Sequel Fatigue Cause of Slow Sales?

The NYT has a piece which argues that the new console iteration is not the cause for slow sales at the end of the year. Rather, gamers are tired of all the damn sequels. From the article: "... In an industry that has a reputation for growth, the decline certainly clashes with expectations. And there is also evidence that gamers may no longer be as enticed by the type of games that publishers have been putting on store shelves. For the first time in several years, the industry did not have a breakout hit in 2005. Two releases from 2004's holiday season, Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, generated enough anticipation among hard-core gamers that they lined up to buy copies. 'Last season you had some events that drove people into stores,' said Josh Larson, director of industry products for GameSpot, which tracks interest in new games; he was referring to the last two months of 2004. 'There wasn't anything that filled that void,' in the 2005 holiday season, he added." Update: 02/08 18:07 GMT by Z : As much as I like the letter 'q', fixed title.

Comments

Re:Because we don't come to /. for grammar lessons

[vertinox]

and daring to point out repeated mistakes (most of which are obviously due to a failure to absorb basic lessons in grade school) is moderated (-1, Flamebait) and (-1, Troll).

If we wanted to learn proper english, we'd be trolling ProperEnglishdot.org and not trying to discuss technology and geek releated things.

I mean, I have horrible grammar because I don't really care what other people on this forum think and I'm probaly multitasking talking with someone else on a phone (at work) and writing tech support request emails so its amazing I even post comments in an understandable format.

On occasion I find myself copying and pasting my comment into word and doing a spell check for blatantly obvious problems... But face it guys... I don't really care if you know how to spell nor if I make a good impression on you with my excellent grammar and spelling.

Slashdot isn't a job interview after all and not all of us have the time to sit and proof read everything we type.

Re:Because we don't come to /. for grammar lessons

[Caspian]

If you get into the habit of writing correctly, you won't have to think about it or spend time proofreading your work (beyond a quick runthrough). It will become "second nature" to you.

Re:Because we don't come to /. for grammar lessons

[Caspian]

For that matter, just where the fuck did the idea that the proper use of language is reserved solely for job interviews and schools come from?! I'm so sick of hearing things like "whatever... you're not my teacher" or "I'm not in school". Sure, I could write like a caveman too, but I prefer to have the basic dignity (probably the only dignity I ever display? ;) ) not to do so.

I suppose that, since I'm not trying to impress anyone with my clothing, I could come in to work in cutoff jean shorts and a ripped, stained T-shirt. "Hey, man, it's work, not a fashion show."

That's around as [il]logical as this absurd notion that "since I'm not at school, I shouldn't bother writing properly."

Re:Because we don't come to /. for grammar lessons

[vertinox]

For that matter, just where the fuck did the idea that the proper use of language is reserved solely for job interviews and schools come from?!

ARRRRGHHGHHGH!

There is no such thing as "correct English" or "proper English" in a sense that English never changes and follows a set of rules set in stone.

Otherwise if you want proper English we need to revert back to the Middle Olde English and use thee and thou and thou art!

People don't talk the same as they did 10 years ago. English was meant to be mutable and should not be restricted in order to be able to create ideas quickly and easily that we could not previously express with our limited language.

Otherwise Latin would have been fine.

Take Japanese for example. They have a formal Japanese used in professional settings and more vernacular variant. Why can't we?

This insane restriction of the English language is something that should be done away with. If you travel from New York to Georgia to Texas to California to say... England... And back to Canada you will notice that no one has exact rules and everyone has different ways of talking in English.

Yet I can amazingly talk to any of those people (well maybe except people in Scotland after a Pub Crawl).

If you want an exact and immutable language switch to Latin.

English bastardization and improper usage is here to stay.

Re:Because we don't come to /. for grammar lessons

[Damvan]

So why do we even bother teaching English in schools? The kids already know the language, so things like sentence structure, grammar, spelling are just a waste of time. Improper usage is here to stay!