Don’t you just love it when you feel like you have achieved something? You’ve spent a good  many hours playing your favorite console or game, however when catching up with friends or family on things that you’ve been up to and you mention your game-a-thon in your free time they seem to discard what you’ve just said as though you haven’t really been doing anything at all! Fair enough, we all have friends who obviously share the same interests as us, if not, they wouldn’t associate with us in the first place......but what is it that actually makes people "tick" with games? Is there really such a thing as a core or hardcore gamer anymore?

I mean core gamers are supposed to be between the ages of 11 and 34, but everyone seems to be getting involved. Rightly so with consoles like the Nintendo Wii, Xbox and PS3 which all offer solo and sociable game play whether it involves either having your mates over for a few beers and a session or taking advantage of the network play they provide. Hell, some games are so good you could get your great aunt bowling in your living room!  Games are reaching people of all ages and with varying interests more now than they ever have, and there’s so much on offer. But when does a non-gamer become a casual gamer and a casual gamer become a core gamer?

From my experience a non-gamer is someone who seems to have the opinion that games are for kids and they’ve grown out of it. There are far more productive things to be doing elsewhere, like going to the gym or having a "real" hobby. I can see their point to a certain extent, but games can also provide as much mental and sometimes physical stimulation as most other hobbies. You may not burn as many calories playing a game as you would in the gym, but you’re still giving your brain a good workout. Maybe it’s their disassociation with it and it’s something that they have never really wanted to pursue, or are just set in the same routine and they have no interest in trying something new occasionally. We all like doing different things and with the amount of games that are available now there shouldn’t be such a thing as a non-gamer.