First c-blog post, ready, set, go!

For as long as there is even the slightest difference among people, they will fight and argue over it. That’s not to say there is only a slight difference among hardcore and casual gamers, but my point still stands. While there are a bunch of labels among gaming, hardcore and casual happen to be among the most common and somehow led to an “us vs. them” mindset. It’s quite common for hardcore to be labeled as “hardcore” these days. Not that these labels are likely to go away, especially since they are a way to target gamers with different habits and interests. Labels just happen to be a way for people to quickly identify themselves and others. It’s not like I’m calling an end for labels being used, since that would be nearly impossible, would it not? Due to the Wii existing, this hardcore vs. casual civil war has only gotten a lot worse. Hardcore gamers are stereotyped as hating the Wii along with any games that are not male power fantasies. Casual gamers are stereotyped as not knowing what a good game is and as being a part of ruining gaming. There’s also the non-gamer stereotype that the gaming community introduced as a result of the Wii, but I won’t get into that here.

Every since the Wii made its existence known, many people who Identify themselves as hardcore gamers now identify themselves as core gamers. It’s like the meaning of hardcore gamer has changed from “a person who likes to play video games a lot” to “a person who is an elitist that hates anyone who isn’t like them and only likes games with a bunch of violence and/or sexual content”. Personally, I wouldn’t have any problems identifying myself as a hardcore gamer, but since hardcore gamers as a whole these days are labeled negatively by popular opinion, I just call myself a gamer and hope to not be judged by those stereotypes before people even get to know me.

Now, let me make this clear. I’m not saying it’s the Wii fault for suddenly causing this, but a fault of many gamers for how they reacted to the Wii. How often have you seen something along the lines of “the hardcore have abandoned Nintendo”, “the hardcore hate the Wii”, “hardcore gamers only care about more of the same with better graphics” and more such generalizations? How often did such generalizations exist before the Wii entered the picture? Could things possibly get even worse once Sony’s and Microsoft’s answer to the Wiimote enters the market?

I think the gaming community would be better off without all the in-fighting between the labels. What have we gained from this? I know marketing may use the term casual to appeal to people who wouldn’t touch a standard game considered hardcore. However, aside from marketing, do we as a gaming community gain much from this? Regardless if we’re hardcore, casual, retro, professional, or whatever else kind of gamers, we’re all still gamers are we not? The different labels are different ways of expressing how one enjoys gaming. Of course, just because we’re all gamers doesn’t mean we will all get along. I’m not expecting a Best Friends Forever thing going on here, since playing video games doesn’t mean the other human traits that lead to conflict are suddenly missing. However, I do see this as a growing problem that can be fixed with effort a lot easier than many other problems within the gaming community.

Compared to other entertainment medias, do people in other communities like music, movies, or comic books fight so much over labels like the gaming community does? One step toward gaming maturing and growing up as an art form (at least in the eyes of non-gamers) is for the community as a whole to improve. Maybe people who want to become gamers, but don’t want to get involved with the gaming community since it appears we fight over every little thing, could be one possible factor in not joining. However, that could be a topic for another time. I can’t be the only one who thinks that over time, the gaming community only gets worse. Sure there’s a long way to go and there are many other pressing issues like console fanboys, but I think the hardcore vs. casual civil war is a start that can be dealt with.