casual gaming

[escapistrules]

for the first time today, i was called a casual gamer. they said it was because i didnt put the time in that they did, and that i shouldn't be playing at all (i am leaving the name of the game out to reduce biases). my response to this was "i dont play to be the best, i play for fun" and for the rest of the time with these people, all i received was complaints about how im just a casual and how im ruining the game industry.

so my question is this, am i in the wrong for only playing for fun?

 

[Souplex]

Playing just for fun in your spare time is the very definition of casual.
Most "Hardcore" gamers are casual gamers.

 

[The Shade]

No. Of course not. What a silly question.

Our hobby is gaming, aka playing games. There's a reason it's part of the "Entertainment" industry. The whole point of gaming is for entertainment.

What else could you possibly be getting out of it? Unless you're Korean, you're not making a career out of it any time soon.

I would say if anyone is playing games wrong, it's whoever told you all that nonsense.

 

[DarthRiko]

I prefer to title people by their choice in games, not their gameplay time.

Person plays Borderlands for 2 hours a week? Gamer.
Person plays Bejeweled for 10 hours a day? Casual gamer.

Is it a bad thing to be either person? No.

Just ignore the idiots who judge people by a label they assign.

 

[escapistrules]

it just gets annoying somtimes. i thought i was right, but i just wanted a second opinion.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Would hardcore and casual not be better suited to describing your overall experience of games, so generally speaking someone who has only played through a few browser based games on iphones, or has only had a few games of COD or Halo or Pokemon under their belt, who doesn't really bother with getting to know about the industry, about the different platforms for games, the different genres, to experiment with their preferences and try other things on the gaming market, that would be a casual gamer.

A Hardcore gamer would be someone who has played and thought about a wide range of videogames, on several platforms, has a wide knowledge of the industry, and keeps up with the latest gaming news. They can tell you about the different genres of games, maybe even some of the games companies. I would say it's not really about the time you put into gaming, but the enthusiasm to know and learn more about it (although actually gaming is the best way to do this)

 

[Coffinshaker]

man, don't listen to all that "you gotta play hardcore or get out" trash. play how YOU want! otherwise it's just work.

 

[Chasing-The-Light]

I dont mine being called a casual gamer. I buy games, I play through them a few times and I enjoy my time. If they're really good I'll go back and play them months later, and what not. But I'm not going to go through a game a hundred times and figure every little thing out about it, have everything, and be... well... competitive over it. I think that takes away from the fun of games. Sure there's a sense of completion there, but I thought we were buying games to entertain ourselves with, not to complete dominate it to the point of being a jerk to anyone who doesn't appreciate it nearly as much as you.

 

[ChickenZombie]

If you dont play a game for fun... you have a problem.

You are the correct person here, they take their video games too seriously. It's got the word GAME in it, it's meant for entertainment, not consuming your life.

 

[sivlin]

We all play games to have fun. Some people play to be the best, others to just enjoy the game. Regardless of how you play you are entitled to have fun doing so. The only difference between a casual and hardcore gamer is who you would rather have on your team in a competition IMO .

 

[Raggedstar]

Aaaaand this is why we need to "clean up"...somehow. Beats me why some people treat games as an ultra-elitist cult where only the worthy may tread. Games are games. They're for fun and entertainment (among other things but none of them really hold up the way that those guys say). Unless you're a game reviewer, designer, etc, fun is the biggest reason why you should be playing in the first place.

I've been called casual before mostly because I play Farmville as a guilty pleasure and own games like Nintendogs. But at the same time I also like Assassin's Creed, Jak and Daxter, Spyro, Zelda, Pokemon, Portal, Ratchet and Clank, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Sonic (er, some), Sly Cooper, Okami, Mario, Shadow Of The Colossus, Kingdom Hearts, Crash Bandicoot, and a bunch of others. And then I play Farmville for a little bit and I'm suddenly tainting sacred ground. Though there are others who will basically draw the line at "no one hardcore plays anything that doesn't have brains splattering in glorious HD".

Not that I care.

 

[Dethenger]

The lines between hardcore and casual are so blurred that it's a dichotomy that may as well not even exist.
As far as I'm concerned, it's all about how invested you are in the game you're playing. That may or may not reflect in how long you play it, or how good at it you are. If it does, great. If it doesn't, whatever. If you played the campaign of Halo: Reach just once to see if it was a good as the novel (and subsequently found out that it wasn't) or see how it fit into the canon (it didn't), you are more invested in the Halo series than a drone who plays the multiplayer for a thousand hours (which is not to say that everyone who plays the Halo multiplayer can't be just as invested, but come on).

 

[staika]

You have just discovered one of the reasons I don't like to play online that much, too many lifeless people who play the game too much and get way too good and all the douchebags just don't make it fun.

 

[nothingspringstomind]

They're just bigots. And every corner of society has bigots.

Just ignore them, you play games, you have fun.

That's the point.

 

[BlackLurker]

The way I see it, there's a reason Video Games are part of the -Entertainment- Industry. Because you -play- them. And hopefully, you -play- for -fun-. Not much other reason to -play- things.

Hard Core Gamers are prejudice judgemental assholes.

The only person who has the right to say anything to you about playing games for fun is someone who actually earns money through playing games. And we can all agree that those people are normally not dicks, and actually earning money from playing games is pimp enough that they can get a ribbing or two in, although if they seriously demean you for it, then they're assholes, too.

Games are -Fun-. Play what you like. Ignore idiots who say you shouldn't play what you like and play what they accept, because half the time they don't even like it. They're just hardwired into it like trained hamsters. Only the hamsters are assholes.