Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Theses Department of Communication 7-15-2009 L337 Soccer Moms: Conceptions of "Hardcore" and "Casual" in the Digital Games Medium Steven Andrew Boyer Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_theses Recommended Citation Boyer, Steven Andrew, "L337 Soccer Moms: Conceptions of "Hardcore" and "Casual" in the Digital Games Medium." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2009. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_theses/53 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. L337 SOCCER MOMS CONCEPTIONS OF “HARDCORE” AND “CASUAL” IN THE DIGITAL GAMES MEDIUM by STEVEN BOYER Under the Direction of Ted Friedman ABSTRACT As digital games have become increasingly significant in the entertainment media landscape, the terms “casual” and “hardcore” have become the primary ways to describe gaming audiences, genres, and gameplay. However, these terms are saturated with outdated stereotypes involving gender, age, and class. Focusing on industrial discourse, this thesis examines this dichotomy, emphasizing areas of discontinuity and overlap to question why these terms have become so ubiquitous in gaming discourse and what functions they fulfill for a variety of groups including the industry, advertisers, and audience members. Ultimately, I suggest that these terms need to be replaced in order to move beyond restrictive stereotypes, proposing a new framework for digital games that takes into consideration user motivation, personal investment, and historical specificity.