What is casual / hardcore player?

[Jennestia]

CoP, level cap quests, coffer key hunting, Assaults, Nyzul Isle. Those were all a "journey" because they took time but had story around them.

Would you rather it be called peregrinations? CoP alone was one of the biggest journeys in FFXI and it's not because of time commitment either -- Not only was it also the first real year of XI being live out west, it's also the first real showcase of an active storyline in an MMO at that time. A journey in terms of gaming is indeed about doing quests, playing with friends, watching your character grow not only in terms of gameplay but as a character and so on.

XIV lacks that aspect, while it is only the first storyline, even the vanilla storyline of XI in comparison had much more character growth. A journey is just something that's done to reach a goal, when you're propelled to end-game and then the game 'begins'..that's not a journey in this sense.

This is why casual gamers are generally the ones hardcore gamers look down on, because they "have no time for it" yet want to play an MMORPG. There's nothing wrong with it, but this is why there's a very obvious rift between Hardcore and Casual gamers even though those terms in itself is your own perception.