An alternate view on the casual vs competitive argument

Games Other Halo
1

Intro:

So I haven’t completely formulated this argument, but it is getting to the point of frustration the way the community is tossing these words around so I am making an attempt, even though it isn’t complete, to provide some “Education”.

First and foremost ,These two words are not antonymous.

cas·u·al [kazh-oo-uhl]
adjective
without definite or serious intention; careless or offhand; passing: a casual remark.
com·pet·i·tive [kuhm-pet-i-tiv] S
adjective
having a strong desire to compete or to succeed.

The amount of “care” that you have for the game, does not dictate how “competitive” of a player, or person you are.

ex: Basketball could be your life (therefore you are in no way “casual”), but you may not find competition something that you want to do.

And second, that it isn’t “black and white”; it’s not 1 side vs the other, it is a spectrum. And not only is it a spectrum, but multiple spectrums that make up a gamer’s style.

There are at least 3 “spectrums”, that make up the Halo community.

“Care Level”

Casual…Hardcore

0…1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10

Ex:
0 - Plays Halo for maybe an hour when friends come over every few months; Doesn’t see Halo anymore than a fun way to “Zone out”.
10 - Plays daily, attends forums daily, Halo is their life.

”Competitiveness”

Uncompetitive…Hyper Competitive

0…1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10

Ex:
0 - Stats and winning have no importance, doesn’t matter who they play or how they play as long as they play.
10 - Stats, winning, and competition are everything.

”Skill”

Unskilled…Highly Skilled

0…1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10

Ex:
0 - Can barely even aim
10 - Professional Player

These terms, while related, are not interchangeable.

Just because Halo is a huge part of your life doesn’t mean that you are competitive or skilled.

Just because you are skilled doesn’t mean that you are competitive or hardcore.

Just because you are hyper competitive doesn’t mean that you are skilled or hardcore.

Etc Etc.

Other stuff:

I’m starting to realize that the “Competitive” spectrum can possibly be broken up into two different spectrums; A players need for competitive matches as opposed to their desire to win or do well, although I haven’t fully constructed this argument so for now we will leave them as one.

Obviously it is near impossible to be a 0,10,10 or a 10,0,10 etc. The spectrums are clearly related, and you will most likely be within a few numbers on all 3. To reiterate, they are very tightly related, but correlation does not mean causation. I personally began to gain skill which then raised my care level which then made me more competitive now that I was skilled and cared. I’m sure everyone has something similar to this.

edit: After further discussion with a member it seems, while very unlikely, that 10’s and 0’s can exist in 1 player. For example a “hardcore” forger who has little skill or competition. Or a “hardcore” machinima maker who doesn’t even play Multiplayer. The scale was intended to specifically gauge the multiplayer community, but it seems to work with our current understanding of the entire community aswell.

I know little about RGB and color alteration but the little use I have of photoshop leads me to believe that it is a similar situation; although I could be totally wrong. If anyone more educated on the matter could extrapolate on this that would be wonderful.

In summation:

my primary goal is to break the current generalized belief of “Casual vs competitive” to not only show that they aren’t even antonymous but that we are all just different places on the multiple spectrums and maybe even that we’re not all so different after all. I know, it’s a stretch :stuck_out_tongue: but it’s worth a try.

Also, if you have any further development of this theory, or just flat out think it’s wrong, please politely express your beliefs with supporting evidence. I’m not saying this is the end all be all or that it is even factual, although a lot of thought and time has gone into this ideology and I’m pretty positive it is closer to “correct” that how most players see it.

Fun?
Now, to have a little fun with this, if you guys want: Post where you think you reside on each spectrum and a description as to why you put yourself there. I’m going to post mine at least to further develop the ideas that I am trying to convey, and I’m sure if anyone else contributed it would help others to understand the “reality” of the situation.

ME:

Care Level: 8

Halo is a big part of my life; I most likely wouldn’t be a gamer without it. It’s definitely one of my hobbies that I enjoy the most. Halo’s future is very important to me, hence why I am here posting all the time.

Competitiveness: 5

I am a relatively uncompetitive person and am only competitive when I feel that I am good at something, Halo being one of the primary things that falls under this category. Although even then competitive game modes such as Arena and MLG are not important to me. I personally find much more enjoyment in testing myself on how well I can do by getting long sprees of killing or performing awesome acts of precision and skill. If it weren’t for the ranking in Arena, I wouldn’t play it at all. I find the MLG settings to be far superior and wouldn’t play customs without them, but I care too much about my K/D to play it consistently in the playlist.

Skill: 7

I am a pretty decent player, 2 50’s in H3, 15% onyx in Arena (at one point at least; went down to 45% from losses and then not playing for the last month or two of the season). I think that is sufficient as I don’t intend to toot my own horn or anything.

That is all. Thanks for Reading :slight_smile:

2

I knew you would post this

<3

Good job

3

> I knew you would post this
>
> <3
>
> Good job

Lol after that argument in the other thread I was so frustrated that I needed to make this one :stuck_out_tongue:

thanks for your support <3

4

You probably put a decent amount of work into this and it won’t get the attention you desire… ;[

5

> You probably put a decent amount of work into this and it won’t get the attention you desire… ;[

Meh, at least I don’t have to retype something like this everytime I’m arguing with someone about it; I can just link the thread. And if anything It feels good to finally get it out in it’s own thread instead of lost pages deep into some other thread.

6

> > I knew you would post this
> >
> > <3
> >
> > Good job
>
> Lol after that argument in the other thread I was so frustrated that I needed to make this one :stuck_out_tongue:
>
> thanks for your support <3

We should defiantly try to keep this one alive.
(and keep flames way down)

Anytime man.

7

Tl;Dr… :wink:

You used anonymous in the op when you might have meant antonyms or mutually exclusive. Autospell got a hold me thinks.

8

> Tl;Dr… :wink:
>
>
> You used anonymous in the op when you might have meant antonyms or mutually exclusive. Autospell got a hold me thinks.

Or basic human error.

it happens, and it happens more often when you type super walls :0

9

That was a very thoughtful and well written post. I commend you.

I do, however, think you’re missing a few points.

Firstly, people want to quantify things. We want to label, box, measure and weigh things. Some things are easily quantifiable and others are so abstract that even giving them names is lunacy.

I think you put forward a pretty decent scale. Ultimately there’s infinite levels of gradation of a person’s passion towards Halo. You could boil it down to 3, 4 or even 10 spectrums but you still aren’t covering the experience of Halo.

There are people who make intricate machinimas who suck at the game. There are people who take video game screenshots with the enthusiasm of real life photographers. There are forgers, grifballers, griefers, modders try hards and all manner of gamers who come to Halo for different reasons.

Even the semantics of this argument are broken. You can say ‘casual - competitive’ but if a person who plays little match making spends 50 hours crafting a map you couldn’t call them casual much less competitive. In that case you could change the semantics to ‘casual - hardcore’ to represent a person’s level of passion towards Halo instead of the raw skill with the sniper rifle. But even this train of discussion has too many flaws.

The bottom line is that there is no such thing as casual or competitive. Halo, like an entire country, has many citizens and inhabitants who make up a diverse melting pot of play-styles, interests and habits.

10

> That was a very thoughtful and well written post. I commend you.
>
> I do, however, think you’re missing a few points.
>
> Firstly, people want to quantify things. We want to label, box, measure and weigh things. Some things are easily quantifiable and others are so abstract that even giving them names is lunacy.
>
> I think you put forward a pretty decent scale. Ultimately there’s infinite levels of gradation of a person’s passion towards Halo. You could boil it down to 3, 4 or even 10 spectrums but you still aren’t covering the experience of Halo.
>
> There are people who make intricate machinimas who suck at the game. There are people who take video game screenshots with the enthusiasm of real life photographers. There are forgers, grifballers, griefers, modders try hards and all manner of gamers who come to Halo for different reasons.
>
> Even the semantics of this argument are broken. You can say ‘casual - competitive’ but if a person who plays little match making spends 50 hours crafting a map you couldn’t call them casual much less competitive. In that case you could change the semantics to ‘casual - hardcore’ to represent a person’s level of passion towards Halo instead of the raw skill with the sniper rifle. But even this train of discussion has too many flaws.
>
> The bottom line is that there is no such thing as casual or competitive. Halo, like an entire country, has many citizens and inhabitants who make up a diverse melting pot of play-styles, interests and habits.

Well, with that said it still doesn’t seem to full discredit the 3 spectrums, just the idea that all 3 are very related. With that you CAN be a 10 on the hardcore scale while being a 0 on the competitive and 0 on the skill scale. I understand what you’re saying but I still think the 3 scales are pretty accurate, and at minimum are more than the “casual vs competitive argument”. I am not attempting to fully analyze the entire gaming community, just provide a more educated and in depth analysis on the “casual vs competitive” argument that almost everyone on the spends a lot of time on the forums believes in the state of the community, which I believe is very incorrect. Further, the intention was to analyze the multiplayer players, not necessarily the entire community, although it still seems to hold a decent amount of water when analyzing the entire community.

> Tl;Dr… :wink:
>
>
> You used anonymous in the op when you might have meant antonyms or mutually exclusive. Autospell got a hold me thinks.

Fixed. Thanks babe.

11

@shadow artiste-

I think that’s wrong. There are definite casual halo players, and definite competitive. Its just that these labels are so very broad and not exclusive in anyway.

For example, I play magic the gathering. Usually EDH (a non tournament format). My goal in playing is for everyone to have fun when we play. But! It annoys me to no end when players play poorly. Mistakes or bad plays can ruin games, making them highly unpredictable. Which sounds like a very competitive thing.

I see it more as a motivation for playing.

12

> @shadow artiste-
> I think that’s wrong. There are definite casual halo players, and definite competitive. Its just that these labels are so very broad and not exclusive in anyway.

That’s exactly my point.

You just told me I’m wrong and then proceeded to prove my point.

You can definitely look at one player and recognize that they are more competitive than another player. I would never argue that. But the ways in which we could try and measure and imagine what people value in Halo are as diverse as it’s players.

I guess when it comes down to it, it’s more about value. To varying degrees, different players value different things. I’m a passionate Halo player but the draw for me is playing with my friends. I play hard and I play to win but I’m not interested in playing without friends who are in party chat with me. The social aspect of Halo is by far the thing I value the most.

Every gamer has a different set of values.

13

> The bottom line is that there is no such thing as casual or competitive. Halo, like an entire country, has many citizens and inhabitants who make up a diverse melting pot of play-styles, interests and habits.

you said they ain’t real. I said they is.

We both agree that the terms are broader than commonly used.

14

And you people thought my ignorant posts were bad, and yet, look what they spawned!

Lol.

15

> And you people thought my ignorant posts were bad, and yet, look what they spawned!
>
> Lol.

Not sure what you’re implying.

16

I’d say this is the most detailed script for trying to differentiate from Casual and hardcore…! nicely written…

17

I’m very glad you decided to create a topic for this. It will be much easier to link to this topic in order to explain something to someone.

Good job!

As for where I am on the spectrums:

Care: 7.5
Competitiveness: 6.5
Skill: 6

18

skimmed through and hit the thanks, i’ve been through this discussion quite a few times but i usualy use casual, casual-competitive, competitive-casual then hardcore instead of your use rating which i think is better anyway.

care: 10
competitive:5
skill: 6

i care to much …?

19

It’s amazing how so many people pay so much attention to how other people not only play but VIEW the game as a whole AND take it to heart to boot.

It’s like going to the doctor and wondering what’s wrong with everyone in the Waiting Room instead of yourself. I ain’t paying their copay! I worry about MY issues.

Is it so wrong that as their goodbye game, they made it something for everyone? sigh

20

> It’s amazing how so many people pay so much attention to how other people not only play but VIEW the game as a whole AND take it to heart to boot.

i don’t think it’s about caring how people play, i think it’s more to do with the ignorant use of the terms harcore, casual and competitive so this topic aims to educate them.

> It’s like going to the doctor and wondering what’s wrong with everyone in the Waiting Room instead of yourself. I ain’t paying their copay! I worry about MY issues.

i’m guilty of doing that, it’s takes my mind off of my own issues and curisoity gets the better of me …

> Is it so wrong that as their goodbye game, they made it something for everyone? sigh

with the addition of the TU this is now true, but for a whole year it wasn’t.