If you know me, you know I love video games and I have since as far back as I can remember. My family's first console was the
Atari 2600 which I remember playing with my dad and my uncle Kevin. I still recall watching the little white blocky dudes running up and down the field on the football game. That was as real as it got back in the day. The next console I remember really playing like crazy was the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). I still recall going to Fedco with my dad and buying the console along with the game Kung Fu. It came packaged with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt as well as two controllers and the light gun. For years that console got mad play, including many lost hours at my cousins house in Utah during the summers playing Tecmo Bowl, Pro Wrestling, and Bases Loaded. Fights, tears, and fist pumping were common during those marathon sessions.
Today I find a state-of-the-art console under my HDTV. I still waste plenty of time playing, but I no longer play for six hour stretches nor do I pump my fist and punch people over losses. Indeed, this week I've only turned it on once and that was to play a brief session of Beautiful Katamari with Carter. I love gaming for the escapism and the ability to do things I would never otherwise dream of doing in real life. I find, however, that the term "hardcore gamer" doesn't quite describe my gaming habits and "casual gamer" reminds me of seeing my mom or dad sitting in front of their Dell playing Solitaire. Tonight, in fact just a few minutes ago, after making chili for my co-workers and helping get the kids to bed and the dishes done, I stumbled across a new definition of gamers who find themselves somewhere in the middle: mid-core gamer. I said to Sarah, who is reading a book on the couch, "Hey, I think I'm a mid-core gamer!" "Oh, that's interesting," she said politely, "what does that mean?" After explaining it to her and she agreed and although I definitely have my moments of mania, generally after a mega-hit, triple AAA title like Halo 3 ships, I generally play electronic games on the weekends, after she's in bed. Having kids has made it a lot harder to find time to play since I don't play any non-kid friendly games and, in general, like to limit Carter's exposure to no more than thirty minutes at a time, something he's grown accustomed to (he is happy to quit after about a half hour which is great). Anyway, I've probably gone on far too long on this subject, but I thought it was funny. My number one interest is still reading, most of which I do online or from magazines, although I'm always reading at least one novel.
The following is from: JOYSTIQ.COM (my favorite gaming blog):
Are you a mid-core gamer?
Plenty of gamers are often stuck between the definitions of "casual" and "hardcore." They care too much to be the former, and yet they don't care enough to be the latter. If you're one of them, and yearning for your own defining category, then worry no more. You might just be a mid-core gamer.
What does your new-found identity mean? According to 8-Bit Rocket, it means you're the type of gamer who doesn't want to buy a new computer every time a new game comes out. You might love MMOs, but you don't have the time (or patience) for eight-hour quests. You might own the latest consoles, but you might not finish every single game you buy. 8-Bit Rocket also suggests that mid-core gamers are generally of the older generations, but we firmly believe that young people can be mid-core as well.
