oooo.... by this definition, I may be a hard core gamer! Do I have to use this definition? I don't wanna be a hard core gamer

Ah, but that's the interesting thing.... I didn't care about any of that, beyond the story and architecture (Bliz has always made such interesting looking places).... the only motivation I ever had towards raids was being able to see the story & art assets that my subscription fees were funding. Of course, I also didn't care much about the loot. So the random thought I periodically had back when I played was wishing that, perhaps for the previous/outdated tiers of raids, they'd make a "sightseer" setting. Just the story. No loot, no monsters, etc. (Of course, then I always realize that part of the story bits are woven into/around the boss fights, so without the enemies, you couldn't actually get it. Ah, well.)

It was just always a bit disappointing that I'd get to experience 90% of the story in each expansion (the questing in each zone while leveling), but then be locked out of the climix/resolution because it was stuck behind a gameplay experience I had zero interest in.

I stopped playing before the modern LFR era, but I doubt that it would have appealed to me. No matter how "easy mode" they made it, it would still be the "herd a bunch of people through boss fights" thing that just doesn't sound fun.

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And this is another big issue. Like "immersion" and several other frequently-used gaming terms, "casual" and "hardcoe" mean different things to different people/groups. To the Industry, "casual" gamers means one thing. To MMO raiding elitsts, it means another. To PVPers, another. Etc, etc, etc.

I've been gaming pretty steadily for 35 years now. It's one of my primary hobbies. I spend a lot of time on it, enjoy it a lot, read news sites about it, etc. I don't pursue the hardest challenges, raid or pvp in MMOs, care what other people's builds or gearscore are, almost never play on a difficulty beyond "Normal", rarely watch video guides to learn The Best Strategy?.... by your definition, I'm hardcoe. In the "h4rdc0r3 d00dz" view, I'm casual as hell. To the industry, I'm probably just an average customer.

Would you have ever considered joining a guild that could handle that end-game content if it wasn't an "elitist" group, and 100% just a group of people that wanted to get together to do it for fun and were completely casual about it?

Just wondering because I share your ideology on guilds in general in MMO's, but in FFXI(the major mmo that I played) I eventually got to the point where I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and maybe get some of the better equipment for myself, so I got together a group of people that I had played with throughout my career that I knew were all fun-loving and not "Omg you stupid noob you jacked that raid all up with your idiocy!!!". We actually worked together reaaaallly well, and ended up seeing all that we had originally wanted to and then even more beyond that. It was great, and it was a sad day when we eventually disbanded(by consensus, we had seen and done all that everyone wanted, so there was no point beyond casual play, and we all had other groups we had for that), but it was damn fun while it lasted.

On the hardcoe/casual debate itself, Some people might have called me hardcoe in FFXI at some points, even though I never joined an end-game guild, I was an avid solo player, constantly trying to push the boundary of what was possible to take down with my Monk. I took out Genbu by myself, soloed major missions, and took on HNM's that most people required 6 or more people for. It was a blast and quite fun, but it did take a bit of research and planning. I often had groups of people watching me when I was doing stuff, usually just from my social linkshell though as I didn't go out of my way to advertise my exploits like the more well known people did. Never would have looked down on others though for not doing what I did, I knew there were always people better then me, and considering I conversed with most of them and they didn't look down on me, I certainly wouldn't do it to others.

Yeah, but I play a lot, a whole lot, and I'm casual as they come. I play on easy mode in every type of game that I play and pay no attention to any game mechanics. I can truthfully say that I play games at least 4 hours a day and more than that on weekends.

But in my MMOs I have not been on one raid or have any of that cool raid gear.

I guess this is a good thing about Brazilian gamers (at least those who likes consoles and don't play PC games (MOBAS included). We like all types of games and every type of player, you like playing some Mario? Great! Don't like playing Skyrim on master or legendary? That's cool, so, what was you craziest build in the game? and so on. On the other hand, the PC Master Race Priests, they just piss off everybody, Even themselves.

OMG, I can imagine them in some kind of weird robes in an even weirder ceremony with chants about video cards and motherboards!