Shouldn't success be measured by the games?

[Grey Acumen]

Erik Aston said:

Legend11 said:

I'm not talking about success from a business standpoint but from a gamer's. A gamer's view of a successful console should be based on it's game library not how many copies said library and console sold. If a fantastic game sells 100,000 copies or 10,000,000 copies it doesn't change how good the game is.

You're just de-valuing the word "success." What succeeded if you enjoy the games you purchase? YOU did. You made a good purchase. We already have phrases like "I am satisfied with my purchase" if you want to talk about "a gamer's view"; you don't need to render meaningless the phrase "the console is successful."

The age-old example is the word "gentleman." "Gentleman" originally meant "land-owning male." At some point, someone decided "Shouldn't gentlemanliness be measured by character?" There were already plenty of words to describe good character, so all that happened was gentleman became a useless word.

In light of this, one wonders why you want to challenge the meaning of "success" at this moment in time.

Of course, customer satisfaction is part of establishing a strong brand, and that leads to success for a game or a console. But its only one factor leading to success, and we measure the totality of all such factors with sales and profitability numbers.

somehow, I doubt the accuracy of that scenario. I'm far more inclined to believe that landowning males typical had access to education and culture that set themselves apart from other men, thus it became part of what "gentlemen" encompassed. Eventually you had other people who didn't own land, but found that acting in a similar manner could garner similar respect, and eventually gentlemen came to refer to the societal behavior rather than the land owning part. I could be wrong though.

the point still is correct that Legend really has used the wrong word. If I was the one who had put this thing forth, I would have to pick this point to say "Okay, success was the wrong term to use"as it's pretty much established that it doesn't apply to the scenario Legend is proposing. Best thing to do is scrap the issue and start from a new angle if there's still any interest in continuing the issue.