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So, you think you’re Hardcore?

Posted On Friday, September 12th, 2008 By Jay

Shared Topic:  Casuals, Players and Raiders.

The recent shared topic on Blog Azeroth, Casuals, Players and Raiders, challenges those in the WoW Blogosphere to discuss the difference between casual and hardcore players.  The common argument is that the difference between casuals and hardcore is either: time spent or skill level.

I propose that time spent is not correct.  I also propose that skill level is partially accurate.  I propose that the answer lies not in actual skill of the person, but it the application of a learned skill and the ability to relearn after new experiences.  That was a mouthful, so let me diseminate the concept.

What is play?

What is play is a discussion for other sites.  Many people have written numerous books and paper on what “play” actually is.  There is an alternate question that we’re addressing:  How does your brain play?

Play, for your brain, is endlessly repeating a task to perfection.  Its why many a “casual golfer” enjoys the driving range more than the actual sport.  Perfection each detail of their golf swing, one… swing at a time.  This is also the reason why Michael Jordan would shoot 1000ish free throws a day.  The brain LOVES to perfect.  This is described by some people as “muscle memory” for physical activities.  Your brain doesn’t like to learn, even though its built to be a learning machine.

If we apply this concept to our WoW player base, we can guess that hardcore players perfect their learned skills, either through raiding, pvp and instances.  A casual player does not seek to perfect the skill they have learned.

For casual this can mean many types of behaviors.  They generally create many alts, dabbling in many different forms of play.  Or they stick with one character and push the buttons they’ve used to level up.  This is the idea of a huntard that Ego once wrote about.

I’ll leave the rest of the thought process to you.  I firmly believe that casual players generally LOVE the game!  Their brain has chosen to not perfect their behavior, consciously or not.  This is neither a good or bad situation.  Just a choice.

What do you think?