Shorts and t-shirt, possibly no shoes.

Starlock wrote: »

Casdha wrote: »

The reason I asked this is when I read the posts on here it looks as if different folks have different ideas of what they mean when they say it. I wanted to see if I was right.

There is no ‘right.’ Use of the term is not standard, and personally? I do not use the term at all. It is a poor one because it is too polysemic.

The polysemy should definitely make us stop and think whenever we encounter generic claims about "casuals." This group has been blamed for pretty much every ill known to the game, despite the fact that apparently no one can agree on who they are.

The categories in the new Guild Finder are casual, semi-casual, semi-hardcore, and hardcore. So we'll have to make them mean something, I guess, at least there.

Starlock wrote: »

Casdha wrote: »

The reason I asked this is when I read the posts on here it looks as if different folks have different ideas of what they mean when they say it. I wanted to see if I was right.

There is no ‘right.’ Use of the term is not standard, and personally? I do not use the term at all. It is a poor one because it is too polysemic.

Kind of like the word this poll is about.......

I play a lot of hours every week, and I consider myself a casual. I've done virtually everything in the game. I just prefer my own fun builds instead of the META. If that means I dont do all the vet endgame stuff, then so be it.

The definitions offered in the poll are rather odd, and I have a difficult time assigning either to "casual." Time invested has little to nothing to do with anything - typically "hardcore" gamers will invest more of their free time in the game because it means more to them, but the casual gamer can invest just as much because it's a fun way to spend that time.

Meta also has nothing to do with it - I take the game very seriously and have never played a single "meta" build, avoiding them like the plague and preferring to complete content with my own builds based on entirely different premises. At the same time, I consider myself a "hardcore" player based on the amount of effort and value I put into those builds and clearing difficult content with them, which segues into my main point:

To me, "casual" vs. "hardcore" has to do with the effort and value placed on the aspects of the game which interest the player.

There are players who run dungeons, maybe a trial now and then, do some selling in their guild store, solo quest, and are reasonably successful at it all without taking it terribly seriously. It's "just a game" to them, and they place a fairly low value on it compared to everything else in their life. That, to me, is a casual gamer, and it's not a bad thing.

A "hardcore gamer," by contrast, is someone who invests heavily emotionally in the game, and to whom in-game success, be it in dungeons, trials, PvP, or trade, is very meaningful and a large part of their self-worth. They put more effort in because it means more to them, and are often (but not always) more successful because of it. There are, however, "casual gamers" who are naturally talented and better players than some "hardcore gamers," so that's not a hard rule.

Importantly, "casual" =/= bad, and "hardcore" =/= elite. Sometimes I think we self-styled hardcore gamers could benefit from a more casual mindset, stepping back and reassessing how important the game has become to our lives. I know I could.

I think time has nothing to do with it. Some of the best players in the game play like 8-10 hours a week. What matters is the aproach to content. Mostly your mentallity. If you intend is not to be the best at the specific content you do. You're a casual player. This might define above 90% of the community. But eso is not very competitive so I think that's fair.

Casual: EU Servers.

Hardcore: US Servers.

I have thousands of hours in the game, 32k plus achievement points on my main, two accounts and twelve characters but am still casual because I don't really get in to trials or pvp. Maybe I just don't care about competition or the current meta enough, but I do care a little bit.

JadeCoin wrote: »

The categories in the new Guild Finder are casual, semi-casual, semi-hardcore, and hardcore. So we'll have to make them mean something, I guess, at least there.

For this I will go with percentage of players enrolled vs active and type of content organized by officers.

Casual: not a full/active guild, no weekly organized events, but good for holiday event participants. No trader space.
Semi casual: mostly full guild/ half active, a few regular organized events maybe 1 or 2 a week. Easy to medium content. Inconsistent trader space. (No trials but good for dungeon groups)
Semi-hardcore: almost full to capacity/mostly active. Regularly organized events. Easy to hard content with no pressure, more consistent that not trader space. (Yes they’ll do trials but leaderboard isn’t important)
Hardcore: almost full to capacity/always active. Regular organized events. Hard content, leaderboards, progression, rankings, raid schedule, organized pvp time, consistent trader space, etc.

Time played doesn’t factor into my definitions. Ymmv

FierceSam wrote: »

I despise segregating players based on any aspect of their game. For me one of the beauties of the game is that it is equally engaging and fun for the eternal role playing quester and the perpetual PvPer.

I don’t like the choice of categorisation for the guild finder, it’s astonishingly lazy labelling and seems to perpetuate an idea that social guilds are somehow less valuable than leaderboard chaser guilds, when both should be equally lauded.

For me a casual player is someone who hasn’t gone spreadsheet.

unless I misunderstood, there are 2 categories in guild finder. first category is what type of content you prefer to do - trading, socializing, dungeons, pvp, roleplaying etc. and second - subcategory for each of the above is casual to hardcore ranking. implying that social guilds ALSO come in casual to hardcore variety. neither are more or less valuable - all it is is a category for people who might be looking for varying levels of involvement to have easier time finding it.

i would guess in case of social guilds - hardcore part of the spectrum would be more organized social events, active discord, etc.

I'm honestly more annoyed that the main categories do not include housing.