Are you a hardcore player that spends four hours a night tackling raid encounters? Do you have a job and a family, but try to fit in 45 minutes to two hours in game time after the kids are in bed? Are you young with less responsibility and more free time? I think those that started the game years ago before they had all the responsibilities and time constraints are coming back to a different game with less time to play. Is there enough content for both the hardcore and the casual players? I think there is a lot more until you get to max level and it becomes a Garrison grind. I would love it if Blizzard continued to take a hard look at wow compared to other games. Blizzard has been adding similar features to wow that are found in those games over the years. It keeps a nice balance for all types of players.
I'm a fairly casual player. Before I took my break (pre-Christmas) I had about a 540 iLevel and pretty good stats and DPS, but was basically at the limit my character could go without becoming a more devoted player. I've never, ever been a "gotta be at the raid at 8pm, let me get headset" type of player. Not that those are bad, it just isn't my style. I do have a family, but I'm lucky enough to have (way) more than 45 minutes of free time to play, but I choose not to spend it screaming at a wiped raid lol.
I don't have kids to put to bed, but I'm busy most of the day so you could call me a casual player nowadays. The LFR feature was a godsend since I don't have the time to look for raids through the LFG chat anymore.
I'm really busy with scholarship and freelancing, but I can manage to play an hour or two almost every day. Of course, during holidays I can freely raid and play way more than a couple of hours, so that's when I can successfully tank with my paladin.
I'm a casual player as far as actually doing raid and other progression type stuff in the game. I am also a night owl, though, and I do spend around 3 to 4 hours playing after the kiddo goes to bed. What is that time spend doing if not raiding? It's spent role playing. Doing something that I find entertaining, and relaxing. I lose myself in a story that I'm creating with my friends, and my guild, and before I know it a few hours have passed.
I haven't played for 3 years, but when I was pregnant with my son I played it literally all the time. In fact, once I packed in working full time, but before he was born, I had three solid weeks where I was able to play for as long as I wanted, and people actually brought me food and drink to make sure I was comfortable. Oh how times have changed! Now it'd be sneaking the odd hour here and there, and that'd be on a good day. I loved just exploring though; was never a big dungeon player, was always more interested in filling out my maps.
I used to be hardcore but life and circumstances have really put a curb to all of that. I miss it a lot but at the same time real life comes first unfortunately. These days I'm lucky to justify putting down $15 for a sub. I miss the raids and my guilds since they were filled with good people. Though it was really competitive- we weren't the kind to scream at each other over wipes and stuff- which is why it was so hard to walk away when I had to.
I'm a borderline casual-hardcore player. I go back and forth. Some days I'll spend tons of time at the game, and other days I won't go anywhere near it.
I used to be a completionist casual player. I never really forced myself to have BIS for gear, or to squeeze out all the insane acheivements.. but some stuff, like collecting pets or doing all the quests I made a habit of finishing. Stuff that was relaxing, but still felt like you were completing things.
I try to complete everything. I do have responsibilities, I'm a mom and married and take care of the household, but when I have down time I am usually on WoW. It takes awhile since I can't play as much as I'd like to. I tend to get on different things though, for example for awhile it was all about getting all the different battle pets and then leveling them. Then it was about going through and getting achievements from old world content that I didn't fully explore when I was going through it. I go on different tangents and sometimes I just find myself fishing and leveling professions. I think that's what I like about the game is that I can usually always find something to do, and there is always something to strive for, even if it does take time.
In my height of WoW I easily spent 8 hours a night on that game. Between raiding 4 hours, collecting mats to sell and be stocked up for the next week ontop of my regular gold farming routine and PVPing. I'd definitely say I was hardcore, it wasn't until WOTLk that I stopped playing that way and just went to gold farming and reselling.
When I initially played the game from February 2005 to about March 2006, I played about 4-6 hours per day on average, 4-6 days a week. Then I took an eight month break. From then onwards, I would play about 6-10 hours a day, 4-6 days a week. Starting around 2010 until about 2013, I played about 6-8 hours a day, 2-3 days a week. Since then, I've taken a few breaks every few months, but on those months I played, I would play on average about 1-3 hours a day, 1-3 days a week. I rarely did raids. The majority of my time were done in PvP battlegrounds, questing low level with my wife and doing achievements.
The way I have played the game has changed over the past few years due to real life things. But as of recently, I was unsubbed during MoP then came back for WoD and have been raiding casually 2 - 3 nights a week and been working on achievements, battle pets, and mounts when I have the time. Lately I have been busy with Tanaan jungle and farming rares or felblight.
I've played WoW on and off ever since it came out. I was super little when it was first introduced, so I guess I was more casual. In fact I had a hard time even trying to get into raids, because no one wanted to play with a youngin'. But when I started to get better and older, I became a bit more hardcore. I was no where near the best player in the world though and I would sometimes be super flaky to my guild. I also made a transition from doing raids all the time to being a pvp focused person.
I think I've always been a casual player, even those days when i play so much, i generally spent 3-4hrs on a game at most and i think that's not much compared to hardcore players. Now, i literally just get on a game for an hour to two, i guess my priorities has changed.
When I first started playing, right at the beginning of WoW I was a heavy player, as much time as I could I would play. Mostly PVP though, I didn't start raiding until the TBC expansion. Played pretty s0lidly become more and more casual through WotLK and MoP, before quitting several times and coming back breifly in WoD. Its a shame but time moves on and I will never play this game like I used to again.
I'm a kind of hardcore player as you described. I tend to play a lot the game if I like them especially if they are MMORPG like WoW. I usually don't really sleep at night when I know that the day after I'll be at home for my free day and I spend the whole night playing. I know it's a kind of unhealthy thing but I simply love it.
I'm not playing that much anymore but in the past I used to play at least 4 hours daily, mostly with friends. I kind of grew out of the game after.
I am definitely a hardcore player. I have been playing since Vanilla and I have been jumping between retail and private servers all the time. Private servers are alright and they can be fun with instant max level and gear. It is pretty much where I log in with friends and do some epic battlegrounds/arenas/duels. However, retail Blizz servers will always have a place in my heart and of course they are the real deal. I have had the privilege of joining a great Mythic guild and we are the top progression guild on our server.
Hardcore Vanilla/BC Dwarf Holy Paladin named Hammerzeit (also protted sometimes, not much for RET) - loved their mechanics, bubbles, and PVP. Would battleground and 2v2 all day long unless someone wanted to raid something. Nailed out all quests, all zones, all flightpaths, yada yada. It was all at a collection point for me - some 600 hours in BC, they announced WOTLK and I just said, "yup, I'm done." Moved on. But it was a fun game. And I did run at it headlong. And for being as cartoony as it was, the graphics were actually very well used in their visual style. Areas looked crisp and beautiful.