After hearing and talking about what constitutes in one being a hardcore gamer and which games or consoles are forgetting about them, namely Nintendo, I then begin to ask “what is a hardcore gamer?”.
Does being a hardcore gamer mean you spend 30+ hours a week gaming, or that you dedicate your time on playing your favorite genre?
These are things that I think about, yes, I give them thought as I digress and think about some of the things that hardcore gamers say when criticizing a game or console that’s “not hardcore”.
Take the Wii for example, here are some of the things that the hardcore crowd say about the Wii.
- “If I wanted to act out the motions of playing a game, I’d do it in real life”
- “why would I play these games using a motion sensor when I can use a controller?”
Now that is just two quotes and I have a few others that fall into the general gaming aspect as well which would include the Wii. But before I move on, I’d like to add that hardcore gaming shouldn’t be narrowed down to using just your fingers and sitting on your ass.
Here are a few more quotes that I hear about games in general and common quotes from the hardcore crowd.
- “this game is too short and it doesn’t have trophies/achievements”
- “This RPG is only 25 hours”
- “I beat _______ game in two days”
- “I’m on my 5th play-through of _______ game”
The aspect of a game being too short or needing trophies/achievements falls into the criteria of getting your money’s worth and is completely understandable. But with the way companies are looking to reach higher plateau’s in regards to sales, we’re going to see games stay around the 8-12 hour range as well as RPG’s hit around 25-50 hours.
I put in 25 hours for inFamous and I almost got 100% on that game, this is rare for me and lends itself to the fun factor. Playing a game and beating it in such a short time, or beating it several times is definitely getting your money’s worth, but sometimes gamers tend to get a little bit too sucked into playing games.
The one drawback is the fact that studies have shown after 10 years of sitting in front of a TV screen, for 10 hours on average a day will leave your brain in a state of no return. The risk of Alzheimer’s disease is increased exponentially at a much earlier age from this sort of behavior.
When my parents used to say “TV will rot your brain” – they weren’t joking, because too much television does rot your brain as well as fill it with a bunch of useless crap and jargon. Some people even tend to blurt out or make references to games or TV shows at random because they’ve been brainwashed willingly.
Now, to get back to the headline of this article, “Are Hardcore Gamers Lazy?” – That depends, because you have to be strong willed to get some of the Platinum trophies that I’ve seen on the PlayStation 3 and I know some of the XBL Achievements are rough as pulling teeth.
From one aspect, hardcore gamers are determined, but possibly geared in the wrong direction with all of this time that they could be doing something else.
When your brain is geared, or wired towards one thing and you direct your focus in that direction, it’s tough to just drop it and find a new hobby.
…And while gaming might be completely pointless in contrast to some of the things going on in the real world, it is a great way to pass the time or escape the troubles in the world. However, if you spend close to 50 hours or more in a week gaming then you might want to re-evaluate things a bit more.
You might ask “Who is The Don to judge?” It’s not me who should do the judging, but rather you judging yourself and realize that you’re spending your time accomplishing nothing in the real world.
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There are some that are lazy, sure, but I don’t think you can really make that a hardcore gamer generalization, honestly.
I’m what most would consider a ‘hardcore gamer’ because I play games constantly or nearly every genre, but I’m not ‘lazy’ either, as I have a job, do extra things outside of gaming (tennis, playing in a band, basic exercise, etc.), and I think that there are a lot in the ‘hardcore’ crowd that do the same.
Not playing the Wii doesn’t make somebody lazy, because you can be just as lazy playing Wii games most of the time. It just means they have a closed mind about games, which tends to be the way things are when people are ‘hardcore’ about things.
Take politics. Hardcore leftists and hard core righties are extremely closed minded in respect to anything outside of their view. No matter how open-minded they may claim to be.
Hardcore is a state of mind and has to do with ego, which is why I don’t classify myself as such.
u’ve tricked me into an intervention!?
that was a great response, Sean….
my thing wasn’t necessarily that “not playing the Wii is lazy”…but rather the reasons for not playing the Wii…
I don’t own a Wii because the games that appeal to me on that console are few and far between…
I consider myself a casual-hardcore gamer because I have great interest in the topic and sometimes I really put it to a game and beat it within a week or so…I also have over 20 games (that’s a lot for a broke gamer)…..but I can also go a good 2 weeks without playing any of my games…and rarely put more than 45 minutes into gaming per sitting…
and Bruce…..ahahaha….