How your console defines you
A recent published story brought to my attention via Joystiq pointed out the hidden message behind console ownership. I can’t say that I really agree with what the article Joystiq is reporting on concludes about gamers. For some of the input, it seems to pull straight out of a target market blurb from the marketing department of Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft, but other notes just jump right off the deep end.
- PlayStation: The consensus is that this guy is an early adopter who demands the best from his game experience “and probably his women.” This is the guy who is hard to keep up with because he’s either working or out on the town. He uses video games to relax.
- Wii: This guy is fun. He also knows that this is the best date machine as many games appeal to both sexes. He’s also fiscally responsible because the system is the
cheapestleast expensive.- Xbox 360: He’s probably a serious gamer and women should ask to see his gamertag to see how much time he’s logged. These guys like “violent, visceral games, as well as the social aspect of connecting with friends online. They may be living out an active and social life through games, because they are a bit on the shy side.” According to one comment, these men are passionate about gaming and transfer that to the bedroom.
The reasoning behind this article is to give women some idea about the men they date. I can’t say that I agree with the PlayStation summary. With the popularity of the PS2, some PS3 owners are still sort of casual gamers. Some of the lucky PS3 few just happen to have purchased one because of the hype and enjoy the PlayStation series of games. They are fine buying the system and waiting for the next Metal Gear Solid. I wouldn’t consider a Sony fanboy someone who “demands the best” from his women.
Nintendo Wii’s were hard to come by there for awhile, so not everyone got them on the cheap. I would say a better summary for someone who owns a Wii would be someone who likes to have a good time and play party games. I wouldn’t consider any gaming machine a “date machine,” but I guess the Wii is the closest if I had to pick one.
The Xbox 360 like “‘violent, visceral games.’” Geez, that sounds like we are all about to go on a rampage. I would say your 360 gamers might be more on the hardcore side, but also probably could fall into the category the commenters defined for PS3. Some 360-ers are early adopter types who like cutting edge graphics and gameplay–not necessarily complete and utter violence. Microsoft currently has the largest library of games, so they might be more in-tune with the gaming industry and just want to take advantage of that large catalog–along with the robust online system for communicating and multiplayer gameplay. Hey, maybe a 360 gamer is just a lonely tech junkie. You never know. We don’t have to hurt people and love violence just because we own the console that produced Halo.
Maybe the best lesson from all this commentary is just not to try and generalize gamers for a console purchase–not even trying to define a select subset or few. It would probably be a better idea to try categorizing people by the games they buy and not the systems.
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