The NPD debacle has got people stirred up and I got over there at Kotaku making a few posts not letting them smear the name of this great site.

Here's my response I just made to a poster calling himself "fightinfilipino" if you're interested. You might just like what I had to say. You can click on my name on the post at Kotaku to see my post history where you can see more of my views about this NPD/VGC situation along with a long history of calls and viewpoints about many things that has happened in the world of gaming. If you're bored that is and wanna pass some time.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/notag/npd-surprised-at-backlash-hate-vgchartz-real-bad-319679.php#c2892947

BY JOHNLUCAS AT 09:20 AM

@fightinfilipino:
"so JohnLucas, how does it feel to be a trusted member of the internet community, you hydrangea? do you need some fertilizer to support your insightful-but-neutral posts, you ficus?

basically, i'm calling you a plant.

and VGChartz fails from 1) having a non-representative sample size (in short, not enough numbers) and 2) having a "z" in its name instead of an "s"."

Ah, the rare elusive fightinfilipino (Filipinias Bellacosicus). I heard about them on the Discovery Channel once. They make excellent fertilizer by the way. Crops around them grow abundantly.

VGChartz is the best thing to happen since cheese danishes. A grassroots startup that was curious to know exactly HOW the videogame industry's commerce metrics ran and put together a site opening information to the public which had been held like Fort Knox prior.

Putting this growing videogaming business up there with music industry charts, TV ratings charts, & movie industry charts. Public information free to access and study. A site following Japan's lead in making this sales info public knowledge on a weekly basis.
A site that helps customers make more informed decisions on purchases and to understand the industry better as a result. A side effect is to give a sports team rah rah session for any console or game supporter for fun and kicks. A site with BETTER industry analysts than the ones parading themselves around as qualified analysts (like Pachter). These BETTER analysts who are most likely everyday people on the street with no college degree or on-the-job training. Just people who've been around as gameplayers so long they can make calls on how the industry will run. An education for all.

I don't see anything wrong with that. Not at all. Voices from common people who get respect based on the merit of their words and get to participate and discuss gaming in a commercial sense, in an artistic sense, in a social sense, in a cultural sense. This feedback also helping up and coming developers who visit and participate in the discussions to better figure out how to orient games and to examine where people's taste are to make a good product that doesn't get sadly ignored. Many great games get ignored and by studying box art, accepted game design by evidence of sales, industry history, sales trends, industry ebbs and flows will better understand the business side of the industry to better get their art out to the public in greater fashion. To adjust and focus their product differently so as to get it to more people so with the money received they can make more games.

VGChartz.com WAS spelled with an "S" not too long ago. When I found it, it was VGCharts.org. But with the confusion between many sites using the title 'VGCharts' and .org not being the most readily thought-of address suffix, they decided to come up with a more snazzier name that won't be forgotten (nobody forgets the letter 'Z') and will be easier to find for newcomers free from confusion of others.

Whether spelled with an 'S' or a 'Z' it has no bearing on the quality of work they do. And it is of supreme quality and they get better every week.

My hope for VGChartz is that they DO become the industry standard for videogame sales tracking like Nielsens is for TV and Billboard is for Music. I want them to be the world's go-to site for reading international sales figures. I hope their info sources grow so that we get even MORE accurate information. One day when you want to study how this game or game system or game product is doing in Japan, in China, in Brazil, in South Africa, in Switzerland, in Russia, in South Korea, in Mexico, in Canada, in England, in Nigeria, in Saudi Arabia, in India, in Australia, in Antarctica, whereever...I hope they ALL click on VGChartz.com and take a gander at the figures and become informed on how this industry works.

Water must flow. You can't hold it all in your hands. It will find its way to make itself free. Drop by drop. NPD will learn this very soon.

John Lucas

I find it just absolutely astounding that people can bash VGchartz for what they do. Providing free information to all who seek it? Heresy!

Even if (I can't decide on we or they, meaning VGchartz) are off by say, 20%, it really doesn't matter, because they're providing a service that no one else is willing or able to provide at no charge, and that's more important than exact figures.

I don't understand why people bash. If you like NPD, fine, but these smears against this site are completely unfounded.

lol...I saw that. It's funny to see vgchartz posters at those other places. I know DnWii posts at Joystiq and so does Rubang.

I also wonder where he thought you were planted from...the headquarters of VgChartz? Sounds conspiratorial. Granted, you love the site and you are a member, but sheesh.

In other news, someone in that thread referred to vgchartz as the site taht still has the 360 tracking above the wii. Gotta love disinformation and people's inability to simply click on a link to validate their opinions or perceptions.

Thanks, John, for representing. I personally can't stand those comment boards so I would never create an account there.

Please do post his reply to that! ;)

Also John my Wii has been offline for some time, I have real trouble with the Nintendo Wifi connector, so any unreplied messages I apologize for.

This guy sort of has a point, as the relatively small sample size we have is probably the biggest factor cause of inaccuracy in our numbers AFAIK. I also agree on how the Z at the end of the name is bad for this site's credibility, but suppose we'll just have to live with it.

That being said, we're within NPD's own error margin, and as far from the two similar services in Japan as they are from each other. If that's not extremely impressive for a site run by amateurs, then I don't know what is. Pointing this out is how I usually reply to any attacks at our accuracy that I see, and don't think anyone has ever bothered arguing against it. Ignoring me and continueing to badmouth us yes, but never daring to face the facts. =P

Congratulations John you might have been the only member of this site to pass muster, and get their comment posted. I made a valiant defense on my part pointing out that the NPD being intimidated by vgchartz was like NASA being intimidated by a toy rocket manufacturer. Who cares though now vgchartz numbers will be the more commonly referred to numbers.

The amount of morons there that try to pass off "but it has a 'z'!!1" as a real argument or any argument is general is astounding. Has Kotaku comment sections always been that much of a cesspool? I see VGC get bashed a fair bit on GameFAQs and do my share of defending from the morons, but of them all I don't think one ever tried to use the z argument.

It's making me wonder if there are boards out there worse than GameFAQs.

The "no credibility because it has a Z" thing is ridiculous, but ioi should look into buying vgcharts.com from whoever owns it.

Outside of these boards, you can really tell there is a lot of ignorance when it comes to the game industry and sales. Stuff that generally gets corrected here goes unchallenged on boards with a less educated audience. Really stupid stuff like confusing revenue with profit or the repeating of the PS2 slow start myth.