Study: Wii U, Vita Don't Interest Japanese Gamers

[Dodece]

While everyone is wasting time parsing the numbers the biggest unaddressed complaint still stands. This is not a large enough sample size especially given the unqualified methodology. How a poll is performed directly impacts the end result of a poll. Unless a poll is rigorous it is prone to wildly inaccurate results. Opinions can vary wildly depending upon geography, and reaction to external unrelated events.

The time frame for this poll is too narrow, and the generality of those that are being polled doesn't bode will for the poll workers taking time to vary their respondents. Yes you can get a valid result from a poll of as few as a hundred, but this is important the smaller the number the more rigorous the poll maker must be in ensuring that regional and chronological variables have been thwarted.

For examples sake lets say I want to find out who people think will win a election. If I want to use a sample size of just a hundred I cannot go to just one location over a couple days and ask a hundred people at that location. That location may not be representative. Further more the incumbent may do better or worse depending on what is in the news on the given days I ask my question. The same holds true for their challenger. What I would want to do is call a hundred people at random in wildly different places at different times over a couple weeks. That will help me avoid local biases, and gut reactions from tarnishing my results.

There is a reason that statistical studies are considered to be junk science. Anyone can do them, but it takes skill to know how to do them properly so you do not get inaccurate results. There are groups that do a wonderful job with small sample sizes, but they are very careful with how they go about doing their polls. What is worst of all is the fact that polling makes for excellent slow news day filler. It is painfully cheap to print up a thousand surveys, and hand them out on a street corner in front of a news outlet. It is a brilliant way to assembly line dozens of news stories.