rabblerouzer comments

Posted in: At Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo conspicuous by absence See in context

Gogogo:

Who the hell wrote this? Do some homework, they never go to TGS and have their own event

So maybe the reaction is a bit over the top, but it's pretty obvious that the writer knows very little about video games. Other problems with this article:

--"Animal Forest" is known as "Animal Crossing" in English.

--Stating that the reason for Nintendo's lack of mobile presence until now is because they wanted to "keep to their Wii console business" seems a little strange to me. Nintendo rules the handheld business with the 3DS, and if mobile is competing with any console gaming, it's most definitely with the handheld systems. If they were strategically staying out of mobile, it was to not sabotage their handheld console sales. This article also talks about the Wii like the Wii U never existed. If we're talking about Nintendo's business model and ventures, you can't leave out the massive flop that was the Wii U.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Pew poll: How the Japanese and Chinese see each other See in context

Yubaru wrote:

Consider though, China has what, 1.3 BILLION people, with just how many different backgrounds and languages and 3,154 people are a valid sample? Where and who did they talk to? People in Peking? Shanghai? HongKong?

Or how about Japan? 120 MILLION plus and only 1,000? What name list did they use? One's for the Anti-Korean association? People who live around Kasumigaseki? Okinawa?

Very true, but let's give them some slack. Research is always constrained by time and money. 3000 and 1000 respectively are pretty decent sample sizes, especially for a survey that doesn't really lead to much actual science, and at best might inform policy changes or political rhetoric.

It would be nice for some more information about the participants (age, location, and political leaning would probably be pretty informative), but that's more suitable for a research paper and less for journalism. The fact we got a methodology section at all is pretty amazing. Easy fix: provide the link to the research paper.

I'm less worried about the sample size and more about the method of collection. It's only based on phone calls, meaning that only people who actually picked up the phone and stayed on the line to answer questions are represented. How many of us would actually do this? It would've been relatively easy to include an online and/or in person poll to give the data some diversity. But, once again, time and money.

Overall I'd say the methodology is good enough for it's purpose, however. Kudos to the researcher(s) and writer for putting in the work.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Smart weapons, dumb armies See in context

The headline "Smart weapons, dumb armies" is awfully similar to "guns don't kill people, people kill people." Of course armies are the ones using the weapons. Of course people are the ones using the guns. They're tools. That's their purpose. The question is whether or not we trust said armies or people with these weapons. You ask for more pressure for these weapons to be used responsibly, but offer no suggestions on how these can be further legislated or enforced. "Armies are already obliged not to target civilians deliberately", yet these civilians are still being killed, are they not? If the other side of the argument is emotional nonsense, please include statistics that demonstrate how little this affects civilians and how greatly this affects military prowess.

Instead of asking why chemical weapons are banned and not cluster munitions, the question should be, if cluster bombs are banned, why not ban all conventional weapons? Why not hand grenades? Why not machine guns? Why not bombs altogether?

Slippery slope.

I have little personal stake in the matter, but I couldn't help but comment after reading the high school level rhetoric going on in this article. I mean no personal disrespect to Mr. Volker himself -- his credentials certainly give him authority on these topic -- but the rhetoric in this article is downright obtuse, no matter how valid the overall argument may be. I'm sure Arizona State University has some rhetoric classes Mr. Volker could take.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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