Hardcore gamers are a difficult bunch to define. Some people think it’s logging 2,000 plus hours in something as archaic as Counter-Strike. To others, it means treating WoW or any other MMO as a second (or primary) job.  Still others think it means knowing how to conjugate “pwn” and editing your config files beyond what the game’s interface allows.

While the industry pretends to cater to the hardcore, especially since most game journalists can be classified as “hardcore”, the money is shifting. And where the dollars go, the industry goes. Despite a few standouts like hexagonal war games, text-based sports simulators, and Derek “I’m smarter than you but you don’t know it yet” Smart Wreckreations™, most games are designed to appeal to as many people as possible.

Yes, those of us that have been playing these things since the early eighties consider those that don’t know immediately 80-90% of a new game’s mechanics to be new, casual, or otherwise inferior players.  Do you not remember your roots?  How weird did WASD seem the first time, much less using the mouse for looking and shooting?  That first RTS interface probably seemed downright archaic.  Real-time RPGs surely frustrated those of us that grew up on the Ultimas, Bard’s Tales, and Wizardries of the world.

At this point, those that consider themselves “hardcore” now consider console players “newbies”, “casual”, and usually much more salty descriptions. Roots, people, roots. Things have changed. You no longer have to configure your EMS memory and have a special boot disk to force Doom to run.  16 colors is not EGA – it’s Safe Mode.  Voodoo cards are as existent as voodoo itself. 

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