256: Hardcore Maleness

[sinsfire]

Great article.

While I agree with your statements regarding a casual vs. hardcore game I don't think you really addressed the casual vs. hardcore gamer. I am a 29 year old guy and I consider myself a casual gamer, I use that term not based on the games I play but the role that gaming takes in my life. When I was younger I had more time to play and thus I would have considered myself a hardcore raider (WoW), but now with other obligations my play time is cut and I find myself looking for games that i can play for an hour at a time and still find that escapism and enjoyment.

I don't know what a hardcore game is or what a casual game is, but I think you make some interesting points. Perhaps we should label based on the gamer and not necessarily the game. And yes I acknowledge that labels have inherent flaws, but we all use them so they may as well be as accurate as possible.

 

[Ravek]

I don't think e-penis (does anyone really use peen unless they want to pass profanity filters?) has ever been used non-ironically.

 

[Plurralbles]

While you argue your points well my own feeling is that this is a load of bollocks. The transference of the silly game labels to genders just reinforce stereotypes. While there may be trends within genders to support this, there are enough females (and, come to that, males) who do not fall under the pretense shown in this article.

Then again that opinion may be influenced by the people I hang around with, so there.^^

It annoys me that everything has to "genderized" like this.

I was hoping that could just quote someone to get my own opinion out.

Turns out it was possible.

Thnx.


I understand the point though. Come on, the Sims is a technological "House" game that little girls used to play with their unwilling brothers when the girls couldn't convince the boy to play Tea Party. It's pretty feminine.

 

[Wandrecanada]

Hardcore Maleness

It's time to sift through the coded labels; hardcore means masculine and casual means feminine. Rowan Kaiser thinks that we should recognize the implied sexuality of the labels and switch to a gender neutral term.

Read Full Article

I'd just like to say that I support this article and the ideas presented inside. It was insightful and cuts to the 'core' of why our games industry is likely in the state it's in. Society genders everything whether we want it to or not and gaming is far from an exception to that rule. One can only hope that some day the idea of 'gamer' will take over from the idea of hardcore or casual.

 

[jamesworkshop]

so whats the problem with hardcore gamer as a term does it really matter if its distinctly masculine or is masuclinity a bad thing nowadays gamer and hardocre gamer as terms can and do already co-exist besideds Puzzle quest is a casual game and clearly has no specific gender valve unless as a puzzle game appealing to logic it is already has male traits

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

I take issue with this oversimplification, and not just because all the games used as examples of "hardcore" ones that appeal to male audiences are games I bloody hate (or entire genres I bloody hate in the case of sports titles). For me, the distinction between hardcore and casual games is quite easy to make: Does your game have a narrative structure that gradually unfolds as the player makes progress in the game? If yes, it's not a casual game. If no, it is. Unless it revolves around competitive multiplayer, in which case I will still think of it as merely an 'advanced' casual game since there is ultimately no purpose to your actions in game beyond "shoot some dudes for points" or what have you, but I recognize that others don't see those that way.

 

[dmase]

I actually consider sims one of those hardcore games i mean have you seen the people that play those games. They are gone, completely intune with the game mechanics and their family's progression. I've played before and that is a hardcore game... anyways

I think labeling someone a hardcore gamer or a casual gamer would be easier for me to define or point out because idt any game should really get put down. (Browser games not included because those should just be time wasters or add a little bit of joy while your rage over a broken console)-hypocrite

I can see the gender biased and i can draw parallels to the right for gender equality but i doubt that there will be a march on Washington demanding that cooking mama be put on the hardcore list.

I don't see the labels as bad I can't seem them as necessarily abusive. I don't even know where you would say your a casual gamer to actually insult except on a hardcore vs. casual thread.

Its a stupid debate that people try and put meaning behind, if you throw a rock in the woods your bound to hit a tree. However even if i hate the debate i liked the article.

 

[Le_Lisra]

While you argue your points well my own feeling is that this is a load of bollocks. The transference of the silly game labels to genders just reinforce stereotypes. While there may be trends within genders to support this, there are enough females (and, come to that, males) who do not fall under the pretense shown in this article.

Then again that opinion may be influenced by the people I hang around with, so there.^^

It annoys me that everything has to "genderized" like this.

I was hoping that could just quote someone to get my own opinion out.

Turns out it was possible.

Thnx.


I understand the point though. Come on, the Sims is a technological "House" game that little girls used to play with their unwilling brothers when the girls couldn't convince the boy to play Tea Party. It's pretty feminine.

You're welcome.
There's no denying that the Sims does exactly that - however a lot of people never actually use the full gameplay, but cheat and build houses, then get bored, or just abuse their Sims. The "core" potential of the game, if one can call it that, thus goes largely untouched, so.. I dunno. A grain of truth doesn't make a universal truth, so anyway.

 

[CitySquirrel]

I just want to throw in that I agree with you. It isn't that hardcore or casual literally imply male or female but that they both associate with qualities that are linked to masculinity and femininity. Hardcore is for the "tough" "strong" etc. while casual is for "soft" "caring" "wusses". Once again, this is not "male or female" but qualities of being manly or girly.

Of course, you will get a huge amount of hate for this. People are very resistant to the gender analysis for some reason.

 

[Smokescreen]

Alright, 'hardcore' and 'casual' can broadly be defined as masculine and famine. Just like anything could be broadly defined as any other thing.

Yup.

Article is an opinion piece, backed with nothing but anecdotal evidence, some of it quite powerful (rape to describe winning is, in my opinion, a travesty) but anecdotal nonetheless.

What works against this article is the tone. Instead of; hey, we should think about this, it seems to be presented in a 'this is the way it is' tone and that only works if you have proof. Which this doesn't.

Interesting thing to think about but not something I'm going to dwell on; too busy trying to have a good time and being civil.

 

[Nightfalke]

I just wanted to say that I am all in favor of a "Capture the Phallus" game type in Halo.

 

[daftalchemist]

I never distinguished "hardcore" and "casual" as having to do with the types of games you play or gender. Maybe it's because I live in a fantasy world all of my own, but I've always used it for meaning how often you play.

For instance, recently I've been playing WoW, The Sims 3, Red Dead Redemption, and Battlefield Bad Company 2 multiplayer, and I play them once I'm done with work. To me, that makes me a hardcore gamer. It doesn't matter if I spent four hours in WoW, Sims, or RDR, I'd still be a hardcore gamer no matter what game I chose to play.

 

[NamesAreHardToPick]

Empowerment RIP.

This article's not feminist, it's reinforcing and expanding gender stereotypes. Games about guns, blood, engines, sports... the article says these things are for BOYS ONLY in case anyone missed the memo. There's no option that a man might enjoy Plants vs Zombies over Call of Duty. There's no option that a woman would enjoy playing these games, or could be capable of doing so with the same skill and intensity as a man. All of the sexualization of beating an opponent can only have legitimacy if you're clearly dominating, gestures like teabagging and claims of "rape" are a dickless backfire if you're making them against a player who's clearly an even match. I've seen my share of women who positively glory in laying out a male opponent in an online fight specifically because of the emasculation it implies.

My wife has played a lot of hardcore games very seriously - Monster Hunter, Demon's Souls, MMO's, etc. If anything she invented competition in Monster Hunter where none existed, since the game is essentially co-operative. She's diplomatic to her teammates in-game but you should hear her rants about members who don't have the equipment or talent to be useful in her hunting party. In Demon's Souls she dreaded player invasions to her game and detested the kind of players who enjoyed attacking others, but saw quitting the game or playing offline to avoid these fights as cheating... with fighting to win being the only option, she played it to the hilt and enjoyed her victories. This is the kind of self-realized woman that could never exist in some gender-neutralized environment safe from anything hurtful or unfair.

Gaming *at all* is a step towards gender-neutrality. The men aren't out there doing "real man" things... racing muscle cars, fighting, working-out, making money, or engaging in sexual conquests. In comparison there's no level of testosterone you can bring to a videogame that isn't entirely impotent. The women aren't cooking, cleaning, knitting, or raising children. Regardless of how they choose to play, they are stepping outside of their traditional domestic servitude and materialism to pursue their own pleasure. If anything, women have a chance to engage in these "hardcore" activities on even terms with their male counterparts. A 105 pound girl tackles as hard as everyone else in a game of Madden.

 

[DTWolfwood]

DtWolfood patpats the 'hardcore' women players out there

i prefer owning some1 than raping them.

Also i smiled when i play RDR the other day and actually got one of those 14 yo homophobs in game. Love it when i see an actual stereotype XD

 

[Nightfalke]

This article's not feminist, it's just man-hating. Guns, blood, engines, sports... the article says these things are for BOYS ONLY and they are BAD. There's no option that a woman would enjoy playing these games, or could be capable of doing so with the same intensity as a man. There's no option that a man might enjoy Plants vs Zombies over Call of Duty.

Empowerment RIP.

I just can't wait for the day when it is OK for me to be proud to be a male and proud of my masculinity without being labelled as a misogynist...

 

[cynicalsaint1]

Honestly, I've never really thought of games as being "Hardcore" or "Casual" - for me its always been "Casual" or "non-Casual," that is to say that it isn't really a dichotomy for me, "Casual" is simply one of many labels you can put on a game. To me it describes a game that is simple and overall less demanding than more serious games tend to be. I think that's really part of the problem - is we like to create false dichotomies; either its in one category or the other category. That kind of thinking just leads to to missing the full spectrum between the two. To me what "Hardcore" means is something that truly tests my skills as a gamer - at least when used as a label for a game, though I rarely if ever use it to describe a game, in my mind its more something to describe the hardest difficulty levels of a game.

Another interesting point I happened to notice was mentioning how the word "rape" is often used casually. My ex-girlfriend, a gamer (our first break up was largely over her WoW addiction), and a woman who actually has been raped - has in fact used the word "rape" casually in the sense that was talked about in the article. Goes to show just how far changing the usage of a word can divorce it from its original meaning.

 

[xdgt]

This pseudo freudian analysis of gaming centering all about gender and stereotypes really says much more about the author of the article than it does about gaming. You are stuck in some decade long gone, it really makes me sick. There are plenty of female hardcore gamers and plenty more male casual gamers, but those are just examples they don't prove anything (only disprove your claim). Some people like RTS some people like shooters some like RPGs some like sims - it says nothing of them as people, only of their tastes. If I like playing with guns it isn't because i'm a guy its because I enjoy it, and if the whole world around me wouldn't enjoy it, I still would. Hardcore and casual are just general terms to describe our tastes as gamers and our dedication to gaming. Take your head out off your ass, find a time machine and join us in the year 2010.

 

[Lucane]

Snip

Snip.

You missed part of the article's point. It wasn't saying the terms are good/right but that's how they are percieved. Example G.I. Joes are for boys and Barbies are for girls. In thier marketing and sells it's mostly true but not an absolute. Though the majority of the public thinks G.I. Joe can be for anyone while Barbie is just for girls or vice versa. but ones who think themselves at one end of the ladder or the other consciously or sub-consciously think it's true when it's not.

I'm in favor of just "gamer" by the way.

 

[Lucane]

This pseudo freudian analysis of gaming centering all about gender and stereotypes really says much more about the author of the article than it does about gaming. You are stuck in some decade long gone, it really makes me sick. There are plenty of female hardcore gamers and plenty more male casual gamers, but those are just examples they don't prove anything (only disprove your claim). Some people like RTS some people like shooters some like RPGs some like sims - it says nothing of them as people, only of their tastes. If I like playing with guns it isn't because i'm a guy its because I enjoy it, and if the whole world around me wouldn't enjoy it, I still would. Hardcore and casual are just general terms to describe our tastes as gamers and our dedication to gaming. Take your head out off your ass, find a time machine and join us in the year 2010.

If by chance (no offense on female gamers exsisting or not...) you ever play a few rounds in a FPS multiplayer how many women call each other or thier victims faggots/homos or I totally raped your behind?

 

[veloper]

this article is the worst load of bollocks