Gaming, it’s a term that means many things to many people.  Gaming like anything else exists on a spectrum.  On one hand, there is gaming at its least concentration.  This is what is known as casual gaming.  On the other hand, there is gaming at its most and most serious concentration.  This is what we call tournament or pro gaming.  But, is the spectrum even that easily defined?  Is there much of a difference between the two?  What is it that makes a gamer “Pro.”

Well, first we should probably look at the behavior of the two types of gamer.  Casual gamers in popular opinion are gamers who game just because it’s a hobby or a pastime.  They are more likely to buy a game on a whim, possibly via seeing one review, or some flashy box art.  Game marketers like to keep advertisements for games simple, for the casual gamer, as they tend to be the “sway” category in terms of sales for a game.  Casual gamers also don’t really factor videogames in as an “element” in their lives.  At most, videogames are something to do.  Gaming time isn’t scheduled, or planned, it just happens when it happens.

Competitive gamers are a whole other story.  Competitive gamers look at gaming as a lifestyle or sport.  When they buy a game, they look at multiple reviews, company history, and even sometimes go so far as to analyze the development team.  Competitive gamers many times will buy a game due to its series history, or cult following power.  Competitive gamers generally do schedule gaming into their lives, playing a certain amount of time, or up to a certain point (for games that have progression and levels such as RPGs or Platformers) per day.

Casual gamers generally end their purchase at the game.  Once a game is in your possession your shopping spree ends for the day.  However, the mental attitude of competitive gamers is much different.  In any sport, an athlete needs good equipment.  As such, competitive gamers will many times splurge at the time of purchase, to get anything related to the game they are playing.  This includes players guides, special controllers (many times enough to fill the controller slots on their consoles), the “limited” edition of the game if there is one, so on and so forth.  This phenomenon was seen in full force in the lines during the first weeks of the next gen consoles.  Gamers would purchase a system, all four controllers, any other peripherals, and near all release games just to have a complete setup.

Just about any game can be a competitive game.  Though games built for the VS atmosphere generally reign supreme over competitive gamers.  Fighters, Shooters, heck in fact anything that has an “I compete against you” mode really makes for good competitive gameplay.  The 3 top competitive games on the three last generation systems were Super Smash Brothers Melee, Soul Calibur 3, and Halo 2.  These are the types of games competitive gamers prefer on the whole.  Even Tetris and other puzzle games with a 2p mode share this top platform of competitive game preference.  When all is said and done, and the game is over, there is a clear winner and loser.

Taking a step down from the versus games, two player games without a versus mode are the next preferred medium for competitive gamers.  On this rung of the ladder you will find DDR, Time Crisis, and certain platformers such as the Super Mario series.  Some custom rules have to be applied to these games are there is no clear winner in the 2p mode.  Generally the person with the most points, or who clears a stage in the least time is the winner. 

Finally we come to the last platform, the very bottom, which is games that do not have a 2p mode at all.  Though you will find people competing in these games, the communities for them are few and far between.   The best gamers can do is take turns and try to outdo each other.  Here you will find one player platformers, RPGs, and even pinball.  Gamers generally make their own rules too, setting their own bars to beat.  One of the largest challenges back in gaming’s heyday was “how fast can you beat green hill zone” in Sonic 2.  Cult followings of one player games can get really big when you do find them however.  For example, there is a large community of gamers who try to outdo each other in a simple flash game “Nanaca Crash”.