Are you Hardcore?

J-Cat asked in her blog earlier today whether she was "hardcore". As in Hardcore Gamer.

The question has resonated with some folks because of E3. There has been a great deal of discussion about how the Big Three seemed to be concentrating on the Casual Gamer. There was even some outrage from Nintendo fanboys that Nintendo is not serving the Nintendo Hardcore Gamers. The snob in me sees the term Nintendo Hardcore Gamer as an oxymoron. This flash of self-awareness is probably contributing to my writing this blog. Am I looking down my nose at certain gamers?

J-Cat's question and supporting information got me thinking about how we really quantify our 1337ness.

Does the use of 1337-speak qualify you? Only as a poser.

Does possessing an almost god-like skill at a single game or genre qualify you? Only for some sort of compulsive or addictive disorder.

Is it spending 8-12 hours each day playing video games? No. That just means you're unemployed.

So what qualifies you as "hardcore"?

To begin with, I am now preaching to the choir. If you are reading this blog you are a member of 2o2p. I don't use this forum to connect with friends and family. The very fact that you are a member of a video game-centric website qualifies you as hardcore. And this isn't some general purpose video game site. This is a niche site. +1 on your hardcore status.

What about the other poor folks out there? Are they hardcore?

Let's try this easy checklist:

• Would you rather play videogames than watch TV?
• Do you belong to a clan?
• Have you ever marked a game's release date on you calendar?
• Have you ever pre-ordered a game?
• Have you ever purchased the special/limited/collector's edition of a game?
• Have you ever tried to explain a really cool part of a game to a non-gamer?
• Did they think you were crazy?

Like a number of gamers I play a lot of different games. (I updated my game list to the right to illustrate what I've played.) I play enough FPS to beat most of the people I know personnaly but still get my head handed to me on LIVE. My recent return to Gears after a year or so has shown me how poor I really am. It also reminded me of how much fun the game is. I've played Oblivion and Mass Effect so much my 360 says "not again!" every time I load one of those disks. I've spent more on RockBand DLC than actual CDs in the past year.

But that's kind of the point. The games are fun! They are more fun than work. They are more fun than channel-surfing. They are more fun than getting a boil lanced.

It's not about your gamerscore or ranking (although to everyone with less GS than me: PWNED!!!).

Being hardcore is a love of the games and the people that play them.