I'm not talking about personal opinions of what hardcore is - the market is what truly dictates who the "hardcore" players are and, right now, the market is CoD MW3. Society as a whole - not the actual gaming community - looks at gamers and considers those who are really "good" at MW3 to be the epitome of hardcore gaming. Just look around.
This isn't about "society as a whole", gamers have defined themselves in separate terms from non-gamers dependant upon their use of leisure time since before video games. It's a subculture, in the same way LARPers and Table-Top gamers considered themselves and are in turn considered part of their respective cultural identity.
The issue I have with your argument is that it's far too simplistic, culture, even that based on a single commodity, is a continually evolving thing which is subject to the unanticipated and unintended consequences. The market decides what a gamer is? No, they never have. Because once created their products enter a cultural sphere which they do not control -- anymore than Stephenie Meyer controls Twihards of Lauren Faust controls Bronies -- it's simply out of their hands.
We should be familiar with this, as people who watch anime - we're not even within Japanese culture, for the most part, our identity is so fluid and self-defined that it's nearly impossible to pin down.
Hipster douchebags with an XBOX and a Portal shirt may be the image of gamers or nerds some want to present to outsiders - but the whirlpool of nerd culture, as expressed online or anywhere those with such traditionally specific interests conglomerate - would clearly have another opinion of who they are, probably several depending on subgroups and specific fandoms.
But if we must, we turn to our old friend, Wikipedia. settler of scores and bringer of justice to the world.
Types of gamers
Further information: Video game#Demographics
In the United States, the average video game player is 35 and has been playing video games for over 12 years.[2] In the UK, the average video game player is over 23 years old, has played video games for over 10 years, and spends around 12.6 hours a week playing video games.[3] The term "gamer" is composed of several subgroups.
Casual gamer
A casual gamer is a player whose time or interest in playing games is limited. Casual gamers tend to play games designed for ease of gameplay and don't spend much time playing more involved games. The genres that casual gamers play vary, and they might not own a specific video game console to play their games.[4][5] Casual gaming demographics vary greatly from those of traditional video games, as the typical casual gamer is older and more predominantly female.[6] One casual gamer subset is the "fitness gamer", who plays motion-based exercise games.[7]
The term casual gamer can also be used to distinguish between play styles of level-based character advance in nonlinear games with respect to the amount of dedicated hours of play. MMORPGs may require many hours of grinding to develop a character to maximum level and reach the endgame. Other games like Eve Online and The Lord of the Rings Online try to balance leveling so that casual gamers can play along with those dedicating more hours to the game.[8]
Mid-core gamer
A core or mid-core gamer is a player with a wide range of interests and enthusiast toward creative and diverse games,[9] but without the amount of time spent and sense of competition of a hardcore gamer. The mid-core gamer enjoys complex games but won't buy every novel release, doesn't have time for long games,[10] and is a target consumer [11] that needs features not found in games for the other types. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated that they designed the Wii U to cater to a core gamer who is between the casual and hard-core categories.[12]
Hardcore gamers prefer to take significant time and practice on games, and tend to play more involved games that require larger amounts of time to complete or master. Hardcore gamers may take part in video game culture.[further explanation needed] Competition is another defining characteristic of hardcore gamers, who often compete in organized tournaments, leagues, or ranked play integrated into the game proper, an example of this is Major League Gaming, an Electronic sports organization that often holds events for hardcore First-person shooter games such as Quake. There are many subtypes of hardcore gamers based on the style of game, gameplay preference, hardware platform, and other preferences.
Professional gamers play video games for money.[13] Whether a professional gamer is a subtype of the hardcore gamer largely depends on the degree to which a professional gamer is financially dependent upon the income derived from gaming. So far as a professional gamer is financially dependent upon gaming, the time spent playing is no longer "leisure" time. In countries of Asia, particularly South Korea and Japan, professional gamers are sponsored by large companies and can earn more than $100,000USD a year, in addition to the following that some obtain.[14] In the United States, Major League Gaming has contracted Electronic Sports Gamers with $250,000USD yearly deals.
Also, many progamers are earning significant amounts of money testing these games for the various companies who are more than happy to pay for this service. Once the tester is done reviewing the game they usually get to keep the game. Allowing the testers to keep the game is no small thing as most new video games for consoles like Xbox 360 are priced at $59.99.
Newbie
"Newbie" is a slang term for a novice or newcomer to a certain game, or to gaming in general.[16][17] It can have derogatory connotations, but is also often used for descriptive purposes only, without a value judgment. Two derived terms are "newb", a beginner who is willing to learn; and "noob", a derogatory name (an alternate spelling for n00b), though "newb" and "n00b" have become opposites of each other, meaning "newb" is plainly someone who is new to the game (thus having the potential to get better) and "n00b" is a player who both lacks skill and mainly fools around (not wanting to become better).
Retrogaming
A retrogamer is a gamer preferring playing and collecting retro games - older video games and arcade games. The term retrogamer is used mostly in the United Kingdom and Europe, while the terms classic gamer, or old-school gamer are more prevalent in the United States. The games are played either on the original hardware, on modern hardware via console emulation, or on modern hardware via ports or compilations.[18] Some retrogamers are in the business of refurbishing old games, particularly arcade cabinets. Some even make their own arcade cabinets.
[edit]Girl gamer/Gamer Girl
A girl gamer/Gamer Girl is any woman who regularly engages in playing video games. According to a study conducted by the Entertainment Software Association in 2009, 40% of the game playing population is female, and women 18 or older now comprise 34% of all gamers. Also, the percentage of women now playing online has risen to 43%, up 4% from 2004. The same study shows that 48% of game purchasers are female.[19][20]
Gaymer, or Gay Gamer, is a term used to refer to the group of people who identify themselves as LGBT (gay, bisexual, lesbian, or transgendered) and have an active interest in the video game community (gamers).[21] This demographic has been the subject of two large surveys: by Jason Rockwood in 2006,[22] who noted the level of prejudice that gaymers endure,[23] and by Paul Nowak in 2009, focusing in what contents gaymers expect in videogames.[24][25]
