I won’t spoil the article’s central thesis for you, it’s not that long a read and it’s pretty self evident, however, I find the dichotomous view of hardcore and casual games rather limiting.
Let’s take the game Terraria. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+is+Terraria
Is this game hardcore or casual? It’s bright and cheery during the day, and zombies will probably feast on your bones the first night. Your method of play completely changes the nature of the game. Whether you’re sculpting a beautiful castle or murdering bigger and nastier bosses for “phat loot”, Terraria lets you have it both ways.
How’s the fiction? Like I said, varies on what you’re doing, starts out positive.
Interface? Mostly intuitive. Inventory management only becomes a problem after you’ve already gotten the hang of it.
Interruptibility? Supremely interruptible. Obviously, less so if you’re with friends, or if you’re in the middle of fighting a boss monster.
Difficulty? It starts out easy and gets harder, exactly as proscribed by both types of gamers.
And the rewards are self-evident.
Even better, if you have a “hardcore” gamer friend more into the fighting aspects of the game, they can help you with those aspects of the game you’re not good at or interested in.
So Mister Know-it-all (that’s me): is this game hardcore or casual?
I couldn’t really class it as either. Your experience is tailored to what you want out of it.
Which brings me back to my thesis: Making this hardline distinction between hardcore and casual games is rather limiting.
Of course, some of what I’ve just said about these distinction is liberal idealist pinkocommie claptrap, and rightly so. Categorism is only “wrong” when it makes an incorrect or useless distinction. Probably, we can use this categorism to accomplish exactly what I’m getting at. “I shall make a game appealing to BOTH audiences! Hardcore and casual together at last! You got your hardcore in my casual, well you got your casual in my hardcore. . . mmmmm.”
Oh, and those of you who got this far and are wondering, where’s the Call of Duty? Where’s the Bejeweled? That was just to draw a parallel. Nothing to see here.