144 said:
Saucycarpdog said:
Wow. My post was actually directed at the line of posts in general regarding how everyone claims to be such a business expert, in spite of how likely it isn't. People make these grand claims as to what will and won't fix problems with 100% certainty, and back themselves up using examples from other market scenarios that they argue are perfectly analogous, when I really doubt that they are.
So let me ask you this: are the iPod market and the WiiU market 1:1? People are talking as though they are. Which is terrifying. For that matter, are the PS4 market and the WiiU market 1:1? Not that they aren't comparable, but "Business 101" it ain't.
AND ABOUT the gamepad...
I don't think they cover it in Business 102, so I'll go over my impressions of your statement and its shocking quality here:
Really? It's a touchscreen. Touchscreen gaming. I figured it out. I looked at the gamepad and said, "oh, it's like an iPad, but it has tactile buttons as well, because purely haptic-feedback control mechanisms are generally terrible in hardcore scenarios." Sometimes, it's good to be able to use your fingers and slide and touch and stuff, but it sucks to cover up the screen that you are looking at with your own controlling yet immersion-breaking fingers. The gamepad is like a DS, but at home. And the DS was a good idea. After all, gamers figured that out, right? Of course, the whole "touch generation" ad campaign helped out a bit.
Are you seriously telling me that the PS4 and the Wii U aren't in the same market? The home gaming console market? I'd really like to see you elaborate on this further.
Touchscreen gaming? Just like the DS, you're right! But wait, you still aren't giving me an explanation as to why gamers haven't "figured out" the Wii U yet. All you've said is the DS is just like it and was popular, which kinda kills your argument as why should gamers buy the Wii U when they have the DS? Perhaps you could "figure out" that one out for me. Don't want to skip over anything, right?
To paraphrase, I said that the markets for the various electronics companies aren't perfectly analogous. Your reaction was "are you seriously telling me that the PS4 and the Wii U aren't in the same market?" It's strange, because considering your professed fluency in Business 101, it seems you still don't realize the substantial difference between having different target markets and being in the same market.
But are you really confused? Or are you intentionally misunderstanding semantics to get angry? I have no way of knowing, but I hope for the sake of the Escapist that you didn't read the whole post, and are smart enough to actually know what I meant without needing the following example.
The SUPERMARKET EXAMPLE:
Because I hypothetically went to a supermarket the other day. There was so much food. There was a section for cheeses, a section for vegetables, and meats, and drinks, and even within sections there were duplicates of the same product but with different brand names. I went to get some milk. I didn't buy any kale, nor would I have been expected to, as I (as a consumer) am not in the kale market. I hate kale. But obviously, kale was in the same supermarket as milk. The Food Market. I also didn't buy cheese. I wasn't in the market for cheese. I don't mind cheese. I like cheese. But I didn't need any, so I didn't get any. And now we arrive at the milk section. Milk shares an aisle with cheese, you see. They are both part of the dairy market. Wow, look at all this milk. There's whole milk, 2%, 1%, skim, and lots of different brands of each. And I'm only going to get one. I'm in the market for milk, certainly, so all of these products are advertising to me. But I'm really thin, so I'm not in the skim milk market, or even the 1% milk market. Does that mean that whole milk and skim milk don't share a market now? No. It means that they have different target markets. I think. Again, consult your Wharton professor for this. But there are multiple whole milk and 2% milk brands to choose from. I pick the most appealing to me, and that's that. But as I'm leaving I buy some bacon because bacon is delicious. Jeez, this analogy is getting messy, huh? I guess the market is kind of confusing that way.
I'd liken comparing the markets of the iPod and WiiU to the markets of kale and milk.
I'd liken comparing the markets of the PS4 and WiiU to the markets of whole and skim milk.
Now let's look at some post context. You keep removing past posts when you quote (which is ironic when you say not to skip over things), so let's realize that the market comment I'd made was referencing the comparisons between the situations of Apple and Nintendo. When saying "for that matter, are the PS4 market...etc.", I was using that a means of pointing out that since the Sony and Nintendo markets are already different, comparing Nintendo to Apple seems like a stretch. I didn't expect your response to be "no, the Nintendo gamer and the Sony gamer is exactly the same," because considering how much console-warring happens on a site like this, the idea that someone would be so quick to say hat there is no viable reason for there to be any distinction between the markets of the consoles is staggering.
And before you tell me not to skip over shit, how about we refer to those past posts that you've removed (for space reasons, I'm sure...) where you say that YOU can't figure out the gamepad. I'm okay with having killed the argument you say I killed, since I wasn't making that argument in the first place. You seem to think that I'm trying to say that people should buy the WiiU, when so far I've said no such thing, and if you don't think it's worth it, don't. I'm also surprised that you think that "figuring out" is all it takes for a consumer to buy a product. I recently saw an ad for a laptop. It explains all these features it has that set it apart from other laptops. I see how those features may come in handy. Why haven't I bought it? Is it because it seems too expensive? Maybe. Is it because I don't feel any urgency? Perhaps. Is it because I want to see how other companies compare? Could be. Is it because I already have a laptop? Mostly.
Again, I could be totally contradicting Business 101. Maybe your professor said "okay, class. Today's lesson: everyone who doesn't immediately buy a product is either too dumb to figure it out, or the product has absolutely no worth and no amount of advertising, or other type of problem-solving can fix it. Also, if anything does or doesn't happen for any reason in the business world, it has to do with the ability inability of a consumer to figure stuff out."
But I doubt that.
