What is hardcore? That is a question that has been bugging me for ages now. So I began to deconstruct it, let's take hardcore apart...

The literal beginning of it is in the name, (doi) and is part of the expansion of masculine dominant cultural thinking, to be "hard" made you a solid representation of masculinity and as gaming began as a masculine space, positve masculine myths became the dominant schema of it. As a simple example, how many male gamers would choose "soft" over "hard" as a title? Sweet fuck all, that's how much.

So we have a gender based image myth as the descrption of gaming, so we have built on that as a method of understanding gamers. "Hardcore" has almost become a synonym for "true" in terms of gaming, as though anything else is a lie.

But really, what the fuck is "hardcore"?

What is the test? What is the way of knowing?

I know a 56 year old woman who is HUGEST Zelda fan. That's all she plays is Zelda games, and she plays them well. She is billiant at Zelda. That's it. She would own you at Zelda because she owned me at Zelda, ME. So what is the defenition of Hardcore when the parameters can be so diverse. I'd have thought that being a genius at Zelda would have put you into the Hardcore category, but the hardcore category is not usually occupied by late fifties women.

My point is, and this extends to the title of "Hardcore Gaming Blog" at the top of my browser, is that the whole concept is bullshit.

It is a way of ostricising people. Humans are terrified of ostricism so we always make sure to ostricise others, that way we are part of the group. So the downtrodden geeks find titles to separate ourselves from the "not-us", and, as always, it is to the detrement of our art.

You are not hardcore. Put your genitals and respective hormones away. You are a twit trying to feel good by creating a space where you can make others feel bad. This hurts the legitimacy of gaming, it makes it a non-art dominated by a selfish clique,

I'm reminded of a line from the epic "Monkey" by Wu Cheng En, in which was said "An adept never says they are an adept".

The title of "harcore" needs to die. If you are at any level of competancy, one that might have previously earned the title, you should know, you don't need to be told.

RIP Hardcore...
You were a self-applied title used by a self-hating group who needed to feel better by creating a special award for themselves, now you are a useless lingual archetype peddled by morons who can't back it up with substance.