What is a hardcore gamer? – Reader’s Feature

metro.co.uk:

A reader rejects the label of hardcore gamer and asks what the phrase really means and who else it might apply to.

I’ve been a gamer now for over 20 years and I like to think I know the hobby pretty well. I have all the current consoles, I keep up to date with news and events, I know all the big name publishers and developers, and I’ve played or at least know about all the big franchises. Does that make me a hardcore gamer though? I think by some definitions it would do. If I was talking about movies I’d be known as a film buff but is hardcore gamer really the equivalent of that? I’m not so sure.

I have a number of younger cousins who are also, by their own admission, really into games, but they don’t seem to know or care about any of the things I like. Their most commonly played games are Apex Legends, Call Of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite, Minecraft, and Destiny 2. All either free games or live service games, none of which I have any interest in.

To me these are the equivalent of saying you’re a petrolhead, and really into cars, and yet finding out you haven’t actually got a car and take the bus everywhere. Although some of the free-to-play games are very good – I particularly like Apex Legends – the scale of their success is not due to their quality as a game but the fact that they’re free.

Fortnite in particular is not an especially good game and if you had to pay full price for it, it would be nowhere near as popular as it is. Being free excuses a lot of things and Fortnite has long since evolved from being a straight shooter to a weird mix of community chat room and social experience. That’s fine, that’s great, but to me none of that has anything to do with video games.

In a similar fashion, the reason games like Destiny 2