Shouldn't success be measured by the games?

[Bodhesatva]

Since I went off on a crazy tangent, Legend, I'll repeat what I said in my first post in this thread:

Sales do have some relevance even from a purely "gamer" perspective, and that relevance is to future trends in gaming. If a game sells extremely well, that bodes well for sequels, that bodes well for other games in its genre, and that bodes well for the platform its on. There are all sorts of ramifications to a game selling well.

As I said before, I think the most compelling and intriguing example of this is Bioshock. From multiple reports, it appears that even in this FPS crazy atmosphere where there seem to be 5 mega-budget FPS released every 6 months, Bioshock apparently was barely green lit.

I think it's reasonable to assume that Halo 1 started the FPS boom, and if it hadn't done well, it's reasonable to extrapolate that many games would never have been made as a consequence -- and Bioshock clearly looks like it would have been a casualty.

I think a gamer can and should care about how this industry is trending in the future, and for that purpose, sales considerations are a relevant interest. Mind you, I DO agree with you that this becomes much too team-sporty, and people start talking about their "side" and "victory" and "winning" and all this nonsense. So I'm not really arguing with that portion of your statement -- I'm just saying sales do have relevance towards what we are and will be playing.