The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

He who strikes the first blow admits he’s lost the argument.
- Chinese Proverb

The reason I talk to myself is that I’m the only one whose answers I accept.
- George Carlin

It is one thing to try to convince me of something that is tenuous at best.  But it is something else entirely to tell me that my own eyes and ears are lying to me.

So I find it a little distressing to have gaming portal 1up.com tell me that my own senses cannot be trusted.  Perhaps they assume my eyesight and hearing are so poor that I am physically incapable of watching, let alone understanding, footage of two men talking clearly and coherently into microphones while being recorded on video.

Just what am I talking about, you ask?

Back before New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launched last year, GameTrailers TV hosted an episode in which they featured Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime as a special guest.

During the episode, GameTrailers TV host Geoff Keighley issued a sales numbers challenge to Reggie, asking the NOA president on the spot if New Super Mario Bros. Wii would outsell Modern Warfare 2.  Reggie agreed to the challenge stating Mario would outsell Modern Warfare 2 “on one particular platform,” taking into account NPD data through January 2010.  I know this because I watched the video.  With my own eyes. (You can too. Fast forward to about the 4:19 mark to see the specific interchange.)

The January NPD data just came in yesterday.  Here are the results if you tally up the current U.S. sales totals for the two subject titles:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360): 6,156,700
New Super Mario Bros. Wii: 4,866,700
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3): 3,249,000

As I can clearly see here (with my own lying eyes), New Super Mario Bros. Wii outsold Modern Warfare 2 on a particular platform: The PS3.  Reggie won the bet.

However, this cannot be, for facts are a mere inconvenience – obstructions that must be modified and reshaped to suit a particular desire or agenda.  In this case the desire was to see NOA’s president lose a bet with a game-show host.  Why? I do not know.

Don’t get me wrong, I think both games are excellent and extremely well-made.  I can enjoy a spec ops mission in Call of Duty just as much as a multiplayer Mario session.  However, when someone assumes that I lack even a first grader’s grasp of a conversation held in my native tongue of English, I tend to raise an eyebrow in a state of confusion.

My confusion stems from the fact that 1up is claiming Reggie “said that New Super Mario Bros Wii would outsell the 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 by the end of holiday season.”  I’d sure like to know what video it was that 1up watched to give their website’s staff this impression, because it sure wasn’t the same video I watched.  The video I watched showed Reggie saying “I do believe so” in response to his own question of “on one particular platform” while Keighley repeatedly tried to interject with “on 360.”  The odd thing, however, was that the words “Xbox,” “360″ or even “Microsoft” never left Reggie’s lips, though they did leave Keighley’s lips many times.

But I suppose I am asking too many questions; a bad habit of mine.

Back in December I questioned 1up’s reporting of the bet.  I questioned why the website claimed that Reggie “thr[ew] down the gauntlet and issue[d] a sales challenge” when it was Keighley who issued the challenge.  I also questioned why the website said Reggie specifically bet that Mario would outsell the Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2, and why it backed up this assertion by linking back to one of its own articles paraphrasing the video, rather than the video itself directly.

Now I find myself questioning why the website is calling the bet a “prediction” on Reggie’s part when a prediction is usually something that involves just one person, unlike a bet, which involves at least two people.  Oh, and I’m also wondering why the website has once again provided no direct link to the video itself, instead falling back yet again on its own paraphrasing.

Too many questions, not enough answers.  Maybe it’s better that I just stop now before I give myself a headache.

Actually, I have only one more question.

Why doesn’t 1up expand its business and begin practicing law?  After all, it’s usually only a lawyer who can convince you that it’s raining when someone is taking a piss on your head.

]]> http://www.gamealmighty.com/how-stupid-does-1up-think-we-are/feed 0 http://www.gamealmighty.com/if-ces-has-its-way-we%e2%80%99ll-all-be-looking-like-idiots-by-2011?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=if-ces-has-its-way-we%25e2%2580%2599ll-all-be-looking-like-idiots-by-2011 http://www.gamealmighty.com/if-ces-has-its-way-we%e2%80%99ll-all-be-looking-like-idiots-by-2011#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:36:27 +0000 cjensen http://www.gamealmighty.com/?p=3269

With the Consumer Electronics Show in full-swing, one thing has become crystal clear: the electronics industry is hell-bent on making consumers look like complete tools by the end of the year. By “tool” I mean, “Who is that dork sitting on the sofa wearing the nerdy 3D glasses?”

3D TVs are all the rage. Every major television manufacturer, and a few minor ones, are jumping on the bandwagon without hesitation. ESPN and DirecTV have both announced imminent, full-time 3D channels. Sony has finalized their specifications for 3D Blu-Ray and the industry will have the home version of Avatar to use as consumer-bait.

But…we’re still going to look like complete tools with our 3D glasses.

Is this really what the consumers wants? Probably not. I think it is safe to say we want 3D without the frickin’ glasses. It’s not just the aesthetic-hit your once macho appearance will take, but the real, cold hard facts of reality that will take its toll. WTF am I talking about?

I’m talking about your dog munching on your beloved pair of 3D glasses while you are at work. I am talking about your rug-rat kids bending, throwing, playing and breaking your 3D glasses. I am talking about your 3D glasses disappearing under the sofa or between the cushions. I am talking about your big, fast ass sitting down hard on that pair of 3D glasses.

3D glasses only work in theory and the safety of an IMAX theater. All other locations will spell constant hassle and small-scale disasters.

Hence, this brave new world they want us so desperately to enter will only work sans glasses.

Beyond the hurdles of every-day life we have the tech itself. Everything on display at CES is first-generation technology without a unified standard. Early-adopters will undoubtedly be screwed by the time the second generation is greatly improved and enhanced.  The 3D TV you buy today could be tomorrow’s HD-DVD.

So wait. Be patient. What is available now will be considered garbage by CES 2011, a date that will hopefully see a whole new generation of 3D that can be attained without glasses and the punishing hit to your fashion sense.

Today’s Deal O’ The Day is the neat ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB PC TV Tuner. WTF is that?

Official PR Speak:

The ATI TV Wonder HD 600 offers a feature rich set of media abilities, transforming your PC into the ultimate entertainment system. Attach an amplified high definition antenna or your TV cable and you can watch, pause or record analog and digital live HDTV on your PC or convert your recorded TV shows to take with you on your Portable Media Player. This hybrid PCI tuner will delight a home theater enthusiast looking for great value in a multimedia PC TV tuner.

Technical Details:

Attach an amplified HD antenna or TV cable to watch, pause or record analog and digital live HDTV on your PC.

Perfect for the home theater enthusiast looking for great value in a multimedia PC TV tuner.

ATI Catalyst Media Center offers DVD Playback and Authoring Software

Single hybrid tuner offers tuning for Over-the-air Digital TV/HDTV (ATSC) & Over-the-air/Cable Analog TV (NTSC)

Uses Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Connection Bus

Buy it Today For Only $65.07!

He was a Father, an actor, a soldier, and even a famous wrestler and manager in the WWF, but we’ll remember him best for being a plumber. A very large, very eccentric plumber who experimented with rubber band facial piercings.

Today we mourn the passing of Louis Vincent Albano due to natural causes. He is survived by his wife, their 4 children and 14 grandchildren. Our condolences to them on behalf of all of our staff.

As he goes towards the light at the end of the sewer pipe and moves on to the next level, our thoughts also go out to his brother Luigi and his longtime companion, Princess Peach.

On a more serious note… the person who comes up with the most creative alternate headline or opening sentence for this post in the comments below, will get some sort of Nintendo-related swag (still to be determined, but it will be worth your effort) and a free GameAlmighty t-shirt featuring the Captain himself.

Update: We have decided we will accept poems/hiakus, and illustrations too. Anything creative related to the passing. (And be sure your profile contains your correct email address so we can contact you in the event that you win.)

Being a bit of a Sci-Fi nerd (or is it Sy-Fy now?) , the few friends I have managed to accumulate over the years tend to have similar interests, and whenever a few of us get together one area of disagreement tends to rear it’s ugly head more often then others — Which is better, Star Trek or Star Wars?

While I haven’t discovered anything that gives a definitive answer to which is better, I have come across the answer to which is bigger. Someone named Dan Carlson went to the trouble of compiling an image that features ships from both universes to scale with 1 pixel = 10 meters. Apparently with little else to do in his life, he also added ships from almost every other Science Fiction property that made its way into television and film including things as obscure Lexx and Space: Above and Beyond.

So if size matters (and all Carlson’s distances are accurate), it looks like the Star Wars fans have something to brag about due to the incredible length of the Executor class Destroyer. (Star Trek fans can salvage some pride if they point to the Earth Spacedock and try to make the girth arguement however.) Unfortunately this area of comparison may only start up another bitter debate, especially if one subscribes to the theory that guys with big trucks (or space ships) are only trying to compensate for a deficiency in something else.

So what are you trying to draw attention away from, Star Wars fans? Do you have a little anxiety about your Light Sabers?

Unlike a lot of the staff at some of the other gaming websites you may read regularly, most of us here at GameAlmighty are old enough to actually remember the prosperous years of the 1980s – all of them, not just the last 2 or 3. It’s what makes us such fans of them, and also allows us to provide our readers with accurate, 1st hand perspective on the great games and other phenomena, like G.I. Joe, that seem to be having an increasing influence on the movies, television, comics,  and games you consume today.

Unfortunately, the same age that allows us to comment with authority on the things of yester-year also cause us to occasionally forget the things of yesterday and today. For instance, because we are such big fans of that decade, it was our intention to remind all of you that this past Tuesday the Joe-themed game, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, was being released and the movie was going to be in some theaters tonight. However, in spite of the big post-it note reminder on the wall, we still forgot to do it till now:

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra the game hit stores on Tuesday and the movie of the same name is in theaters now.

There. Now the sticky note can come down, and we can get back to reviewing it. Will we be cheering “Yo, Joe!”, or insisting it’s Scrap Iron?  Check back in the next couple days for our verdict.

Ronald Moore, the creator of the Battlestar Galactica reboot, debuted a new pilot on Fox last Friday called Virtuality. If you didn’t watch it, you’re not alone. In order for a pilot to be picked up for an eventually series, one general rule is that people need to see it. That didn’t happen. Hence, Virtuality will not be a series. Frankly, that’s just as well. Apparently I was one of the few people to watch the show, though I only watched the first half before terminal boredom set in.

Virtuality could have been a good series, but for me, the whole ‘reality show on a spaceship” aesthetic failed to grab.

From TVByTheNumbers: