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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Why do sales matter to gamers?

Sqrl on 01 July 2008
Words Of Wisdom said:
Sqrl said:

The analogy is perfectly legitimate, it almost seems as if you thought some big words would confuse me, sorry to dissapoint if that was the case.

Contrary to what you seem to believe, the subject matter of the "source" in an analogy is not required to be tangential or even related in any way to the "target" subject matter.

The very point of the analogy is to move away from the subject, to something you can relate to more readily. For this added ease of comprehension/illustration you don't always get the perfect analogy.

In any case, you're really only dodging the question, would you like to answer? Of course avoiding the question is itself an answer but I figured I would offer anyways.

I'm avoiding a meaningless question because you can't make the analogy that news is akin to video game sales data alone.

News would be more akin to video game sales data and console updates and release lists and much more.

Some of it is highly relevant: Recent crime in your area akin to the console update coming out tomorrow.

Some is somewhat relevant: A new bill coming to legislation akin to release lists for games coming later on.

Some is mostly irrelevant: The scores for all the local sports games akin to video game sales data.


There are people who are totally into local sports but a majority usually aren't unless they're directly involved (children, friends, participation). Likewise, most gamers don't care about sales data unless they're directly involved (chatting on a sales forum).

And no, I'm not trying to confuse you with "big words" but if they do confuse you I can use smaller ones. ^_^

News is largely information pertaining to the direction of political agendas, sales data is information pertaining to the direction of console agendas. How are you not seeing the validity of that analogy?

You know what forget it, its not worth debating about, particularly given the ironic context. If you don't want to answer the question thats your choice, and it speaks loud enough on its own.
To Each Man, Responsibility
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scydrex on 01 July 2008
Words Of Wisdom said:

Sales numbers do not matter to gamers.

The reason for this is that there's little you can do to affect them.  You buy the games you like, tell your friends, have fun, and that's about it.  Whether awesome game A sells 100,000 copies or 1,000,000 copies doesn't affect you immediately.  Sure you may not get another awesome game if that one flops but how does knowing its sales numbers change that?  It doesn't.  Most of the people here enjoy looking at the sales numbers and that's why it matters to them.

As a gamer, you continue doing what you do regardless of what sales trends happen to be.

 

 

 So either a) I am not a gamer, even though I have been playing them since the late 70's or b) I am deceived and only THINK I care about videogame sales.

Perhaps what you meant to say is ''Sales numbers do not matter to some (or substitute ''some'' with ''most'') gamers''. In which case I would not be able to confirm or dispute the statement, as I have never conducted any formal surveys on the matter. But just looking at this website's number of users, I would be willing to wager there are at least a few hundred if not thousands of dedicated gamers that do care about the sales data VGChartz publishes.



Make sure the shadow you chase is not the one you cast.

Words Of Wisdom on 01 July 2008
Sqrl said:
Words Of Wisdom said:

I'm avoiding a meaningless question because you can't make the analogy that news is akin to video game sales data alone.

News would be more akin to video game sales data and console updates and release lists and much more.

Some of it is highly relevant: Recent crime in your area akin to the console update coming out tomorrow.

Some is somewhat relevant: A new bill coming to legislation akin to release lists for games coming later on.

Some is mostly irrelevant: The scores for all the local sports games akin to video game sales data.


There are people who are totally into local sports but a majority usually aren't unless they're directly involved (children, friends, participation). Likewise, most gamers don't care about sales data unless they're directly involved (chatting on a sales forum).

And no, I'm not trying to confuse you with "big words" but if they do confuse you I can use smaller ones. ^_^

News is largely information pertaining to the direction of political agendas, sales data is information pertaining to the direction of console agendas. How are you not seeing the validity of that analogy?

You know what forget it, its not worth debating about, particularly given the ironic context. If you don't want to answer the question thats your choice, and it speaks loud enough on its own.

 

Look, you made a bad analogy so I suggested a better one.  You continued trying to pressure me into using your bad analogy so I fixed it to actually more closely resemble the situation and now you're saying that doesn't count either.

The Socratic method of arguing worked for Socrates because he could ask the right questions to get his desired answers.  You can ask your questions and prepare arguments for the responses as much as you like, but I'm not going to answer a loaded question especially when the question is flawed.

If you don't want to argue, I'm fine with that but saying "forget it" and then continuing to fire feeble arguments reflects very poorly on you.



Hawkeye on 01 July 2008

Strong sales= very cheap on ebay later. Also, it means a sequal will be made. Strong Hardware sales= new console will be made, and console will have plenty of games.



Words Of Wisdom on 01 July 2008
scydrex said:
Words Of Wisdom said:

ales numbers do not matter to gamers.

The reason for this is that there's little you can do to affect them. You buy the games you like, tell your friends, have fun, and that's about it. Whether awesome game A sells 100,000 copies or 1,000,000 copies doesn't affect you immediately. Sure you may not get another awesome game if that one flops but how does knowing its sales numbers change that? It doesn't. Most of the people here enjoy looking at the sales numbers and that's why it matters to them.

As a gamer, you continue doing what you do regardless of what sales trends happen to be.

 

 

So either a) I am not a gamer, even though I have been playing them since the late 70's or b) I am deceived and only THINK I care about videogame sales.

Perhaps what you meant to say is ''Sales numbers do not matter to some (or substitute ''some'' with ''most'') gamers''. In which case I would not be able to confirm or dispute the statement, as I have never conducted any formal surveys on the matter. But just looking at this website's number of users, I would be willing to wager there are at least a few hundred if not thousands of dedicated gamers that do care about the sales data VGChartz publishes.

Video game sales matter to video game sales enthusiasts. 

Contrary to popular belief, you can be both a gamer and a video game sales enthusiast. ^_^



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scydrex on 01 July 2008

Ha ha, fair enough.



Make sure the shadow you chase is not the one you cast.

scydrex on 01 July 2008

Although your general statement should be: ''Video game sales should not matter to gamers, as they have little to no influence on their direct outcome'', or something along that line.

My thinking here is that being a ''video game sales enthusiast'' does not change the fact that I still AM a gamer. Add to that the fact that I like to follow videogame sales (although I admit my life does not revolve around this, so my brand of ''caring'' about sales can be called into question) and you know what my answer to this thread's question is.



Make sure the shadow you chase is not the one you cast.

Words Of Wisdom on 01 July 2008
scydrex said:

Although your general statement should be: ''Video game sales should not matter to gamers, as they have little to no influence on their direct outcome'', or something along that line.

 

Perhaps you're right (though I'd say gamers do influence the outcome with their wallets).

I guess my position is:  Knowledge of video game sales is not relevant to a gamer whose only interest is putting a game into her console and playing it.

That's probably still missing a qualifier or two, but hopefully it paints a better picture of my opinion.



pichu_pichu on 01 July 2008

It's interesting to see the if a game did well as the company's expectations.



scydrex on 01 July 2008

Words Of Wisdom said:

I guess my position is:  Knowledge of video game sales is not relevant to a gamer whose only interest is putting a game into her console and playing it.

 

 Damn, that would be a horrid thing to be for me. That would be like existing as a very, very primitive, basic sort of consumer.

Some are of the opinion that true fans of a form of entertainment don't just listen to songs, watch a movie or a sporting event and then forget about the object of their interest.

Dedicated fans like to discuss the state of the industry, the good or bad quality of movies or music albums in a particular era, what's book is hot in the market, what they would like to change about their favorite work of art, what they would do to improve their favorite sports team, etc.

The fact that you participate in these forums indicates to me that you are way more sophisticated than that, Words.



Make sure the shadow you chase is not the one you cast.