The new types of MMO players
November 5, 2007
Long gone are the days where players can fit in as only casual or hardcore. What exactly qualifies someone as hardcore anyways? If you asked an MMO player 5 years ago to describe a hardcore player it would be something along the lines of how a casual gamer describes themself today. Ever since WoW came out it seems like people who consider themselves casual still spend 5 hours a day 4-5 days a week on the game running “casual” instances like Karazhan, heroics, and even some early 25 player raids. After observing MMO players for the last 7 years and going from one extreme to the other in the casual/hardcore ladder I have come up with the these 7 types of MMO players today.
MMO games aren’t for me (0-5 hours)
This is the type of player that bought the game 2 years ago, they still don’t have any characters at the cap. When they have their account active they usually play about 0-5 hours a week and most of that time is spent figuring out where they left off at. By the time they get on track they log off and repeat the same thing almost every time they log back on, which is about once a week.
Pre-Casual never going to raid (5-15 hours)
They have one character either capped out or very close to it, not many alts as most of their time playing is going into their main char. This type of player is logged in about 5-10 hours a week, either they just aren’t into the game very much or they are just too busy to sacrifice any more time for the game. In most cases they are too sketchy with their playing time that they don’t often make it into raiding guilds.
The true casual of today (15-25 hours)
These people will usually have one character at level cap and a few low level alts. This is the group of players that often run 5 player instances and even some early raids if they are in a decent enough guild. Some of these players are getting into picking the right gear setups to max their char as much as they can with whats available. With WoW, you can also be a well geared pvp type player if you spend most of your time online pvping.
End game dungeon goer/early raider (25-35 hours)
A large group of players from the end game of WoW fall into this category. They are aware of what items are in the game and how to max the stats with whats available to them. If for whatever reason they aren’t in a guild that raids at this point, they play many alts and keep gearing them up in regular and heroic dungeons or pvp. Many of these players also consider themselves casual, while others in the same group think they are hardcore.
Raids, raids, eat/sleep/work, more raids (Hardcore) (35-45 hours)
This is about as much as a person with a full time job can possibly fit in to play the game. They usually take it rather seriously at this point and if they are working all day they do not like to waste their limited free time. Playing this much means they are progressing nicely through raids with a decent guild. If they aren’t in a raiding guild then they have multiple characters at the level cap and spend most of their time leveling more alts or PvPing and running instances.
Hardcore raiding, farming, pvping (45-60 hours)
Playing this much means they are more than likely in one of the top raiding guilds by now. However, raiding all week isn’t enough for these people. When raids aren’t happening you will find them leveling one of their many alts to the cap, farming for consumables or money, and pvping. Even some of their alts will also have gear from higher end raid instances. They will be the ones with 100% raid attendance and in most cases have extensive knowledge of all the encounters and character classes in the game.
Help! I went outside and the graphics gave me a headache! (60+ hours)
This is the player that drops 60+ hours a week into the game, this is excusable when a new game comes out and you do that initial push for a week or 2. However, if you pull this shit for months at a time, even if it’s lineage 2, you should probably consider cutting back some. Most of these players do not work or have any time limits for whatever reason. They have many alts at the level cap and in some cases raid in different guilds with each character. Some of these players are so involved in the game they will neglect their real life pets, rename them to a raid boss, and then neglect them harder.
I’m sure everyone knows someone that fits into each of these categories and probably some between. As such, I don’t believe its possible to just qualify as a hardcore or casual mmo player anymore. The genre is growing so rapidly thanks to WoW and as a result there is a much larger scale for the types of players. Also, with it now being considered average to drop 20 hours a week into an MMO, where will that average be 5 years from now? 25 or even 30 hours a week? Or will we start to see something similar to china where our time becomes limited?
Posted in News, powerlevelblog
