ok i see this comeing up alot in this newer genra of mmo's "its for the casual players"

imo casual players are not what they are implying when they mean this imo i think they are mostly saying / meaning..." for the people that need a easyer walk thru in mmo's" ala handholding thru lvls like 80% of most mmo's of today..but this is just my thought

do you like being labled as a casual mmo player? because it seems this is what every dev. / company is targeting now

i for one am not and do not want to be this "casual" player

I selected "Hardcore Grinder".  I don't want people to realize I play games at my own pace for enjoyment!  What would my co-workers (that have never heard of any of these games) think?

I have to say I'm a "casual" player only because I don't play for  8 hours a day.  I'm not a raider.  I hate time sinks that are only for the purpose of being time sinks.  I love gaming, but I have a life outside the game as well.  So I guess that those things make me a "casual player."  But hand-holding super easy games.....those are for my grandson who is less than a year old.  I don't need nor WANT my "hand held" while I'm playing.  I like a game with excitement and challenge and also moments of peaceful reflection.  I want a well-rounded game that is immersive and has depth.  I also enjoy both sandbox games (my first MMO was UO), and themepark style games.

But yes....I'm a "casual" gamer.

Casual = Farmville or casual in that I have a life and may only able to play 10 hours a week? I want the game to have difficulty to it with a "journey" to the max level (if it's that kind of game) to be challenging. "Endgame" beating on a loot pinata holds very little interest for me.

"It's Causal". - Sean Penn, "Fast Times At Ridgemont High".

i think the difference is

a casual player can't play 40-50-60 hours per week due to life, work kids family etc. but they like the gameplay of an MMO and since they are making a living they dont mind paying 15$/month to play how they like. also, since getting to the end game or end gear lvl cap would take an unreasonable amount of time in their casual schedule they will feel that they are not getting their money's worth. another point is that due to their lack of time online they cant make friends or commit to a group without bailing, so they end up playing by themselves.

i personally think that this is what has destroyed the MMO genre, most presicely the multiplayer aspect of it. it has become the massively single player online RPG. 

investors see that they can get 100 times more casual players than hardcore players. so they will do everything in their power to make them happy, which include making leveling easier so they reach more parts of the game in a reasonable time frame relative to their schedule. also included making the game easier so they dont get frustrated, and give rewards for practically nothing to keep them comming back, and make the game 95% soloable. 

you then have hardcore players, those who play 8 hours a day doing repetitive tasks... those will grind through the game within 48 hours then bitch that there is nothing to do anymore.

this is not better than the casual player since they will always want more and more while the rest of the world is still half way. so the devs and investors cater to their gimme gimme attitude (same as the casual)

i also believe there is a middle ground, dont have a name for that and i like to believe that i fall in that category, i dont play 8 hours a day, and i have work family school to deal with. but i do play enough to have fun (in sandbox games where i have the freedom of choice on ANYTHING I WANT) and reach end game or "being good" in a reasonable amount of time. yet i like to be challenged, i dont want things to be easy, and i believe in "can you call it winning if you can't loose?" give me a challenge so when i beat it i feel like i did something. give me penalties for failing, make me think, solve problems etc.

oh and you also have the 13 year olds with mommy;s credit card who yell orders in the microphone and bully anyone lower level than them. those just ruin the community. in eve online i can ask a noob question and ill get about 3-4 PMs of people helping, ill get a few space chats of people sending me to where i can get the answer and the worst i would get is no answer at all. i tried WoW. and said hi all in general chat, i got called many names and insulted beyond acceptable levels.

Doesnt bug me a bit. Ive been called both and the labels mean nothing. Its just a way for a segment of the gaming poplulation to feel good about themselves (the hardcore one if we use silly labels).  I like games of all sorts what label they bring with it is not my problem its others. Besides people are not so black an white. I can play a hardcore game 4 hours one week which means i played a hardcore game casually. Next week i may play Wii Sports but for 20hrs then im hardcore but playing a casual labeled game.or w.e The silly labels dont even make since, if a game is fun it is fun whether that be a easy going game or a tense hard game.

Pride got nothing to do with it. It is just video games. I am casual and 'hardcore' depending upon my mood and how much free time i have on my hands. 

I'm a casual and I'm not ashamed of it.

Casual - Mostly that I don't have large amounts of time to put into gaming.

No Hand Holding - When I achieve I want it to be because I achieved something through effort.  When games dumb down, all that does is cheat me out of the satisfaction of achieving.  Some people don't...  but I LIKE COMPLICATED gaming.

Some say that because a game takes several hundred hours to finish that the game is hard.  That's not challenge, that's tedious mindless gameplay both slow and boring.  Show me a game with a 50% failure rate (people that give up and quit) due to difficulty, and that's a game I would find engaging.

noneone should be proud for anything that didnt involve them or their skill... country/age/genre choice/style/past of a country are things that you have no true involvement and you should not feel proud about those...

I consider myself casual these days. My only real MMO playtime is two raid nights a week, totalling about 7 hours.

I'm happy with that. Perhaps the thing that I'm proudest of is that my happy little guild is further progressed in raid content than other guilds that raid twice as much as we do. :)

I have a job and a social life. Casual gaming for me is about 14 hours a week. Most of us are along the same lines. If your proud to be a "hardcore" gamer good for you.

@OP. Most of us agree casual = "only have a few hours per day to play online" or "doesnt have enough time to invest in". While this is true doesnt mean we dont like challanges or we like hand-holding easy mode gameplay.

Most MMO these days are more to time sink anyway. Spending 4-5 hours raiding isnt my type of fun.

The whole casual argument can be annoying. I like the way EVE and Darkfall are setup, whereas it'll take longer to be viable as a casual player, but it will happen if you put in the time and the game is fun. I'm not casual and I don't pretend to be, but you can be. It's up to your mind-frame.. and nothing more.

I picked casual hand-holding, because these days all a game needs to have in order to be "holding your hand" is a tutorial. 

The only casual thing for me in this genre is the time I can spend on the games which is often about 4 hours during the week if not less and some more hours in the weekends but also some weekend of none play.

Other then that I am pretty hardcore in playstyle as in wanting a challenge, my dedication towards the game, learning the game by playing it, don't need or want outside sources (gameguides, addons, walkthroughs) to help me ingame, but I enjoy other players helping me ingame or me helping others ingame. If I am into crafting I want to be the best crafter I can be and will make it possible for me to be able to craft anything my profession is capable of crafting. Often on weekends and obviously depending on the game I can spend hours on gathering/harvesting resources. I do like to do raids but only want to do them 1 time and not repeat the same dungeon/area over and over again. I like to explore the gameworld and like to immerse myself in character in way's I imagine how my character would act and react as if I am there myself.

But I do play MMORPG on my own peace, I don´t want to play games like a job so I don´t care if I reach endgame in 5 months or a year aslong I am having fun and am able to entertain myself with the game. I also don´t care about being behind friends cause if they truly are friends all they should care of is if their other friends are having fun. I also don´t treath this genre as a competitive genre, I already play other genre of games I want to feel competitive in like RTS )online, or FPS)online' games. Though I like some competition at crafting-harvesting as those are things I am not able to compete with in other genre´s of gaming as those other genre´s do not provide the playing field to be competetive in crafting and-or harvesting.

Didn't vote. Don't care. Labels are what other people say about me. I buy and play what I want, when I want and offer others the same courtesy and consideration.  Hope you find a game you like as I have. (SWTOR/GW2TSW upcoming) and presently have AoC/LOTR/STO in case labeling is important for you. Good Luck!

I am what I am and I don't need labels to find my place in a game world.

I am casual player. I sub wow and I play maybe 10 hours per month. I am the reason why modern devs make handholding themeparks. And you know what? I dont give a shit what you think about me. I play, I enjoy my time, I love that devs cater to my playing style. I just love it and all those harcore people playing since UO or Merydian or whatever stupid old grind fest game it is, they can all go and die, I totaly, absolutely dont care.

I don't really look at itt as something to be proud of or not proud of.

It just sort of "is whta is is".

I think that if anything, be called a good player, regardless of casual or hardcore would be something one might be proud of.