Are you a core or casual gamer? (1 Viewer)

[AlexJ]

...or something in between? I think I'm more of a core gamer than a casual - I have all three consoles, a PC and about 30 or more games. I buy games on a fairly regular basis and I play every chance I get. I usually finish my games on the hardest setting. I have a favorite genre (shooting / action adventure) and I even subscribe to gaming magazines. If that isn't core, then it's whatever comes next.
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[millercv]

I go through phases where I am totally into games and eat sleep breathe games and then will get out of the habit for a while. Typically a big release will trigger the process again.

 

[DonRoeber]

I'm a casual gamer. I've got a PS2 and a 'Cube, and the 'Cube is the one I play the most. It's rare that I'll get a new game and play it all the way through; Zelda was the first game in a long time that I played the whole way through. I enjoy playing new games, but rarely finish them. I've got Metal Gear Solid 2, Metroid Prime and a whole mess of other games that I've played through probably 3/4 of the way, then something else in my life happened to distract me, and I haven't gotten back to finishing the game.

 

[James T]

Casual, but like millercv, if there's a big release, I go hardcore.

I only got my xbox in the end of December. And I upgrade my computer only every 2 years or so, I don't have power(really money) to become hardcore.

When I turn hardcore, I'd be playing a game for like 5 hours straight and as many days as it takes to complete it, even if it means getting like 3 hours of sleep a day.

 

[Rob_Pierce]

I'm as hard core as a married man can be. Although when games like KOTOR come out, my cravings can really take over.

Me [Persuade]: "You look sleepy, honey. Why don't you go to bed early tonight?"

It works sometimes, but I try not to go to the well too often.

 

[Derrik Draven]

Core.

Glad to see that you're maintaining a balance there Rob! If you don't, you'll end up divorced.

Talking from experience.

It's rare that I don't finish a game. Sometimes I'll get near the end and just get completely burnt out but that doesn't happen often. I usually see the end movie.

And, after decades of gaming, I find myself more critical of the music, graphics, story, and especially, the AI in the latest games. Each title that ups the ante for the "state of the art" in the gaming industry, makes the ones that don't measure up, seem all that much more inferior.

I couldn't stomach Enter the Matrix and yet, it's selling like hotcakes. Reason: there are many more "Joe Sixpack" gamers than those of us here that REALLY discuss gaming and the games themselves. Sure, some of the regular guys here found something in the game that drew them in and they liked it but, for the most part, it's my guess that the "casual gamers" are the ones making this game a success.

Kind of like widescreen and pan-n-scan. J6P hates "dem damn bars...cuttin' off half yer moveeee". The reality is that widescreen shows much more and is superior to the latter. But, stores like Wallymart just love to shove the damn pan-n-scam on their shelves because there are alot of Joe Sixpacks that will buy it and there's less home theater fans that actually want to see the movie in it's o.a.r. So, the level of quality slowly "dumbs down".

My point would be that I really hope like hell that game companies don't slowly but surely make shittier and shittier games because they know that it's cheaper, quicker, and they'll make a load because there's tons of J6P's out there that will buy their shit.

...I'll be looking for a new hobby.

 

[Romier S]

Down to the damned core!

Yet I maintain myself happily married, though the credit goes squarely to my most understanding and loving wife who puts up with my almost obsessive hobby.

 

[Bryan_ZZ]

Hardcore in spirit, but it is a distant second until the moment everyone in the house is asleep. Then it is game time!

One of these years my little ones are going to be really happy that their dad was a gamer and collector during one of the true golden eras of console gaming!

 

[Carl Johnson]

I used to be closer to the core but in my old age I've gone casual. Five years ago I just might have averaged an hour per day of console gaming but now both the cube and the box are under a layer of dust at least a few months thick. I've been reading rave reviews of Knights of the Old Republic so I just might have to start working on getting that hand eye coordination back.

 

[Calvin Watts III]

I'll be Core till they pry the controller from my cold,dead fingers

Calvin

 

[Allen_Appel]

Well, I have Xbox, GameCube + GBP, PS2, Dreamcast, and Genesis all hooked up to my tv, and at least one of them will see daily play, every day. I buy a couple of games a week. I'm recognized in gaming stores all over the area. I subscribe to nine gaming magazines. Sounds pretty core, right? But I'd consider myself more of a casual gamer. I tend to dip my toe into a game before moving on to the next. I'll play for hours on Live, yet never touch the single-player mode. It's rare for me to actually finish a game. So, the soul is core but the flesh is casual.

 

[Paul_Fisher]

Me to my wife [Force Persuade]: "Go to bed!!! I want to play KOTOR! And don't make me feel guilty about it!!"

Seriously though, I play as much xbox as I can get away with from my wife. When she starts getting pissed, I stop for awhile and love on her and make her feel special, then I start gaming again.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I'm probably a core gamer. I have a LOT of games, but I don't necessarily go through them and get 100% everything unless the game hooks onto me for a long enough period of time.

 

[Rob_Pierce]

When she starts getting pissed, I stop for awhile and love on her and make her feel special, then I start gaming again.

Paul, let me guess: you have the same problem I do with college basketball and football (Auburn for you, University of Kentucky for me). Fall is tough because on a Saturday it's either football or video games, but not both. Must finish KOTOR in next month....

 

[Paul_Fisher]

Paul, let me guess: you have the same problem I do with college basketball and football (Auburn for you, University of Kentucky for me). Fall is tough because on a Saturday it's either football or video games, but not both. Must finish KOTOR in next month....

Funny you mention that. I grew up in Louisville so I'm a huge UofL basketball fan, 81-63 ring a bell?



Just kidding!

Anywhoo, my alma mater is Auburn, so I'm obssessed with Auburn football.

 

[Ray Warner]

To quote Full Metal Jacket: "Hard-fuckin'-core!"

I've got 6(!) active consoles, well over 150 games, and my fiancee, a non-gamer, has decided that spending 80 hours on KotOR is A-OK...As long as I let her play.

She's never seen Star Wars (grew up in Chinatown, NY, immigrant parents who were rather anti-american-culture) but she loves this game to no end, her first "Action" RPG. She asked me to buy "Wario Ware" for her a while back, and she's slowly moving beyond the turn-based-only school of gaming. Ikaruga, here she comes...

Nice to know I can still turn people to the Dark side after all these years.

But yeah, I've been into games since I knew what they were (at age 6 with an IntelliVision), and my horrified parents kept wondering what they'd got me into. They refused to buy me any consoles, which probably accounts for the fact that I have so many now.

I love videogames, and I love seeing where the medium is headed. I've got every belief that these things can have just as much creative clout as movies or books if they're apporoached correctly, a viewpoint I'll defend with my life.

 

[Rob_Pierce]

81-63 ring a bell?

It's a quiet bell, but I do hear it--kind of drown out by all the noise that 7 National Championships make. What about 22-17, "Louisville with wreck the BCS this year," or "Ragone for Heisman"?

But I digress, and kid, too. I did have the pleasure of going to the Auburn-Arkansas football game last fall. Not the team's best showing, but one of my best friends is in vet school there--the eagle swoop was cool. Great school and a fun place to be.

 

[Paul_Fisher]

It's a quiet bell, but I do hear it--kind of drown out by all the noise that 7 National Championships make. What about 22-17, "Louisville with wreck the BCS this year," or "Ragone for Heisman"?

Louisville has a football team? I didn't know that.

 

[Rob_Pierce]

Louisville has a football team? I didn't know that.

Apparently, neither did the polls. I'm sorry, that was a cheap shot, but I just couldn't help myself.

 

[Krystian C]

Hardcore all the way.

Longest stretch I have played in one sitting was UFO (aka Xcom) I was the last in my group of friends to get it, and spent 36hrs straight (including eating by the pc) to catch up to them.

Secondly, when Final Fantasy VII came out, I play like crazy, til I was almost at the end, and then just burnt out and dropped it. I swore I would not play FF 8 til I finished 7. Well it dragged out til the release of FF 8 and I still did not complete 7, and I had also erased my save by this point. Well I had 2 weeks off between classes so I set out on a mission, see if I can complete both before I went back to class. Well in 13 days I finished them both. FF 7 logged in at 97.5 hrs and FF 8 at 94 hrs. So I logged 191.5 hr in 13 days, considering there is only 312 hrs in that time span, I was pretty fried. I pretty much didn't get off the couch except to go to the bathroom. I actually fell asleep playing a couple time, and died in battle (gotta hate realtime combat).

Wsh I had more time to game, but with work, and a wife (who doesn't game, but loves to watch rpg's) It is hard to squeeze in game time. Now it mostly happens when I am home alone.

Well thats all the war stories I have. Anyone else???