?? During E3, one of my editors and I were having a conversation about the variety of gamers we had seen on the floor of the show.? This led to one of the other writers making a joke about some of the hardcore gamers.? I laughed along, then asked my editor if she was a hardcore gamer.? She stepped back, put up her hands, and shook her head as if warding off some invisible demon.? She definitely didn\'t see herself as a hardcore gamer.? But I began thinking, we at Gamesfirst! play games, write about games, and talk to each other about gaming all the time.? Why is it, then, that the word hardcore? and all its connotations doesn\'t apply to us?? I decided to come up with a little quiz to help us sort the \'core from the cas\'. Feel free to play along. ? The number of game-related t-shirts you own: 1. Why would I buy a videogame t-shirt? 2. One t-shirt you got with a preorder. Five t-shirts, most of which you got at the E3 you went to. Five to ten shirts, one of which you won in a tournament or have had since junior high school. Your feelings about game music Game music? You\'re pretty sure that this means the orchestral or musical score on games. You own Buckner and Garcia\'s Pac Man Fever on vinyl.C? plus every other song devoted to videogames, plus import albums from your favorite games and you\'ve posted remixes on Overclocked. As for music during games? You listen to whatever the game comes with. You turn down the sound and listen to the radio. You\'ve got special inspirational? music you play to. Music fucks up my audio targeting cues. Crank up the sound effects! Number of consoles you own? You either play at a friend\'s house, own a single console, OR just play on your PC sometimes (mostly PopCap). You have one console and occasionally play on the computer. You have at least two systems, a computer, and a hand-held.You have every system ever made, including your old Neo Geo, which is lurking in your closet currently. ? Your knowledge of gaming history- Mi-ya-mo-who? Gaming began with the SNES.You\'ve played every critically acclaimed title back to Space Wars. You have a list on your wall of gaming heroes and you are currently stalking Will Wright. Your dedication level? If you\'re friends didn\'t play anymore, you wouldn\'t either. You might buy a next-gen console, but right now you are still playing Bejeweled on your cell phone. You\'ve played every single FF all the way through, and if gaming were outlawed today, you would still gather together with your friends in a clandestine basement arcade to play old games. If gaming became illegal, you would lead the rebellion. Number of titles you purchase a year. One, and you share with your friends or rent others. Two or three, and the ones you get for Christmas. Buy and trade mostly... Considering switching to GameFly. Zero-day dumps roXXorz my boXXorz. You\'re idea of gaming nostalgia is? Whatever the name of that game you were playing this weekend was. The system you had when you were little. The 80s, when there was an arcade on every corner. Emulators, ROMs and a modded Xbox. Auxiliary gaming equipment you own. An extra controller. An extra controller and memory card. One of those nifty mini-gaming joysticks that plug into the TV for portable playing fun, plus a headset for online play. A controller for your computer, a steering wheel, a VR helmet, a joystick/paddle, surround sound/home theater system, a light gun, and one of the Yoda toys you could program to help you be a jedi. Name of your pet? What\'s wrong with plain old Scruffy? Anakin/Obi-wan, Luigi/Mario, Cloud/Tifa, or Zelda/Link. You only name your virtual pets gaming names because you\'d hate to be mistaken for a hardcore gamer in public. Pets? My pet is a rocket launcher called Fluffy. Dating and gaming? It might be fun to play a game on a date... Oh, you meant videogame? Mostly he/she just likes to watch. When looking at personal ads, if they don\'t mention that they\'re a gamer, you most likely turn the page.? (perhaps they will be redeemed if they read or watch sci-fi, but who knows?) You think that combining dating and videogames would be great, as in the girls/guys you talk to online showing up at your house like pizza delivery. And finally, your greatest aspirations? Being CEO of some major corporation. Doing PR for a game developer. Writing for GF! Being a beta-tester, seeing the sun (for real!), or being transported to a planet where you are Den or Johanna Dark. ? ? Here\'s how to score your quiz: Give yourself 1 point for each time you answered A.? Give yourself 2 each time you answered B. 3 points for each time C was answered. And 4 if you put D. Add up your score... If you scored between a 12 and a 23, you are probably a Casual Gamer. The Causal Gamer is the one targeted by crappy franchise games (like Survivor) and underrated web games (like those found at Mumbo Jumbo or PopCap). As a casual gamer, the gaming world is a strange and fearful place full of acronyms you don\'t understand. You\'re called a noob when you play Halo 2 with friends, but you\'re fine with that because you have, as you call it, a \"life.\" If you scored anywhere from a 24 to a 32, you were probably? Raised by Videogames. Videogames probably form the core of your warm and loving memories as a child. Whether you started out on SMB or Mario 64, you have suckled at the teat of Nintendo, gotten your game on with a PlayStation, and you pick up a game magazine before you go on a long flight. You don\'t have much time for gaming anymore, but you try to keep up, if only with Madden. If you scored a beefy 33 to a 43, you probably fit into the Game Geek category. Games are art, games are culture, games are a way for you to be different and still have friends. You wouldn\'t ever think of yourself as a \"hardcore gamer\" because those guys are mean on Xbox Live, but you managed to get the Wipeout Pure web browser hack to work on your PSP and you\'re really, really excited about We Love Katamari. And if you were cool enough to score anywhere from 44 to 48, CONGRATULATIONS, you are a GamesFirst! Certified Hardcore Gamer (patent pending).? You\'ve got a license plate that says G05U, a homebrew rumble gaming couch for your friends, and you spent a thousand bucks building the world\'s most kickass custom arcade cabinet for ONLY 2D FIGHTERS. Your PC is liquid cooled and still runs hot enough to fry an egg. You\'re getting ready to make your big move in the CPL.? And, furthermore, we bow to your superior Geeky Hardcoreness! ?