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The latest patch 5.4 newsIs there such a thing as casually hardcore?
by Anne Stickney 
Feb 17th 2012 at 12:00PM
Once upon a time, I was an MC raider back in vanilla WoW. I raided six nights a week, three to four hours a night. My off night, Friday, was spent gathering plants in Felwood and other materials for potions and flasks. We busted our butts on completing progression content before anyone else on the realm, and if we couldn't manage that, before anyone else on our side of the faction fence managed to do so. Somewhere in the midst of AQ-40, the guild fell apart. People were just burnt out on way too much raiding and all the preparation involved in getting that raiding done successfully.
These days, I raid three nights a week, three hours a night or so. To me, it's far, far more casual than what I used to do. I don't spend a ton of time on farming materials, and I don't spend a ton of time on other things unless it happens to be in game holiday time. I don't usually run random instances unless I'm after something specific, and I don't really do PvP at all. I'd call myself casual, simply based on the time that I play and what I do with that time. Yet there are still plenty of people out there who fling the hardcore title at me.
When I look at how I used to play and how I play now, I can't understand why anyone would think what I'm doing now is anything but casual, and I'm confused as to why anyone would say differently.
These days, I raid three nights a week, three hours a night or so. To me, it's far, far more casual than what I used to do. I don't spend a ton of time on farming materials, and I don't spend a ton of time on other things unless it happens to be in game holiday time. I don't usually run random instances unless I'm after something specific, and I don't really do PvP at all. I'd call myself casual, simply based on the time that I play and what I do with that time. Yet there are still plenty of people out there who fling the hardcore title at me.
When I look at how I used to play and how I play now, I can't understand why anyone would think what I'm doing now is anything but casual, and I'm confused as to why anyone would say differently.
It's a really good question, and I don't know if there's really a defined answer to it because the question itself is so subjective. To someone like me who spent endless hours plugging away in Molten Core and trying to smush Ragnaros into a fine paste, what I do now is much less hardcore, far more casual, and just my speed. But to someone who's never stepped a foot into a raid instance in their gaming lifetime, even the little raiding I do must look like a lot.
To our realm, maybe we look hardcore. To the rest of the world, I expect we look somewhat casual. It's all a matter of which perspective you're looking at the situation from, I think. As far as I am concerned, my guild and my playstyle is entrenched deeply in that somewhere in between, and I'm perfectly OK with that. It's exactly where I want to be.
I think what bothers me more than the definitions is the way that the terms casual and hardcore are thrown about like insults, to be perfectly honest. Having played both ends of the spectrum, I can firmly say that there's nothing really wrong with either, but I think that most players out there are somewhere in that in-between space. What I think is most interesting, however, is that WoW seems to be steadily moving, developmentally speaking, to a space that is neither casual nor hardcore. It's somewhere in between -- somewhere where all of us already are.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
Ganglati Feb 17th 2012 5:59PM
I think the casual/hardcore distinction should really be broken down along two axes: skill, and time commitment. I can theorycraft with the best of them (even for classes I don't play), know what CC's each class has for when I tank 5-mans, and reforge, gem, and enchant all upgrades immediately, even all alts. But I have played, for most of my time on WoW, at most 2 nights a week raiding, and usually quite a bit less.
rayden54 Feb 17th 2012 7:08PM
I tend to think that you cease being "casual" when you start scheduling your playtime. It's not really the scheduling per say, it's when you start throwing around terms like "mandatory attendance" and "DKP" I tend to waver.
To use baseball as an example, I would consider a group of friends getting together to play a game "casual." Once you join a team, though, you cease to be casual, although you're not necessarily "hardcore" either. A lot of people still play organized sports for fun, you've demonstrated a commitment to the game above other activities.
"Hardcores" though. That's the point where you decide to make the game your life. In baseball, that would be the people in the major leagues and the people who are devoted to playing in the majors.
In WoW, those would be the people who compete to be the realm first or the world first. This isn't "just a game" to them anymore.
Calaana Feb 17th 2012 8:00PM
Well, yes there is, obviously
Hardcore Softcore is about how much effort you put into playing when you do. Game face, 110%, "looljusta gaem", etc.
Casual Dedicated is about how often you play. If you just play when you have a spare hour or two, that's casual. The more "I will play wow between x and y on Nday" you add, the more dedicated you are, because you're making it a part of your life. Even three hours on a sunday night is dedicated time.
Casually hardcore is the same as a hardcore casual - they don't play often, but when they do, they own face. A dedicated softcore would be someone who plays six hours a night and doesn't try. The most common demographic seems to be about 60% hardcoreness, with about 30% dedicatedness(not using "tion" is intentional), in that they put effort in, but not enough to try and be the bestest to any degree, and they only really adhere to a schedule of a few hours raiding.
undeadgoat Feb 18th 2012 3:45AM
Here is the thing--everyone is very aware of what it means to be "better at WoW than me" or "a more hardcore player than me." Even if I do see the distinction between you and Blood Legion, you maybe don't see much of a difference between you and me even though I consider any progression raider to be leet and anyone who actually shows up on specific nights regularly to be hardcore.
It's like in college, there's me, my daddy pays for food and tuition and fees and I don't have a lot to worry about, someone who's struggling sees me as quite fortunate and well-positioned. But then there's my freshman year roommate, whose daddy pays for her American Apparel shopping sprees, who to me seemed just impossibly spoiled. But she probably knew a couple girls in her sorority with trust funds (or something), certainly she did not recognize how wealthy she was in comparison to most of her fellow students, especially since she was at a pretty similar level financially as most of her friends.
I realize this analogy may be unclear. What I am saying is, your daddy gave you a credit card but Blood Legion has a trust fund. And most players have to earn their own spending money.
Turo Feb 18th 2012 4:09AM
I think the word you are looking for is "Dedicated" From wowpedia:
"An increasing number of players reject both the Casual and Hardcore stereotypes and look for a middle ground between "too little" and "too much". Dedicated players often play every day and frequently raid, but not on the rigorous schedule of Hardcore guilds.
Dedicated players are often people who have played games their entire lives and now dedicate most of their gaming time to WoW, but have learned to balance a full gaming schedule and real life."
Luke Feb 18th 2012 11:03PM
Yes it's subjective but in a way that seems like the point of this article. If we're going to continue to label players as either or, those definitions need to be clearly defined. However it may be possible that there needs to be a third designation.
I view "hardcore" by the amount of time spent in game and OUT OF GAME. I'm not working on progression, and at the moment I only get to play maybe 4 hours a week (mostly rp), if I'm lucky. I visit WoW Insider and a few podcasts during my time that can't be spent doing much of anything else, this probably adds up to an hour or two. Right now I'd call myself casual.
During the summer I'll have more time to raid, level alts, write a few rp story arcs and resume my gold making activities. Even if I'm not working on progression, I will be devoting more of my time in game and out of game to the hobby that is World Of Warcraft.
But here in lies the problem. To be very good at this game, you have to spend time on websites or forums outside the game, or find people in game that are willing to teach you what you need to know. Either way to be most efficient you have to spend time not playing, to play well. This creates a sort of schism in the community between people who don't spend any time at all outside of Azeroth, reading up on their class, game changes, and encounters, and those who do.
Typically I've found that the "hardcore" label gets thrown at anyone who goes outside of Azeroth to complete their Warcraft experience, or raids with a guild that has any kind of recruiting policy. Where as "bad", "entitled", and "casual" quite often get thrown around to describe anyone that, much like a honey badger, simply don't care.
All I know for certain is that Blizzard has made some amazing changes since the middle of WotLK that has opened the door to new players, in many ways this has been amazing, in many others it's been the bane to older players.
But over all, even being someone that at one time enjoyed the challenges that 40 person raids offered, I am not want for going backwards. I don't care who's elite. I don't care who the best guilds are.
I'm just glad that more people are able to enjoy this game, and enjoy it the way they want.