Gamers, Hardcore Gamers and Casual Gamers

Over the years since the late 2000s the interest of gaming has moved into much less of a niche position. People anywhere and everywhere have picked up an interest in gaming. From children as young as 2 (I started at 4 in the early 2000s) to the elderly, picking up games such as Skyrim and slamming hours upon hours into the game (for example; Shirley Curry ).

Since the rise in popularity of gaming many a term has come to describe someone that plays games, to any extent. All of these labels come under the heading of, “Gamer”. With the labels themselves consisting of Hardcore Gamers and Casual Gamers, amongst other things.

The label “Casual Gamer” refers to someone who plays games at a low level, not talking skill-wise, but time invested wise. A lot of these players tend to play mobile games as they are the most easily played on and off throughout the day in small bursts. These “Casual Gamers” tend to get a lot of flak from most other Gamer variants, especially the “Hardcore Gamers”. This is mostly due to the “Hardcore Gamers” think that the casuals (as they are referred to) have not put anywhere near enough time into the game to understand it at a high level. Therefore casuals and their opinions are often disregarded.

“Hardcore Gamers” on the other hand, are the complete opposite end of the spectrum. “Hardcore Gamers” are the players that devote obscene amounts of time into a game and understand the game at a very highly developed level. “Hardcore Gamers” often spend hours upon hours of time into any given game, be it one in particular or a range.

In terms of comparisons, E-Sports Players, Analysts and Youtubers often fall under . Although, even then, the gap in devotion between someone that falls under the “Hardcore Gamer” label and any of the aforementioned labels is immense, this is the same for the “Casual Gamer” label. Despite this assuming all Gamers fall under any given label is an irrational opinion.

The label “Gamers” is a broad one, and one that can belong to any individual. Be they Male or Female (or anything in between), Young or Old, play Alone or with Others, play a few minutes here and there or play for hours on end, use it to escape their normal lives or just for fun. I could go on and on about the different types of people who play games and their reasoning but I’ll stop it there

Every person has their reasoning to play games and even whether they classify themselves as a Gamer. Regardless of that is the fact that the term “Gamer” is important to both the players themselves and developers. While I find the term “Gamer” to be more socially used to describe someone’s interests and hobbies, the Gaming Industry as a whole needs to look at the sub-categories for their usage.

The Gaming Industry uses these labels as a form of Demographic to use for targeting purposes for their games. Looking at these sub-categories is important for not just marketing a game but also for making the game itself. They look at the characteristics of these sub-categories of “Gamers” to figure out how to make the game for that specific category.

Therefore, as stated, the term “Gamer” is useful in a way to identify people as a whole, but also broad enough to be inclusive to all. I myself find the term positive and a part of my own identity. My engagement with Games Culture as a whole is what makes me feel like I belong to this label. I take part in online forums, IRL events and, of course, playing games themselves for hours upon hours on end.

That’s it for this week! Sorry for the break, uni split up due to COVID-19 and moved to Online Delivery so that was a bit stressful, but we’re back on track now.

Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next week!
– Nathan “Naff” Hibbert