Peoples definitions of hardcoe are very different.

Extreme powerplay, as in making the characters as powerful as possible, requires you to delve very deep into the game mechanics, grind and do quests in a "perfect" way.
When playing a very in-depth character, while completely ignoring the game mechanics, you'll end up playing a weaker character then you could be, make "wrong" decisions, restricts his choice of equipment...

Both ways are the exact opposite and they both could be considered 'hardcoe'.

People usually confuse the meaning of Casual/hardcoe gamers, and Casual/hardcoe games.

Casual gamers don't as a rule, play casual games. Just as hardcoe gamers don't as a rule, play hardcoe games.

The difference between a hardcoe and a casual gamer, is the time they invest in the hobby.

The difference between a hardcoe and a casual game, is content and accessibility.

I don't think Bethesda's target audience is the casual one at all, if you listened to the podcast, you'd know Todd said "spears would not be in in a traditional sense." Even so, they make decisions they think will make the game better, besides, 200 people on the forums yelling about spears don't necessarily represent the millions of people who'll by the game, and if the poll is any indication, most of those would be a more hardcoe group of players.

If you ask the ladies in my quilting club, I'm a hardcoe gamer.
If you ask the kids or advlts in my community, I am a hardcoe gamer.
If you ask my grandkids, my sons, my hubby...I am a hardcoe gamer.

If you were to ask here on this forum, folks would probably say I am more of a casual player because I enjoy some more mellow aspects of the games. I would not want a game without combat, yet I don't want combat to the the all of everything. I often move my slider toward "easy" so that my combat is less of a time consumer and more of an aside. I enjoy the quests, the story, the sandbox to explore. I enjoy playing my role and making decisions my character would make...walking a mile in their shoes. But I don't want to have to run off in the middle of my quest to find a bed to sleep in or something to eat. I don't want to have to do those mundane things that one would have to do if it were a real life. I want to be able to sit on a rock and rest until I have some health back or take a potion to get some health back so I can continue from where I am.

I don't want to travel the same road hundreds of time to get to where I'm going. I'm fine with fast travel after I have once "walked that way".

So...what does "hardcoe" and "casual" mean to you when it comes to gaming? What makes one hardcoe? Is it the number cruncher who makes spereadsheets so they can level more effectively? Is it someone who wants one hell of a fight when they reach a quest boss? Is it someone who want's to walk everywhere or have a huge system of travel options? And what is casual? Is it someone who wants to play spider solitaire? Someone who prefers to pick all the flowers in their game? Someone who fast travels everywhere? Someone who spams potions so they don't have to eat and sleep? Someone who only plays two hours? Someone who enjoys decorating their house?

I don't think we can answer those questions with any consistancy. So, I guess if we don't have strict definitions we can continue to call ourselves whatever we want and use the word "casual gamer" to describe anyone who disagrees with the options we look forward to. Use it to dismiss half the gamers on this forum or in this world. Use it to belittle others who have a different opinion.

Or, we can just drop the terms and work toward understanding one another and our desires as different but all important and collectively we can all just be gamers who have choices in what games we play. And we can play the games we enjoy and walk on by the ones we don't enjoy and let our money do the talking. No mater what ever happens...gamers will decided collectively what games are good sellers and which ones flop.

To ever think of ourselves as "more intellectual" or "more hardcoe" because of the games we play is just a bit funny to me because games don't and never will define our intelligence but only out idea or what is the best entertainment. Bottom line is that we are all bozos on this bus and none more casual or hardcoe than the next.

hardcoe gamer here, casuality is too casual

If by your definition of hardcoe where the player invests more into the character though roleplay then yes I suppose that I might be considered "hardcoe" (Not that I would call myself as such) given that I already have 8 extensive roleplays with backgrouds and personality traits for each of my characters. But I don't much care to get into semantics about what makes someone hardcoe or casual considering it a waste of my time and would much rather just enjoy the game in my own way.

I might be more hardcoe than casual. I put a little more effort in game immersion and I play my character in a way that fits it's personality, skills and class. I also don't like fast traveling, and quests being too easy.

Let's see, I played about 1000 hours of Morrowind back in the day, and nearly 500 of Oblivion. So... I guess that's hardcoe.

an easy definition of a hardcoe gamer would be someone who has to decide between spending money and/or time on gaming or something else that is also important such as going to the bar or buying their girlfriend an engagement ring and choosing gaming a majority of the time.

There's nothing all that hardcoe about caring about the number of individual stats on your character screen.

And "casual" doesn't mean stupid, and being a "hardcoe gamer" doesn't necessarily have anything to do with prioritizing lore or role playing depth over hacking and slashing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hardcoe_gamer

hardcoe in shooters and RPG's, svck at driving games.
(Demon's Souls completed 4 and half times, number 924 at MOH leaderboards.):P