The original story can be found here.

Basically, one of the writers posed as an uncle wanting to buy a game system for his 15 year old nephew. He called 100 stores across America to see what the general public is told by game store employees. He only called Game Crazy, Play N Trade and GameStop stores.

A distinct majority suggested XBOX 360, with only GameStop employees suggesting the Wii. The other significant responses were Xbox 360/PS3 and PS3. The age of the child, and his gender, certainly guided the responses. The common demographic for Xbox 360 is young males (older males for PS3 and everyone else for Wii (women, young children, older people)).

When people come into my workplace and want to know what to buy, I ask them a lot of questions. Today someone was looking for a game for a girl, and I immediately suggested the Imagine series and Hannah Montana; I was stereotyping all the way. But the woman said she liked action/ adventure games like Jak and Daxter. That’s not girly, but it’s also not overly violent either. Since she was looking for a DS game I suggested Lego Star Wars instead.

The gaming industry is like a very popular secret to many. They know it’s out there, they see people buying it and using it, but they just don’t understand what the appeal is. The other day I explained to my dad that a gamer is like a reader or a movie-goer. Games are (usually) long like books but visual like movies. Some people keep all their games and others sell them after they play them – same as people who watch movies or read books. Some people just rent them, some share them with a network of friends. After I told him that, I could tell that he, an avid reader and movie fan, understood what gaming was about in a way he missed before. Though it’s a huge multi-billion dollar industry, there are MANY people who just don’t get it. Seeing the direction they are lead in the Kotaku survey is a telling indication of how the other half lives.