@Writin_Reg I don’t have “theories about hardcore gamers”! Instead I just use the word in a special meaning which is close to what I just found on another site:
”I like to think hardcore gamers fall into six categories:
1) Highly competitive gamer (could be professional)
2) Highly obsessive gamer (in a completionist sense)
3) Highly skilled gamer
4) Marathon gamer
5) Masochistic Gamer
6) Dedicated Gamer”
I would use it only in for the first 5 types though because otherwise the expression “hardcore gamer” becomes too broad IMO. There is no reason IMO to also use this expression about a gamer who just like to play solitaire, cribbage, sudoku or some other casual game all the time.
“Masochistic gamer” is also on my limit. But it means a gamer who just go on and on trying to beat an untested game even though he/she loses all the time. So I will accept this type as part of the hardcore gamer types.
Simmers aren’t hardcore gamers as I use the expression because they don’t play all night long just to beat some hard game. Instead they “play” a game which is easy and for some simmers isn’t even really a game because they only use it as a tool to dress up sims and to build and decorate houses. Then they take a few screenshots, upload their sim or a house and maybe watch the game play itself for a few minutes before they maybe tear down the house or build their next house elsewhere. For me this isn’t gaming at all but only a hobby where they use a game as tool even though they could also have used other tools instead.
But I am not trying to say that Sims games and simmers aren’t as good as everybody else. It is more like saying that meat isn’t a vegetable or that a vegetable isn’t meat. Such statements doesn’t indicate what I prefer and I don’t see myself as a hardcore gamer either even though I play games a lot. The reason is that I play games mainly to relax and not to fight hard against either myself or against my computer opponents.
