Are Video Games a niche medium in America?

This one is more of a gray area.

On the one hand, several video games/franchises are popular today (my list is based off of what I've heard during my freshmen and sophomore years of high school):

• Mario
• Pokemon
• Zelda
• Angry Birds/Candy Crush/basically any iOS game
• Final Fantasy enjoys moderate popularity
• Team Fortress 2
• Halo
• Assassin's Creed
• Grand Theft Auto
• Call of Duty
• Madden

And for kids, Sonic seems to be popular enough to them despite piss poor sales of Boom. There's also Kirby for that demographic.

People who are casual gamers are into stuff like Wii Sports

Beyond that, you have to dig to find people hugely into video games as a hardcore hobby. Best places to find them are comic book shops, Game Stop, Gaming sections of retail stores, and gaming conventions like Momocon, PAX East, and E3. Fighting tournaments like EVO also would be good places to look for people who love video games. I'm only talking about real life conversations as you can easily find someone online to talk video games to because forums.

No.

I think they're both popular and niche at the same time.

Gaming's like television: it's diverse enough now that just about any can find a genre they'd enjoy. So no.

Twenty years ago maybe, not today.

Specific genres of gaming, yes.

The medium as a whole? Absolutely not.

Mobile gaming is still rising and growing every day. That alone makes gaming mainstream. Then there's stuff like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto being stupidly huge. And of course browser games have always been popular. Video games stopped being niche a long time ago. It's just taken many different forms now.

Just no, dude. Just...no.

Your claim is ridiculously jingoistic.

For starters and just as an example...Japan, a nation with 100 million people, versus United States, a nation with 300 million people.

Source

For the year 2013, the sales for videogames in the United States accounted for $22.8 billions. Whereas in Japan it was $22.9 billions. We are just talking about the goddamn numbers and raw sales, not per capita expenses. Take into account the population difference and it is even more ridiculous.

Seriously. Just. No.

You mention your source mostly came from your experience in freshman and sophomore high school years? yeah that is the freakin' target audience for video games. It's like going to a Mc Donald's in New York and seeing it often full, thinking that Mcdonald's is only popular in the United States.

That escalated rapidly.

...I think you just misunderstood them as saying the opposite of what they actually said.

Tell me, if video game are such an niche medium, then why did GTA 5 made nearly 2 billion dollars in profit? Why do thousands of people buy games? ''Why does the industry earns millions?'' And most importantly, where's your evidence? If you post something like this on the web, post some proof or risk being eaten alive.

edited 30th Apr '15 3:49:35 PM by RabidTanker

I'm asking a question. Not providing an argument.

Let me get this straight. You expect me to not explain/argue why you're in the wrong? This is the internet, get used to it.

I know, but it seemed like you thought I was presenting an argument rather than simply asking a question.

I am aware that my experience doesn't match with everyone and and my "research" has a flaw in it. However, I'm talking about all video game franchises, the ones I named are just the most popular of them all.

Oh knock that shit off.

From what I understood, gaming hasn't declined in popularity at all. It might be a niche thing in more rural areas where the focus is developed around local activities, but as long as there are human beings there, there are going to be gamers, provided electricity is accessible and people have the free time to enjoy said games.

It might be a niche thing in other countries, although niche does mean a different thing nowadays. Like, you can drum up conversation at the ball about one of the popular consoles easily, but trying to find fans of Touhou or Amnesia specifically will merit smaller numbers.

Generally, what I actually wanted to know, is if you gathered all the video game community and the board game community together, which group would be larger?

edited 30th Apr '15 4:09:02 PM by Aespai

Going back to my television analogue, it's like a mainstream series like House MD vs. an obscure hit from a foreign country you like to watch on the international channel .

There will always be fans of the latter, but the former gets more attention and spotlight in the media. Is the foreign show niche in your country? Absolutely.

Television as a whole is not, however. And neither are video games any more.

edited 30th Apr '15 4:13:47 PM by Hashil

Depends on the game. Sadly most of the popular ones are ones I happen avoid.

It's not. Back when video games were new, they were, but right now, it's probably one of the most popular mediums for kids and adults right now.

The ones you listed, OF COURSE your friends have heard of them and played them, because they are rather well known franchises, especially Mario because he's Nintendo's mascot.

Like I said before, some things are doomed to obscurity, unfortunately. If Ness and Lucas were not in Super Smash Bros, would most people be interested in the Mother series? No, but it's still a good series.

And like another troper said here, mobile games are popular, they're technically video games.

edited 30th Apr '15 4:59:32 PM by PrincessGwen

I think we've basically established here that it's not that gaming is niche, but that certain games are. See the television example above.

All the easy, licensed stuff is fairly mainstream. Harder, more complex games are less popular due to their complexity, like Dwarf Fortress.

I wouldn't necessarily say that. Like, if you actually try to progress in a GTA game, for example, some of the stuff you have to do can be fairly complex, and that's not even getting into actual plot stuff. And GTA is one of the most successful modern game franchises that there is.

I haven't played a GTA game (the one I have on PC refuses to run and I never bothered with my PSP one), but aren't those open-world games? I imagine, like Skyrim, many just choose to dick around in the game rather than progress. After all, the percentage of people who bother finishing a game is rather small.

edited 2nd May '15 1:17:38 AM by burnpsy

Good point though, I get a bit narrow-minded when I rant sometimes.

If you're going to put it that way, you can apply that judgement to anything to the point of making the entire discussion pointless.

So what happens next in this one-sided discussion? I mean the topic has been debunked and no one is trying to defend it.◊ Seriously, even my strawman arguements are better than this. But then again, they're usually outfitted with troll magnets anyways...