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--edit--
here it is. Its long, but not quite long enough Dx

The Nintendo DS represents what videogames and video gamers mean to the public now, and represents the chic new idea that videogames are for everyone, while the Game Boy portrays an image of elite, but geeky and un-popular culture. Because Nintendo developed both of the two products, you would assume that they would represent a similar audience, when in fact they represent two opposing forces. These forces are the gamers hardcore and soft core (or often called “casual”).
When the Game Boy was released in the late 80s, the videogame market was made up of a select few, who would consider themselves today as “the few, the proud, the l33t” (the G4mer 4rmy creed) Others would consider them as nerds with few friends who spend their free time working with computers (I say “with computers” rather than “on computers” under the same vein of logic that I would say “with needle and thread” rather than “on needle and thread,” as at the time, computers were simple tools that only had a few set things that they could do.) Because of their anti-social tendencies, these pioneers were shunned by society. These are the hardcore gamers—those who have dedicated their lives to sharpening their skills.
When the DS was released in the late 2000s, the social climate was beginning to change. Videogames were being to be seen under a new light. People from all walks of light were being playing videogames—boys, girls, moms, dads, even grandparents were being drawn in. Nintendo saw this as an opportunity to create a console that would appeal to the wide variety of people. These are the casual gamers—those with lives outside the game world, and consider game time as leisure time.
When people buy something, they consciously think about what this product would say about them when someone else sees them with it. As Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon say in their book “those aren’t just a pair of shoes you’re wearing: they’re a statement about your identity” (Maasik and Solomon Signs of Like in the USA, 75). People decide what kind of impression they leave on others, usually by what they are doing or by what they are wearing. When the Nintendo DS lite became marketed towards a chic crowd, people began to buy it to be associated with that crowd.
The Game Boy was fairly simple in design. It sported dimensions of 5.8” x 3.5” x 1.3” and weighed one half of four pounds. When it was released, there was only one choice of color: grey. It had a four-way directional pad, and two action buttons.
The Game Boy’s simple brick-like style made it goofy-looking. Because of this, anyone caught playing it outside of the comfort of his or her living rooms would look goofy as well. Also, because there was no choice of colors, everyone had the same grey brick, and there was no individuality expressed by the console itself.
When people see a Nintendo DS lite, they see something completely different. For starters, it’s a lot smaller, and it folds up, like a clamshell makeup case. Also, upon launch, there was a choice between black, white and pink consoles to choose from. It also has six action buttons, as opposed to the Game Boy’s two. It also sports two screens, one of which is a touch sensitive screen.
The new design of the DS lite is more appealing to a wider audience. With the addition of four more action buttons, as well as touch screen input, more complex game-play is possible.
The DS lite’s slim physique enables it to be carried in trendy clothing, which was never possible with the Game Boy. Since it can easily be carried with the user, they are more likely to be played in public, or it would at least be seen by others. When others see it, it would build some sort of social standing with “geek chic” credibility.
Because the DS lite comes in many different colors, people are able to choose the style that most suits their lifestyle. The pink colored DS lite reached out to female gamers—something the Game Boy never did.
Its touch screen is reminiscent of these newfangled iProducts and Blackberries. Because of the association with other cutting-edge companies, the DS lite borrows the image of cutting edge.
With the new technology of the DS lite and the new audience, the type of games also shifted. In order to farther captivate the new audience, Nintendo had puzzle and “brain training” games created. The success of these games was completely piggybacking off of the increase if interest in Sudoku and other puzzle games, and allowed Nintendo to capture a whole new demographic of people—the elderly. These games were so widely used by the elderly that there were even studies done researching relationships between adults and these puzzle games.
These games broke the taboo against adults playing videogames. Until that point, videogames were for kids, but with the advent of Sudoku and other similar games being ported to the DS lite, more and more business folk picked up gaming as a pastime.
As more and more metropolitan business type folk started identifying themselves as “gamers,” they began to outnumber those who previously identified themselves as gamers. In an essay by A.B. Harris entitled “Average Gamers Please Step Forward” the author calls out his fallow “average gamers” to save the image of gamers from what it is becoming.
From what Harris had been told, he believed that the average gamer was a male head-of-household around the age of 35. However, when ha investigated farther, he found that most gamers were teenagers that managed to “shirk life’s responsibilities” long enough to play some games.
What Harris failed to realize though, is the difference between hardcore gamers and soft-core gamers. The people that he was calling to arms, his fellow “average gamers” are in fact the upstanding citizens that he believed them to be, but they were not the ones who could “rectify” (or bring back to what it once was) the image of the gamer. In fact, the people he was calling upon were none other than the casual gamers, represented by the DS lite. These people who play Sudoku or brain-training games, and occasionally an actual videogame, in their free time not spent earning money to support their families.
The faction that Harris was opposing in fact was of the hardcore gamers, represented by the Game Boy. These were the people who had spent their childhoods playing their Game Boys outside of the public eye, and now devote their lives to playing video games. He did not realize that these “Mountain Dew-addicted juveniles” as he so curtly put it, have had a monopoly on the image of the “average gamer” since they first picked up a controller, until the new wave of casual gamers flooded their ranks.
The Game Boy and the DS lite represent the two sides of the gaming world—the hardcore nerds and the tight pants wearing casual gamers. In their own right, each device represents its own group of individuals.

i'm not done, but it'll be somewhere from 6-8 pages, about the different image projected from playing a Game Boy versus that from a DS lite.
I'm going into the differences between hardcore gamers and softcore ones as one of my major points.

So it should be right up most of your alleys.

sweatdrop it's all one big essay, about how the Lite represents casual gamers and the GB represents hardcore gamers.

but yeah, when i'm done, i'll post it up 'ere.

*grabs his Red Sharpie of Failure*

I'll read it bro.

cool

Well, i'm not worried about having to stay up late... as I am planning on this night to be my second all-nighter in a row :/

but thank you! Hopefully he doesn't teach at my college, because that would be kind of embarrassing. xD

It was pretty interesting and made sense to me; I never thought of the relationships that way before.

On the other hand, I can't fix your conclusion, seeing as they're the weakest points in my own essays. As a general suggestion if you're still working on it, maybe you could mention the age gap between people who grew up in the age of/playing Game Boys versus that of DS lites? There's just a little bit near the end, but it could be expanded upon; I'm not sure what you could do with it, but it seems like something that would alter perception of video games and those who play them, and could be an interesting point.

oh, that's still in there? xD that was from a different edit of the paper, making fun of how slim and trim the original GB was Dx