God Of War was released first, and is way better then gears. Gears is way overrated IMO.

See the first post I made. Pre-established meaning has absolutely no bearing on the future state of discourse.

You can claim what you want anecdotally, but if the larger meaning shifts, then Gears of War will hold the acronym. I'm not even saying it will. I'm saying that if more people use it that way, then the meaning of the acronym in the majority of contexts is going to change. An argument could be made that this has already largely happened.

The part I bolded is flagrantly false, and contradicts your assertion that people change language.

Am I the only one that took Squilliam's post as a satirical way of showing how HUGE the Gears of War series is compared to the God of War series (which sold to a much, Much, MUCH higher install base) yet many people (here especially) are heralding God of War III as the PS3 savior?

If you don't get what I'm saying, I'm saying that the OP wasn't actually about a silly acronym. At least that's how I see it.

GoW will always be God of War, not Gears of War.

BTW. Lame attempt at a joke thread

Lets see, God of War came first and used the acronym first, I think it should keep it.

I dont know what you mean by steampunk title. And I haven't played the game but for maybe 45 minutes. But I'm pretty sure hte title gears of war has a meaning to the game. It probably infers that the phoenix and the other soldiers are just gears of war. Meaning they are nothing put parts that can be replaced in the war. Or something to that extent. BTW I think both are great and very marketable titles. Good decision on both companies parts. 

Either way though GOW will always mean God Of War. It came first and is critically acclaimed and has sold millions to keep it's title. It's not like God Of War is an average game. It's won numerous GOTY awards. 

My argument is that the "if's" that I have bolded will not happen. Just like the argument can be made that this has largley happened, I present the side that completely disagrees. I disagree it has happened at all. In the context of inter-console discussion, GOW is still used for God of War, not gears. There is no real way to prove either argument without doing real research - so it will never happen. This highlights the subjectivity of this argument. It's also partially the reason why I think Squil brought it up to begin with; to start an argument that no one can really win, both sides can argue till the end of time.

Its interesting that your posts reminded me of the feminist movements around the world. Chairman became Chairperson and it did happen over the bitter objections of many, many people.

The reason why I made this thread was because I saw a conflict in the use of the acronym. Infact, its that very conflict which inspired me to make this thread to see what the opinions of other members on vgchartz were.

Thank you for your responses, I found them extremely interesting reading and they were well above my highest expectations which I held for this thread.

@Others, I love you too, hugs and kisses.

@perpride: The fact that we are having this conversation is proof that the transition is actively happening, if it hasn't happened already. Your denial of it will not change that, no more than you can change the accepted meaning of "MK" back to "Mortal Kombat".

@Squilliam:

I was actually thinking of much the same thing, and it's very true. That's actually something that originally distressed me, as a point of fact, because it is just moving further away from our previous understanding of the word "man" to be "human", rather than "male". Wereman and woman were gendered forms of man, and "chairperson" is evidence of how our understanding of man changed, and our language is slowly leaning away from gendered nouns.

This is especially interesting since gendered nouns are so common in other languages, but not English.

But, yes! I am getting off-topic. It is a similar concept, and part and parcel with the process that will determine the meaning of GoW.

I am glad you enjoy my posts.

My posts had two meanings, and yep thats the 2nd one.