please don't bicker over it.

I also find it weird people claim to not have enough time to play, in ff11 people had full time jobs, families, did other stuff infact i had a few teachers in my LS yet they all could dedicate 5 hours to ff11. What changed?

I know that off topic, but I'm curious about it.

[Mjollnir]

I also find it weird people claim to not have enough time to play, in ff11 people had full time jobs, families, did other stuff infact i had a few teachers in my LS yet they all could dedicate 5 hours to ff11. What changed?

I could camp NMs for my LS in a separate window/screen whilst at work and use those 8hrs/day 'constructively' XD

FFXIV is a lot more busy.