第4次ARG模考，欢迎猛提建议，怎么没人屌阿

zhufengchUID: 2695107

TOPIC: ARGUMENT13 - The following appeared in a memo from the chief executive of a video game company.

"We have recently been offered the opportunity to buy the rights to produce a video game based on the soon-to-be-published children's book "Squirrel Power," by Peter Wood. While the cost of the rights is substantial and will place economic constraints on our company in the short-term, there are two reasons that the purchase of these rights will undoubtedly be a wise investment. First, Wood's last three books have been best sellers and the movie based on his first book was highly profitable. Second, the popular characters and story line in "Squirrel Power" will save us time in developing our video game, thereby reducing our costs."
WORDS: 407
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2010-3-13 11:04:56

This argument seems reasonable at first thought; however, a close scrutiny reveals a series of great problems. First, the argument makes a series of invalid assumptions. Moreover, the argument commits a false analogy fallacy. Additionally, the arguer also fails to take into consideration alternative explanations. These flaws will be elaborated respectively as follows.

To begin with, the author assumes that the good sales of the last three books from Wood and highly profitable movie based on the first book indicate that 'Squirrel Power' (SP) will enjoy great market. However, no evidence is provided to support this point. On the one hand, we have to ask the true reasons for the former achievements of Wood. Perhaps, this is an accidental case. Or, perhaps, the contents of the last three books are indeed absorbing. Or, Wood might make great efforts in marketing for these books. Nevertheless, any information of SP is unknown; therefore, we cannot make any certain conclusion.

Furthermore, the author makes false analogy between movie and video game. There is no evidence that the success of that movie will ensure the success of video game. It is possible that SP is not suitable to be adapted for video game. And, the author fails to analyze the reason for the high profits obtained by the movies. It might be due to the power of the movie-maker rather than the reputation of the book itself. Moreover, the movie fans do not mean the video game fans.

Finally, the author thinks that it is a good idea that the video game can continue to use the characters and story line in the book 'SP'. Yet, no evidence proves that such practice will be feasible. It is highly possible that the video game has different requirements for the appearance of characters and style of story lines. In addition, even if assuming that the idea can be practiced in this video game, the cost reduced from this might be little considerable and thus the company still cannot deal with the economic constraints.

In conclusion, the argument, seemingly well-supported on the surface, suffers several main problems as discussed above. To support the argument, the author needs to find effective and powerful evidence that the video games based on SP will have great market. Also, the argument could be further bolstered by ruling out alternative explanations that using the characters and story line in BOOK of SP might be inappropriate in the video game.