What do you call casual gamers who are really good at the games that they play? My girlfriend is really good at PopCap’s Freeding Frenzy 2 and spent pretty much all night blazing through more than half of the 60 levels available in the game.
I wouldn’t hesitate to call that hardcore. I mean, you’ll require the same amount of concentration, patience and ultimately skillz, not unlike a typical gamer stereotype, to get that kind of achievement.
I see the same thing with some friends of mine who are into Window’s Minesweeper game. They want to mark the positions of all the mines but are obsessed with doing it in the shortest time possible. It’s not uncommon to see them trying to lower their times and have practice runs as well.
The only difference I can see though is that while the typical “hardcore” gamer would be reveling in competition with other fellow gamers, casual gamers going down the hardcore route do it more for the self-satisfaction.
This however might chance if more casual games adopt more community like features like online score boards and multiplayer modes, but hey, with casual being the new hardcore, it does make me feel a little old :).
