blog.edmundito.com

It seems to me that aside from the amount of skill required, those players who are considered “hardcore” not only include the games they play as part of their daily life but at the same time the game itself demands a certain amount of time investment. It is a formalized relationship between the game and the player.

“Casual” players, however, are given control over how long they want to play, and their games never require any kind of time invemesment in the first place, even if they’re “addicting”. But once a time requirement is added into a casual game like Bejeweled, for example spending a few hours acummulating score trying to get a “badge”, then that might turn the game towards a different audience, one towards the hardcore side of the spectrum.