You say it simply isn't possible, but I've done it, so apparently it is.
I didn't say 20 must be casual because it is not 80. However, you haven't given any criteria that says why anything more than 10 hours is hardcore.
I am pretty sure I said more than 10 hours is not casual. Hardcore is yet another category.
Try to not link two unassociated issues together.
I'm just pointing out that what people consider "hardcore" for a WoW player wouldn't have been considered even a raider in EQ, let alone a hardcore player, not even close. *THAT* makes WoW a lot more casual friendly than the older, more hardcore oriented MMOs like EQ.
What is consider "hardcore" (even though we are talking about casual) in one game makes no difference to another game. If you fit the criteria for "not casual", you fit the criteria, no matter what game you play.
You seem to have confused a casual WoW player with a casual gamer. They aren't the same thing. You apparently aren't a hardcore gamer. That's fine, it isn't for everyone. However, as a hardcore gamer, I can definately say that WoW is a good example of how games have moved away from the hardcore gamers and become more casual gamer friendly.
What?
Is WoW not a game???
What the hell are you talking about?
How can a casual WoW player NOT be a casual gamer?
What other game (if you want the best gear) FORCES you to spend MONTHS raiding 3 nights a week to get the best gear? How is that casual friendly??
Also "you have maxed out pretty much anything, you are not casual" isn't logical either because it makes the assumption that maxing out everything in a game by definition makes you a hardcore gamer.
See what you did there? You took a statement about WoW and assumed I was talking about other games. I wasn't. You then go to use that false assumption to make a point that has zero relevance to anything.
Ask any player of WoW if they have the best gear without raiding 3 nights a week and they will laugh at you. Therefore IN WoW, you must be more than casual, you MUST have made a commitment to raiding therefore NOT CASUAL!
So considering that if you play tic-tac-toe, on offense if you start with the middle square, there are really only like 4 different unique type ways the game can progress, and on defense, there is only 3. So using your definition of a hardcore gamer,
You mean the one YOU just made up
if I play 7 games of tic-tac-toe, I am now a hardcore gamer, because I have done it all. Doing everything in a game designed to be casual does not make you a hardcore gamer, sorry.
Sigh. Again... No, I mean if you play tic-tac-toe for 10 hours or more, you are not playing casually?
And yes, being a casual player is measured on a bell curve. Casual = average. Hardcore = top few percent.
Wrong again. A hardcore gamer is defined by their actions, as is a casual player NOT on their relative place in society.
Lets say you and your mates create a game, which you all play 50 hours a week, so every single player is a hard-core player. No bell curve needed.
Are addicts defined by a bell curve? So if half the addicts die, then Bob who uses once a month, moves up the bell curve and becomes an addict?
From the dictionary definition of hardcore: "the most dedicated, unfailingly loyal faction of a group or organization". The most dedicated. It doesn't say the people who are more than x. It's the *MOST* dedicated, meaning the top end of the scale. You will find the amount of time people play MMOs in hours per week follows a bell curve, so yes, it definately does get measured on a bell curve. Just not your idea of what is more than x, where x is a lot for YOU. Because YOU apparently aren't near the top of the curve.
Prove they fit a bell curve.
Where I am is totally irrelevant, if I spent more than 10 hours a week, that would make me... not casual perhaps?
If you commit to a game, then you are not casual. Talk all you like, it all comes back to commitment, you made it, you are not casual.