Reading through the forums I keep seeing this word “casual “ and I just wonder what does casual mean to you. And while you tell me I’ll think to myself, am I casual?
I always thought I was. I play maybe 8 hours a day. But Saturdays my wife doesn’t let me so I don’t.
My time in game consist of trying to do everything, I raid 3 times a week [mostly because the guild asks me to] but I’m not fussed about curve [i don’t have yet but I expect it will come but meh who cares, when’s last time you looked at another players achievement points]
I run m+ cause I like the challenge it brings and I like to be able to carry some guild members on Tuesday night if they haven’t got a ten yet.
I some times spend a day fishing because I love the scenery and sounds the game has.
Or this week I can be found in ironforge handing out Christmas cookies cause I like to help.
I don’t tend to play alts though because the thought of spending all that time levelling a character gives me the shakes.
So in summary I’m a one player character, who raids 3 times a week and spends other times helping out. In my head I’m casual, I mean I’m not running mythic raids or farming islands.
But that’s me, being that it’s subjective, what about you, are you casual? Why do you think that?
I think people mean it differently. For me a casual player is someone who isn’t interested in the hard content. They want to play the game casually and do the things they find fun. Some of those casual players may spend many hours in the game but they will never push themselves into doing Mythic Raids, pushing high M+ keys or Rated PvP. That list isn’t exclusive but it’s what I could come up with off the top of my head.
For me casual means taking a videogame as a videogame. So I expect some entertainment. If I have to stress out in a videogame, I ignore such types of aspects.
The original definition of casual was probably “limited hours, doesn’t tend to run scheduled events”. Which doesn’t imply a “quality” of player and you can get a lot of fun and friendly guilds who are entirely casual members, but still run lots of dungeon and group content.
The more cynical parts of the community might also suggest the label also implies not reading around the game re skill rotations, talents, or boss tactics, which generally leads to underperforming in group content vs others of similar gear level. Think of those times in LFR G’huun where 15 players clearly don’t know how the mechanics work.
Oh, and as above; casuals won’t stick around if the game is not fun.
OP I wouldn’t class you as casual, which is fine you like to play a lot and put the effort in . I think im beyond casual if im honest. I love cookie cutter builds, I love passives, I love trinkets that don’t require you to use them, I am a clicker I don’t do macro’s. I do LFR’s , WQ’s and RBG’s ive been known to do normal raids in past expacs and further back with my guild. A lot of the changes good and bad don’t bother me as Im able to still play at a decent casual level. Ive stuck with this shadow priest as a main since Vanilla if I recall rightly. I dare say if I stepped into mythic dungeons, heroic/mythic raiding then id know doubt think and feel differently. As such im able to use WoW as an escape and not be triggered at everything the devs do. The only issue that really annoyed me in legion was the time gating. The Suramar area annoyed me I wanted it over with , the time gating caused me to take long breaks and then i’d come back and get on with it. Now time gating doesn’t bother me I can happily live with it. I pay for wow tokens because I cant be bothered making money, Im an altaholic I keep deleting and re making alts so the level boosts have been handy for me, ive paid for a few.
I feel Blizard may actually be trying to weed out the player that cares and puts the effort in. If they succeed then they’re left with players like me, easy to please hard to p1ss off and will put my hand in my pocket to bypass effort. A lot of you reading this might be thinking what enjoyment do I get. All I can say is when the game is easy I enjoy it.
This playstyle has caused me to miss out on content, gear and mounts and im fine with that. This isn’t Blizzards fault its mine, all aspects of the game are available to me if I want to put the effort in, I don’t so no problem I don’t moan about it. Take the hive mind mount, I saw it I googled it then decided nah cba doing the work. I wont have that mount and im fine with that, ive seen people state its unfair they don’t have time to do the hive mind mount , I say so what tough, that’s your issue not Blizzards. Just like in real life a common war cry is oh I don’t have the time for the gym im doomed to be fat, we all know that’s nonsense we are all capable of finding time from somewhere. I myself during my employment as a community carer would get up at 3-3:30am get to the gym for 4-4:30 come home have my shake, shower and go out for my shift. It meant I was in bed early at night but so what. I could have went after my shift or at night but I don’t like that I love getting up in the morning and getting things done/squared away so I can enjoy the rest of my day.
I do feel that we casuals should not be solely catered to, so long as im able to experience the game’s content and story either solo’ing or with LFR then im happy. Let there be plenty of challenging content and uber gear for those who want to put the effort in, it’s nice to see players with gear or mounts that I know I wont get. BfA has put the S.O.B as mythic which is annoying but I dare say one day when I want to look up tactics and get decent gear (im ilvl 364 just now) i’ll make my own group and do it.
So yeah would you say Im casual or beyond casual ?
In my eyes, casual means a game is a game. No matter what goes on in the game, real life comes first. Limited time may or may not factor into this. When it comes to MMOs, I’ll add the condition that casual means that I also apply the same standards to the people I play with - they’re not there to make my experience better. As it is for me, so it is for them - a game is a game. I will respect the time I have booked with my teammates but won’t prioritise booking this time ahead of going to a movie a friend wants to see.
A “hardcore” player is one who puts the game above some real life activities. Not saying “doesn’t work or have social cycle”. In the context of an MMO, I’d say such a player prioritises booking time with their team over other entertainment outside the game. Won’t quit their job or neglect their friends but won’t pick an arena evening to go see a movie.
I’m not sure what to call the player that doesn’t treat the game like a game but like a movie or a TV-series. Or the player that doesn’t interact with other people in MMOs. Casual doesn’t fit, hardcore doesn’t fit. It’s not a new trend, I’ve been running into this type of player for a very long time - even before WoW existed. And before MMOs they were still there, using cheat codes to beat games or following the solution on adventure games from the first moment. Still can’t find a suitable name for that group
Casual is knowing that you are not better than anyone else and are simply all about having some fun playing a game.
Hardcore is the tiny % of people playing for reals in the world first race.
Everyone else is grumpy-pants dreamer wannabe.
To me LFR players who will barley maybe even not dip their toes into normal raids is the casuals. Anybody else who claims to be a casual and tries to do +10 mythics etc while still playing like a complete stoodge and do absolutely abysmal is just a leech by that point
I am a casual, I play about 2 hours each night and thats about it. I also do not care if I get “welfare” gear from warfronts, emissaries, or titanforging. I do light pvp on my horde alt and have did mythics (mostly lower level) to get some 355 gear. I take WOW as a game basically, something I will not get too upset about, as I know I can just hit the x in the corner and if the game really makes me mad, I can just unsub.
To me a casual player will play as much as they like, whether thats 2 hours a week or 40 hours a week, but won’t do content like raiding or mythic+ each week.
They just log on, do some world quests, a few pet battles, run old content for mounts. Stuff like that.
I used to be hardcore player during TBC, was in the guild doing SWP at that time, did raided like 3-4 days a week, on progression nights I was willing to spend there countless of hours, and was at that time min-maxing my talent build and always did look what I can do better, but at that time I took the game more like a job.
Nowadays when I’m older I just play the WoW casually like any other game for the fun and to relax with a group of friends and raid for just 2 days a week doing heroic raids.
![:slight_smile:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
. I think im beyond casual if im honest. I love cookie cutter builds, I love passives, I love trinkets that don’t require you to use them, I am a clicker I don’t do macro’s. I do LFR’s , WQ’s and RBG’s ive been known to do normal raids in past expacs and further back with my guild. A lot of the changes good and bad don’t bother me as Im able to still play at a decent casual level. Ive stuck with this shadow priest as a main since Vanilla if I recall rightly. I dare say if I stepped into mythic dungeons, heroic/mythic raiding then id know doubt think and feel differently. As such im able to use WoW as an escape and not be triggered at everything the devs do. The only issue that really annoyed me in legion was the time gating. The Suramar area annoyed me I wanted it over with , the time gating caused me to take long breaks and then i’d come back and get on with it. Now time gating doesn’t bother me I can happily live with it. I pay for wow tokens because I cant be bothered making money, Im an altaholic I keep deleting and re making alts so the level boosts have been handy for me, ive paid for a few.![:laughing:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/laughing.png?v=6" ":laughing:")
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![:expressionless:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/expressionless.png?v=6" ":expressionless:")