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6 Degrees of Gamers

pretty good article on gamers...where would you rate yourself?
i would be a little verison of hardcore...dont have THAT much info but i would give gaming preference to social life(unless its online) :p
taken from http://www.2old2play.com/modules.php...rder=0&thold=0

Quote:

The Society of Gaming
Written on Tuesday, January 17 @ 11:08:03 EST by trupundit

Adult gamers are all the same, right? Ask any non-gamer, and they’ll tell you. We’re all a bunch of slackers who never grew up. A bunch of overgrown kids who spend their money on games, when there are REAL ways we could be spending our money, like on mini-vans with doors that open by themselves. Of course, gamers don't work very hard to change the perception of non-gamers. We could generally care less about the opinion of someone who thinks Halo, “is about some angel or something.” Still, any community tends to define itself in some way, so perhaps it’s time the gaming community does the same. Gamers are a diverse group, but most fall into one of six categories. Those are: Hard Core, Devoted, Pretend Hard Core, Casual, Clueless and Worthless.

Hard Core gamers are, at once, both the easiest and the hardest to define. Especially because there are so many gamers who will be crushed to learn that they really aren’t one. We’ll start with some demographic information. As heartless as this sounds, your average Hard Core gamer is not married. Now, I’m not talking about that rare, lucky gamer who met, dated and married another gamer. That group is too small to warrant classification. No, for most Hard Core gamers, marriage is one of many things that must be sacrificed in pursuit of their true life’s passion.

Hard Core gamers know games and gaming the way doctors know the bones of the body, artists know the color palette, and busty blondes know how to avoid traffic tickets. In other words, Hard Core gamers know it all. When they send a correction to a gaming magazine, the magazine prints it. When you tell them you tried to make an Asteroids-type game in the seventh grade, they tell you it must have been the ninth grade, because Asteroids wasn’t out when you were in the seventh grade, and they’re RIGHT. They may not be the absolute best player on every game, but, if you pick five games randomly, they’ll kick your ass in all five. True Hard Core gamers aren’t all that common, but you probably know at least a few. They are generally happy people who have their lives figured out, and are proud of their gaming knowledge and prowess.

While Hard Core gamers have the pulse of the entire industry, Devoted gamers have a singular obsession – The One Game, whichever it may be. I have never been a Hard Core Gamer, but I have definitely been a Devoted one. Most gamers have been, at one time or another. When you spend months, and sometimes years on the same game, generally forsaking all others, you’re Devoted. I’m a Devoted Halo II player right now. Some of you may be too. I occasionally play something else, but I always go back to the Master Chief.

Being a Devoted gamer is mostly a good gig, especially if you find a group of other gamers who are devoted to your game too. In that situation, you have people who understand your constant game references, laugh at your game-related jokes, and don’t think it’s weird at all when you start a sentence with, “I was thinking of a new strategy in the shower this morning.” A Devoted gamer may be able to give a Hard Core gamer a tough time in their One Game, but they lack the Hard Core depth.

There is a smaller subset of the Devoted gamer group. A darker subset. The Addict. Addicts place the One Game above, not just other games, but also above most other elements of life itself. For Addicts, daily decisions are pretty easy. Go to a ballgame or Play The Game? Play The Game. Invest time in a life-enriching relationship, or Play The Game? Play The Game. Take a shower or play The Game? You get the idea. This subset is most often found among devotees of MMORPG’s, but you can find them for just about any game. Many times, non-Addicts will call themselves Addicts because they play a particular game a lot. However, most of them play it because they like it, not because they need it. The Addict needs it.

Next on our tour of the gaming society is the Pretend Hard Core gamer, or PHC gamer. PHC gamers do know a thing or two about gaming, but they like to appear as though they know far more than they really do. Although they can fool casual gamers, they’re in trouble when they run into true Hard Core gamers. The PHC gamer is all about appearance. They like being thought of as someone who has an incredible depth of knowledge, but they aren’t willing to invest the time to actually acquire that depth. PHC gamers are usually pretty good people, except for the occasional arrogant ones who REALLY try to make you think they know everything about everything.

That brings us to Casual gamers. This group needs very little definition – you know what a Casual gamer is. They like to game, but it’s generally one of many hobbies, and is no more important than any of the other ones. Casual gamers tend to play only those games that get good reviews and sell a lot of copies. They’re not interested in experimenting with Genre-molding new concepts in gaming – they just want to have fun for an hour or so. Due to this lack of dedication to gaming, you won’t see many Casual gamers on games that require large time investments, such as MMORPGs. On the other hand, if you’re in a game, and there’s a player who isn’t all that good, but sure is laughing and having a good time with it, they’re probably a Casual gamer. I was a Casual gamer for the first few years of my marriage, back when we were in that Newlywed “let’s do just everything together” phase. Now that we’re older and have realized it’s OK for us to have our own lives within our marriage, I spend much more time gaming, and, as I mentioned earlier, have become a Devoted Halo II player.

That brings us to a brief stop on the Clueless gamer. This is another type you probably don’t need defined. Some Clueless gamers buy a lot of games, but they’re not very good at any of them, and they give up on them before they can become good. These are the gamers who do things that puzzle you, make a lot of mistakes and get pretty frustrated by that, but also aren’t willing to listen to any suggestions or invest any time to improve. Their general attitude is that if they have to work at a game to be any good at it, then it must nt be a very well-designed game. They may be big fans of games like Solitaire.

Finally, we get to the Worthless gamer. These are the gamers who, for a wide-range of reasons, make gaming worse for everyone else. They go by many names: Cheaters, Hackers, De-levelers, Screamers, Punks, Jackasses and our own favorite, Timmies. Entire gaming communities, such as our very own 2old2play, emerged as a reaction to the Worthless gamer. Worthless gamers are a cancer on the gaming world, and millions of dollars and thousands of hours are spent every year by companies to thwart them, gamers to report them, and message board posters to vilify them. They are the one topic the other five gamer types can all agree on, because they are universally despised.

Well, that about wraps it up. Have you figured out which gamer type you are? Do you wish you were some other type? Don’t worry, we all secretly wish we were Hard Core gamers, but it just isn’t in the cards for most of us. Thankfully, the gaming world is so diverse that, no matter what games you like, and what type of gamer you are, there’s a place for you. If you haven’t found that place yet, then you’ve taken a good first step by visiting us here at 2old2play.com. We hope you’ll be back, but if not, we hope even more that you find the gaming fun you’re looking for with a group of friends you enjoy spending time with. And remember, ultimately, it’s just a game (Yes it is, Addicts. Accept it).

I'm just a casual gamer. Playing computer games doesn't interest me further than having something to do when I'm bored. I love computer games, but I wouldn't give stuff up for them.

I'd dare say I'm a Hard core gamer. I live and breathe the industry.

I don't really fit into any of the categories. And it seems there's a slight bias towards the hardcore gamers :)

I consider myself a pretty hardcore gamer... but according that article I'm probably a pretend hardcore gamer. :P

Seriously though, I play games. That's what I do. I've fallen out of console games in the past five years because it seems like all of the originality and innovation is gone, but I've more than compensated with PC games since then. I've been subscribed to almost all of the major MMORPG's out there-- UO, Everquest, Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call 2, City of Heroes, Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft. My main problem with them is, I'm too busy playing as many games as I can, to focus on a single MMORPG character, so I end up never hitting the level caps. My attention span is just too short. I have to play EVERYTHING!

I think I would fall into the devout gamer. I love a few games and I put all my effort into those few games. Like CyCo PL I played a lot of the MMOs but only UO EQ and WoW kept my attention. The other ones I tried but they didnt live up to the hype for me. But man in the games I like watch out.

A nicely relevant article from GameDaily Biz.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/myturn/?id=11598

Quote:

Hardcore Is Mainstream

Ziff Davis Game Group's Editorial Director John Davison takes "his turn" to shed some light on hardcore gamers. Davison argues that the video game industry needs to embrace its core audience rather than constantly pitch to the mainstream.

As a collection of interrelated industries, whether we create games, sell them, or talk about them, we all seem to be obsessed with pigeonholing our consumers. It seems that every year, whether it's because of a new system launch or the enormous dollar value of our business, the word "mainstream" crops up as we hope that some mythical group of supercool casual types will flock toward videogaming, thus legitimizing our ghettoized and picked-upon efforts.

Nonsense! By the very nature of our roots, we are an enthusiast-driven industry. Our growth is predicated on consumers discovering computer and video games, being converted to our faith, immersing themselves in the culture, and taking it as their preferred form of entertainment. We need hardcore gamers. We need their passion, and their dollars, and we should never take our eyes off them.

Why? Because core gamers are the key to making videogames "mainstream."

Buh?

At E3 this year, J Allard spoke of "Striker," a consumer described as "our hardcore gamer, the lifeblood of the industry today, the guy that stands in line for 24 hours to get his hands on the next hot release first. He's a fast-twitch gamer who'll play for hours to master every level and every move before he mixes it up online with the best of the best." He really is the lifeblood of our industry, but we need to speak of him not just as an elite form of superconsumer; we need to think of him as our ultimate prize.

There's a notion that a "core gamer" is a particular type of person. We tend to define him anecdotally in terms of a limited demographic and a narrow set of tastes aside from gaming. A core gamer, we are all led to believe, is someone more interested in playing Dragon Quest VIII than speaking to a girl. He's a Nintendophile, has a questionable attitude toward personal hygiene, rarely socializes in the real world, idolizes Japanese developers, and gets his kicks from hentai. Sure, that's one particular kind of core gamer, but what if we look at this differently?

Some of you may be familiar with the Digital Gaming in America study. It's a blind study of U.S. households projected to the entire population. From it we find that within the 115 million households in the United States, 76.2 million people play computer or videogames of some sort -- an impressive statistic on its own for an enthusiast-driven business. Breaking that group down though, if we define a core gamer as someone who has bought four or more games in the past six months and plays 10 or more hours a week, we learn that there are 19.8 million of these people in the country. They represent 56 percent of the total games industry revenue and spend an average of $546 a year on games. With that in mind, it's safe to say that we are pretty far from really owning these folks.

So what is being "hardcore?" It's a form of behavior rather than an expression of taste. Really, being a core gamer is choosing to play games above any other form of entertainment. Any game can be responsible, and the step toward playing 10 hours a week or more is just the beginning of the journey. Microsoft rightly told us at E3 that "Not everyone is driven by the need to crush his opponent on the field of battle," but this doesn't immediately relegate these gamers to the rank of being "casual," does it? If you play Civilization IV for a couple of hours every night instead of reading a book, what are you? If you're one of the 5 million people playing World of WarCraft and you're a level 60 player with 600 hours logged but you never play any other game, what are you? Hardcore gaming behavior manifests itself in more ways than we tend to acknowledge, and the "gateway drug" is rarely something that's actually designed to be just that. All it takes is a single experience introduced by a friend or sparked by reading something in a magazine or online.

Bev "Grannie Gamer" McClain is 60, from Kansas, and plays videogames with a passion few of us can match. She's a regular blogger on 1UP.com and very actively part of gamer culture. She's about as far from the stereotype as it's possible to get, yet by the DGIA's criteria, she's a core gamer. She discovered games when her daughter sent her a copy of Myst for her birthday, and she was completely blown away. "Where else can a 60-year-old woman be eternally young and strong and omnipotent?" she asks. "If I can't solve the problems of the real world I live in, then I'll settle for solving world hunger and establishing peace, prosperity, and justice for all in my games!"

As the risks and costs involved with producing games continue to escalate, the need to push growth and become "mainstream" becomes more and more pressing each year. Fortunately, our greatest asset is our core audience. These guys embrace quality experiences; they evangelize with a passion that is rarely tapped to its full effect. According to the DGIA, a core gamer will spend five hours a week talking to friends about games, and they'll give up to seven people buying advice in a month.

Pitching directly to what we think is the mainstream audience is all well and good, but for true results we have to continue to engage and nurture our relationships with the ever-growing ranks of the hardcore. Only by providing them with the experiences and information they crave and nurturing community at a more grassroots level can we strengthen the foundation of our business and continue to grow. As we've all no doubt heard a thousand times from endless polls and surveys, it's the sphere of influence around these core gamers that is our most powerful tool.

Remember: There are nearly 20 million of them now.

I'm mostly a devoted gamer. My last few games have been (starting with the first) GT3, BF1942, TrackMania, and now I've been playing WoW nonstop since May. Without a current "one game" I'm definitely a casual gamer, although I live with a pure bred hardcore gamer. No job, but knows libraries of information about games I've never even heard of.

Currently I'm finally starting to actually wind down in WoW a bit. For a while I would keep on finding new aspects that would each entertain me for a few more months.

I don't think I'd be as devoted as I am unless my gf didn't play all the time... with wow I probably leaned a bit towards "the addict" for a while, forfeiting a number of things for it. But I had a helluva lot of fun and could only have done it with my gf doing it as well. (I kept a job during that time as well with no problem) To each his own :D

I guess I fall somewhere between devoted and casual. I tend to stick with one game at a time, but I also play other games when I need a change, and true most of the other games I play were ones I was previous devoted to. I take breaks from my games, just to keep them fresh, so I lag behind the curve.

I have a friend that I consider to be hard-core, he would come into work after 2-3 hours of sleep cause he was playing all night. He regular takes days off work to play new games, and his vacations usually consisted of a full week of 20 hr a day gaming. All he talks about is games, and what's coming out, and very active in posting on games that are "coming soon". At times I envy the time he can devote, but only for a second.

Devoted all the way. I do need sex as well as my games.

is there a degree that includes: playing videogames as much as I can while keeping the girlfriend happy and the GPA at 3.7?

None. The amount of time I play is casual, but my knowledge and breadth of games I've played is broad. Probably because I used to be more into them, but have had less and less time. But hard core gamers being better skilled? Puhleez, they usually lack a higher education and therefore lack some higher forms of thinking that can be put to good use in strategy and tactics. Although I think we may have different definitions of hardcore, the author doesnt go into much depth in defining the terms.

I guess I'm a casual gamer by these standards, though when certain games come out I'm a devoted gamer. The last one of those I can think of though is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I buy at least 2 games per month, own two consoles and a handheld, and play my friend's games while I'm at their houses, but I have other, more important things to do as well.

My kids have been the main reason why I've never ventured into the world of MMORPGs, though I'd really like to at some point (actually, come to think of it, I've never bought any computer game). They seem like they'd be alot of fun, but I just know I can't devote the time to them that I'd want to, or I'd end up playing them all the time, and not play with the kids.

Whatever category I'm in, I'm comfortable with it. Though I think if I didn't have children I'd have been "hardcore" long ago.

I didn't read all of that-- if I had, I'd be classified as a bored gamer!

aaaaahahahaha

Okay.

............................

Devoted Gamer here. But I have many games I switch between. I love Civilization IV, SimCity 4 and ESPN NFL 2K5. I'll switch between them often.

I do not believe I fit into any of those categories the original post described. I am just simply a Good Gamer.

I have my hands in several online as well as SP games. I just choose to help out the "clueless gamers" and beat out the "hardcore gamers" and I do so with respect and I do not taunt, or bind 1337 or pfft...you wish.

In my travels I see that most hard-core gamers are the exact cancer you speak of within the worthless category. They become so involved with any given game that they see their custom skin they made for themselves but everyone else still views them as default, as themselves in real life. Anyone that dare thwart them in a duel/battle will recieve obnoxious comments in return. Like, "Man, wth my fps sucks today." Then they proceed to drop little comments here and there, "This server is too laggy." One of my personal favorites is "Pwned". The list is endless. The unfortunate thing is, most of THESE gamers are admins in many games. Pointless to argue with them. I have even collectively tryed to reason with them before just resulting in /amkick.

I believe that people look down on clueless gamers too often. Not everyone is as computer savy as others. Remember, everyone started out as a noob. Fortunatly there are "Good Gamers" out there to give advice and help to these "clueless gamers".
Show them that mp games can be fun and that there are some normal, good people out there to kind of show them the way. Face it, if you suck at a game and get taunted relentlessly...You are not going to come back and play more. (Unless you're into the whole abuse S&M thing. But thats a different thread.)

Anyways. The games I currently play are JA, WoW, COD2, Gta san, and Battlefield2. Gf2usir.

A married gamer is a gamer who at one time was probably a devoted gamer or even boarder line hard core game. Through the years of mariage and children they have been weened off of the marathon gaming sit downs and now resort to Civ games and expecially Fantasy sports.
Under the guise of magazines and newspapers and discussions with their friends and co-wokers they are always in the game preparing and managing their teams.

Thw wife has the occasional hissy fits becasue they are not allowed to pass any phone calls to or associate with their husbands during a draft however are tolerable because the husband gives them enough time in front of the computer as well while doing outside research.
Dynasty fantasy sports players are usually found as the once "Hardcore gamer" and at times can be found practicing the musical chair method that accompanies a 2 and a half month baseball draft, still compared to the alternative it is acceptable with the wife if the husband is not too blatant in what they are doing.
Married gamers are also skilled in rocking th ebaby on their knees as they fix their line-ups

Hmm.. what about the "social" gamer, a subset of casual gamers. The gamer who will only play a game when they're around friends at home, maybe with a few beers. For example our flat (house) with 5 guys living there we've pretty much got every sports sim under the sun, but only ever play them when someone's around or if we have free time (rarely).

As for myself I used to be hardcore when I was in highschool, but I diversified and found music, arts, work, poetry and other things. I suppose gaming's become less and less a part of me. Now I guess I'm a devoted, casual gamer.. I don't play often but I've still got very broad knowledge and always know what's going on in the gaming scene. I also have the devotion to my console of choice (sony) and certain games like final fantasy, tekken, soul calibur, need for speed, gran turismo, suikoden. And also have retained and every now and then brush up on my skills so I would probably be able to beat your average gamer in most games.

think i'm somewhere between devoted and hardcore...i like to keep up with the "industry," but don't claim to know the name of every game director in every big company....i'd say devoted straight, but i'm "devoted" to more than one...though i have shown signs of the darker "addict" with Final Fantasy XI (had to end up quitting like it was a drug or something), so i guess i'm devoted....devoted ftw, woo!

I was a devoted (bordering on Addict) Earth & Beyond player, but EA ended that when they shut down the MMORPG on 22 September 2004. I since haven't found a game that I love 1/3 as much. Had EnB (or SCII) never existed I wouldn't quite fit any of the categories, not quite a hardcore gamer, but don't pretend to be one either.

I hope I can find another PvE space based MMORPG so I can be back in the "devoted gamer" mode bordering on addict. It has to be at least as good as EnB though.

Married Hardcore Gamer. That's right, re-read those three words again. My life is basically fit into categories of "which devout game this month?" and "when the hell is _____ hitting stores?"

Yes I am the guy who shows up at best buy saying, "what do you mean you don't have Thief 3 in stock? The sell date is today. Go back into that back room and find the box you haven't opened yet." and invariably they do and come back with my immaculate copy.

God bless the computer because had I been born 50 years earlier... well lets just not think about it.

you give us hope overlord :p
what does your wife have to say about your virtual tendencies?

I'm a Bipolar Gamer.

I'll stay away from gaming completely for months at a time (sometimes over a year) ... then, all of a sudden, spend a few months in Guild Wars ... then rest for a few months ... then buy an XBOX 360 with a few top titles ... then rest a while ...

... in a fit of nostalgia I'm replaying FF VII on my PS One ... but also started FF VIII and just purchased FF IX to play next.

Devoted Hardcore: Castlevania. I'm currantly playing the Castlevania Double pack on my DS. And trying to hunt down Dawn of Sorrow. Finished both castles on Symphony of the Night. My next challange is to finsh each game with the unlocked charaters.

From time to time, my devotion changes. It was Final Fantasy Tactics for a time. Then Xenogears. Lately, Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2. But I can't compete with two real hardcore gamers I know. One loged in over 100 hours on Final Fantasy X-2. And the other is a game play tester for Activision. He played Spiderman 2, months before it was released, fulltime, plus overtime, and he was on a gag order that prevented him from talking about it :(

I'd play games more often if I didn't have to go to work. But work pays for games... It's something to think about.

Hey, this old account still works.

For me, there's only two forms of gamer: casual and hardcore.

Hardcore gamers can be identified by how much their gaming ideals / ideal games are accepted in mainstream gaming. You know you're dealing with a hardcore gamer if all they praise is System Shock 2, Planescape: Torment, or any other game that sold about 5 copies. You'll also see them badmouthing any game that tends to get a lot of people playing it. From Sims to Quake 4, if lots of people like it, a hardcore gamer'll hate it.

Casual, on the other hand... well, they do the opposite. They like Sims, Quake 4, and make it known by buying those sorts of games. Developers listen to these people. Whenever a hardcore gamer is whining about something in gaming, its usually because of the casual gamers.

In that list, I'm a casual gamer in most respects, but I write on the internet, so I've got that bit of hardcoreness. Although, a tenent of hardcoreness is that you actually believe people listen to 'em, which I don't have :)

I am a devoted gamer.

I still play Diablo II without the expansion pack.
When the ladder reset (char rankings) and everyone started new characters, I was right on top for the first week, ahead of those usings hacks to gain an advantage. After the first week my playing time gradually decreased back to normal, and those addicted gamers who play 18 hours a day took my #1 spot on the ladder.
I love this one game because of it's item system, and I know the game inside out (I know the names of all the monsters, the items, and the limits of stats on items too). But I would still rather get out than play the game most of the time, though I don't like to be bothered when I do play games.