Word: midcore - midcore game, midcore gamer (contrast with: hardcore gamer, casual gamer)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The game company Zynga (maker of Farmville, Mafia Wars, Cafe World,
and other clones) is shuttering offices and will focus more on
"midcore games" reports USA Today.

Title: Zynga announces massive layoffs
Authors: Brett Molina and Jon Swartz
Website: USA Today
Date: June 3, 2013

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2013/06/03/zynga-layoffs-mark-pincus/2385291/

[Begin excerpt]
That has caused Zynga to focus more on mobile and so-called midcore
games in hopes of changing its course. Zynga defines midcore as games
that "blend the depth of hardcore games, traditionally played on a PC
or console, with the approachability and accessibility of casual games
that are mobile, free-to-play and social," says Steve Parkis, senior
vice president of games, midcore, at Zynga.
[End excerpt]

The Internet Archive Wayback machine took a snapshot on February 18
2008 of a webpage on the website 8bitrocket.com. I think a writer at
8bitrocket.com popularized "MID-CORE gamer" and may have coined the
term. There is an article on the archived webpage dated January 3,
2008 with the title "Am I a MID-CORE gamer?"

http://web.archive.org/web/20080218052956/http://www.8bitrocket.com/midcore/

[Begin excerpt]
Am I a MID-CORE gamer?
1/3/2008

i hear the term GAMER all the time. Usually it is used with disgust as
someone asks if I am one. By GAMER, they mean a sweaty teen in his
parent's basement, or a sweaty 40 year old in his mother's basement.
They really are referring to a biased term used by media know-it-alls,
and clueless game company execs to describe hardcore gamers.
[End excerpt]


Here is a February 2008 article at joystiq.com showing dissemination
of the term "mid-core".

Title: Are you a mid-core gamer?
Author: Scott Jon Siegel on Feb 6th 2008 9:00AM
Date: February 6 2008
Website: joystiq.com

[Begin excerpt]
Plenty of gamers are often stuck between the definitions of "casual"
and "hardcore." They care too much to be the former, and yet they
don't care enough to be the latter. If you're one of them, and
yearning for your own defining category, then worry no more. You might
just be a mid-core gamer.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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