It’s already 2011, and people are still rehashing that tired old casual versus harcore gamer debate Real games must be played on a console (or specialty PC), social games are not really games, women suck at games — all sorts of lame arguments are brought back to the table time and time again

Despite the number of hardcore gamers all around the world, the reality is they are heavily outnumbered by the casual gaming set. How did this happen? It’s actually very simple: for every person who played Left 4 Dead or Final Fantasy XIII, their mother, aunt, and grandmother played Bejewelled or Cooking Mama.

I didn’t actually believe in these figures until one day, our mum told us to watch a weekly show featuring a boy and his grandma fighting over an iPad to play Angry Birds. She followed that up with a smug, “See — I’m not the only one staying up until three in the morning playing Luxor!”. That was a total wake-up call.

Even if the nerdcore gamers are better represented in the mass media, it’s the casual gamers who actually make up the bulk of the gaming population. Anybody who has picked up a mobile phone, a touchscreen device, or a computer mouse to play Plants VS Zombies, solitaire, bingo, or Diner Dash falls under this category.

Even a good chunk of these so-called hardcore gamers are also part of the casual gaming ranks. Steam — last bastion of hardcore-ness for many gamers, offers many casual games in its library. Likewise, I’d be hard-pressed to find someone who owns multiple consoles but has never played a Facebook social game in their entire life.

Gaming straddles generations, tastes, and abilities. Instead of quibbling over details let’s just focus on the reason games were made in the first place: to have fun. As for these so-called hardcore gamers spoiling for a fight, I hope he gets a good dressing down from his Pet Society-obsessed mum.

This post was sponsored by Bingoholic.