I was going to review Suikoden Tierkreis this week; however, I have only spent around ten hours in the game. I do not feel that ten hours is enough to review a game that is more than sixty hours.
Instead, I want to talk about the use of the terms ‘hardcore’ and ‘casual’ in the video game industry. This idea came to the forefront of my mind after a recent discussion with Lusipurr. A dictionary definition of hardcore is ”unswervingly committed; uncompromising; dedicated: a hard-core segregationist”, whilst the definition of casual is given as “irregular; occasional: a casual visitor”.
The two definitions above fit best with the idea of casual and hardcore in the video game market. I feel that I fall under the casual tag. However, this is when I feel that the terms hardcore and casual fail in their usage in the gamer idiom.
Halo 3, Killzone 2, and Persona 4 are hardcore games. Games such as Buzz, LittleBigPlanet, and Rock Band are casual. What is the term for a person who likes to play games from both groups? I do not know the answer and in not knowing the answer, I begin to think that people who use the terms ‘hardcore’ and ‘casual’ may not know the true definition of either word!
So tell me what you think: do the words ‘hardcore’ and ‘casual’ have a place in the dialogue of gamers?
Posted by Lee 
Lusipurr
Bup
Ginia
Lane
Eric J