Once upon a time I thought of myself as a hardcore gamer. Why? Because I played games a lot and spent a lot of time on gaming sites reading up on news, blogging and posting on message forums but the last few years, I have backed off. I play less games and since Gamespot changed their format that removed unions and made it impossible to find other people's blogs, I realized I didn't want to be a hardcore gamer anymore. While I have probably gotten older and changed, the gaming community has changed and I don't like it.
1) You're not allowed to enjoy anything anymore without being harassed about it. I have a WiiU and I have had fun with it. I'm playing Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. However if I went on a gaming message forum and said this, I'd probably be mocked and harassed by folks who went out and spent $400-$500 on systems that they're more than likely playing nothing but up res versions of last gen games. Oh and did I mention I had a lot of fun with my Wii last gen. I played a lot of games, not just first party games including Wii Sports and Wii Fit. It's gotten even worse with this new generation. I remember when console wars were actually about GAMES, not which generic action game ran in 1080p.
2) Being "hardcore" apparently means spending more time on gaming message forums than actually playing games. It boggles my mind the people I'd see on message forums every day, posting on EVERY topic. Do they have jobs or lives? Or how do they have time to play games if they spend all their time posting on forums? That's the indicator of a "hardcore" gamer is they spend more time on forums talking about games than actually playing them. The funniest thing is users of gaming sites fail to see that "game journalists" are nothing more than viral marketers who spin stories in order to generate site traffic. You didn't have this trouble back in the days of gaming magazines. Since a month's worth of news had to be condensed into a single issue, there was little to no room for puff pieces, top ten lists or stupid wanna be sales analysis from people with no actual business experience. I remember all through the month of Janurary since there were no major game releases, Gamespot spent most of January making "Nintendo is doomed" click bait articles. Kotaku's even worse in that they'll find some obscure, poorly translated magazine article from Europe and assume it's true. This is as bad as teaser trailers that show now actual gameplay and there are drooling idiots who buy into this.
3) Being "hardcore gamer" apparently means acting like a perpetulent little brat. Now in fairness, we accept that there's a lot of teenagers on game sites but it's more depressing watching grown men sit around and complain about stuff such as the new designs of the Sonic characters for Sonic Boom or throwing a hissy fit over Mass Effect 3's ending. It shouldn't surprise me though. Many grow up in an entitlement culture where parents tell us we're special for no reason and get trophies for showing up so of course we expect game companies to bow to our whims because "we're special consumers." And of course whenever a game comes out that doesn't cater specifically to our needs, we scream and throw a fit. Apparently game companies should cater to ONLY hardcore gamers and everyone else in the world doesn't matter.
4) Buying tons of games you never play. Whenever a Steam sale rolls around, gamers rush to download everything that's cheap. I have a friend who downloads every "free" PS+ game even if he never plays it. Tons of hardcore gamers have shelves full of games that never get played. They just sit there as a backdrop for their youtube Vlogs for their 10 followers to see. When I buy a game, I make a point to finish it before I go buy something else. From time to time I have 3 or 4 piled up or a couple downloaded but when I invest in a game, I intend to finish it unless it's really bad. Many hardcore gamers grew up not getting to play as many games as they wanted as kids probably because lack of money so now they're adults they don't want to miss a "unique experience' so they buy everything even if they never end up playing it. Isn't that similar to a hoarder?
5) I wanted to go live my life. Games are a fun distraction and can be a great hobby, but that's ALL they should be. When someone talks about "gamer lifestyle" I get a bit disturbed. There's no book reading or movie watching "lifestyle." When I got out of college and was working a retail job, it was hard to have much of a life. I had an erratic schedule that made it hard to have much of a social life and my husband had a different work schedule so spending time with him was limited as well. So gaming was something I was able to enjoy off of work but eventually I got a better job with regular hours and suddenly I had time for a normal social life. I could do stuff on weekends. Participate in clubs that met on a weekly basis. Meet up with friends for dinner. Suddenly sitting at home grinding in World of Warcraft didn't seem as appealing. Video game worlds are fake. People on message forums aren't a substitute for human interaction. If all you do is get up, go to school/work and play games, that's not much of a life. When I see some poor slob who still lives at home with parents, no significant other, no life outside of work, who spends all his/her free time watching anime, reading comics or playing games, I think "what kind of life is that?" I remember back when there was this fear that Nintendo and the Wii and their "casual games" were going to take over and kill off all hardcore gaming and gamers were terrified of this. All I could think was "is you're life so sad and pointless that the idea of all the hardcore video games suddenly disappearing upsets you?"
So I'm glad I got away from that. Instead of feeling like I need to have every game at launch so I can post about it on a message forum. I wait around either until I get more money or the price goes down. It's not like South Park and the Stick of Truth is going anywhere. Meanwhile I spend time with my husband preparing for the baby we're going to have. I'm involved with stuff through my church and I got to the gym regularly. My games will still be here when I get back but for now I want to go live.
