Why are only hardcore games supposed to be any good?

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By 'hardcore" I mean video games that are incredibly violent, bloody, and look like horror or porn movies. Personally it's your own choice what kind of games you want to play but these "hardcore" gamers who whine and complain about their favorite bloodbath games being censored or banned often say nasty things about people who prefer "E" or even "T" rated games, that they're wussies or babies or whatever. Those kinds of comments make THEM immature, and I really hate it. Of course I'm female, so naturally it's so unsurprising I wouldn't be interested in such games, but some female players are. But I'm sick of hearing "hardcore" this, "hardcore" that, Nintendo doesn't have enough "hardcore" games and therefor sucks, only XBox is good and bla bla bla...

It's all a matter of opinion. I would call myself a "hardcore gamer" since I spend most of my free time playing video games, I spend most of my money on games, and I have around 100 games in my collection. I enjoy ultra-violent, bloody games, and survival horror games, and games where you shoot your way through hundreds of enemies, but I also enjoy games like Pokemon and Sonic. Whenever I thought of a game as "hardcore" I was judging it based on difficulty. So to me, Ninja Gaiden is more hardcore than Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster. But which one is "better"? That's up to the individual's preference.

There's a good balance there, you just have to look a little deeper for it. The likes of XBLA/PSN are full of non-violent games. The disk released games have to sell to a large audience, so it's lowest common denominator, especially at the minute as things like Call of Duty are so successful.

Some people enjoy violent games. I'm one of them, I love the brutality of games like Manhunt. It annoys me so much when games like that end up censored because it's essentially removing freedom of speech because someone got their panties stuck up their arses over a video game.

I enjoy violence, but "hardcore" seems to be synonymous with "bland desaturated color palette and bland linear mainstream appeal 'me too' play-it-safe gameplay".

I think the only people who use this kind of argument are those that unfortunately feel like they need to be a dick to other people in order to feel better about themselves. There's no such thing as "hardcore"; at the end of the day it's just another video game you're playing regardless of your particular tastes.

Well, lets face it, violence is fun. That said I have no problem playing E or T rated games. To me, its all about what is fun for the individual, and I enjoy a wide range of games (except sports and racing games save the mario variety). I can understand being mad when a particularly gruesome game is censored or "banned", but the only real game that I believe was ruined by censorship was Manhunt 2. I understand where you're coming from though, it seems that a lot of gamers are willing to fight to the death to defend the games they love or smear the games they hate. Its nice to see a community that's passionate about their hobby, but I find myself wishing more often that they'd learn to exercise a great deal more self control.

i'm a hardcore gamer and play games like prototype, skyrim, and darksiders. But i dont mind the less violet games cause some of them are really fun like animal crossing, pokemon used to be to, sims is sometimes good to play. It really depends on the gamer and the game type they like really but i dont mind nonviolet games.

I can see where you are coming from with this, with FPS type games becoming more popular, any game without blood and gore is considered childish to play to some. Games are all about the fun for me, I do most of my gaming alone so I'm not bothered about what most people are playing. I play everything from Battlefield to Pokemon, and I think it is good to have this variety as you are expanding the number of games suitable for you to play.

the market is saturated with them.

an uncertain economy with increasing budget costs means that developers are not going to take risks, but rather just make copies of games which have been successful before, AKA gun games.

You have to remember that that's only really a handful of game genres (albeit the most popular ones lol). There are plenty of other genres that don't even focus on violence at all, my favorite being adventure games. It's the same with movies though...the ones making billions of dollars are the 3D digitally enhanced movies with giant robots killing armies of super-monsters lol.

I consider myself a hardcore gamer. But I play mainly RPGs (love me some retro JRPG goodness), TBSs, the occasional fighting game and a whole bunch of SNES-era stuff. Also stuff like Mario and Zelda, and those are to violence what cupcakes are to a whole roast bison you killed with your teeth. Not really into FPSs and so on, mainly because I can't quite get my head around the first-person side of things and also because my reaction times with those controls are not that hot.

Games I consider to be not hardcore are easy or casual or both. Picross, Animal Crossing, Professor Layton, Wii Sports. But even then the distinction seems kinda silly. It seems to me like the games which you're referring to as being "hardcore" are not so much "hardcore" (or well, they might be, but they don't define the category) as "bro" games. Like, the kinds of games your regular, popular fella can play without other regular, popular fellas going "dude you're such a nerd!" Instead, they play the game, and then they bump chests. Or... something?

Go figure!

I think the hardcore label is misleading. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is pretty hardcore. Just try getting all the stars.

I would say that I am hardcore, lots of games with blood and violence, Halo, Gears, zombies, demons, sword fights to the death. But in truth I have had a lot of fun with games like Pokemon, Viva Pinata, Banjo Kazooie (it is not as bad as people say), and actually one of my favourite games at the moment is Kid Icarus: Uprising.