It seems that over time the definitions of “hardcore” and “casual” have changed. Or maybe not changed, but they’re being used to mean many different things these days. If you put on your Frostheim goggles you’ll see these common definitions:
Hardcore: someone who does better than me in raids. Since I don’t want to think I have poor raiding skills, instead I will think that they must spend obscene amounts of time online. Oh and they have no life, because that’s the only way you could succeed to that degree.
Casual: clueless noob who just putters around doing seasonal content, roleplaying, and visiting the barber shop. They are ruining the game by taking up too much of the developers resources on useless stuff that no one cares about.
Of course those are only two definitions. A big problem has crept into the vernacular where people have started assuming that everyone is either one or the other: you’re either a hardcore gamer, or a casual.
This just isn’t so.
Hardcore and Casual describe two extremes of WoW gamers. The vast majority of players, including you reading this now, fall in between those extremes. Let’s take a more realistic look at these definitions for a moment:
Hardcore: A raider who belongs to a progression raiding guild. Raids 4-6 nights per week, for 3-6 hours per night. His or her guild probably uses DKP to assign loot, has attendance requirements, and minimum performance requirements — and these requirements are pretty stiff. This guild is at the leading end of progression, and spends a lot of time conquering all hardmodes.
Casual: A player who plays WoW on and off whenever the whim strikes — the way that you might play the Sims. The casual player is defined by the fact that he or she does not schedule WoW activities. Almost no casuals raid because that would require adhering to a schedule. Instead the casual levels slowly, often with friends, pursues achievements and alts. The Casual player can spend as much as 5 or more hours a week playing WoW, but without much consistency from week to week.
These definitions are the original uses of the words in WoW, and the far more correct usage. The vast majority of us exist in the space in between casual and hardcore. Call us simply gamers.
We may or may not raid, but we play regularly and not erratically. We make scheduled events. If we raid, we are perfectly capable of completing all raid content, though we’ll never be at the leading edge.
“At Least I Have a Life”
Personally, I think the variations of this are among the most offensive and hypocritical things that can be said in WoW. To begin with… well, here you are playing WoW. Implying that something ineffable about the way you play is better than the way other people play that makes them losers.
This just isn’t so.
A guildie of mine said it well when he said that he thinks of raids as his bowling league. He gets together with his teammates once or twice a week to hang out an play a game. They want to do well and work to improve, but the important thing is the comradarie and having a good time.
For some people it may be poker night, or Monday night football, or knitting circles, or scrapbooking. For us it’s WoW. But you see the activity doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s fun, it’s social, and a pleansant distraction from life.
For the hardcore raider it’s just more important. It’s a semi-pro bowling league, or whatever team. I really don’t understand this notion that playing WoW a certain amount means you have no life — especially coming from other WoW players.
I challenge you to tell me how raiding WoW is different from any other serious hobby that consumes a similar amount of time.
The Hard Facts
I am not a hardcore raider – not even close. I tend to raid 2 times a week on average, and those raids have a hard cap of 3 hours. This is less time than a lot of people spend doing heroics. Of course it’s certainly true that I think about WoW a lot more than most people, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn I’m in the top tier of time spent at the target dummy.
But the thing is you can raid just once or twice a week and beat all of the content in the game. People do it all the time. Heck, back in vanilla my guild raided just twice a week, and every week we cleared all of MC, Onyxia, and BWL.
The good fact is that it doesn’t take the hardcore gamer’s commitment to clear raids, even Ulduar. It just takes a couple nights a week, preparation, and some skill.
The hard fact is that if you raid Ulduar a couple nights a week and can’t clear it after a couple months — then it’s not your time commitment or “hardcore” status that’s holding you back. It’s the ability of your raid.
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Member
My guild uses the term “casual-core” to describe itself. We have a progression team that is on 25-man Ulduar figuring things out. We also have what we call “training wheels” raids that are what we call “progression – 1″, currently Naxx 25. Progression raids twice a week, training wheels is scheduled for once a week and there’s usually a continuation raid to finish the clear sometime later in the week.
My favorite part is that everything is voluntary. Progression raiders can take a week or three off if they want, no hard feelings. It gives the people wanting to get into progression a chance at a raid slot. Training wheels is open to everybody, and usually the progression folks who are along to do the teaching will step out to clear a spot for a new raider. If you don’t want to do either 25-man, there are a ton of 10-mans that anybody who wants to run a raid can schedule–we have an achievement team that is working toward their rusted drakes and a couple other Ulduar 10s that I think are just for farming and training.
What’s surprising to me is how few guilds are set up like that, where the people who want to raid progression have a path to gear up fast and prove themselves worthy of a progression spot, people who want to raid casually once a week for gear upgrades can do so, and people who don’t raid at all are still welcome and have nightly heroic groups they can join. Maybe it’s just a numbers thing–when your membership gets big enough, you can set up those multiple “career paths” and let people do whatever makes them happy. A small guild would have to be more focused if they want to raid at all–if you only have 26 level 80s online at peak times, they had better all want to raid or the raid isn’t happening.
Contributor
Off-topic, but my pet tanking stuff is on the main guides page! My conquest of the internetz is nearly complete!
…um. So yeah, good article today. Seriously though, civility and common sense are never bad things to infuse into gaming.
good post id say im a casual gamer we raid 3 times a week 2 days on 10 man 1 on 25 and hey weve done 1o man and now working on its hard modes! the hardcore 1s where they loose dkp 4 being afk when there on standby out side a raid just in case some1 drops out, have to say not how i would spend my weekend
Member
“Casual: clueless noob who just putters around doing seasonal content, roleplaying, and visiting the barber shop. They are ruining the game by taking up too much of the developers resources on useless stuff that no one cares about.”
This totally describes my girlfriend and, I have to say, I’m glad the developers spend some time at least on stuff like that. She gets bored easily with questing and she loves messing around in SW and basically doing everything you described here. It’s fantastic because it keeps her off my back about playing wow all the time.
“Casual: clueless noob who just putters around doing seasonal content, roleplaying, and visiting the barber shop. They are ruining the game by taking up too much of the developers resources on useless stuff that no one cares about.”
I initially found that definition offensive: I am a roleplayer! After I read the rest of the article I calmed down.
How many hours a day? Well, when work lets me… 1 hr before work, home, 2-3 hours at night I would say. More at weekends. I have a family… they need me too! I, regularly, take a month off wow as well.
So, is 32 hours a week casual? It isn’t Hardcore as I do not raid. About 10% of that time is spent roleplaying the character.
So, how would I define my playstyle? Ah yes. FUN! I play the game for FUN and as a quick and easy social life. I can be in the living room keeping an eye on my eleven year old AND be playing a game with my friends. So, for me WoW is my social life – like popping down to the pub every night, (with a bracer before work) – but without the alcholism.
And no, no raiding yet, but the guild I am in is very new.
Member
Maybe ‘softcore’ is a good way to describe players like myself who play pretty much all the time I’m not in work and all weekend (a ‘different life’, not ‘no life’), and try to be the best possible hunter they can be in terms of skills, execution of tasks and gear (and following sites such as this). They have alts as a complete financial and support system for thier main, but raid on a casual basis if at all. They see the game as a holistic entity, not as a competetive tool.
Good post. I belong to the casuals. I have played the game since it started, several hours a week, but have never ever been in a raid. Part of the problem is that most raids these day only seem to want to have the hardcore’s joining. If you dont have the gear or achievement, you cant join, that sort of stuff. But I cant gét the gear and achievement if i cant join….. And, in my case, if I hád the gear and achi, I wouldnt want to join anymore….
The other reason I havent raided yet is that I usually dont have time to join for more then a few hours, and even then ‘real life’ may step in and force me to leave early (thats what you get with young kids….). Admittingly thats not always fun, but then again: choosing between WOW-life and real life wouldnt be that hard….
This is all because of that BWL comment wasn’t it =P
I’m in a 3 nights per week guild. I’d raid more if I could stepping up to Hardcore raiding on Hardmodes as I’m fairly competant as a player and more than competant as a Hunter. But at the minute I simply can’t make the requirements needed to play at that level. I have trouble making 1-2 nights some weeks.
The lines are very blurred. My guild does 25 man Ulduar all the way up to Yogg, and manages at least two hours a week learning him, and we only raid 9 hours over 3 nights a week. Are we casual for not raiding more than 9 hours? Are we casual for not clearing hard modes yet? What about after we get Yogg down and start slipping a hard mode or two into our weeks? Still casual?
Member
There terms hardcore and casual are very hard to define in terms of raiding. I find that more often than not players will confuse casual with lackadaisical and use it as an excuse to not meet basic requirement for successful raiding.
Our guild is tightening up its raid team. We only raid three nights a week for three hours. We start and end on-time. We ask that players gem and enchant all their gear and familiarize themselves with the encounters beforehand. We also ask that they show up prepared with everything they need to raid (gear repaired, pots, flasks, etc).
We’re just looking to progress through the content and have fun doing it. We’re not really interested in hard modes or being first to clear anything. Does that make us hardcore or casual? I think the better question is do you just raid or are you a raider?
If you don’t raid at all does that make you a bad player? I don’t – because the people I enjoy playing with don’t, yet, and may never.
Hardcore: Belonging to a guild that demands your soul and become a ‘professional gamer.’ Example: SK Gaming.
Casual: everyone else.
Contributor
Jackdaw, I think Frost is just trying to avoid improper and insulting uses of the words hardcore and casual. There’s obviously nothing wrong with not raiding. It’s a game, meant to be played how you want for your enjoyment. Some do PvP, some level alts like mad, some go achievement hunting, some raid, some try soloing (or tanking
) stuff, some gold farm, some gank for the lulz, some tame bears and take poops in the forest, or any combination of those.
Besides, you read the WHU. You can’t be bad.
I took no offence at all from the original post. One too many wines, and the replies started to annoy me that’s all! The tone of the typed word is poor – I wish we could get the inflection of our voices into written text but sadly… Ahh well!
My worst choice is between Pet Tanking and Soloing since they seem to be becoming more incompatible and I don’t have the cash to keep replacing glyphs and respeccing!
Member
Hello there!
If only I could show my dad this post, as he is constantly saying things like WoW is bad for me and I should pursue “inteligent” things like chess… People should leave us gamers to game to their heart’s content.
Oh and I love this site. :]
Admin
I think you can and should show your dad this post! In fact, you should encourage him to email me and I’ll be happy to discuss WoW with him!
I like your descriptions and it’s also good to remember that the vast majority of WoW players fall in somewhere between the two extremes of hardcore and casual. The word “casual” connotes that the player has no skill or knowledge of the game, which is simply not true for most. A lot of raiders may only raid 1-2 days a week and not have strict requirements. This’ll mean very slow and lots of wiping for most guilds in this category, but they’re casual and they can live without killing the hardest hard modes.
The nice thing about WOW is how there’s no right or wrong way to play it. Hardcore raiders aren’t hurting the laid back casuals who may only hop on now and again to do a heroic. Roleplayers aren’t hurting the PvPers or the arena junkies. Solo questers just go about their own business, enjoy themselves and the hardcore raiders take no notice of it. There are countless playstyles and it’s nice that there are so many ways to enjoy the game. I think that’s why I like WoW so much.
Very good analysis. I just wish my former guild could have grasped these truths.
Unfortunately, one persons campaign to make it “more hardcore” led others to toss friendships out the window and alienate others. All over these misconceived definitions.
A real shame that this simple, common sense truth couldn’t have been realized before the damage was done.
Member
Jehos, does your guild still raid like that? What guild, and what server/faction, i’ll transfer.
Member
Wow, awesome.
I’m a fairly noob hunter that is raid leader of a guild just beginning to raid. I started playing WoW between the time of the last two posts and play about 15-25 hours per week.
Rolled a pally first and thought wow sucked. My kid tried rolling a mage and I loved shooting out spells, so tried to lvl her up a bit. Then Eidelweiss the hunter was rolled and I discovered how truly awesome hunters are. Never looked back.
The only reason I’m raid leader is because of my devastating dps numbers compared to guildies. The only reason I have devastating dps numbers compared to guildies is here. This place is like a short cut to hunter excellence.
Now, I just need a shortcut to raid excellence kind of place too. Any suggestions?
Winneson look at bosskillers.com and tankspot.com for raid strats. tankspot has some really good videos with breakdowns of the fight, the guild i was in before my old computer died and i got removed from inactivity (bastards) used to require every member to watch the videos and i felt like it made a big difference when facing new bosses
Member
hulksnipe, thanks a lot for that. Those look great!
I was casual for the first 2-3 years of playing, but since Wrath, I have really enjoyed doing dungeons. I have 6 children, and a wife, some day I’ll find a group to try my hand at a raid. Honestly, I just feel bad not being able to commit regularly, so I don’t want to join some group of people and have to let them down because, well if Open house is on Thursday, I have to go do that, family has priority for me.
4 of my 6 children and my wife all play regularly. My six year old daughter has more duel wins than me, I am not joking. don’t ask me how. We enjoy WoW a lot and never really pay attention to or care about people who have anything negative to say about it. It’s been a great part of our lives, and will continue to be.
This is something I have always disagreed with: Definitions of causal/hardcore based on time played. It has nothing to do with that!, not even with raids! It should not have. Yes, it is related, but it is the effect, not the cause of being a casual/hardcore player.
For instance, for me (in my very personal opinion), Frost is hardcore. Nothing wrong with it, we need hardcores, I need them (advice), I think it is good to have them around. That’s why I come here almost every day in the last couple of months. Why is he hardcore? well, I agree with Birdfall (http://birdfall.blogspot.com/2009/03/generalize-me-or-casualhardcore-feud.html) definitions on this one:
* Casual: A casual player is someone who is satisfied by relaxing in the game their own way and on their own time.
* Moderate: A moderate player is someone who wants to taste different aspects of the game in more depth but does not need to be the very best.
* Hardcore: A hardcore player wants to excel at whichever aspect of the game he or she is most passionate about.
She is a self-confessed hardcore pet-collector. I know plenty hardcore achievers. Time-wise, they spent much more time than many top raiders, they just not interested in raiding. Altoholics? those can be hardcore too.
Nobody wants to be hardcore, not even in the “good” things. Hardcore have negative connotations. Why? dunno. It was not easy for me to accept I was hardcore (not playing wow though). I am a wow casual by choice. Yes, I have family, but that is not the reason I’m casual, I was a casual gamer before I had children, even before my wife. Why? well, I have other hobbies which are higher on my list than wow. I spent 2-3+ hours per day on training related activities (jogging, PT, gym or football — soccer that is — and surfing the net on active training/jogging blogs). I did not considered myself a hardcore trainer until colleagues and ppl around me started to listen to me and ask for advice regarding training (even PTs in the gym). It made me realised that even though I did not “compete”, I did indeed took training seriously enough (for me a hardcore trainer was overtraining or a training addict). But I had to admit, training was more than wanting to be in shape. I wanted to have the best possible training routine to fit my lifestyle. Coupled with the best nutrition (no “additives”) and rest time, and of course one that allowed me to spent time with my wife (now + kids) and play online every now and then (only play MMOs). I could not stop myself from preaching everytime the subject came to light in conversations. You do not get to decide whether you are hardcore or not. Your actions do, your mindset, your peers. Nothing wrong with being a hardcore. I have got plenty of thanks out of it, and my entire family looks great on the beach