For those un-aware, when you log into Xbox.com it lists the last 6 games that you've played on your 360/PC. These are mine at the time of posting:
Can you see a certain genre of gaming shining through? In my defence both The Beatles Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 were new releases, but still, its becoming quite clear to all that I'm currently enjoying living the pretend life of a rock star.
Between myself and my housemates we have enough plastic instruments for 2 full band line-ups. For our house, it seems Guitar Hero/Rock Band is the ultimate in social gaming, a genre of games that brings us all into the front room.
This leads me onto the main reason for this post, and that is the divide between social/casual gaming and the more 'hardcore' gaming community.
Casual gaming has been around for years. Quick, short, pick up and play style games. I'd quite happily sit music games into this category. You can also probably add 80%+ of the Nintendo Wii's catalogue of games into this category, not forgetting the ever-growing popularity of games on Facebook such as FarmVille.
Your hardcore games however, are the kind of games that immerse you into a large complex storyline, and generally a large amount of hours. Take for example gamers who spend a good portion of their days/evenings online playing online shooters such as Call of Duty 4 online, or (like my housemate of late) plunging 50 odd hours into an RPG.
After reading countless articles, its clear alot of people see themselves as one or the other. Even those (and their are many of them) who sit on the fence of the two gaming styles will probably lean more to one than the other.
After seeing my recently played games list I began to wonder if I was becoming more of a casual gamer. A look at my shelves of games dismisses this thought however, as I'm a keen fan of RPGs, which is enforced by Tales of Vesperia sitting between the Rock Bands and Guitar Heroes in my games played list. Not to mention the time I take in catching up on general gaming news. I just feel at the moment I haven't had the time to really sit down and get fully involved with a game.
So what about you guys, what would say you were? A more casual/social gaming kind of person? Or would you say you're more of a hardcore gamer?
Feel free to comment your thoughts, I hope to delve deeper into gaming trends in a future blog post, aswell as discussing any points raised by you guys!
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