After reading the blog posts for this week’s reading by Jesper Juul, it is obvious to me that the idea of casual/hardcore games and gamers is really up to everyone’s own interpretation. Nobody agrees on all of the aspects and criteria for the so-called “hardcore” or “casual” games and gamers. Neither do they agree upon what is considered fun or not fun in each of these categories of games. In one of the posts, “Keeping it Casual,” the writer wrote that he/she believed that playing a “hardcore” game caused just as much stress as writing a paper or studying for a big test for a class. I personally cannot even comprehend that concept. It is one of my favorite things to sit down and play a “hardcore” video game for hours straight.

So, perhaps the debate here is not what categorizes “hardcore”/”casual” video games and gamers, but how people themselves view these games and what they look for in a video game versus what they dislike. Each player is a unique video gamer, a mixture of both the “casual” and “hardcore” stereotypes. I grew up playing Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 with my older brothers and their friends. I was always trying to be as good as them. This longing of wanting to fit in and wanting to keep up with my brothers and their friends pushed me toward being a better gamer. I learned the controls and learned to love all the different aspects of video games.

So I turned into a “hardcore” video gamer, but did I? I still play Words With Friends like the rest of the “casual” gamers. I don’t really think that labels are necessary in this aspect of video games. Every player is different with what kind of games they like. I may fit into the category of a “hardcore” gamer, but it doesn’t mean that I like all “hardcore” games. It is really just an area of opinion and preference. Nobody fits into just one category.