For a topic that is debated as frequently as Casual vs. Hardcore, it’s pretty difficult to pin down the definitions of these two basic terms. To add to the complications their definitions are frequently fluid, and largely dependent on context, history, and even user bias. If you think that I surely must be joking, consider these examples:
- The T6-geared priest who logs in 15 hours a week- always and only to raid
- The hunter you spot in Shattrath decked out in the finest AH greens- but what you don’t know is this player’s passion is leveling, and this character is finishing out his full set of 70s. Oh, and that’s not counting his Horde server.
- That guy in your guild sitting on 90k gold because he farms while his programs compile
- The level 2 banker alt who has more days /played than the main from talking in trade
- The player who raids 5 nights a week, but has yet to down Vashj, because he started playing last June
Are these players casual or hardcore? The usual hallmarks- gear, time investment, wealth, alts- are all present, and yet none is inclusive or definitive enough to give us a universally applicable description of a casual or hardcore player. Arguments can be made either way.
In the World of Warcraft, it’s also become an issue of morality and pride. There are members of each camp who will wear the label like a badge of honor, while doing their level best to villify the opposition. (And this is the part that’s really strange to me, because the two are not inherent foes- at least, not until they’re used as a litmus test of a player’s self-worth.) The hardcore are basement-dwelling, fat sloths with no grip on reality or social norms. The casuals are players who lack the willpower, skill, intelligence, or drive to accomplish high-end goals in a short timeframe. Obviously, neither of these viewpoints is accurate, but in looking at mud that’s slung around, I think we begin to grasp the only real, solid difference between the casual and the hardcore bases: priorities.
No moral judgment is being levied here. Consider baseball. Someone who devotes many evenings a week to practices and weekends to games obviously has made baseball a priority in his life, but there is no implication that he is unsuccessful in other areas or that this is a blatant waste of time. Similarly someone who plays with their office team every other Sunday doesn’t necessarily lack the essential skills, but is unwilling to give the game as high a priority. Like everything in life, people assign priority to goals in the game and to the game itself, and the attention these receive is going to vary wildly from person to person. A good working definition (albeit a relative one) may be that casuals are players who, on the whole, place a lower priority on the game itself than hardcore players. They may still want the same things, but they are willing to accomplish them on longer timescales, or one item at a time.
So why the hate? An artificial hierarchy is established and constantly evolving in the form of the rewards the game offers, and this fuels a sense of deserving and irritates a sense of fairness. There’s also historical forces at play, as past MMOs have largely rewarded the extreme time investment of an elite few. In some senses the mudslinging is defensive because nobody likes to be insulted, and especially groundlessly insulted.
WoW has long been touted as the game that caters to everyone and every playstyle, and many players have embraced this as its strongest point. Asking for the hardcore and casuals to lay down arms is probably the Warcraft equivalent of requesting world peace, but without this variety, we’d have a much poorer game, no matter how we play.
