You and I probably feel differently about this whole "hardcore" thing -- matter fact, I'm sure we do. There are some insist that hardcore gamers must do certain things, play certain games, partake in specific experiences to deem themselves hardcore. Still others go on to define what they feel is a "true gamer", laying down all kinds of crazy criteria they deem necessary to weed out the gamers from, well, everybody else. Similarly, I've got my own ideas, chief among them the notion that the current climate of gaming has turned us all into pansies -- specifically, pansies dependent upon the domination of other, lesser pansies to make us feel less pansy.

And if you disagree, here's another question: when's the last time you picked up a shmup?

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