I'd argue that there are 3 entirely different levels of gamer here.
There is the casual gamer, if you can even call them that.
These are people like my parents, who don't really like videogames all that much.
They kind of find it overwhelmingly confusing, but if they find out about a fun social game to play then they will play it.
Beginner doesn't even come into it until the second level, the what people seem to be calling the "core" gamer.
These are people that are either getting back into gaming as a hobby, (they may have been exposed to it as kids, but it didn't really stick), or people who just like playing videogames as a hobby.
They don't care about the industry, they don't care about the make-up of the games themselves.
They like to play the games their friends play, and they stick to series they know as "safe".
These guys may have 1 or two consoles, maybe 2 gen iterations. (Like a PS2 and a PS3)
They tend to play Call of Duty, Forza/Gran Turismo, Fifa and other games based on physical things in our world.
Nitendo USED to cater to this group, with Mario and Zelda, until they released the Wii and the DS,(they relied on the thrid parties to pick up the slack, which they did on the DS, but definately didn't on the Wii).
However, after realising the fickleness of casuals and the fact that they don't have the expertise to keep up with that market, they are going back to this area and the hardcore/enthusiast area (mostly enthusiast).
The final "level" is the hardcore/enthusiast.
This is a sort of fork in the road, but not exactly.
You see, at some point a certain genre will stick to someone and they will become almost obsessed with it.
This is where all the "hardcore" go.
(Like, Fighters, Real time strategers, and RPGers)
They will try to learn everything about that genre; the mechanics, the industry, and at some point even other players.
Communities form, hell, even tournaments and in some cases, dev studios that are tailored to the interests of these people.
I kind of border on the fighting game scene. I know OTG is off the ground, in the context of combo-ing, and I know about frame's for 2D fighters, but I'm no expert. I don't spend loads of time mastering techniques and strategies, its still a learn to play pretty well and have fun thing for me.
And here comes the other fork, where I mostly fit into. The enthusiast.
These people are very broad in terms of genres, consoles and games they own and play.
These guys actively research into the idustry and game making as a whole, and they frequent around a lot of general forums on gaming sites.
They will probably own a lot of games, maybe hundreds or rarely thousands, and they will talk about anything at any time.
They like to form groups and play for fun on games like Borderlands ect.
But they also take risks, and play lots of obscure games and genres.
These guys are likely to know the best deals, buy used games (especially retro stuff), and passionately argue about things.
Its a very broad area though, so specific characteristics are impossible to determine.
Of course, this is all a generalisation. Its more of a path or a road but with points where people can just jump on.
