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Miyamoto Concerned About Gamer Image Stereotype
kukyfrope writes "In a recent interview with MTV News, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto voiced his concern for the stereotypical image of gamers as kids alone in a dark room. He says that Nintendo wishes to change that image with the Wii, a sentiment made obvious by the wide array of people shown playing Wii in Nintendo's recent promotional videos." From the article: "I think it's time to break free from that stereotypical definition of what a gamer is, because until we do, we'll never truly be part of the national or worldwide culture."
This doesn't seem to be a big problem in Western countries as much as it is in Japan. In America I play games with my friends all the time and we're hardly 'the bottom of the barrel' but here in Japan I've yet to hear something good about people that play games, though huge amounts of people do it, just in secret. But it could also be the way Japanese society works, namely it's a very casted and stereotype producing system.
The Atari 2600 was originalyl marketed this way. They tried to appeal to the sense of family gathering around the TV to play Pong or whatever. All their early ads had photos of families in them to reinforce this idea. In reality though, kids who spent much of their time in arcades were the lion's share of the market for the 2600 and that's why consoles have been developed and marketed towards this crowd for the most part.