Suvega plays more often than I do. He was also faster to 80, and was always a bit more driven towards goals (raiding, server firsts, achievements, etc)

Of course, my gaming habits with WoW are quite a bit different than my gaming habits with GW. In GW, my average daily /played was 16 hours per day (mmm, college). However, I was far more social in GW and more dedicated towards PvP rankings.

In WoW, unless I have something specific I want to do, I won't idle around doing nothing and would rather log off and do something else. If I'm logged in, I'm usually doing something (leveling alts, running a heroic, doing BGs with a group, raiding), whereas in GW I spent much of my time chatting it up on vent and running quick PvP matches while I did so.


So... I would say -- yea, I can see the trend that females would spend more hours/day if they looked at the game as a social experience (like talking on the telephone, perhaps?). Does that make them more "hardcore" just because they have more hours invested? Heck no. Someone can jump around in Ironforge for hours on end, chatting it up with their buddies in vent and I wouldn't consider them to be "hardcore". Meanwhile, someone else can invest only 1-2 hours but in those 1-2 hours they could be killing raid bosses. Which one is more "hardcore" and which one is just afk'ing in game while using vent as a cheap way to get long distance conference calls?


Hours in-game do not make a "hardcore" or "dedicated" player.

Just like keeping the TV on in the background but not actually watching it does not make me an expert on the latest soap opera developments. Sure, I spent many HOURS in front of the TV, but if I'm not actually watching the show I can't tell you whose evil twin sister has terminal cancer and is pregnant with someone's love child.