Player skill level classifications

[RiyahArp]

This came up some in the ultimate thread, and I thought i'd put it out to see how players think. I think there are multiple levels of skill, and you can break the playerbase down by this:

CASUAL

MIDCORE

HARDCORE

Each of these has three subclasses, low, mid, high. Here's the list expanded with each defined.

LOW CASUAL: Pure fun player. May value talking with others in FC chat or discord more than playing the game. Low general skill level, tends to only do some 70ish activities, may not even be at level cap despite expansions being out for months or years. Seasonal events are perfect for them.

MID CASUAL: Probably the average player you think of with casual. Has one or two 70s, generally does all the endgame content up to the current 24 man. Avoids anything higher; may try it, but its unappealing to them. OK skill level for the content they are in. 24 mans tend to be the perfect level of challenge for them.

HIGH CASUAL: Same as mid casual, but tends to level a lot more. May do some content very seriously, but it tends to be soloish or easy. People who do a lot of aquapolis tend to be high casual; its probably the perfect example. They often tend to be leaders on the casual side.

***

LOW MIDCORE: Same as high casual, but the difference is they try the easiest of midcore content, ex trials and the first turns of savage. Do pretty well, but don't optimize or get into what could be called "pro" play. Byakko or Susano EX are low midcore trials.

Low Midcore is where I place myself.

MIDCORE: This is where you start to care about yourself as a player. Rotations, potions, timing buffs, and all the things raiders do show up in this tier. True Midcore tend to stall out at the more difficult savage and ex fights, but they generally do very well in the game overall. I used the example of Thordan EX at launch as the limit of true midcore.

HIGH MIDCORE: These are very good players who generally struggle at the highest content in the game. They may clear it and do it well, but rank low on FFLOGS culture. FFlogs starts to record from high midcore on in my opinion; that's when the focus moves beyond clearing to optimizing and ranking.

A high midcore would beat this current savage tier but worry he is being carried, and would probably spend a lot of time trying to get better.

***

LOW HARDCORE: These are naturally skilled players who do savage events a little more casually. They place about average in FFlogs, but aren't so worried about it. Generally they value their time more than ranking or hierarchy, and are less driven. However if they wanted to, they could probably make a serious attempt at climbing higher. They will try ultimate, but don't sweat about killing themselves over progging it.

Sebazy used "midcore" to define these people, I think low hardcore is better. At this tier though the differences in players is pretty small. Low is not meant to be a negative descriptor.

HARDCORE: Can clear everything, progress through ultimate and one day will beat it if they don't burn out of the game. Pretty much a master level player. Raid leaders in general are this, hardcore spend significant time optimizing, leading, managing, and dealing with all aspects of the game.

HIGH HARDCORE: World firsters. "Professional" players, whether world firsting, streaming to a large audience, creating tools for others, etc. Outstrip any content the game offers, and may even act as an informal dev assistant or focus of the community. Will beat any content the game offers within a week or two of its release. Will do what is considered to be impossible; the soloers who beat POTD are high hardcore.

What are your thoughts on this classification list?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I was under the impression that those classifications referred to time spent playing, and not player skill.

This is why raid groups are classified Casual -> Hardcore. Casual raiders spend a few hours a week raiding, midcore raiders usually spend several hours a day over multiple days. Hardcore raiders will spend most of a day progressing in early stages of a raid tier, and tend to clear the entire tier within the first week or 2.

Many casual players are just as good on a skill level as hardcore players. Its all about exposure to mechanics.

[jameseoakes]

I was under the impression that those classifications referred to time spent playing, and not player skill.

This is why raid groups are classified Casual -> Hardcore. Casual raiders spend a few hours a week raiding, midcore raiders usually spend several hours a day over multiple days. Hardcore raiders will spend most of a day progressing in early stages of a raid tier, and tend to clear the entire tier within the first week or 2.

It seems to be used pretty interchangeably and not really have any meaning anymore

[RiyahArp]

I was under the impression that those classifications referred to time spent playing, and not player skill.

So which is more hardcore though, a raid group who only does ultimate 3 hours a week, or a raid group that does 10 but is stuck at God kefka? And when you ask for more hardcore and more casual content, what do you ask for? Skill-based content.

why is such a thing necessary? Just play the game how you want to play the game, no need to shove everyone into a rigid class structure.

its not necessary, its just a discussion on how people see skill. I notice a lot of people actually underrate how good they are at this game, and it made me think on how players act in it. Just somethign different to talk about, none of these qualifications are good and bad because everyone plays for fun.

[DrWho2010]

why is such a thing necessary? Just play the game how you want to play the game, no need to shove everyone into a rigid class structure.

[SinisterJoints]

I don't really like labels, cant we all just be players?

[Sebazy]

As much as it's probably rather obvious from the ultimate thread, I only really use this term to describe someone's play time habits rather than their skill.

In my eyes, a casual is someone who simply doesn't dip their toes into raiding, or only does it when needed as cover for a vacant slot etc. I could think of several highly capable ex hardcore raiders who I'd classify here, so it's most definitely not a slight in anyway.

Midcore would be where I'd put myself and my team. We are decently talented in our own right, but padding runs, 21 hour raids big progression pushes and world rankings aren't really our thing. Some of us have been there before and haven't got the time/energy for it anymore, some of us just aren't interested in it in the first place. Doesn't really make any odds in my eyes, we just get stuff dead at our own pace. No sweat, no rush.

IMHO, the easiest way to put forward my position on a Hardcore team is quite simply, 'Am I going to book a week off work when xyz new tier hits?'. In my hardcore days it was always a yes. Now it's a 'lol no I'm going cycling'.

[Aana]

Besides the complete irrelevancy of making a 'tiered' list of players, most people use these terms on a day to day basis in different contexts and the definitions are entirely subjective. There is how much you play, how good/skilled you are, and what type of content you tackle which makes some singular list completely inadequate for describing the intersections of those things, and thats just a rough start. You would need a 3d matrix to even try to do this, but that would give you so many 'categories' that they would be meaningless. There are people who are VERY skilled at this game, but only log in to weekly clear. There are people who are terrible at this game but play 10 hrs a day. Whos the hardcore one?

The only thing you can really define are the extreme ends that do everything or nothing in concert. World 1st groups that take a week of vacation for new content, play 20 hours a day, and do so at an exceptional level. Wow. Hardcore. The guy who logs in once a week and does 2 more quests in the MSQ? Casual. Great we made labels. GL getting the other 99% of the playerbase in a box.

[Tint]

i do ex primals sometimes, but only the easier ones. harder ones only when we can outgear them. and i wasn't raiding since coil...

however, i have more than 600 days of playtime logged. am i a casual or hardcore player now?

[Sebazy]

i do ex primals sometimes, but only the easier ones. harder ones only when we can outgear them. and i wasn't raiding since coil...

however, i have more than 600 days of playtime logged. am i a casual or hardcore player now?

Simple, how many of those 600 days were spent working on a trial/raid? I suspect not many, therefore in my eyes you are a casual player (again, that isn't intended as a slight). I'm in the same boat here (599 days tho, Scrubazy!), I idle and putz about a lot. Certainly doesn't make me hardcore.