Sunday, January 30, 2011

A Hard-Casual Paradox

Disclaimer: The following is entirely in jest. Everyone on this site should know I feel the terms "hardcore" and "casual" are quite meaningless. I was especially underwhelmed back when Brian Crecente of Kotaku coined the phrase "hard-casual" when faced with the sheer vacuousness of the terms. With that out of the way, here's an inner-dialogue I had with myself and a part of my brain that likes to say things in jest... enjoy!

So lately I've been playing Wii Sports Resort.

>WSR? Pft! That's so casual.

I've gotten especially obsessed with the Air Sports part of the game. So much so that I've visited every location and shot every balloon in the Day and Night stages. Still got a long way to go on the Evening stage.

>Whoa! That's pretty hardcore!

My wife has been playing along too. She helps me keep an eye out for white balloons.

>Playing with a girl/family member/wife? That must be casual.

Though at one point I got hungry and got some Cheetos.

>Hmm. Well that is the staple food choice of a hardcore gamer.

They were the baked kind.

>Whoa, baked?! Only a casual gamer would be such a health nut.

At one point I got really torn because I didn't want to get my controller all Cheeto-y so I put the controller on an ottoman and tilted it with my legs - keeping my hands free for a nice coat of orange deliciousness.

>Wow. I'm impressed. That kind of dedication to a game and laziness is completely hardcore.

Actually, though it was lazy in one sense, I actually gave my legs and abs a pretty good workout steering the plane like that.

>A workout from a game!? Eff that! ... frackin' casuals.

5 comments:

Maxi said...

Yeah I see the point you are making.It is generally a bad idea to sterotype people and gamers in peticular. For me I can name a few things that I eat and drink while I play games that pretty much is the same type of thing from your post. Example Me playing Monster Hunter Tri and drinking tea. Me playing Animal Crossing:City Folk and drinking wine. Point being is that things are not as Black and White as stereotypes would have you believe.

coffeewithgames said...

@Maxi:
How about that COFFEE!?

I also find myself having "inner-dialogue" often...it's interesting how we can talk to ourselves so much.

Maxi said...

I personally don't like coffee that much.It doesn't taste to good to me. When I need to wake myself up I usually get some Orange Juice.

In anycase for me I personally am not really a typical gamer.I don't really stay to a few types of genres. I like to try out as many different types of games as I can.

coffeewithgames said...

@Maxi:
Like you, I've enjoyed a wider range of games this generation.
Games like:
Animal Crossing: City Folk
Mirror's Edge
Monster Hunter Tri
Rayman Raving Rabbids(1,2,3)
Shaun White Snowboarding

and more from genres I typically wouldn't find myself playing often, but have really enjoyed in the last few years.

Mop_it_up said...

I like coffee but I usually drink tea instead because it makes me feel a lot better. But hey, people can enjoy both!

I'd have to say that I feel the Wii has the most diverse library of games out of the current systems. It may be a little lacking in some areas, such as shooters and RPGs, but it has at least a little bit of everything, so overall it has the most variety. And that's what I want out of a system.