by Metalstrike

A hardcore video gamer only becomes one if he meets the criteria for being one. He must spend endless hours playing games and that he must be doing this for years. On top of this, he must take it to the next level, i.e. he must have dedicated half his life in some kind of competitive online arenas, excel in them, and think of himself as “special” because of this “pseudo-skill” twisting joysticks with his thumbs or bashing down buttons on a controller, keyboard, remotes or mice.

A hardcore video gamer also is one who can afford the hobby. Someone who not only buys consoles or pc and games to play, but also somebody who just wants to be "in" with the crowd who does the same thing – squander money on hyped-up games that are not really good. Also, a hardcore gamer's ultimate criteria, to be considered as one is that...”Hey! You should play everything, from the pc, ps3, xbox360 and the Wii. Anything short of this, and you are still a half-baked cookie, not yet "hardcore" baby!”

A lot of people, especially myself, takes pride in being called a hardcore gamer. It's like being a member of a special club of extra-ordinary ladies and gentlemen. Many others, unlike me on the other hand, take it further on absurd heights of delusion, and consider their video game achievements as real-life achievements, and starts to affect how they deal with people, and how they carry themselves among other gamers.

What am I talking about? If you play multiplayer, then you know what I am talking about.

Most of the time we don’t even have to look to others to see this attitude. Already amongst many of our friends or acquaintances in Xbox Live or the PS3 network, people we know imagine themselves as “tough” because they can kill everyone in the other team every time.

Others who are really good and can even shine in competitive arenas like Gamebattles.Com, start to fancy for themselves thinking they have achieved “fame and glory” or deserve extra “respect” and that they are better people than others because of such.

Others, on the other hand gets too obsessed and just can’t bear being on a lower rank than his other friends, so as such, deems to spend countless hours boosting his score-stats, leaving other more meaningful activity time, that could have spent with family, wasted and lost.

So is being a hardcore gamer worth it?

Those of us who love the hobby; those of us who would like to consider themselves as “deep into the bones – hardcore – gamer,” isn’t it true that at least once we have asked ourselves, “is it worth it?” Imagine the hours and hours we have wasted staring at the HDTV, tantamount to doing nothing just squeezing that fake trigger on a controller, and then at the end of it all we think we have achieved something?

The greatest argument our other self would say is that, “Hey, just for entertainment, bro?” “Chillaxin’ and playing and winning on public games or Gamebattles, is for feeling good only” as according to one gamer told me one time in his sorta funny grammar.

It is true video games are for unwinding and entertainment. No arguments on that. Hardcore gamers however don’t consider them in a lightly manner. For many of us, it is a lifestyle or a way of life, just like drug users think cocaine is a nourishing drink or food for that matter. It is just something that has gotten into overload levels. We know we are doing too much of it, but still we are just letting it be, since no one is getting hurt, harmed, or dead, at least not for real.

Is it worth it? “For feeling good only?”