I have always considered myself a hard core simmer and have often been called the same by other simmers. Lately I've been hearing the phrase quite often in a number of different contexts so I decided to spend a little time thinking about what it actually means to be hard core.
How Hard Is Your Core - By Mark "Frugal" Bush
The term "Hard Core Simmer"
get's bandied around all the time, but what does it actually mean? In
the old days it was quite simple, if you were purely driven by realism,
if your sims all had manuals the size of telephone books, if you needed
a degree in computer science just to understand the avionics then you
were a hard core simmer. These days things are not so cut and dried.
If we look at the current crop of ultra realistic sims we will notice
that our old ultra realistic sims weren't actually that realistic after
all and yet we didn't realise (or perhaps WE realised but our ego's didn't
;) So we have to ask were we really that "Hard Core" in the first place?
Or maybe we need to re-evaluate what it means to be hard core.
The funny thing is that the majority of simmers consider themselves "hard
core" regardless of the sim they fly. So what is hard core? Some would
say it's a form of snobbery for simmers, "I'm not flying that crap cos
I'm hard core". "If you were a hard core simmer like me you would understand
what is wrong with sim x". Have you heard those statements before, I
know I have, more than a few times. Whilst snobbery may come into it,
I don't think that is what defines hard core. After all the majority
of hard core simmers that I have met are real nice guys, and anyway,
there is a certain amount of snobbery in every gaming genre.
It's been said that being a Fighter Pilot isn't about skill it's about
attitude. I am inclined to believe the same is true about being a hard
core simmer. It's not about how realistic the sims are that you fly,
it's about how much of yourself that you put into those sims. After all
is the guy that flies Total Air War in a $10,000 home built cockpit any
less hard core than the guy flying Falcon 4 or Janes F/A-18 on his desktop
pc? I don't think so, if anything he may even be more hard core. Hehe
I realise that once upon a time even I would have called that statement
heresy. Hmm heresy, strong word, but then to us hard core simmers this
ain't no game it's a religion.
Perhaps due to the religious nature of this hobby of ours we have been
blinded to the truth for many years. Some of us like ultra realistic
sims and want to recreate the pilot workload wheras others just want
to recreate the thrill of being a pilot. What we have in common is the
energy that we put into it, and to me that is what defines hardcore.
We need to embrace our differences and realise that whilst our tastes
in sims may be different we share the same core and in many cases that
core is pretty damn hard.
One of the reasons we have such a strong community is because so many
of us are hard core. We eat sleep and breath sims in many cases (or is
that just me :-). We get together with other simmers on news groups,
chat rooms, forums and many of us join virtual squadrons because we are
hard core. What!! You think the idea of a sim community is a myth!! Better
open your eyes and look around, it's all around you, and it's as strong
as it ever was, filled and fuelled by the hard core.
If you take a look around you will find people putting their hearts and
souls into this hobby of ours. All over there are people trying to make
things better for the rest of us. iBeta in their work on the Falcon 4
realism patch. All of the cockpit editors improving the cockpits for
Falcon 4, Janes F/A-18 and other sims. There are guys that are creating
new terrain and other mods for EAW. All the guys coding a multitude of
utilities for a variety of sims. Then there's the hex editors that are
delving into the inner workings of Falcon 4 and fixing errors in the
data files. People on forums, mailing lists and newsgroups offering advice
to help others enjoy their sims. These are the hard core simmers as well
as all of the people that fly sims day in and day out and think of little
else.
Being hard core isn't about what sims you fly, it's about what it means
to you to fly those sims. If flying sims takes up the majority of your
computer time then you can bet that you are hard core. Take a look in
your favourites, if there are more than a few sims sites in there then
you are probably hard core. Look at your sim collection, you got more
than a few sims, I guess you are hard core. You think about sims even
when you ain't playing them, then boy guess what, you are hard core.
Did you upgrade your kit so that your sims would run better, then you'd
better believe that your hard core.
Just the fact that you are here reading this editorial implies that you
are hard core. So next time you meet a fellow simmer, don't judge him
by what sim that he flies but rather judge him by the hardness of his
core. If he reaches out his hand in friendship to a fellow simmer than
you can bet his core is hard enough.
