Do you consider yourself a hardcore gamer or casual?

[shilsen]

By that definition, definitely hardcore.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Aye, hardcore.

Although I agree with the above poster. Anyone who is averaging even a small 300 posts per year on a D&D website is automatically a hardcore gamer. Well, either they're hardcore ... or they just really like the internet.

 

[RFisher]

Before reading the definitions, I would've said former hardcore but, due to career & family, now casual.

By the definitions given, I fall somewhere in between. I still try to read the books I use thoroughly & attain some level of mastery over the rules. Rather than just knowing enough to get by, I tend to look for more minimalist systems or flip off as many optional complications as possible so there's less to master. I definitely devote way too much time to pondering & fiddling. But I've been trying to cultivate winging things since I don't have enough time or discipline to prepare properly.

 

[jdrakeh]

By your definitions, I'm hardcore. Honestly, though, my attitude as of late has been to focus more on simply having fun than slavishly adhering to any given set of rules or promoting a certain style of play. In that regard, I consider myself to be a casual gamer.

 

[Yttrai]

This was tough. I mean, i don't read game books for pleasure, but i do buy them and read them, when i know i'll need them.

I am going to GenCon.

I do dream about the campaigns i'm in.

I do write fairly detailed and "in character" character backgrounds and game summaries.

I can argue rules with the DM, and occasionally win. In more than one system.

So i voted in between, because i'm clearly not casual. But i'm sure the hardcore gents would love to flay me alive and spitroast me over coals with a light cilantro marinade, for my lack of hardcore-type behaviour.

But hey, i'm happy, they're happy, and we'll all meet for a beer after the ENnies, right?

 

[Ranger REG]

Just wondering which, if either do the posters here see themselves as. Are you hardcore or just casual. Oh yeah, and why? The list below isn't all inclusive, but just a few of the things I think seperate one from the other.

Hardcore:
1. You have read the corebooks plus any books you use outside of core thoroughly.
2. You have a level of mastery with said rules
3. You devote time outside of necessary preperation to pondering the game, fiddling with rues etc.

I believe there are more criteria beyond the three above when it comes to classifying/defining a hardcore gamer.

 

[T. Foster]

I like to think of myself as a casual gamer, but, alas, I don't think I'm fooling anybody

Seriously, I was extremely hardcore as a kid, but my current interest in the game is almost entirely residue of that -- my huge collection of gaming stuff, arsenal of convention stories from the 80s and 90s, and the fact that to this day I still have the OD&D and 1E AD&D rules more-or-less memorized. My actual attitude towards the game nowadays is very casual: I'm a player in the current group with a less-than-stellar attendance record, I don't make up (or even read) new rules or adventures (probably the actual #1 reason why I still prefer OD&D and 1E -- because I'm lazy; I already know those games (residue of my hardcore past) wheras a newer game I'd have to actually expend some effort reading/learning), I don't bother bringing a copy of the rules to sessions (and wouldn't even bring dice if I thought the other players would let me get away with it), I never think about the rules or campaign away from the table, etc. I do waste a lot of time posting on this and other D&D messageboards (like I'm doing right now) but it's 1) mostly done as a time-killer while I'm at work (much more a comment on my interest in my job than my interest in D&D -- if I wasn't wasting time here I'd be wasting it somewhere else -- music sites, movie sites, etc.), and 2) much more about socializing and telling old war-stories (more residue of my hardcore past) than actual "game-talk" (rules-talk, creative stuff, etc.).

 

[Warren Okuma]

I think I'm going to have to go w/ Pirate Cat on this one. With all of my outside interests and stuff, I don't actually have time to be "hardcore" anymore (I was back in the day though!), but I'm more than casual.

Interests out side of gaming? What's that? Can you throw me a clue. I'm confused.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

I spend a lot of time in gaming and gaming related activity(like this board) but I do not let it take control of my life. I am somewhere in between.

Probably on the hard-core end, though.

 

[Sejs]

By your definition, I guess I'd be hardcore. Honestly, I neither think nor care about any such distinction.

I'm a gamer. That's all.