Comments on: Are MMO Bloggers Hardcore?

By: Sandra

Sandra — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:22:14 +0000

Shoot. Because of Grimwell and Cameron I now have three places to respond instead of one! Heh. I’ll address your comment here, Grimwell, and your post on your own blog since there’s some difference in content.

Grimwell, you say that the definition of hardcore has shifted to mean someone who invests a significant amount of time. Babs, you say it means ‘unswervingly committed’. Even between you two, who seem to be agreeing with each other, there is a difference in definition: You don’t need to invest a significant amount of time to be committed. You can easily be in a committed mindset but practically limited in your playtime. For example, there’s the blogger I mentioned who plays once or twice a week but blogs about it in great detail, religiously. He’s very committed to his play experience *and* his blogging, but his tiem investment is low.

So you’ve proved my point: that even among a fairly homogenous population of game developers we have rather different expectations of what a hardcore player is like — and those different expectations limit the usefulness of the word as a simplistic basis for design decisions.

This isn’t about what the cool kids are saying. It’s not even about the shortcut terms that modern players use to describe themselves. It’s about how we, developers and designers, approach the behaviors and needs of our audience.

By: Babs

Babs — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 06:43:57 +0000

I think the word fits. It means “unswervingly committed.” I’d rather be called hardcore than, say, obsessed =P

But even if we prefer that a blogger be “prolific,” the word is entrenched in our gaming lexicon. It’s not about proper grammar as much as it’s about relating to a vocabulary that includes “pwned,” “pker,” and “wtfbbbkkthxbai.”

Heh.

By: No Country for Old Gamers? | Random Battle

No Country for Old Gamers? | Random Battle — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:06:02 +0000

[...] ’bout my generation » Grimwell Online on Pulling Community Sites Into the BlogosphereElder Game: MMO game development » Are MMO Bloggers Hardcore? on Pulling Community Sites Into the BlogospherePvthudson on Life is Worth About Six Bucks When You [...]

By: Talking 'bout my generation » Grimwell Online

Talking 'bout my generation » Grimwell Online — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:00:31 +0000

[...] some. Before I start to babble incoherently (mmm, coconut rum is good!) let’s quote from the Elder Game post to create context: “The term ‘hardcore’ fails us when we try to use it as both a measure [...]

By: Grimwell

Grimwell — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:39:18 +0000

I think that the term ‘hardcore’ has shifted from defining the people at the top end of a game to include anyone who invests a significant amount of time in their game. So the guy who plays for 8 hours, and spends 30 more hours each week programming mods is hardcore, just a different flavor.

As the MMO community grows more and more, our definitions that worked in the pioneer days must also grow and change to reflect the community of today and not the community of yesterday. The number of people who have played the original ‘Big Three’ (UO, EQ, AC) has fallen to that of the minority. Most people don’t have that context, and don’t care what we once decided our terminology upon. This is their day and the terms change with them.

By: Azaroth

Azaroth — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:46:40 +0000

Neither is the image of the hardcore player conjured up in the mind of a nongamer.

True hardcore players are often the least interesting, anyway. How much rep you grinded or how far you are in Black Temple just isn’t as interesting to me as a site where a husband and wife team make food using in game recipes. THAT’S entertainment.

As long as nobody is in character.