Which type of player are you?

Since the conception of playing video games by the mass public, there have been three types of players; casual, hardcore and power-gamers. These three "archtypes" have been labeled, studied, marketed and had games developed for each of them. What are the differences between the three? Is one better than the rest? Is one the outcast? How do each of these types of gamers affect the production and marketing of games?

Although these "archtypes" are generally socially cliche, they do have a profound impact on what type of games are developed and how they are marketed. Developers decide on how to develop a game based partly on the class of gamer they are targeting and also, to an extent, the type of gamer they are. For example, say a developer is developing a first person shooter (FPS) with alot of great graphics, awesome story, well developed levels and non-linear gameplay. Obviously, they are not making this game for the Real Time Strategy (RTS) players or the Role Playing Game (RPG) type of players. Now, let's say that they develop the game with the golden "save anytime, anywhere" save system that we all love so much. This will allow those players who don't have but a few minutes to spare a "get in, frag and get out" type of game experience. This is being developed with casual gamers in mind. It will allow gamers to get qreat gaming experience in an awesome game, without have to spend 15- 30 minutes being so cautious about dying in the game and having to start all over from the last "check point", which in some games hardly ever seems to come.

I will post more on these types of gamers in three individual posts to address them each and how games are developed and marketed for them later.