The Difference between Casual, Midcore and Hardcore Gamers

[Arion]

I'm not going to write an entire thesis on this topic and I'm no expert, but since I do get some questions about my Curator's (and group's) name from time to time, I thought I should clarify what the term, and other terms that are often used alongside it, means to me.

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Generally, I believe gamers can be loosely grouped into 3 major categories - casual, midcore or core, and hardcore.

Casual

This group mainly includes gamers who either 1. casually play games (only while doing something else or when idle) or 2. Casual gamers almost exclusively plays games that are considered "casual" like match-3, idle clickers, mahjong, solitaire, bubble shooters, etc, and exist - quite abundantly - on the mobile gaming platforms.

Hardcore

If you play competitive MMO games exclusively, you would probably have met these types of players. They almost always only play games that have a high skill ceiling; that are very challenging; that may require plenty time investment to be good at; and they thrive in highly competitive gaming environments. These players are also the type of players who are willing to put in a ton of time and effort into a single game day in and day out just to build those really magnificent creations in Minecraft or Boundless, for instance.

Personally, I also think these are the sort of players who would spend hours playing the same part of a game repeatedly in Dark Souls. For me, if I can't get through something after 30-60mins, I'll go find a walkthrough... and if the walkthrough fails, I'll just ditch the game :P

Hardcore gamers are very knowledgeable, in most part, about the gaming industry and community as a whole, and they may game excessively too by filling almost every free time they have playing one game or another. They often take pride in their high Game Completion score, especially for longer games (approx 40 hours and above average play time). I also guess it won't be too much of a stretch to say that these players spend a whole lot of money on games/gaming-related purchases.

Midcore/Core

.....and this brings us to the midpoint of both extremes - Midcore. To me, it mainly refers to players who still have a vested interest in a wide variety of games, but just don't have the time to invest into those games like hardcore gamers do. They are also more inclined to play casual games, more so than hardcore gamers, just to relax.

Naturally, both casual and hardcore are at the extreme ends of the gaming spectrum and midcore is somewhere in the middle. How "middle" are midcore gamers at? Well, personally, I think it fluctuates a lot depending on mood and interest. They can move a bit more towards the hardcore side of the spectrum at times, and sometimes, they just want to play something casual to wind down.

Most midcore gamers don't really "finish" a game as in getting a 100% completion rate and/or all achievements or playing all game modes right up to the highest difficulty like hardcore gamers do. Instead, they "finish" it by playing the most important story campaign and would probably spend one or two playthroughs-worth of time on a "long" game.

Now, regarding the casual side of midcore gamers, for me at least, when I'm playing casual or somewhat casual games, like time management or match-3, I have this irresistible urge to get three stars most of the time and would be more inclined to go back and replay levels just for the stars. I'm not sure if this applies to most midcore gamers though or it's just my OCD flaring up :P

That being said, I think most midcore gamers would enjoy "not too casual" genres like HOGs, time management, simple city builders, point-and-click adventure, etc, alongside more time-intensive games like RPGs, RTSes and shooters.

Where does The Midcore Gamer falls within the spectrum?

Well, I'd say... for most of the time, I'm somewhere between hardcore and midcore when it comes to Steam games, which are exactly the sort of games I review on my curator's page (Thanks capt obvious!).

But if I'm not playing on Steam, then the games would very likely be something more casual... like a game that I can play on the side while watching YouTube videos - two browsers ftw!

FYI, prior to really starting to develop my group and curator's page (was inspired to do so by a fellow curator whose dedication I really admire :) ), I don't really play a whole lot of Steam games, unless I bought some, and would spend a lot of my time just bingeing videos and TV shows, or just playing some FB/mobile games.

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Feel free to give your opinions and discuss about the topic in the comments :)