Who are the hardcore gamers? It seems like the question few people are asking these days. It's assumed that they exist, as they would stand in contrast to the alleged emerging casual gamer crowd but who makes up this group?

This uncertainty is reflected in an undecided Wikipedia article on hardcore gamers that points out some of the contradictions of trying to have a set of parameters to identify the group.

One point the article does make though is that some would classify hardcore gamers as "those whose leisure time is largely devoted to playing or reading about video games", such as the members of the Bitmob community.

Peter Larmey has already speculated on the game industry's desires to separate and market to the core and casual demographics in a Bitmob blog post. Some of the responses point out that the industry is most likely indifferent to what you want to call yourself, as long as you're buying the games they make.

I wonder then, regardless of what the industry is trying to do, would you self-identify as a hardcore gamer? Why or why not? If you aren't hardcore, then who would you say is? (be as general or specific as you feel necessary).

Some people could definitely be perceived by others as being hardcore gamers but what if they don't identify that way?

During my freshman year in college I had a discussion with my apartment-mate. I was telling him Chris Crawford's argument (from a guest lecture in Foundations of Game Design class at UC Santa Cruz) that personal computer technology was pushed along by peoples' desire to play better video games since the computer's primary uses, word processing and spreadsheet making, were pretty much already covered. He retorted that I only believed in his argument because I'm obsessed with video games and that the technology would have developed regardless. This was coming from a guy who bought a PS2 just to play GTA: San Andreas and logged in several hours a day until he had %100 completion while I rarely made time to play games that quarter because of other commitments. Which one of us was more hardcore?

Is a hardcore gamer one who zealously plays a particular game? There was once a time when I realized that I didn't play video games at all anymore, just Pokemon. I also know there's a lot of folks out there who stick to a certain game like Madden, Halo, Starcraft, Counterstrike, and Tetris, to name a few. Does playing an overwhelming amount of Madden and only Madden make someone a hardcore gamer? What about those who zealously play "casual games"?

I would argue that people can be hardcore at a specific game, but that doesn't make them a hardcore gamer.

What about someone who plays "hardcore games" in a casual way, just logging in a couple of hours every week or so and maybe never completes or even beats them? That doesn't seem very hardcore to me.

When trying to examine who hardcore gamers are, there seem to be more questions and contradictions than solid answers.

My cousin once said that hardcore gamers play good games regardless of genre and that's what I tend to base my definition off of. People that play excellent video games based off of solid reviews or word of mouth, even if it's different from what they usually play are in my opinion hardcore gamers.

I've always thought of myself as an avid gamer, from being an aspiring game journalist to collecting critically acclaimed games and then going back and playing the classics when I get a chance. Am I hardcore? Depends on who I talk to. Am I passionate? Certainly.

Anyhow, it would be great to see what or who the Bitmob community thinks makes up a hardcore gamer, or how self-proclaimed hardcore every one is (or isn't). Leave your thoughts in the comment section and after a week or so I'll make a video follow up with some of the best answers.