The favorite activity of the Hardcore Gamer is posting on and reading message forums. They love this activity so much, they spend more time on message forums than actually playing games.
While we understand message forums to be about discussing ideas and sharing information, the Hardcore Gamer treats message forums as a type of MMO game. They spend an enormous amount of time trying to find an avatar (a picture) and quote to place in the signature to illustrate their personality. Just as MMO games tend to be games about information, the Hardcore Gamer will be glued to the message forum for hours to obtain as much information as possible… most of it irrelevant game industry noise. Success in this MMO Message Forum game includes making witty comments, animated gifs, one-line-style game market analysis, and making generalized predictions (which the Hardcore Gamer will link to only if it becomes correct).
Should the reader find himself on a Gaming Message Forum, a good way to make yourself liked is to quote a captain obvious statement with the reply: “Excellent market analysis” or quote an animated gif and say, “LOL.” Hardcore gamers, above all, want to feel smart and funny. This response will quickly make you friends.
The wrong way to go about the Gaming Message Forum is to try to engage in actual conversation. Posting contextual information the Hardcore Gamers haven’t heard about yet will make them feel intimidated. Remember, the Gaming Message Forum is the modern equivalent of the fence that old ladies gossip over. The Gaming Message Forum is where the Hardcore Gamers flock to talk about their feelings and to hear news about the latest Game Industry Gossip. It is the male equivalent of women chattering over Hollywood gossip about the daily news of their celebrities.
