Argument147 [0610G急速末班车小组]第一次作业

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147The following appeared in an editorial in a business magazine.
"Although the sales of Whirlwind video games have declined over the past two years, a recent survey of video-game players suggests that this sales trend is about to be reversed. The survey asked video-game players what features they thought were most important in a video game. According to the survey, players prefer games that provide lifelike graphics, which require the most up-to-date computers. Whirlwind has just introduced several such games with an extensive advertising campaign directed at people 10 to 25 years old, the age-group most likely to play video games. It follows, then, that the sales of Whirlwind video games are likely to increase dramatically in the next few months."


In this analysis, the arguer predicts that the sales of Whirlwind video games will probably stop declining and increase soon. In support of this prediction, the arguer cites the result of a recent survey that video game players prefer games providing lifelike graphics, which need most up-to-date computers. Meanwhile, the arguer claims that Whirlwind has just introduced several such games with advertising campaign directed at people 10 to 25 years old, the age-group most likely to play video games. This argument is unconvincing for several critical flaws.

In the first place, the arguer fails to take into account the new computer’s price in this analysis. According to the cited survey, video game players are mostly young people aged from 10 to 25, who might not have the financial ability to afford the most up-to-date computers’ price. If only a small portion of the players have enough money to buy the advanced computers, the newly-presented video games which provide lifelike graphics may be possibly not as attractive as wished. Even if most of the players’ computers meet the needs of the games, the arguer fails to provide any information concerning the purchasing intent of the game players. Only when we are informed that most of the players are fond of the new games and would like to buy them accepted is it likely that the sales of Whirlwind will increase. Consequently, it is unwarranted to assume that the new video games will change the sales of Whirlwind’s video games.

In the second place, the arguer neglects several other relevant factors which might influent the sales of video games. The fact that players prefer games which provide lifelike graphics says little about other factors which may also deeply affect the market sales of the new games. For instance, the difficulty of the game, the music, the fascination as well as the price of the new games can make great differences between different video games. Furthermore, even if the Whirlwind’s new games are in high quality at every aspect, the arguer doesn’t make it clear that whether there are other firms in the market which might have already provided similar video games with lifelike graphics.

Last but not least, the arguer indicates the sales of the company will increase in next few months, but he fails to analyze the company’s actuality. As we all knows, a video game corporation which experience two-year decline might not has the capability for manufacturing its new product or effective selling. Moreover, the arguer only tells us that the company set up an extensive advertising campaign but the market effect is unknown. Under this circumstance, it is hasty to draw the conclusion.
To sum it up, the conclusion lacks credibility because the survey cited in the analysis does not lend strong support to what the arguer maintains. To strengthen the argument, the arguer would have to provide more evidence concerning the percentage of game players who would like to buy the new games. Additionally, the arguer must prove that Whirlwind’s new video games are generally better than other producers’ and its market responding is definitely well.