Thanks for your response Sergej, I understand your concerns with the new categories.

First, I would say that there is obviously cross-over and overlap among all within all the personas, as no one fits into a neat box. Newzoo may not expressly say it in their report but they understand that as well, each persona is just a general picture of what the average gamer in each category does. Everyone exists on a continuum and spectrum, so the personas are just a snapshot of what these people are like.

As far as the “Home Situation” statistics, there were four that they used as choices for their survey: “alone”, “with my parents/guardians”, “together or alone/with kids”, and “together/no kids.” The way I see it, they were trying to find the most inclusive and sensitive ways to discuss social/marital status. So “alone” is the closest they could get to “unmarried”, “with parents / guardians” is their way of saying “under 18” or perhaps even “older but living with parents”; “together or alone/with kids” is equal to “married with children, may or may not play with their spouse”; and “together/no kids” means “married with no kids” (why they didn’t include alone as part of the description for the last one is unknown and a bit odd for sure).

It’s definitely not a perfect system for that factor of the persona, but with so much attention and variability these days in interpersonal/social constructs and definitions of single versus married, I think they were trying to walk on the safe side and not offend anyone. It did lead to a bit of a muddled presentation in my mind, but I think they were taking a lot of factors into consideration.