Someone emailed me this story. It says how ‘Avatar’ is actually the twenty sixth biggest film.
‘Avatar’ is too big to ‘fail’. It is not just a movie. It is about the new 3d technology Hollywood wants to foist on everyone. It HAS to be the biggest thing ever.
When I originally read that ‘Avatar’ was the ‘best selling movie’, I immediately thought, “That is dollar amount. That is not the number of customers.” Remember, best selling books are not tallied by the amount of money but by the number of copies it sold.
Many years ago, someone high up was spouting how healthy and wonderful the ‘Game Industry’ was. (This was before the DS.) I asked him why none of the numbers he threw up listed the number of gamers. He got extremely defensive. “Why would we need to know the number of gamers?” haha I didn’t buy that.
The Movie Industry is important because the Game Industry is mimicking the Movie Industry. Modern Warfare 2 sales are all listed in revenue, not in actual units sold. Granted, publishers would care more about the revenue. However, the units sold is more important to understand its popularity. A jumbo jet brings in tons of revenue. But jumbo jets are not that popular. So units sold have to be looked at, not just revenue.
I’ve talked about how when the new revamped Battlestar Galactica came out, there were many (now admitted) viral marketers on the forums fiercely arguing about how ‘amazing’ the new series was and trying to neutralize the complaints the original BSG fans had. The biggest issue they had was Starbuck being a woman (buck is a male term. Doe would have been the appropriate female term).
Battlestar Galactica was a low rated sci-fi show on cable. Yet, it had viral marketers. A movie of the scale of Avatar would have legions of viral marketers all go out and zero in at anyone saying anything but ‘Avatar is the greatest movie of all time’.
If big movies get these viral marketers as well as low rated cable shows, you better believe that big budget games have their viral marketers as well. I have always wondered why game websites rejoiced in message forums and comments when there is so much trash on both. The reason is for viral marketers to come in and “correct” people’s opinions on the games.
As for me, I believe viral marketers are not much different from virus makers who pollute Windows with their programs. They both deserve their own circle of hell in Dante’s Inferno.
