Hardcore vs Casual, my 2 cents.

[Malefic]

I read these forums on a daily basis, and practically every arguement on these forums ends up boiling down to " Hardcore players deserve better items then Casual players, why do they get ' iLevel 232 from doing 5mans ' when I had to kill Algalon on 25m for that kinda loot " kind of topics. I just thought i'd give my 2 cents on the Hardcore vs Casual since I personally have been on both peaks of that scale.

Just a quick history. I have been at the point were I played 16 hours a day, I didn't have a job, I didn't have responsibilities, I sat in my bedroom all day and just played WoW, the occasional Xbox too. I've also been in a VERY highly ranked World Guild, competing for Top 10 World kills, and I have to agree with the hardcore players, I understand where you're coming from. The work you put in and the feeling of reward you get from it is very satisfying, and to have " Little old bob " who works, has a family and plays WoW for 1 hour a night if his wife lets him, come along rolling the pimped out 232 epics 3months later, is a kick in the balls, and I understand your pain with that.

However. I have also been at the complete opposite end of that, I have been to the point where I have had a job working split shifts, so couldn't raid, I have had a job working a rota that is changed every week so never knew when I would be available to raid, and currently I am unemployed again but, only putting in an hour or so a day, if that. Playing as a casual is really relaxing, I have been there, as a hardcore, amongst the top 0.01% of the player base, and I thoroughly enjoy playing as a casual, no matter how much I complained constantly " OMG DK requirement is only level 55, OMG NO ATTUNEMENTS IN WOTLK? " are several of the QQ's I posted about. Not having to commit hours of my life to a game is relaxing and I don't feel bound to coming online, in a sense playing really hardcore feels like a job. Playing casual however is fun, I can join the guild that is still a Tier behind on content and it's still a really enjoyable experience. I joined a guild that were still progressing in 25m TotC and Ulduar when TotGC25 had been cleared by top guilds, and it was a relaxing feeling to be able to log on and chill out, raid, and kill the bosses, without the, OMG WE HAVE TO KILL THIS BOSS TONIGHT OR WE GO DOWN TO 11th IN THE WORLD, kind of stuff.

This hasn't ended up how I wanted it to be.... :/ I wanted it to be a bit more informative then this.

TL;DR - Hardcore players, limit yourself to playing for a certain amount of time for a couple of days, maybe on an alt, limit yourself to having 10 hours on one character over the whole week and see how enjoyable it is to not be under the pressure that playing hardcore is, and how relaxing it is to not worry you're going to be guildless tomorrow 'cause you didn't raid for one night.


This has turned out to be a close to pointless post, basically. Hardcore players I see where you're coming from, been there, done that, but really, try out Casual play sometime - it's not everything it's made out to be and it's actually really enjoyable.

[Anguish]

I also played at the hardcore level and am now down to the don't play level. I agree with the "shit we had to work our asses off for that gear, now you get it from heroics" mentality. Even if it takes drastically longer. Besides fancy titles what do you get from being hardcore like that? Best gear for a month or so? The best was walking around in full T6 on my hunter in BC. People knew you were good. It was more of a gear check for pugs also. Now gear has no real meaning. In a month or so it becomes obsolete and outdated. And also the lack of different gear models. Hardcores may be the minority, but if you ignore the minority on anything stuff hits the fan. Look towards politics for instance.