What's the profile of a casual player?

I see the phrase "casual player" thrown around a lot when discussing issues about game balance, the market and IOs; however, I've yet to see a clear definition of what constitutes a casual player.

The term "casual" means different things to different people. For some, it refers to amount of time a player spends in a game. Less than 10 hours per week equals casual to some, while spending 20 hours or more would mean that you're a hardcore (another hard to define term) player.

For some it may refer to the number of high level characters they have, the state in which those characters are outfitted with powerful IO enhancements, the number of badges a character possesses or the length of time in which a player has stayed subscribed.

The only definition of casual that I've ever seen from the development team is their statement that game difficulty is balanced around characters using SO enhancements and not set IOs. This seems to imply that in their mind a casual player doesn't seek IO bonuses for the most part, doesn't engage in the market and isn't interested in taking on content that is too difficult.

So, how would you define yourself? Let me provide some admittedly arbitrary definitions.

Casual - Uses mostly SOs; little/no market engagement; little/no farming; few 50s/high level characters; typically many alts; plays around 10 hours a week or less

Average - Uses a mixture of SOs, cheap sets, may have a few expensive IOs per character; moderate market engagement; has 4-10 50s/high level characters or dozens of moderately leveled alts; plays 10-20 hours a week

Hardcore - Uses mostly IOs, have purchased/used purple sets; has 6-20+ 50s/high level characters or up to hundreds of moderately leveled alts; will often farm for inf; may have heavy market engagement; often has more than one account; plays 20+ hours a week

Using the definitions above, I'm probably somewhere around average and hardcore.

Playtime: around 20 hours/week, has played since retail release (though I've taken long breaks since then)
Enhancements: common IOs or set IOs, pretty much ignore DOs/SOs
Play style: will farm on occasion and engages the market actively, only one account
Characters: 11 level 50s, multiple characters level 30+

The casual player is mythical, like the unicorn.

I am soooooo not a casual player I miss the casual days

<----- It's over here.

OK, seriously: I fit all your definitions for Casual except for the market stuff. I don't farm, only have 3 50s after 5 years, and the majority of my characters have never made it past the teens. And I still use SOs from levels 22-32.

However, using a combination of the Market Forum for basic strategy (very nice folks posting over there, drop on in and say 'hi') and Mids for planning makes buying and slotting IO sets easy as pie. Anyone can do it, just read up a bit first. Also, I can pop on and do market stuff for 10-15 minutes rather than drum up a group which I'd then have to leave after only one mission. On days I can't play, the market is a great way to sorta-play. So I'm a very pro-market player.

Lastly, to monkeywrench your thought process, I'll note there's a difference between the casual game player and the casual forum goer. I've long since lost my amateur status here, and that makes a difference in the way I play. I'd like to think being part of the conversation here makes me a better player. Certainly it makes me a more experienced one, and that alone will impact one's play.

A few weeks ago in a thread about pvp recipes someone gave me a negative rep because I asked them what a casual player was. I also suggested that drop rates be looked at again, of course that didn't go over well with some forum thugs (luckily yesterday's patch put an end to all that). They got all high and mighty on me and even went as far as to get the dictionary definition, which I was about to ask them what the dictionary defined "influence" or "infamy" as, alas the thread was locked.

But back on topic, I don't think we'll ever really get a grasp at what a 'casual player" is, not even from the devs, because it appears (at times at least) each dev has their own definition as well.

Personally I don't think there is such a thing as a "casual player" in CoH, but that's because I'm a tight wad and can't see someone causally giving away $15 a month.

"A" casual player?

Well, some exist. Hop on for a mission or two, they might know the market exists and toss stuff on there, but they're not going to bother with trends on prices over a week, month, etc. They're quite likely not on the forums. They may or may not be part of a SG. They're playing solely for fun, but not digging into lore, or mechanics, or mathematics behind what's going on. They're there for the movie, they're not trying to learn the director's style and all the actors' roles, motivations, etc.

Of course, you can be partially casual. I, for instance, would consider myself a "casual" PVPer. I go in, I know the zones are there, I screw around and generally don't care if I win or lose. I don't go to farm recipes, I don't min/max builds for top PVP performance, find a PVP SG, go to PVP practices or the like.

Or, alternately, I'm a "casual" base builder. I go in and do so, but don't sit there for hours at a time working on a base. Nothing's stacked, I don't know every (or even most) tricks in the book.

Yet despite being "casual" in several areas, I wouldn't classify myself as a "casual player." Multiple 50s, ton of alts, quite a bit of time in game, familiar with the lore, familiar with much of the dev history and their stands onv arious things, a regular on the forums, I think I'd be safely classified as "not a casual player."

See my Guides and Tutorials

Here you go:




Oh, not the kind of profile you were looking for? My bad!

I'm not casual to say the least. This game has me hooked almost all aspects of it. I got a new account like a month ago or something cause all freedom slots were gone and I also wanted the feature to be able to trade with toons really easy and so on that comes with 2 accounts.

I have like 6 50's all IOd with sets but I dont usually start with IOs till 47 unless some set stops at like 40 like Touch of death or something. But all my other toons are all below 20 because I play my 50's alot.

The funny thing is when I went to make my forum name I tried for just *Lucky* but it was gone so i took 666 on the end. Then when they made new forums I tried with my other account and got it.

A casual player is sad, because he's having some trouble purpling out his warshade.

If I look at how you're defining things, I'm pretty much the definition of your "Average" player...Guess you have to bear in mind that college eats into play-time, but still, very much your average Joe, it seems.

(QR)

I'd consider myself a fairly casual player.

I don't rush to level, I don't bother with high-end content or purples, I frequently take one or two weeks off from the game for no reason, and I just generally don't consider the game SRS BZNZ.

On the other hand, I come to the forums frequently, I use Mids to make theoretical builds or plan out a character, and most of my characters have a medley of strategically-placed sets and/or frankenslots on them.

It doesn't mean I'm a hardcore player. It just means that I enjoy thinking about the game as well as playing it.

The responses have been interesting to me.

Because the market is a good way to make influence/infamy with a short amount of time, it appears that market engagement isn't out of the realm of casuals. In fact, in may be an equalizer of sorts, making up for in game time with the ability to raise capital while offline.

Mid's and forum usage are also equalizers in a way since they allow a more casually oriented player to get information about what to slot, and in a sense, make better strategic use of time (i.e., making informed choices on builds and set bonuses leads to less time spent respec'ing, rerolling characters, etc.)

I do agree that a casual player may be 'penalized' in being able to take advantage of in game events or team oriented events (e.g., Taskforces, raids) that happen frequently in prime time hours. Hence, a casual player may have less badges, TF accomplishments.

Anyways, I realize I'm generalizing a lot, but this is my attempt to sum up what I've read so far.

The casual player is a protean mirage, taking on an infinity of shapes depending on the requirements of the current specious argument being advanced in their defense.

Yeah, the distinction between effort put forth in game versus time spent outside of the game is interesting. In-game, I would readily define myself as a 'casual' player. I play less than 10 hours per week, have exactly one 50, don't really use the market beyond selling drops, don't get on very many task forces or big events, don't farm, don't PvP, have tons of alts (most below 20), and in general I just spend my time in-game faffing about and having fun without much in the way of goals.

However, I spend a lot of time thinking about CoH outside the game, read the forums daily, am semi-addicted to planning out mids builds, love the mini-game of planning out cheap IO frankenslotting builds (which is the only place I differ from the OP's definition of casual - I don't think I've slotted more than a dozen or so SOs the entire time I've been here), and I consider myself more knowlegable about game mechanics than 99% or so of players (although probably not 99% of the forumites).

In other words, I'm a casual gamer with the knowlege and out-of-game time investment normally belonging to a much more serious player. Like Chompie said, it doesn't make me not a casual gamer - it just means I like thinking about the game as least as much as I do playing it. There's at least two axes to your involvement in the game - some of us are just more focused in one, and some are more focused in the other.

Apparently, I'm casually hardcore--accomplishing all the "hardcore" things, but still playing waaaay less than 10 hours a week.

I don't think it has anything to do with how much time you spend on the game, but totally depends on your approach to/attitude about the game.

As a forumite named Rigel Kent put it:

"Hardcore plays to win. Casual plays to play."

I do not belive that casual is not a bianary term. I think "Casualness" can be graded on a scale..

The formula would look something like this:

((Number of hours played / Number of hours teamed) + total rare loot + PVP time

Maybe plug in "number of toons" and "average level" somewhere. Also pi should be in there along with a few other fancy squiggly lines to make it look legit.