Hardcore gamer = someone who plays only cinematic grizzed white dude games and/or military fetishizing FPS
Casual gamer = anyone that is not a 15-25 yo male, and/or plays anything outside of the previously mentioned games, especially if those games are colorful.
So basically the gaming community is full of gatekeeping, misogyny, toxic masculinity and general chuddery. They make sure they're the loudest voice heard when anything about games is talked about, and won't be happy until all games a homogenous stream of bland, hyper-realistic but with a grey filter slog of mindless action with no heart or soul. And don't you dare force them to read any dialogue or story.
Hey I was a hardcore gamer but i played RTS and fighting games like a gentleman
Fighting games don't count, when your opponent can punch you irl for getting out of line it really cuts down on the bullshit
I'm old so to me MOBAs have always been "RTS, but stripped down and with a lot less map variety and basically zero story outside of excuses for why there are waifus and waifu costumes for sale."
You just play as one guy. How hard can that be. That's why I liked HoN actually because the courier micro and map awareness was key