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Epoch said: Fair enough. But I know statistics fairly well, and did quite well in Biostatistical Analysis at my University (Canadian). This data set is biased, probably because of the fact that it came from an online survey. If you can't follow my reasoning then don't worry about it. Just don't read too much into the percentages that are given. They are more a representation of total marketshare than of "this % of wii/360/ps3 owners game online". This survey ascribes to the "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit" motto. |
Actually i understand statistics quite well. Math minor from the University of New Orleans. No heavy focus on statistics so I am at a loss to explain all of this, but I can follow quite well normally. The problem is we have fuck all for data here. The Arstechnica report was written by someone who doesn't understand statistics and so is untrustworthy as far as original data is concerned (their usage of the term "statistically significant" is a big red flag). The press release from NPD proper has even less information and is even more confusing when you try to decifer it. I'd give an arm and a leg to see what the raw data on this is. Not only to see where the PS2 and Xbox figur into it all (curiosity) but also see what the numbers actually say.
And yes, it is unlikely that this generalizes perfectly to the general population of the US or the world. They key factor though is if it generalizes to the general gamer population. I can't find where it says this is from an online survey, but I find it relatively suspect. The original pol included 20,000 people and only a fraction of them actually played online.
