Hardcore and Casuals both, quick survey

DocFrost72

If you'd take the time to vote and comment, I would appreciate it. Have a wonderful day. "Time played" constituting time spent playing ESO.

Definitions:

Casual- A player who does not seek out the hardest content for the most part. A player who may be comfortable running vet dungeons, trials, and arenas but does not do so often or attempt to improve any more than they do through traditional gameplay.

Hardcore-a player pushing their abilities in an effort to climb leaderboard rankings or social group bragging rights. These individuals will set apart time to hone tactics, muscle memory, and reactions in an attempt to tame the toughest challenges for rewards or personal satisfaction outside of playing through content (think practice duels or dummy parses).

Kel

I have a weekend job, and my wife works during the week. So, aside from the odd job here and there, I pretty much get hours of unfettered play time. 8 to 10 hours a day, Monday through Thursday.

I play a ton of PvP, either in battlegrounds or Cyrodiil. I also run hard PvE content. Vet dungeons and trials. Me and my group have been on the leaderboards our fair share. I like to personally be the best I can be, but I certainly don't demand that of others.

The thing is, I'm not really pushing for anything. I don't feel pride or accomplishment from achievements, nor do I want praise for anything.
As weird as it sounds, I just like having fun. In PvP or PvE.
And no disrespect to those that do enjoy pushing and feeling pride in achieving things...that's really great and I'm glad you enjoy yourself that way, but it's just not me.

So, does that make me cascore? Hardual?

Let's go with hardual..that sounds better..

Sylvermynx

I play an average of 8 hours every day, 24/7/365. I'm a casual because I burnt out on WoW between 2006 and 2013, and then RIFT between 2013 and 2016. I'm never going that hardcore route again (and in any case, overland in this game is hard enough with my 2k + ms ping that I shudder to consider the veteran etc. content - I can't even defeat the quest line "mini bosses", I can't reliably bar swap, use quickslot, and so on).

ArchangelIsraphel

Agreeing with Kel...your definitions are a bit...limiting. I consider myself casual but I do push myself to achieve certain things- like gaining all holiday achievements within a certain time frame or grinding pvp to get certain cosmetic rewards that I think of as accomplishments.... so I'm not sure where I'd actually stand since I'm pretty hardcore about aspects of gameplay that have nothing to do with what makes a hardcore player according to these definitions, haha

I guess what I'm saying is, I do push my abilities to achieve things other than leaderboard ranks, since those don't really matter to me, but the content I do it in isn't considered "hardcore"

Tasear

Hmm.... what am I.

Strider__Roshin

I don't have too much free time, but when I do get online it's typically to PvP because the PvE in this game is just too easy. Although some of the DLC dungeons are/were enjoyable, and I used to enjoy vMA and vDSA back in the day as well. VBRP is also pretty solid. So the potential is definitely there, but then they come out with these elaborate story plots which feel so anticlimactic because I can light attack the final boss to death in PvP gear. It would be nice if the enemies at least had a chance to kill me.

Maybe if they made it so story plot NPCs damaged a % of your health pool. And before someone suggests it; disabling my CP will not make this content challenging. It is literally that easy.

Kel

Tasear wrote: »

Hmm.... what am I.

A healer extraordinaire!

Tasear

Daus wrote: »

I don't have too much free time, but when I do get online it's typically to PvP because the PvE in this game is just too easy. Although some of the DLC dungeons are/were enjoyable, and I used to enjoy vMA and vDSA back in the day as well. VBRP is also pretty solid. So the potential is definitely there, but then they come out with these elaborate story plots which feel so anticlimactic because I can light attack the final boss to death in PvP gear. It would be nice if the enemies at least had a chance to kill me.

Maybe if they made it so story plot NPCs damaged a % of your health pool. And before someone suggests it; disabling my CP will not make this content challenging. It is literally that easy.

Should try quest in shadowfen where you can't self heal or get home recovery. Now that was fun fight.

Minyassa

I set apart time to hone tactics, muscle memory, and reactions in an attempt to tame the toughest challenges for rewards or personal satisfaction outside of playing through content, but I could not care any less about leaderboard rankings or social group bragging rights. I wouldn't know a leaderboard if I saw one (which I don't, because I've turned those notifications off). I push myself to get better to reduce the stress of multiple wipes doing content that I need to do to unlock dyes, pets, attractive skins, or furnishings, while ignoring anything that only awards a title. I play upwards of 21 hours a week.

Strider__Roshin

Tasear wrote: »

Daus wrote: »

I don't have too much free time, but when I do get online it's typically to PvP because the PvE in this game is just too easy. Although some of the DLC dungeons are/were enjoyable, and I used to enjoy vMA and vDSA back in the day as well. VBRP is also pretty solid. So the potential is definitely there, but then they come out with these elaborate story plots which feel so anticlimactic because I can light attack the final boss to death in PvP gear. It would be nice if the enemies at least had a chance to kill me.

Maybe if they made it so story plot NPCs damaged a % of your health pool. And before someone suggests it; disabling my CP will not make this content challenging. It is literally that easy.

Should try quest in shadowfen where you can't self heal or get home recovery. Now that was fun fight.

I did Shadowfen when I first started to play this game and the only thing I struggled with in that zone was staying awake. It's the worst zone EP has in my opinion.

srfrogg23

AAAAHHH! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PICK!!! AAAAAHHH!!!

Rezzinu

Work 50~ hours a week, go to school full time (12~ credits a semester), and am a father and a husband. When I have the free time to play I usually do.

BomblePants

I’d say I’m a casual.... my job and real life mean I only get to play a couple of hours max a day.... except on my days off, then I’ll have a binge...

russelmmendoza

I call myself hardcore, but I dont chase leaderboard, hell I cant even clear vma and vet hm trials.
Hardcore, as in, I get heart attack inducing angry I cant kill anyone in bg, I cant collect all the skyshard in cyrodiil because I die instantly the enemy players sees me and no zergs wont help me get skyshards.
Hardcore because eso is the only game I wanna play everyday.

RogueShark

I've cleared all vet HM trials, dungeon challengers, I have "the Unchained"... but I would still consider myself more casual. I don't actively seek leaderboard pushes (I play off-meta and would not want to bring a scorepush down). I also enjoy a lot of the "casual" content... questing, fishing, housing, etc. I don't consider myself one of the best healers and I feel like I'm still always learning from others who might fall under the hardcore category.

By the poll's definition I would fall somewhere inbetween I suppose.

Kikke

hardcore or casual was never about content. But about time spent playing. Tho, think somewhere down the line the term got twisted into who does vet trials HMs and who don't. I do not like this twist..

geonsocal

for the first three years or so was averaging 20 plus hours each week, down to about 10 now...

nothing last forever, including video game addiction to a specific title...

tinythinker

Casual. Used to be 25+ all the time from spring 2014 through the first half of 2016. Now ranges from low mid-teens to mid-twenties, occasionally over, if I'm having fun with the game (change is due to my available free time). If I'm bored/burned out or another game has fun new content out or I'm into some other hobby, it drops to the zero to four or five range for ESO. Even when I was 25+ hours regularly I didn't see much payoff to me personally for spending lots of time farming gear and practicing, so time was better spent just playing actual content

Tasear

Daus wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

Daus wrote: »

I don't have too much free time, but when I do get online it's typically to PvP because the PvE in this game is just too easy. Although some of the DLC dungeons are/were enjoyable, and I used to enjoy vMA and vDSA back in the day as well. VBRP is also pretty solid. So the potential is definitely there, but then they come out with these elaborate story plots which feel so anticlimactic because I can light attack the final boss to death in PvP gear. It would be nice if the enemies at least had a chance to kill me.

Maybe if they made it so story plot NPCs damaged a % of your health pool. And before someone suggests it; disabling my CP will not make this content challenging. It is literally that easy.

Should try quest in shadowfen where you can't self heal or get home recovery. Now that was fun fight.

I did Shadowfen when I first started to play this game and the only thing I struggled with in that zone was staying awake. It's the worst zone EP has in my opinion.

If it's about struggling might try darker souls. I think eso issue is quests simply aren't enagining but stories are top notch.

Vapirko

And this poll is slowly revealing why ZOS spends most of their money + time on new content and cosmetics rather than fixing the bugs that affect players pushing the upper limits of the game.

Strider__Roshin

Tasear wrote: »

Daus wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

Daus wrote: »

I don't have too much free time, but when I do get online it's typically to PvP because the PvE in this game is just too easy. Although some of the DLC dungeons are/were enjoyable, and I used to enjoy vMA and vDSA back in the day as well. VBRP is also pretty solid. So the potential is definitely there, but then they come out with these elaborate story plots which feel so anticlimactic because I can light attack the final boss to death in PvP gear. It would be nice if the enemies at least had a chance to kill me.

Maybe if they made it so story plot NPCs damaged a % of your health pool. And before someone suggests it; disabling my CP will not make this content challenging. It is literally that easy.

Should try quest in shadowfen where you can't self heal or get home recovery. Now that was fun fight.

I did Shadowfen when I first started to play this game and the only thing I struggled with in that zone was staying awake. It's the worst zone EP has in my opinion.

If it's about struggling might try darker souls. I think eso issue is quests simply aren't enagining but stories are top notch.

Oh I've already beaten those. Sekiro definitely takes the cake when it comes to challenging content. MHW is probably one of my favorite games of all time though.

tinythinker

Vapirko wrote: »

And this poll is slowly revealing why ZOS spends most of their money + time on new content and cosmetics rather than fixing the bugs that affect players pushing the upper limits of the game.

Matt Firor said a few years ago they were aware that a lot of people regularly came and went from the game, and some players also thought he implied that many of them were casual. He said that's one reason they were adopting the current content release schedule that has now become standard. Every few months someone asks for a "break" quarter, that is, no new content just bug and performance fixes and the like. That will never happen

Waffennacht

I'm hardcore for sure

Casdha

I chose the closest one but none were exactly right.

I average 2.5 hours a day, sometimes less and sometimes way more. I also strive to be better and get better at what I do but I could careless about competition. I just like getting better so I can do more stuff on my own. I just soloed my first Vet Dungeon last week(Arx Corinium) but I still can't do VMA.

Camb0Sl1ce

I used to play more when I was on the Xbox eu server over 5500 hours played, I switched to na server because it's more populated it sucked but better than standing around in ghost towns. On EU server when I was there I pushed scores I wasnt in the top top guild but we did skin carry runs and such. On na I want to do the same, I'm in a solid group of people who want to get better, I have experience as well as others who have come to the na server with me. One thing in the hardcore thing I disagree with though is it was mentioned that if youre hardcore you want to get better because you're pushed to do so, I want to get better because I want to.

idk

Tasear wrote: »

Hmm.... what am I.

I know what you are.

barney2525

I play, literally every day.

But I certainly do not fit into any of the narrow frameworks you listed

I play for the fun of it

ArchMikem

I had times where I would spend several hours a day logged in, every day of the week. But now that my two Mains have pretty much completed "everything", I have a full time job, AND I'm still waiting for Elsweyr to launch, I don't have much incentive to log on for the meanwhile. My time in-game has dropped considerably. Then again, my gaming time in general has dropped. I only have a couple hours to myself after waking up before I have to go to work.

Ashtaris

Just goes to show how screwed up ZOS is evaluating their player base. They make end game content that 90% or more of us casuals can’t complete on Vet mode, yet we are the majority players of the game. Yep, makes sense to me.

MaxJrFTW

I think the labels are based on the difficulty of the content you engage. In WoW for example, i was mythic raider yet i played less than 15 hrs a week. Judging by my progression, 90-99 percentile logs, and gear, i don't think anyone would refer to me as a casual. I play ESO more than 25 hrs a week, but it's mostly doing bgs, questing, dungeons, and leveling.

MaxJrFTW

Ashtaris wrote: »

Just goes to show how screwed up ZOS is evaluating their player base. They make end game content that 90% or more of us casuals can’t complete on Vet mode, yet we are the majority players of the game. Yep, makes sense to me.

Casual doesn't mean i'm a bad player. I can clear any content on any difficulty. If you can't clear vet content you're not a casual, you're a bad player.