Gamers Geeks

While most of the press reporting on games focuses on the more sensational and negative aspects of the hobby, the NPD Group has just released Expanding the Games Market, a report that shows that an increasing number of people see gaming as a viable and fun hobby. The report also notes that while gaming might be a more isolated activity for the "hardcore" market, most gamers use their hobby as a way to connect with their friends and family.

The sample included 5,039 members of the NPD Group's online consumer panel, and the majority of the respondents said that games were a good way to alleviate stress and unwind. Impressive for the gaming industry was that the stress-relieving aspect of the hobby was mostly seen in older gamers ranging from 15 to 65 years of age.

"The new type of game experiences brought to the market over the past several years are succeeding in reaching a broader audience. The challenge for the industry is that consumers are a fickle group, and with the great variety of options pulling at their limited free time, they're going to be easily distracted unless something really compels them to stay with gaming," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. "To reach these less-involved consumers, the industry has to work even harder, but doing so can produce great rewards."

Nintendo is one company that has realized, as is evidenced in the disruptive influence of the Wii and DS, two systems that went after a wider, more casual audience with great financial rewards.

NPD's study stands in contrast to the two other reports recently released. Last week's Hill & Knowlton report buried pages of positive data about gaming in order to focus on a headline about regulation. Also last week, the National Institute for Media and the Family video game report card berated retailers for allowing children to purchased M-rated content while ignoring data that showed compliance with R- and unrated movie guidelines were significantly lower.

With the data showing that 63 percent of the US population is playing games—and 30 percent are playing more this year than last year—gaming is on the move. This acceptance of gaming, along with the expansion of demographics that are spending time and money on gaming, has made some in the retail world take note, and it's expected that more stores in the future will begin allocating more shelf space to games and related hardware.

Gaming is already a mass-market hobby, with people of all ages picking up controllers and portables. Unfortunately, the mainstream media does not seem fully aware of how the mainstream itself thinks about gaming. Once that happens, many of the industry's current PR problems are likely to be alleviated.