So yes, being American is a health risk. But on the other hand, almost everyone I know is becoming more and more aware of those kinds of issues, and figuring out that they have to fight those forces if they’re going to be healthy. It’s harder than you might think, and a lot more Americans are trying to lose weight than outsiders would realize.

I’m as American as they get (born in South Carolina, no less). In the past year I’ve dropped 45 pounds, and 2 weeks ago I ran my first half-marathon. The first time I’ve been inside a fast food restaurant in over a year was when I went to Burger King to get the 360 games…and they didn’t even make me buy a value meal. Ha ha!

Just doing my part to change the perception of Americans, one pound at a time…

Just like to take any chance to stick it to the fatties.

You’re a commy bastard,

Regards,

Steve

I’m going to go out right now and start lobbying for a single government agency devoted to making video games. Let’s get rid of all of those stupid videogame companies trying to find ways to screw us out of our money by creating something we want to buy. That’s for the birds!

Instead, let’s think of video games as a natural resource, a treasure that is our birthright. Without competition, the DoCBGC (Department of Console-Based Game Creation) will be free to create the bestest games ever at low, low prices! God Bless America!

Increasing competition in a consumer market isn’t usually a good thing for the consumer, market growth is. It’s suggested to you that it is but it isn’t and if you look at the VG market you can see that this holds true. Competition means profits need to increase, losses need to go away. How do you do that ? Prices go up (look at the pricetag of next gen consoles and games), quality and “quantitiy” goes down (look at all broken 360’s, look how many ps3 will break, check out the length of avg. games these days).

Competition means you get less (!) value for your money in the long run and you will see a significant increase in marketing efforts to cover the “losses” on the consumer side of things. That’s pretty normal, just not obvious because no one tells you But everyone in this business is in it for your money, not to be your friend. Their “mission-objective” is always to reach deep into your pockets so when you’re beeing told that you receive great value you are beeing ripped off. Simple as that

So numbers like the ones mentioned in this news are presented by analysts and companies to have a certain effect on consumers (customers) and investors. They are supposed to create trust in a brand, trust in a market and all that. Hard numbers can’t lie, right ? True, but look at the questions asked if you see answers in the form of numbers.

1) The Xbox has been out for more than a year now and distribution channels are fare better than the Wii and PS3. You can walk into a store and basically pick it up from a shelf anytime whereas the newer consoles are selling out faster than they can stock them.

2) Figures for the Wii and the PS3 only includes the last 10 days or so of November, wheras figures for the Xbox counted the whole month, a good 30 days.

3) It is also unfair for the Xbox because the Wii and the PS3 are both new, and the hype and novelty of both is at an all time high.