Hello.
Nice to meet you. I’ve just joined the PC Gamer community, but I often read its articles as an unregistered user. The biggest crisis I (and probably many other gamers) face today is lack of connections. I go to work, come home, play games alone, go to bed, and repeat. Turns out that’s not great for mental health. It’s also not good for professional development and networking. So, I’ve decided to register here to see if I can’t find a few similarly lonely but like-minded gamers lurking around. Who knows, maybe it’ll even lead to some work connections.
People often throw the terms ‘casual’ and ‘hardcore’ around as antonyms, but there doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus on what they mean. Everyone interprets them differently. In fact, descriptors of skill and/or playstyle tend to be subjective in general. Consequently, it can be rather hard to find people who are on the same page. Or at least, that’s my experience. It’s hard to actually describe myself as a gamer in a way that other people will understand objectively. Still, I’ve got to try, so here goes nothing.
Having played games for over two decades, I’m obviously experienced. However, my personality also makes me the type to binge on things. If you’re into that MBTI stuff (I’m not a convert, but I’ve read them out of curiosity), then I’d describe myself as an INFP, maybe. I’m fairly idealistic and I get really into whatever catches my attention. As a gamer, this means I put in the hours. A lot of hours. If it’s a game with a high replay value and I like it, then chances are I have at least 100-200 hours in it. I’ve clocked thousands in some of my old standby MMOs, with over 10000 in RuneScape alone. These hours translate into skill, but I am neither competitive (consequently, I almost never play PvP games) nor ambitious. Therefore, I don’t actively study and improve my game the way you might expect a high-end competitive gamer to. However, I am still a perfectionist within my own standards. That means I try to play my best. And that usually means figuring out ‘effective’ ways to play the game (i.e. “the meta”). Despite this, I hold a great deal of contempt for meta-minded gameplay. Yes, I want to be effective. Yes, I want to play my best. But, I don’t play for the meta. I simply want to make use of the parts that I like in order to meet my own high standards. The culmination of all this is that I am what might be described as a highly skilled casual gamer.
I’ve found it difficult to fit into gaming communities that are often tacitly segregated into “casual” and “hardcore” groups. One side aims to play at the highest level as defined by certain commonly held ideals. They’re always clearing the latest, greatest, and hardest games and content and then clamouring for more. Meanwhile, the other side seems to just be super laid back, with an “anything goes” mindset. “Let people do what they want.” It’s great to be so friendly and welcoming, but it also comes at the cost of anything skill-based. I have a couple of gaming friends and I really enjoy playing with them because we’re like-minded both in games and in the real world, but they can never keep up with my pace, so I slow down for them. I’m happy to have such great friends, but I’d also like to have some friends who I don’t have to slow down for.
Having similar values outside of games is also important to get along as more than just bantering in-game clanmates, so I’ll introduce that briefly as well, without getting overly political.
I believe in honesty, open-mindedness, creativity, and individualism. I really struggle with modern society’s emphasis on material value and money. The most valuable things in life are immaterial and/or can’t be bought. I dislike wastefulness and consumerism in general. I’m not a fan of capitalism either, but it’s never the fault of specific political systems, so it’s more accurate to just say that I disagree with the way modern society functions. Game worlds often reflect the same dysfunctions, which exasperates me. Even though I value open-mindedness, I’m probably more closed-minded than I think. I live in Japan and, as an individualist, I dislike feeling that I have to assimilate into its culture and tend to openly vent my frustrations. I’m not sure whether that makes me the *******. As you can probably tell, I’m a prolific writer. I’m better with the written word. It lets me formulate my thoughts. My favorite place to be is actually not in-game. I love just standing alone on quiet mountaintops in the wind.
So, that’s me. Please feel free to say ‘Hi’ if you feel like gaming with me. I live in Japan, so my connection to North America can be patchy. If you’re on the west coast it’s not too bad, though. If you’re also in Japan, that’d be great. I don’t have any gamer friends in Japan.
Here's a (non-exhaustive) list of games I play. I come and go from games all the time, though, and am happy to try new ones so long as they don't melt my PC (and my wallet). I'm particularly into co-op experiences right now.
Co-op/MMOs
・V Rising
・Risk of Rain 2
・Gunfire Reborn
・Outward
・Wildermyth
・RuneScape
・Final Fantasy XIV
・Vindictus
・...and various small, dedicated co-op puzzlers and/or social games.
Team-based PvP (I am only interested in these in dedicated, friend-only games)
・League of Legends
・Star Wars Battlefront 2 Classic
・Splatoon 2
Singleplayer and/or Multiplayer-lite
・As Far As The Eye
・Baba Is You
・Book of Travels
・Celeste
・Hades
・A Hat in Time
・Mark of the Ninja
・Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps
・Portal
・Sable
・Spiritfarer
・Trails in the Sky
Nice to meet you. I’ve just joined the PC Gamer community, but I often read its articles as an unregistered user. The biggest crisis I (and probably many other gamers) face today is lack of connections. I go to work, come home, play games alone, go to bed, and repeat. Turns out that’s not great for mental health. It’s also not good for professional development and networking. So, I’ve decided to register here to see if I can’t find a few similarly lonely but like-minded gamers lurking around. Who knows, maybe it’ll even lead to some work connections.
People often throw the terms ‘casual’ and ‘hardcore’ around as antonyms, but there doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus on what they mean. Everyone interprets them differently. In fact, descriptors of skill and/or playstyle tend to be subjective in general. Consequently, it can be rather hard to find people who are on the same page. Or at least, that’s my experience. It’s hard to actually describe myself as a gamer in a way that other people will understand objectively. Still, I’ve got to try, so here goes nothing.
Having played games for over two decades, I’m obviously experienced. However, my personality also makes me the type to binge on things. If you’re into that MBTI stuff (I’m not a convert, but I’ve read them out of curiosity), then I’d describe myself as an INFP, maybe. I’m fairly idealistic and I get really into whatever catches my attention. As a gamer, this means I put in the hours. A lot of hours. If it’s a game with a high replay value and I like it, then chances are I have at least 100-200 hours in it. I’ve clocked thousands in some of my old standby MMOs, with over 10000 in RuneScape alone. These hours translate into skill, but I am neither competitive (consequently, I almost never play PvP games) nor ambitious. Therefore, I don’t actively study and improve my game the way you might expect a high-end competitive gamer to. However, I am still a perfectionist within my own standards. That means I try to play my best. And that usually means figuring out ‘effective’ ways to play the game (i.e. “the meta”). Despite this, I hold a great deal of contempt for meta-minded gameplay. Yes, I want to be effective. Yes, I want to play my best. But, I don’t play for the meta. I simply want to make use of the parts that I like in order to meet my own high standards. The culmination of all this is that I am what might be described as a highly skilled casual gamer.
I’ve found it difficult to fit into gaming communities that are often tacitly segregated into “casual” and “hardcore” groups. One side aims to play at the highest level as defined by certain commonly held ideals. They’re always clearing the latest, greatest, and hardest games and content and then clamouring for more. Meanwhile, the other side seems to just be super laid back, with an “anything goes” mindset. “Let people do what they want.” It’s great to be so friendly and welcoming, but it also comes at the cost of anything skill-based. I have a couple of gaming friends and I really enjoy playing with them because we’re like-minded both in games and in the real world, but they can never keep up with my pace, so I slow down for them. I’m happy to have such great friends, but I’d also like to have some friends who I don’t have to slow down for.
Having similar values outside of games is also important to get along as more than just bantering in-game clanmates, so I’ll introduce that briefly as well, without getting overly political.
I believe in honesty, open-mindedness, creativity, and individualism. I really struggle with modern society’s emphasis on material value and money. The most valuable things in life are immaterial and/or can’t be bought. I dislike wastefulness and consumerism in general. I’m not a fan of capitalism either, but it’s never the fault of specific political systems, so it’s more accurate to just say that I disagree with the way modern society functions. Game worlds often reflect the same dysfunctions, which exasperates me. Even though I value open-mindedness, I’m probably more closed-minded than I think. I live in Japan and, as an individualist, I dislike feeling that I have to assimilate into its culture and tend to openly vent my frustrations. I’m not sure whether that makes me the *******. As you can probably tell, I’m a prolific writer. I’m better with the written word. It lets me formulate my thoughts. My favorite place to be is actually not in-game. I love just standing alone on quiet mountaintops in the wind.
So, that’s me. Please feel free to say ‘Hi’ if you feel like gaming with me. I live in Japan, so my connection to North America can be patchy. If you’re on the west coast it’s not too bad, though. If you’re also in Japan, that’d be great. I don’t have any gamer friends in Japan.
Here's a (non-exhaustive) list of games I play. I come and go from games all the time, though, and am happy to try new ones so long as they don't melt my PC (and my wallet). I'm particularly into co-op experiences right now.
Co-op/MMOs
・V Rising
・Risk of Rain 2
・Gunfire Reborn
・Outward
・Wildermyth
・RuneScape
・Final Fantasy XIV
・Vindictus
・...and various small, dedicated co-op puzzlers and/or social games.
Team-based PvP (I am only interested in these in dedicated, friend-only games)
・League of Legends
・Star Wars Battlefront 2 Classic
・Splatoon 2
Singleplayer and/or Multiplayer-lite
・As Far As The Eye
・Baba Is You
・Book of Travels
・Celeste
・Hades
・A Hat in Time
・Mark of the Ninja
・Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps
・Portal
・Sable
・Spiritfarer
・Trails in the Sky
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram