May 27 2008
This… is… MIDCORE!
In an MMO, guilds and players define themselves as either “hardcore” or “casual” and there seems to be very little middle ground between the two. The reason why guilds do this is to attract players that are like minded and have similar objectives to them. The reason why players do this is to define themselves when looking for a guild. Unfortunately, I believe that these terms have been bastardized over time. At one time I believed that “hardcore” when applied to MMOs meant that you invested 40+ hours a week to raiding minimum. Casual was a term given to guilds that raided but didn’t require attendance, at least not as much as the hardcore guilds.
These definitions of “hardcore” and “casual” have changed over the years from their MMO-centric definitions to now conform with the console and general gaming definitions of the words. As I’ve been told by others, hardcore means “skilled” and casual means “dumbass”. You see, when you are a console gamer and you play 1, maybe 2 hours a week (or less), you are a casual gamer. Gamers who usually play this little, generally suck and don’t play games very well in general. They rerely beat games and generally don’t compete in online play. Hardcore gamers on the other hand play games in general 20+ hours a week.
The thing that’s confusign is that MMOs require 20+ hours a week of general committment if you think you’re going to develop your character. Some weeks less, some weeks more. So as my friend puts it, the very fact that you play an MMO means that you are NOT a casual gamer. But there still needs to be a definition for a hardcore gamer that is not a HARDCORE raider.
I’m going to coin a new term, “midcore”. Midcore is a mix of hardcore and casual mentality. Midcore by my definition is a guild or player that requires or has Hardcore skill and pride in character development, but casual game play commitments and requirements. So there you have it. I am a midcore MMO player. Hit it like you mean it is a midcore guild.