Casual/Hardcore isn't a useful way to discuss games

Fundamentally, here's the problem: the discussion should be the way we engage w/ games, right? Casual/hardcore implies a deeper understanding, but the actual divide usually refers to _time spent_

and there are... different degrees of time spent, right? Like, there's that guy who posts a lot on major internet forums and buys lots of funko pops but only buys games that are directly advertised to him and yells at people regarding what box they purchased to run software on

While casual/hardcore is a useful thing for data, it's not useful for discussing the actual consumption of the hobby, yeah?

Like, ever tried to have a conversation with someone about a game because you're both REALLY passionate about games, but you find that person doesn't actually want to discuss games in any sort of meaningful way?

I think this is where people start to get mad about the casual/hardcore divide. They're like "you're just discounting mobile games! there's a lot of people who spend lots of time playing mobile games! they're just as hardcore!" well... sorta. There's a difference in consumption.

Because of a lack of specificity, we end up talking past each other about certain topics. Two people might both consider themselves 'hardcore,' but one person is curious about how games work under the hood, and another isn't.

I grew up not being allowed to play games, so I had to do lots of modding for MS Flight Simulator as dad felt MSFS wasn't a game. I remember meeting some console kid in 2007 who got MAD when I said I modded games b/c I was compromising the developer's vision.

I would say both of us were "hardcore" in the terms of time spent, but he was not interested in the medium he consumed. His expression of hardcore was in the "you say get a life, but i have many lives" t-shirts, and I'm sure now has lots of funko pops.

he didn't care _about_ games, how they worked, what made them tick, what made them interested. He cared about the consumption of games. His way of appreciating the hobby was about consumption and showing people what a consumer he was. That is how he wanted to be seen.

I've met many people like this over the years--people who don't really _understand_ games, but think spending money and time buys them a kind of legitimacy (as if legitimacy in consumption of a hobby is meaningful, which it isn't).

I'm not really bothered by them...

except...

...when they say shit that puts down people who want to know more, who are interested in learning more. The consumer is driven by some kind of, I don't know, insecurity? That's why they need to let you know they're better than casuals, right?

So when they see people going "hmm, this game design has a problem," or something, anything that would push them to be more uncritical, rather than going "well, that's not how I appreciate games, that's not relevant to me," they... like, get in the way?

It's like how people will tell you that brand new Sony exclusive is pushing forward the medium and if you go "well, it's not doing anything other games haven't already done" they get mad because you're requiring them to think critically in some way. To put in some _effort_

They want to lap up what the marketing told them to and not have to actually, you know, study the medium or anything. They want to be seen as Great Gamers purely for their reactionary/consumptive behavior. That's why they're SO invested in that hardcore/casual divide.

I think most of the people I know who are actually hardcore--invested in how games work--are usually really chill in understanding that games aren't for everyone and there's a number of ways to enjoy the hobby.

But the consumer-types want to hold games back because they want to be on top. If you know more than them, then you become a threat to their presumed primacy.

the casual gamer is visible by how much merch they own, how narrow their tastes are, and, crucially, how mad they get at you if you're even remotely critical, because they want comfort over everything else. The kind of person who derives comfort from having posters and vinyl toys

It's the people who say "gaming cannot be more than what makes me personally happy."

I used to think everyone cared about games in the way I cared about games and I had to learn some people actually care about games in this very facile way. I always thought the merch at gamestop was like, what grandmas bought their kids. Cheap toys, the real meat was the games.

If there's someone out there who just, like, enjoys games and doesn't care about anything else, cool! you can do that! there is nothing wrong with this!

but woe be unto he who says "you must not go beyond this point. I'm not comfortable with people who know more than me"