The Society of Gaming

by Blake Snow { Jan 18th 2006 at 10:00AM }

Are there social classes in gaming? 2old2play seems to think so. They rank this "society of gaming" according to the following hierarchy of six different classes: Hard Core, Devoted, Pretend Hard Core (PHC), Casual, Clueless and Worthless gamers. Here's a quick summary of each:

"Hard Core gamers know games and gaming the way doctors know the bones of the body, artists know the color palette, and busty blondes know how to avoid traffic tickets. In other words, Hard Core gamers know it all... [They] are not married (usually)."
"Devoted gamers have a singular obsession – The One Game, whichever it may be... When you spend months, and sometimes years on the same game, generally forsaking all others, you’re Devoted."
"PHC gamers do know a thing or two about gaming, but they like to appear as though they know far more than they really do. Although they can fool casual gamers, they’re in trouble when they run into true Hard Core gamers."
"Casual gamers... like to game, but it’s generally one of many hobbies, and is no more important than any of the other ones. Casual gamers tend to play only those games that get good reviews and sell a lot of copies."
"Clueless gamer... buy a lot of games, but they’re not very good at any of them, and they give up on them before they can become good. These are the gamers who do things that puzzle you, make a lot of mistakes and get pretty frustrated by that, but also aren’t willing to listen to any suggestions or invest any time to improve.
"Worthless gamer[s]... go by many names: Cheaters, Hackers, De-levelers, Screamers, Punks, Jackasses and our own favorite, Timmies. Worthless gamers are a cancer on the gaming world, and millions of dollars and thousands of hours are spent every year by companies to thwart them, gamers to report them, and message board posters to vilify them."

What is it with gamers and labels? Do athletes have this many subsets? Do book readers? And what about movie goers? Nearly everyone has played, or better yet, interacted with illogical and unreasonable individuals in a variety of instances. Does that type of individual justify a social class system, even in the gaming world? We're not ignorant to the fact that labels do exist but that's not the point. The point is if you're a sensible person that enjoys gaming, pull up some rug.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Lutraphobic @ Jan 18th 2006 10:14AM

Yeah it's quite pathetic, really, the label thing. We are all gamers, and all enjoy video games. Just because I play PC games alot, doesn't make me better then someone who casually plays his PS2.

Games should bring us together, not tear us apart, specially considering alot of people use video games as their scape-goat.

Zsavior @ Jan 18th 2006 10:22AM

I totally Agree with this, I know A PHC, he is good at technology no idiot, he can read specs on a system and understand it. That being said he doesn't own a system and doesn't buy games he bootlegs any game he finds interesting, while defending Sony PS2 to be the greatest system ever and those who didn't play the PS2 have a low field of gaming. While choosing his favorite system he doesn't actually support more than he dls games to the PS2 harddrive and play them off of there(when he owned one till the harddrived burned it out). Grand tourismo is the only game he plays and claims that it is the best game done on any system and xbox could never do the effects or graphics in it. Did I mention he doesn't finish a single game he even bootlegs. He will play the occasional sport game or such just to take on his younger bro but other than that, he is PHC all the way.

32_Footsteps @ Jan 18th 2006 10:23AM

Does each little subculture have its own labels? Um, yeah, of course it does. Humans have an inherent need to label things - there's always this urge to create an "us" to make an individual feel more important, and a "them" to villify those exceptionally different.

It might be foolish, true, but it's all just hand-wringing over a simple fact of human existence.

Dionysus @ Jan 18th 2006 10:24AM

"Worthless gamers are a cancer on the gaming world"

lol Whoa. I remember using game genie and other cheats/hacks as being fun (like M. bison on on SF2 ... even if it was buggy as hell).

This categorization is a bit on the lame side I think, I mean is it that easy to categorize everyone??

watership @ Jan 18th 2006 10:32AM

If you have no other hobbies outside of gaming, you are in real trouble. I declare this gamer scale crap.

Ned Fetterhoff @ Jan 18th 2006 10:40AM

Agreed. The people who are super duper hardcore elitist assholes are just as much a "cancer" on the gaming world, as elitist discourage their fair share of others that they are just not good enough to play.

Vandell @ Jan 18th 2006 10:48AM

(Sidenote: #4 is right, the last label is a little harsh. Players cheat in games in order to have fun, and tend to be self-centered in the fact that they're only thinking about -their- fun, and not other player's fun.)

Regardless, Joystiq, I could apply the same type of labels to book readers! Watch:

� "Hard Core readers know books the way doctors know the bones of the body, artists know the color palette, and busty blondes know how to avoid traffic tickets. In other words, Hard Core readers know it all... they are normally English professors."
� "Devoted readers have a singular obsession � The One Series, whichever it may be... When you spend months, and sometimes years on the same series, generally forsaking all others, you�re Devoted. (Such as someone loving all of the Harry Potter books to a scientific level.)"
� "Pretend Hard Core readers do know a thing or two about books, but they like to appear as though they know far more than they really do. Although they can fool casual readers, they�re in trouble when they run into true Hard Core readers."
� "Casual readers... like to read, but it�s generally one of many hobbies, and is no more important than any of the other ones. Casual readers tend to peruse only those books that get good reviews and sell a lot of copies."
� "Clueless readers... buy a lot of books (or are forced to buy a lot of books), but they don�t get very far, or possibly not even try. These are the readers who get failing grades in school.�
� "Worthless readers are, um � book burners, or something. I can�t think of a good equivalent for this.�

GlitchCog @ Jan 18th 2006 10:50AM

Categorization is what enables us to better understand our world. You don't see each tree as a unique individual if you're trying to do something with 800 trees; you see 800 "trees." Categorization is just a method to make some group easier to investigate or work with. If you use it to discriminate or hurt a specific category like many people do with categories like race, then it can be bad, but in and of itself there's nothing wrong with categorization. It's how you use it.
And there's no mention of gamers who are hardcore, but only about classic video games.

Vandell @ Jan 18th 2006 11:10AM

This list is obviously "not completed", though. I can think of many, many more gamer categories to fit players in to.

zazzawazza @ Jan 18th 2006 11:12AM

Maybe that website should change their name to 2old2write.

Apparently I'm a worthless hard core gamer, buys loads of games, loses interest in half of them (not deemed worthy of my time) but I know them like a painter knows his paint and a grocer knows his cabbage and a writer knows his write and a dribbler knows his drib etc. etc. etc.

CaPtIn_iNsanO @ Jan 18th 2006 11:14AM

This is an old idea. We've been labeled as gamers for a long time. Back in the day it was atari vs. comodore or more recently it was console vs. PC. Then people started siding with specific companies nintendo vs. Sony vs. Microsoft. This article was just a further breakdown and quite well done(although I think they took themselves a bit too seriously).
Our good frind SetupWeasel did one over a year ago at http://www.ministry-of-fun.com/articles/Gamer.htm
His is more humorus and if your under 13 don't tell your parents cause there be some cussin'

Grudge @ Jan 18th 2006 11:29AM

Timmies? I can only guess at what that means - and it certainly is worse than calling Chinese WoW players 'gold farmers'.

Anyone care to clarify?

Thomas Crymes @ Jan 18th 2006 11:34AM

Because games are played with others, the Worthless Gamer catagory is needed... and justified.

People that derive enjoyment out of making other people miserable are scum. I don't care what walk of life they are from or what they are doing.

I don't necessarily agree with the casual gamer definition. Sounds a little wishy washy to me. I love games, but I do not have the time to play them all the time. I consider myself a casual gamer, but I don't just buy the games that get good reviews.

The problem with gaming as I see it, is the matchmaking. I have no chance at beating a teenager or college student (or anyone) who plays a game for hours on end. I need to be able to hop on the net and play a game with other people that are competitive for my skill level. Getting my ass handed to me is not my idea of fun.

Hopefully, MS's Truskill system will make gaming more pleasurable.

bitpicnic @ Jan 18th 2006 12:55PM

Isn't there some way to be in-between "hard core" and "casual" and not be a total dick (as the list treats 'PHC')?

LaughingTarget @ Jan 18th 2006 1:17PM

This article seems to be targeted at the online gaming community than the gaming community at large.

A "Worthless Gamer" is one who cheats in Counter-Strike or hacks Diablo. They aren't the ones that open up the console and use God mode in Half-Life 2 to get through a level.

If properly used in single player, the cheats can actually extend the gaming time. I usually would play the game through once, beat the sucker, then go through again as a massive killing machine that had infinite rockets or other super abilities.

Plus, nothing there says the archetypes cannot mix and match. You could be a hard core gamer as well as a clueless one. Hard core simply means you know a ton about games, but to do that, you likely have had to blow through tons of them, including the crappy ones, to know it. The devoted gamer can be a worthless one as well, like the ones that still play Ultima Online here 11 years later and still have the urge to hack in items and money.

Sagan @ Jan 18th 2006 1:37PM

I'm definitely a devoted gamer. I have played lots of games over the recent years: Resident Evil 4, Doom 3, Trackmania Sunrise, Call of Duty, Star Wars Kotor, Mario Kart DS, the list goes on and on. But no matter which game - after a short time I always return to the one and only game: Warcraft III. This is
1. the best eSports game, because it's balanced, easy to watch, fun to watch, has tons of coverage, commentators etc. (at least here in Germany. I think we are worldwide #2 regarding Warcraft III community (you can't beat South Korea to #1)), and this is
2. the game with the best modding capabilities. I have no programming skills at all, yet I am able to do astonishing things with the World Editor. The amount of mods for Warcraft III is probably somewhere in the milions, surpassing Half Life or Neverwinter Nights by far, and they even created their own genres. Plus everyone can easily play almost any mod, because Warcraft doesn't have to install them in order to play them, and you can play almost any mod on the official Battle.net servers.

In short: This is one of the best games ever made.

... Yeah I'm definitely a devoted gamer...

The usual stuff to avoid getting flamed:
Yes, Warcraft III is not balanced when compared to Starcraft, but Warcraft III beats every other game by far regarding balance. And yes, the editor of Warcraft III doesn't give you total freedom regarding your mods, but you can do almost as much as in any other game in which you don't mess with the engine, and it's definitely one of the easiest to use editors ever. And yes, what I am referring to when I say "mods" are actually called "funmaps", but they change so much in the game, that a lot of them should be called mods.

Lord Fartinbras @ Jan 18th 2006 1:42PM

Some of us have jobs in addition to gaming. This list isn't scientific enough or silly enough to be entertaining.

Brian @ Jan 18th 2006 3:04PM

What about intellectual gamers? Gamers like me, who vastly prefer story-driven or strategy-driven games, such as RPGs, or things like Civilization and SimCity?

I'd dump myself under both that new category AND a "Hardcore Gamer."

Pixelantes Anonymous @ Jan 18th 2006 6:35PM

That article is almost as worthless as the interview with 2old2play's founder featured on slashdot a few days ago. I am forever shamed I spent 5 minutes reading this. I am a worthless hardcore casual blog reader.

Worthless Blog Articles for $100, Alex.