Hey Malstrom,
I agree with most of what you said about the hardcore psychosis, especially about the part about trying to feel “manly” at it (just look at how hardcores try to glorify e-sports as if it’s somehow even close to a real sport) but there’s one more part that’s in the equation. Hardcore fans want to feel rewarded for their devotion, practice and excessive hours spent (wasted?) playing, to the point where they’re insulted if someone else can get the same or more enjoyable experience for half of the effort or less, and even more insulted if a game that was formerly hardcore decides to make itself more accessible (a dirty word to the hardcore fanboy). Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS appeals to me (only 3DS game that does so far) because they’ve removed snaking, an exploit from the DS version that pretty much meant you would lose online races unless you knew how to do it and did it perfectly enough to keep up with the hardcores playing online. Mention this on a forum, and half of the responses you’ll get will be about how snaking was a legit “skill”, how you deserve to lose if you didn’t “practice” it and how you were “casual” for wanting it gone. The mere concept that I’d like have a race against human opponent once in awhile and have a decent shot at winning a race or two just by the playing the game normally infuriates them.
And that’s just over Mario Kart. The attitude just seems to get worse the higher up the ESRB rating scale you go. Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls fanboys are some of the most obnoxious gamers you will find, just because their game of choice is so punishing that it excludes large segments of the people who play video games. You have to earn your way into their special clubhouse, where games are treated like a true skill to be proud of instead of fancy electronic toys or interactive movies. Can you imagine being competitive over who can bash their action figures together the best or not being allowed to watch the second half of a movie until you “earned it”? I have a friend who was legitimately insulted and embarrassed that Final Fantasy XIII had a completely optional Auto-Battle function on the main menu. It took away any kind of bragging rights or effort he would put into the manual portion of the game because anyone else could experience it without needing to put in the same kind of effort.
It turned him off of playing a game that he had already bought. Buying games that you never play is another trait of being a hardcore gamer, which I myself learned in horrific fashion when I looked at my pile of video games, noticed how many of them there were, and realized I had spent a few thousand dollars on a large number of games that I mostly only beat once and never touched again, or straight never touched at all. I believe that there’s a point where kids who love video games earn their own money and subconciously decide that they have to buy every critically acclaimed, friend recommended and especially childhood favourite franchise game they can get their hands on because they missed out on a number of them when their parents were just buying them games once in awhile. This leads to a mountain of games to play, which they have to force themselves to play to justify the money they spent on them, which turns it into a reverse job, where they’re putting in long hours for money that’s already left their wallet. They end up enjoying themselves less and less, wondering why games aren’t “the same” anymore, and draining their money for no real reason.
I ended up getting rid of most of those games, and discovered there was about 5-6 games per console that I’d objectively consider must-buys, either because the game was simple to pick up and play at any time or it told a story in a setting I found myself really drawn to. My personal barometer for video game purchases went from critical acclaim, hype and brand loyalty to fun content vs. cost (there are some fun console games that just aren’t worth $60) and what would be cool to play the adult version of pretend with.
The tl;dr version of all this meandering and rambling is that from some personal experience and observations, being hardcore may sound cool, but it’s not worth the money, rage, condescending sense of entitlement and deadening of fun that comes with it.
You’ve said it all very nicely. At the end of the day, the hardcore has tons of games in a ‘backlog’ he never plays and will not get around to playing. It feels like the hype and marketing is part of their game experience. If you asked them not to participate in the hype, they would become very uncomfortable. It might be one problem why our hardcore friends cannot see the value in old games. Old games no longer have hype or marketing around them. I like it because we can see these old games without the goggles.
Like a plant looking for sunlight, the hardcore look for video games as their source of masculinity. I’m still observing the reactions to the Panda expansion in WoW. The pandas and the pet battles, specifically, are sending the hardcore for a loop. It’s like they are being driven insane by them. WoW is full of crazy and silly things, but somehow these things will make the game ‘childish’ and ‘not macho’. There is no real intellectual honesty here. Somehow, they ignore parts of WoW that are extremely childish (which are in considerable number) yet cannot ignore other parts (like the pandas). This psychosis is most fascinating to me.
“But is it not fascinating, reader? Ever since after World War 2, Western Civilization has not had to prove its masculinity in order to survive. Yet, you Western males go about as if these infantile video games somehow associates you with manhood. This Hardcore Psychosis points to a deep dark secret hidden away within the Western Soul. Someone should do a study.”
“Why don’t you? You seem to have plenty of time on your hands.”
“Reader, if you wish to have your dessert, I will not be offended. Now excuse me while I go blow up my own blog…”
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