Do you know what a hard core gamer is? Few people do. If you play Call of Duty games religiously, then you are not a hardcore gamer. If you buy a ton of sports games, even on the day they come out, then you most definitely are not a hardcore gamer, not even by a little bit.
Now that you may feel thoroughly insulted. , let me put you through a small test to see if you are a hardcore gamer. The true hardcore will recognize the following phrases/characters and identify what game they came from:
-“The cake is a lie.”
-It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this!”
-Ridley
-Jumpman
“Here is a crowbar, Freeman.”
Now relatively speaking, those were easy. If you didn’t recognize a single one of those, but still have/had a meaty video game collection, then congratulations, you are a mainstream or “core” gamer. This isn’t a bad thing. You and your demographic dump more money into the gaming industry than any other. If you looked at that list were surprised that games actually might have dialogue, then you might be a casual gamer. This isn’t bad either…well…it can be. Let’s hash out the differences.
Mainstream gamers, you all stand the possibility of being the most annoying types of gamers in the industry.. You are the same ones that brag about being “real good” at shooting games and Madden. Well, that’s fine and all, here’s the thing about shooting and sports games, they have a shelf life. For example, do you know anyone that still plays Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1? Wait, what about the people that were so good at it? How about Madden 07? Halo 2? Nope, nope, and nope. Reason is, these games are meant to grab your interest for at most a year. After that, you the core gamer are supposed to buy the updated version of that game when it comes out. Repeat, ad nauseam. The developer/publisher isn’t going to keep the server of the old game running if the new hotness is on the way? The industry as a whole loves mainstream gamers because you are reliable, and will year after year dump money into a slightly upgraded version of the same game, usually to play it’s multiplayer. Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation sums it up best by saying “multiplayer alone cannot sell a game, because once the servers go offline, the game is useless.”
If you play World of Warcraft, it’s a little up in the air. If you play this game and it’s the only game, you play then who cares if you have five level 80 avatars, you’re a mainstream gamer. You may be a hardcore WoW player, but your knowledge about video games is limited to Azeroth.
Let’s talk about casual gamers. Well, thanks to you guys we have the Kinect. Yay? Also, because of you, we have the Sony Move. Negative yays all around. You are the type of gamer that buys every iteration of Rock Band, thinks Wii Sports is the only game the Wii is made for, and/or can count the number of games you have completed on one hand. Some casual gamers have a favorite series and will see the game through to the end everytime, but it’s usually only one series.
The industry has lately been trying very hard to capture this audience, but I personally believe that if you convert the casual to mainstream games instead of pandering to the casual (I’m looking at you Kinectimals), one would produce more favorable results.
Ah, the hardcore. My brethren. Forgive my bias, but this demographic is the one the game industry has a certain love for. The mainstream may be the ones with the true power, but it’s the hardcore that wear the title of “Gamer” proudly. Unlike the mainstream we don’t get a celebrated game once a year. Zelda games take 4 to 5 years to come out (console versions, not portable). We are STILL waiting for Half-Life 3. I think the Star Fox series just died for no reason. A new 2D Metroid game is now a fleeting dream. Notice how most of the games I listed are single player. This is because a hardcore gamer doesn’t necessarily need to play with anyone. Playing a game can be like reading a book, the game case its cover and the disc/cartridge its pages. I don’t know about you, but when I read a book I do so privately. For instance, I played Fallout 3 only when my wife was at work so I may immerse in the Capital Wasteland.
We don’t need big boobs, giant guns, or even realism in our games (though it helps from time to time). What we want is a good game. From scaling a colossus and stabbing it in the weak point to telling Vivi to cast Flare, we want our games to spark our imagination, perhaps to inspire us. Call of Duty: Black Ops, is not inspiring. It inspires me to play a different game, but its never threw my mind into thoughts of grandeur.
The purpose of this blog? To finally tell mainstream gamers to get over themselves. If you’re a good sniper in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, who cares? If you’re good at Wii Bowling, then who really cares? If you can beat The Legend of Zelda (NES) without the sword, now you have my undivided attention. The skill you attain in any FPS or sports games is based upon the skill of everyone else playing the same particular multiplayer game. Once everyone stops playing that game, your only hope is a sequel of the game so your skills may progress. No additional cognitive-thinking or problem solving skills involved.
A hardcore gamer can switch from God of War 3, to Killzone 2, to Mass Effect 2, and then to Final Fantasy X and can appreciate the control nuisances of all those games. Also, one would probably agree that those listed are some of the best games made.
Long and short of it, a mainstream gamer wil say Halo 3 or Modern Warfare 2 was the best game ever made. A Hardcore gamer might say the Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past or Portal was the best. My end point is we need more games like Portal, and less games like Halo. We have enough games like Halo, to which I could name like 20 right now. Frankly, I’m tired of games like Portal being a needle in a haystack.
Oh by the way, the answers were Portal, The Legend of Zelda(NES), any Metroid game expect Return of Samus, Donkey Kong, and any Half-Life game,
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