Pass the Milk- In Defense of “Hardcore” Gaming

I’d ask you to do a quick google image search for the phrase “hardcore gamer”, but if you’re familiar with gaming at all you don’t need to. Heck, you probably wouldn’t need to even if you weren’t very familiar with gaming, because everyone knows what a hardcore gamer looks like- a disheveled young white dude (using “dude” in the truest sense of the word here) playing games in a dirty room looking angry. Two weeks ago Jennifer wrote a great post looking at the stereotypes and judgments often made about casual gaming. I completely agree that the arbitrary dismissal of casual games/gamers is a problem, but I’d argue that the way we think about what it means to be a hardcore gamer is part of the same problem: values judgements about games and gamers.

In my purely anecdotal experience, very few people want to call themselves hardcore gamers, regardless of the types of game they play, the amount of time they spend gaming, or their skill at their games.  Perhaps I’m just hanging with the wrong crew, but every person I’ve spoken with has a reason they’re not a hardcore gamer: “I don’t play the right games, hardcore gamers only play X, Y, Z”; “I’m not good enough, hardcore gamers are in challenger tier or have 2200 arena ranking”; “I only play this much a week/I have a life”.  While there may be “right” and “wrong” games to play to be a “real” gamer (scare quotes used liberally in that sentence), it would seem that there are also right and wrong ways to play those games: you should play, but not too much; you should be good, but not too good. You should like gaming, but you shouldn’t be too into it. You shouldn’t be “that guy” (and trust me, it’s always a guy).

There’s a real discomfort that underlies all of these disavowals of the hardcore label. In the past I’ve been fairly involved in both raiding and in pvping in World of Warcraft. When I raided, back during the Burning Crusades and Wrath of the Lich King expansions, I was in guilds that had required attendance (minimum three nights a week, sometimes four), gear/spec/itemization requirements, and codified loot systems. You earned points for being on time, for having all of your reagents, and for various in-game actions and successes. You lost points for doing things that would detract from the raid group as a whole. It was a similar situation when I was heavily into PvP in regards to with gear and ability expectations. We had practice nights when we would go into normal battle grounds and try out different strategies or duel each other to test new specs or gear. In both cases I spent a fair amount of time outside the game reading- keeping on top of my class and all the changes, looking at how other people played the same role, checking out various tactics and strats.

In none of that time did I think I was a hardcore gamer. Sure, sometimes I used the term hardcore in reference to the groups- I’m in a hardcore raiding guild, I run with a hardcore battlegrounds group, but I never really used it to refer to me (and in fact deflected when asked). Because I still kept up with my work. Because I had friends outside of the game. Because my dishes were done and my clothes were clean. If I reflect really critically, my reasons for not calling myself a hardcore gamer (at least during those times) had nothing to do with my gaming habits.

All of this seems to imply that there’s something shameful about really being involved or good at games, that being too invested is a sign that something isn’t right. And, if being too involved in games is a shameful thing, doesn’t that mean that there’s something shameful about gaming in general? That in small, carefully rationed measures it’s ok, but anything more than that is wrong? Sure enough, while I absolutely loved battlegrounds, loved the thrill and loved the group I was running with, I felt a bit ashamed about telling other people about my gaming habits. I brushed it off quite a bit- oh, yeah, it’s just this thing I do. It’s not a big deal, haha, it’s silly, isn’t it? Because if I were serious, I would be one of the “bad gamers”, one of the ones that’s too involved. I would have been a hardcore gamer.

Part and parcel of changing the casual gamer stereotype is changing the hardcore gamer stereotype. Neither is any more or less real than the other, neither is any more or less correct than the other. As Jenn pointed out, they’re not even mutually-exclusive: tons of gamers play both casual games and play games at a hardcore level (whatever that means). I would add that they’re not statics categories either- I find myself constantly swinging between a more hardcore approach to gaming and a more casual approach, simply depending on what I’ve got going on in my world and what I’m interested in at the time.

Changing our definitions of either term requires us to broaden our consideration of what it means to be a gamer of any stripe- something we desperately need. So I’ll say it: I was a hardcore gamer. And I’m not ashamed.

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