In their opinion, you are either casual or hardcore. There is no in between for the marketing committees who design the advertising push for the latest games from all of your favorite publishers. This is a symptom of the modern gaming problem, and quite possibly, the source from which all other evils flow.
Or perhaps I'm just being too dramatic.
Nevertheless, I've been quite unsettled by this dichotomous portrayal of the video game market. There are far more than two types of gamer out there, and there always has been. But in the past decade, this analysis of our favorite hobby has been more and more common, eventually becoming the manner by which all games are designated an audience. I can't recall the last time a game was made and sold without seeing one of the words in a preview/review blurb somewhere. It's no longer about the genres, and the fans of those genres. It's about cramming all games into two little bins, where the supposed mass for each variety comes and picks one of the two; a colorful click fest of little substance, or the dark and muddy killing floor. In these areas, genre loses meaning. The AAA role playing games don't even differ from this. Whether fantasy or sci-fi, acclaimed and heralded RPG's resemble first person shooters in tone and visual design, and no longer have the broad spectrum of designs that they have in past generations. Sure, some of the less mainstream JRPG's still play and feel Japanese, but let's stick to the big name stuff, for the sake of argument. A decade ago, we got things like Planescape: Torment, which was a bizarre and brilliant little title that still gets attention today. It was gritty and dark, but it also had a sense of humor, and was colorful. Now, Dragon Age and Fallout 3 are the flavors of the moment, and look almost like everything else that comes out now: dark browns and grays. I'm getting off track, and no, I don't plan to edit. I never edit this bloody thing anyway.
I ultimately want to beg gamers for another option insofar as how games are presented as they are being sold to us. So, I present to you, how I designate myself when I am presented with the casual/hardcore question.
I am a Traditional gamer.
This means that I still play the brand new Mario game, but don't mind a round of Call of Duty. I play Angry Birds when I get a chance and the mood hits, but I am cursing and tearing my way through Castlevania Bloodlines on the Genesis. I play classic games. I play modern games. I play Tetris on my Game Boy Pocket which is permanently located in the glove box of my car. I will play whatever I want to play, when I want to play it, and I don't care what people think of my gaming habits, as they are my own. This is the way we played games when I was a kid. We could jump from Mickey's Mousecapade over to Super Empire Strikes Back (still one of the hardest games I've ever played) and not even think about the switch-up which we played through.
And those of you doubting this concept by saying it's just another one of the aforementioned bins, I contest your opinion by saying that this isn't a bin. It's the whole world of gaming, presented to you, without the forced categorization. You can still go play WiiSports with your parents between sessions in Half-Life 2, and your position doesn't shift.
I still haven't revealed what would make this easy for the kids in marketing. The simple fact is that most of their so-called "hardcore" audience is already pointed at being a traditional gamer. Just think about it. There is a pretty good chance you have been playing games for a long time, depending on your age, and you have played through a good number of titles during your gaming tenure. Not all of these games were made with the "hardcore" in mind. In fact, some of them are sometimes considered "kid games" by modern standards, due to the lack of blood, gore, and sex. You know what? That's fine. You probably enjoyed them if you saw them through to the end. This idea that "hardcore" games have to be mature is immature anyway. This brings me to the next reason why this whole casual/hardcore bit bothers me.
Hardcore used to mean that you were a brilliant gamer, completing the hardest titles with little effort. I don't know any of the "hardcore" gamers who can do a perfect run of Ghosts and Goblins on the NES, or even a solid run at all. I sure as hell can't do it. I can't even clear the first level of that beast. The gamers who have played a single title into the ground, and know all of it's ins and outs are the true hardcore gamers. Without the Traditional moniker that gives us our free roam of the gaming landscape, we could get shuttled into the casual brand with this definition. But this brings me to my next little gripe.
I don't like the easy setting of a game being called Casual mode. Casual isn't a difficulty. Easy, Meduim, Hard, and others qualify as difficulty settings. Casual is a mode of dress, not a difficulty, and not a gaming audience. Now I'm just getting a bit repetitious and silly.
Ultimately, I want the landscape to grow, and gamers of all walks to stride into the future together. My mom was the one who beat the Mario games first in my house when I was a kid, and the Wii brought her back to video games. Despite the fact that she fits into the casual moniker doesn't make her less of a gamer than the person who dumps thousands of hours of their existence into playing World of Warcraft. Sure, she may not have the same sense of dedication, or even the same goals, but she is getting what the marathon WoW player is:
She's having fun. Isn't that what this entire hobby is all about?
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