"Hardcore" vs. "Casual"
Quite a few people out there believe that “hardcore” is a matter of degree and that “casual” simply has no meaning in the WoW context. But Kagrra of the Druid Team has a definition and distinguishes the hardcores as those who think about the game when they're not playing it, and want to play it more. I'm not sure it's that straightforward. I know some folks who spend so many hours logged in that they don't need to think about WoW otherwise! 
For me, it's an escape, like reading fiction. I'm maintaining a regular blog, but that's escapism as well.
Perhaps the distinction for hardcore vs. casual is how much effort a good escape involves? In that case, I don't know too many casual players, because most folks like some kind of challenge in recreation, but many gamers have multiple hobbies and prefer some to be more challenging than others. At a guess, casual players spend few of their recreational hours playing WoW, but for the rest of us, there's lots ways to be hardcore, and few of them involve 25-toon raids.
Hardcore Solo Players
Our guild has a rank for “Social Members” and all that distinguishes them from the “Raiders” is that they don't go on T6 raids organized by the officers. Some social members are gearing up toons to a point where they'll be effective raiders, some of them don't like raiding, some of them have schedules that aren't conducive to week-night raiding, and others are waiting for a spot to open up on the raid team for their class/spec. But they seem to have plenty of other things to do.
Kaagero, for example, is one of those legendary players who has leveled a toon of every class. I know he used to raid on Rui and on Madoka; he currently raids a bit on his warlock, and I suspect that he still plays all of the others! I recently thought such players could only be found in fiction! I have a funny feeling that Kaagero is more than ready for his death knight, though...
I've leveled 3 level-70s now, but only learned one class well enough to raid. The rogue is OK for KZ, but I can barely play the hunter (still haven't found out what jump-shot is). I did start a couple of horde toons and enjoyed the different quests, but can't bring myself to repeat the Outland grinds with them.
Another of our social members picked up a Cenarion hippogryph and a spiffy title ("of the Shattered Sun") with petty cash left over from his regular circuit of dailies. Other folks will spend hours playing the AH, or grinding Timbermaw to exalted, collecting every single cooking recipe, or other difficult things that are fun for them. The achievement system will be a fun e-peen meter for these hardcore players, but quite a few of them can flaunt baby spore-bats and other wacky indicators of their enthusiasm. Don't see Illidan dropping vanity pets (unless you count the felhunter-on-a stick!).
Hardcore PvPers
One of our warlocks recently retired from raiding to put more time into PvP. He's trying different specs in the arena: SL/SL, deep affliction, and destro, getting ready for the shifting landscape of the expansion. We've seen other players also putting more time in to the arena. BGs don't seem to have that appeal for our guild as we run few pre-mades and PUGs must be awful for hardcore PvPers, but we've got a couple of Alliance PvP guilds on our server.
I only started PvP when WoW 2.0 came out, but I now have a full set of gear, over 10,000 HKs, and a 3v3 team, but I realize that I don't have the energy to be more than a casual PvPer. I have to respec to PvP effectively, and I've been out of gold a lot this past month, so I'm out of practice as well.
The big problem for me is time. I could probably do both serious PvP and serious raiding, using the weekend to farm gold and flask mats, but I did a whole lot of gear upgrading recently and gathered some mats to power-level Inscription (still not done), so I guess my heart's not really in it. We'll see how PvP goes on the hunter! I have a feeling that being hardcore may have something to do with focus, as well...
Hardcore Roleplayers
I have no examples of these in WoW because I have no characters on role-playing servers. I've seen it in a live-action and a table-top context, and you can definitely see when people are putting in an effort, and some players are very good!
Need More Rage is a blog done by a guy with a role-playing perspective and multiple different, often rather scary characters!
Hardcore Dungeoneers and 10-toon Raiders
Does anyone else remember when people first started raiding KZ (early in 2007) and found it brutally hard after the 40-toon raids? Unless you outgear it, and no-one still running KZ really did until patch 2.1 was released, buffing a whole lot of gear (especially KZ gear), every member of the team has to contribute. In a 40-toon team, it doesn't really matter if one or two people do nothing or do nothing effectively, because each is a small part of the whole.
Yet another of the warlocks in my most recent guild returned to his old KZ guild. He loves the challenge of heroics and ten-mans and the scripted dance of a 25-toon raid seems silly to him. The release of ZA and the timed runs offer great new challenges for these guys. I believe that the first guild to clear ZA on our server was Afternoon Delight, descended from Pie Vendor and then Drama, which had specialized in small raids even before The Burning Crusade came out. Wrath of the Lich King will be even better for hardcore small-raid fans, with all of the raid content available in a 10-toon format. Sure, the loot has smaller stats, so that will require them to maintain the skill to make up for it.
Hardcore 25-toon Raiders
As I've written in a previous post, I'm a pretty hardcore raider. I really enjoy it and work hard at it and do it pretty often. There's all kinds of ways to be hardcore, though, and some of them I really object to. We had a big guild meeting on vent and talked about what it took to be a good raider. A hardcore raider is motivated to do well, and will eventually become a good raider, and always strive to be a better raider. At a minimum, for progression raids (which we don't outgear and may not have much experience with), every raider needs:
This topic was originally proposed by Nin on Blogazeroth.
For me, it's an escape, like reading fiction. I'm maintaining a regular blog, but that's escapism as well. Perhaps the distinction for hardcore vs. casual is how much effort a good escape involves? In that case, I don't know too many casual players, because most folks like some kind of challenge in recreation, but many gamers have multiple hobbies and prefer some to be more challenging than others. At a guess, casual players spend few of their recreational hours playing WoW, but for the rest of us, there's lots ways to be hardcore, and few of them involve 25-toon raids.
Hardcore Solo Players
Our guild has a rank for “Social Members” and all that distinguishes them from the “Raiders” is that they don't go on T6 raids organized by the officers. Some social members are gearing up toons to a point where they'll be effective raiders, some of them don't like raiding, some of them have schedules that aren't conducive to week-night raiding, and others are waiting for a spot to open up on the raid team for their class/spec. But they seem to have plenty of other things to do.
Kaagero, for example, is one of those legendary players who has leveled a toon of every class. I know he used to raid on Rui and on Madoka; he currently raids a bit on his warlock, and I suspect that he still plays all of the others! I recently thought such players could only be found in fiction! I have a funny feeling that Kaagero is more than ready for his death knight, though...
I've leveled 3 level-70s now, but only learned one class well enough to raid. The rogue is OK for KZ, but I can barely play the hunter (still haven't found out what jump-shot is). I did start a couple of horde toons and enjoyed the different quests, but can't bring myself to repeat the Outland grinds with them.
Another of our social members picked up a Cenarion hippogryph and a spiffy title ("of the Shattered Sun") with petty cash left over from his regular circuit of dailies. Other folks will spend hours playing the AH, or grinding Timbermaw to exalted, collecting every single cooking recipe, or other difficult things that are fun for them. The achievement system will be a fun e-peen meter for these hardcore players, but quite a few of them can flaunt baby spore-bats and other wacky indicators of their enthusiasm. Don't see Illidan dropping vanity pets (unless you count the felhunter-on-a stick!).
Hardcore PvPers
One of our warlocks recently retired from raiding to put more time into PvP. He's trying different specs in the arena: SL/SL, deep affliction, and destro, getting ready for the shifting landscape of the expansion. We've seen other players also putting more time in to the arena. BGs don't seem to have that appeal for our guild as we run few pre-mades and PUGs must be awful for hardcore PvPers, but we've got a couple of Alliance PvP guilds on our server.
I only started PvP when WoW 2.0 came out, but I now have a full set of gear, over 10,000 HKs, and a 3v3 team, but I realize that I don't have the energy to be more than a casual PvPer. I have to respec to PvP effectively, and I've been out of gold a lot this past month, so I'm out of practice as well.
The big problem for me is time. I could probably do both serious PvP and serious raiding, using the weekend to farm gold and flask mats, but I did a whole lot of gear upgrading recently and gathered some mats to power-level Inscription (still not done), so I guess my heart's not really in it. We'll see how PvP goes on the hunter! I have a feeling that being hardcore may have something to do with focus, as well...
Hardcore Roleplayers
I have no examples of these in WoW because I have no characters on role-playing servers. I've seen it in a live-action and a table-top context, and you can definitely see when people are putting in an effort, and some players are very good!
Need More Rage is a blog done by a guy with a role-playing perspective and multiple different, often rather scary characters!
Hardcore Dungeoneers and 10-toon Raiders
Does anyone else remember when people first started raiding KZ (early in 2007) and found it brutally hard after the 40-toon raids? Unless you outgear it, and no-one still running KZ really did until patch 2.1 was released, buffing a whole lot of gear (especially KZ gear), every member of the team has to contribute. In a 40-toon team, it doesn't really matter if one or two people do nothing or do nothing effectively, because each is a small part of the whole.
Yet another of the warlocks in my most recent guild returned to his old KZ guild. He loves the challenge of heroics and ten-mans and the scripted dance of a 25-toon raid seems silly to him. The release of ZA and the timed runs offer great new challenges for these guys. I believe that the first guild to clear ZA on our server was Afternoon Delight, descended from Pie Vendor and then Drama, which had specialized in small raids even before The Burning Crusade came out. Wrath of the Lich King will be even better for hardcore small-raid fans, with all of the raid content available in a 10-toon format. Sure, the loot has smaller stats, so that will require them to maintain the skill to make up for it.
Hardcore 25-toon Raiders
As I've written in a previous post, I'm a pretty hardcore raider. I really enjoy it and work hard at it and do it pretty often. There's all kinds of ways to be hardcore, though, and some of them I really object to. We had a big guild meeting on vent and talked about what it took to be a good raider. A hardcore raider is motivated to do well, and will eventually become a good raider, and always strive to be a better raider. At a minimum, for progression raids (which we don't outgear and may not have much experience with), every raider needs:
- All the consumables that they can use: a flask or 2 elixirs (depending on class/spec), buff food, weapon oil, potions, reagents/soul shards, weird stuff like nightmare seeds, etc.
- A stable, adequately fast connection and computer system. My battery backup saved me a couple of times when we killed Kael. I actually improved my DPS by upping my FPS
by trading out some high-memory add-ons for lower-memory versions.
- A good knowledge of the fight, from strategy guides and guild forums
- A decent vent connection and attention to chat so that they can follow orders. An organized strategy, no matter how bad provides an advantage, and our raid leaders rarely indulge in bad strategies.
- The best gear one can get one's virtual hands on. Of my 17 gear slots that affect DPS, 7 are filled with raid drops. The rest are crafted, from PvP, or bought with badges. And everything is gemmed and enchanted as much as possible. I'm going with socket bonuses at the moment, because I've needed a lot of stamina in certain fights, and I've been gemming for hit (which I currently need to do less), now switching over to spell haste because it's cheap and easy to come by for certain slots.
- As much skill playing the game as possible: that last gets dicy, because it's so easy to fake, and one is never done. Three of our raiders collect logs for WWS. I've seen players who cut corners on utility/fight control at the expense of DPS/HPS/TPS or who compete with others in the same role/class. Those folks are obviously hardcore, but I definitely don't want to be one of them. The person I need to compete with is myself, so I've got to compare my performance in the same fight over time, working on enhancing my DPS and survival, while staying focused on curse uptime, threat management, and other utility responsibilities.
This topic was originally proposed by Nin on Blogazeroth.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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This has been on my mind a lot lately, as I think of the future for our guild.
When faced with this question, I find it helpful to first define both terms. Here's mine:
Hardcore: Someone who raids in earnest. Typical signs of being hardcore could include: well versed on boss strats, full consumables, a theorycrafter, punctual (even early) to raids, learns from mistakes, is active in diagnosing problems or challenges, is part of a collective effort, a team member.
Casual: Someone who raids for fun or to see the content.
With that in mind, once again, our guild finds itself with a group of both, hardcore and casual raiders. With the expansion coming, both camps see an opportunity to further entrench us in their style. I worry what that means.
As part of the leadership team, this angst is a source of frustration and concern. For the record, I'm a hardcore raider.
Do we continue our coexistence?
Do we need each other to reach both of our goals?
Should we go our separate ways and both find fullfillment?
and personally....
As a leader, how much of my personal feelings enter into charting the path?
Difficult days ahead, I fear.Posted September 30, 2008 at 12:36 AM by Amora
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There are three reasons I think that a raiding guild like ours has and needs casual members:- Raiders may need a break sometimes. For a number of us, work gets hectic enough that we can't maintain a decent raid schedule and moving to casual status for a while helps.
- Family and friends: many of these folks aren't hardcore and we should not pressure them to fake it. A raiding guild has standards and they have to be applied fairly. Lots of casuals are great company, lots of fun to quest with and run non-tier-6 instances with. Their donations to the guild bank alone have really helped the rest of us raid. Lots of crafting help from the casual community as well.
- Casuals also provide a pool of backup raiders and a recruiting pool that we know fairly well. Unless I'm mistaken, a casual volunteer saved tonight's Black Temple raid. Sure he died a few times, but he got some heals off and going in one short would have been terrible for morale.
Posted September 30, 2008 at 11:17 PM by Warpy
