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« on: January 13, 2008, 02:47:05 PM »
I'm one of these casual gamers, although I tend to play more in the winter because the weather around here is horribly cold.
I'm also one of those "hip 20-somethings" you mention--I'm 21. What I usually will do is get sports games almost exclusively but I also like Mario games. I will play a little bit at a time to make it last me until the next one comes out. For example, I got Mario Galaxy at Christmas and so far have something like eight stars, but I've only had two long sessions with it. With all my old high school buddies back at college now, I won't be out every night anymore so I'll be able to play maybe one or two times each week if I don't have much coursework and am not going anywhere with my college friends. I have time to play them because I don't go to bars or anything if my other friends do. No way I get myself in that mess, so I spend it with Mario instead.
Games like Madden, though, are marketed right up the alley for a guy like me. I love sports and when there isn't a game on and I'm not playing a game of something (usually baseball, sometimes fall intramural basketball or swimming, maybe soccer) I'm playing them electronically. The Wii has been a godsend for me--I can golf any time I want now and actually use real motion to do it! (It's nothing like the real deal but it's closer than Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64 was...and I always thought that was a pretty good golf game).
I've actually liked this new trend in marketing. It used to be they would market only to those guys who played shoot-em-up games where you killed draggons and blew up cars and stuff. Now they actually market the games for people who normally wouldn't be playing video games but want to add them to their party or something (like me), especially the ones based on sports (like the Wii Sports game that comes with the system).