JWeinCom said:
Have you ever heard of tomatoes? They're a fruit. Except they're legally vegetables. Because people use them as vegetables, so it makes more practical sense to consider them as such for shipping and tax purposes. Did you know that strawberries are not berries and bananas are? If someone ordered a chicken berry salad and it came covered in bananas, you think they'd be happy about it? They should be fine with it, right? After all, we can't just define berries anyway we want. Suppose you were going to a superbowl party. You're on a low fat diet, so you ask your friend "are their going to be vegetables there"? He says "sure there will be lots of vegetables". You get there, and they have french fries, popcorn, corn fritters, and fried pickles. Hey, they're vegetables aren't they? Was your friend right? Did his answer give you useful information? Are octopi vertebrates? Well, according to Britain's legal system, they are. Because there are things that you legally can do to invertebrates, that you can't do to vertebrates. And since octopi are so smart, they don't think they should be subjected to invertabrate experimentations. But, we should be able to do cruel experiments to them, right? They clearly are not vertebrates. Then there are issues like transexuality, abortion, death penalty, and so on where how things are defined are subject of great debate and have huge ramifications on our lives. Point of these examples is we define things differently than the strict dictionary definition ALL THE TIME if there is a practical purpose to it. I'm sure you wouldn't have to try all that hard to think of how you do this in your daily life. If we use a strict dictionary definition of sales, we could say things like "Nikolai's pencil puzzles is a bigger selling franchise than Angry Birds". Are we correct? Yes, in the same sense that we're correct if we call french fries a vegetable. Does it provide a useful or accurate picture of the relative popularity of the two franchies? Totally not. If our goal is to determine popularity, then it makes complete sense to consider downloads as sales. To suggest that terms have an absolutely infallible meaning and that defying that will bring the wrath of Webster demonstrates a rudimentary understanding of language and its fluidity. We can use words however we want as long as there is a common understanding. Sign, signifier, signified. Semiotics 101. There is a whole field of philosophy and literature based on this concept, and it's not as black and white as people in this topic seem to think. And I can absolutely guarantee that you don't use language in that black and white manner in your actual life. And that was the OP's whole point. That even though he is well aware that Pokemon go is not actually being sold, considering them as sales can be useful and give us a better understanding of the franchise's popularity. And it's actually a fairly good question. But instead of actually thinking about whether this would have a good practical purposes, people are all like "nuh uh! Dictionary says not to!" So, if you can think of a legitimate reason why it would be useful to consider the NX a Sony console, go for it. I'll support you 100%. |
You provide a lot of excellent arguments against your own point here. It's fascinating.
What's with the strawman arguments, assigning me opinions that I havwn't expressed, and the proceed to attempt to tear those projected opinions down? Can you come with arguments that don't project opinions I don't have onto me?
I'll now respond to the things that are applicable to this, and for your sake I'll ignore all of the strawman arguments.
The reason why we can't call free downloads "sales" is because it doesn't fit what most people mean when they use the word "sale". Has nothing to do with the dictionary or legal definitions (but I will admit that those are also in my favour in this specific case.) This is also why your tomato, banana and vegetable arguments are especially ironic. I'm proposing that we use the definition that makes people understand what you are talking about. You are the one proposing that we use a definition that will leave most people not understanding what you actually mean when you are using the word "sales". Or maybe they will understand what you mean, and then correct you. Those arguments there could almost ad verbatim be used directly against your own point because of this.
You then go on to talk about how we define things different than a dictionairy (or the legal definition. You seem to switch between those depending on which favours your specific argument.) These are part of the strawman arguments, because I haven't said that we should only adhere strictly to dictionary definitions, nor legal definitions.
If your goal is to talk about popularity, then we already have a word that fits perfectly for the job. It's called... *drumroll* .... popularity. If you want to talk about the most popular gaming franchise, then you say just that, "most popular gaming franchise". I mean, if that was your goal, why try to go to all the trouble of redefining a word (not in the dictionary, but in the consensus of people)? There is also a lot more leeway in the word "popularity", so you are a lot better off using a flexible and vague word like that (prefferably clarifying further on what you mean by it in your specific post/thread) instead of using a word that has a very specific meaning to people, like sales. Or table. Or... you get the point.
Finally, I want to thank you for providing another excellent argument against your point (I alluded to it earlier in the post, but the way you summed it up in one sentence was great). We can use words however we want as long as there is a common understanding. By saying sales, but meaning "free downloads" you don't get a common understanding, unless you clarify each time that "By sales I don't actually mean sales, I mean free downloads", and at that point you are, once again better off just saying "free downloads" to begin with. Just like how you were better off using the word "popularity" if you are going to talk about popularity.
