Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Definitive Definition: Casual and Hardcore

Darraxus got me thinking about the age-old debate of Hardcore vs. Casual. I think most of us have probably bent the meaning of those terms in one way or another so that it fits our current needs. Heck! Look at the name of my blog. I didn't consider Primogeniture "Hardcore", but for a long time I don't think I could really call us "Casual" either. So, we were really just a shade of gray, but probably on the Hardcore side. (We may want to consider a scale of 1 to 10 here, and at one point, I was probably about an 8.)

So here it is. I've spent countless years hours minutes researching, contemplating and calculating so that I can give the true definition of a Casual and Hardcore Wow player.

Hardcore
  • If you consistently clear the highest level content, you may be hardcore.
  • If you have an arena rating above 2000, you may be hardcore.
  • If you have the Title of Seeker or Loremaster, you may be hardcore.
Casual
  • If you've never sold a single thing on the AH, you may be casual.
  • If you've never obtained a mount, you may be casual.
  • If you have an active account, but log in only once a week... maybe... then you may be casual.
Basically, it comes down to this: there are certain actions that will you put you in the Casual or Hardcore camps. Heck, having a level 80 toon would be considered a "hardcore" activity for somebody that's just starting. But just because you have one hardcore or casual activity, it doesn't mean that you are always that way.

I think everybody goes through phases. Even the guys from [insert World First Guild Name here] usually take a break once everybody has all the loot they want out a dungeon. My wife, who I would consider pretty casual atm, has a level 80 toon and has even killed 3 bosses in Ulduar.

The point is, that you're almost always going to find somebody with more (or less) /played time than you. You're almost always going to find somebody with better (or worse) gear. The Casual / Hardcore debate isn't black and white. It's gray. Gray as the ocean is wide. The important thing is that you have fun while wading through this grayness. If you get black every once and awhile, good for you. Just make sure that you balance it out with some white. Maybe throw some leftover snowballs at the rogue that's about to sap a target. Trust me... it's great fun.

9 comments:

Darraxus said...

Confuscious say "Casual and hardcore are in the eye of the beholder "

Leiandra said...

Ah!  Confuscious very smart.  ;)

Whats my main Again? said...

I'm totally going to have to try the snowball thing on our rogue during Freya trash... I still have a giant one saved!

I agree with you and even would say that your sliding scale is a decent way to measure coreness.

I've been as high as a 9 and as low as a 2 I would say, right now probably an 8 though :P

Leiandra said...

It doesn't quite have the effect it used to... but it's still great fun nonetheless.

I'm not exactly sure what my current number is.  I'd say probably around a 4.  But since I still write in this blog, maybe it should be 5 or 6.  lol.

Nadiastorm said...

I am a  GM  of a Casual raiding & Casual Guild, our definition of casual isnt as listed above. 
But we do have casual players like listed above, however players and guilds are two different things completely.
Its a odd fix of a term we have to label carefully.  Our guild uses "Casual Guild, that Raids" to defer the hard-core onto more extreme guilds. But grey indeed is this term of casual :D

Kammy said...

Its tricky isnt it? We call ourselves a casual raiding guild as we only raid 3 nights a week rather than 5.... I guess it all comes from your perspective as to where you are at the time.

Leiandra said...

Well, who said that 5 is the norm for hardcore guilds?  Our guild now raids 1 maybe 2 nights per week.  So, I could call you guys hardcore.  lol.  And wouldn't hardcore guilds be able to clear all content in 1 or 2 nights?  See?  It just gets harder to define.

Kammy said...

Thats my point though - i call 5 nights a week "hardcore" as thats what most of the guilds that raid on my server and aim to have cleared the content by now do - so to us as we don't do that, we're "casual". but to a guild that raids one night a week we're probably "hardcore, but less so than the 5 nights a weekers..." its all on the individuals perspective I think. brain hurts now... :D

Leiandra said...

Yep.  We're on the same page.  :)