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 impor

The author of the editorial in the business magazines makes an appealing yet spurious assumption that the sales of Whirlwind video games are likely to skyrocket in the next few months on the basis of a recent survey revealing that video-game players have this predilection for lifelike graphics. Whirlwind has also promulgated theirs product with an extensive advertising campaign targeted at groups of people ten to twenty-five years old, the age-group that is most likely to play video games. While it is possible that the plan might succeed as predicted, the arguments in the editorial are contingent upon several stated and unstated assumptions that might be proven unwarranted. Therefore, these assumptions, stated or unstated, need to be critically examined to appraise the soundness of the argument.

The author first assumes that the credibility of the survey is sound and foolproof. However, such an assumption would be likely to collapse if the scope of the investigation and the subjects surveyed failed to match target customers of Whirlwind video games. To wit, if the surveyed gamers were from any age groups but ten-to-twenty-five, the conclusion reached by the survey could not be used reliably for Whirlwind to presage that their revenues would likely increase because of the lifelike graphics that they incorporated into their products. Therefore, the survey does not necessarily represent all the people in the gaming community, an assumption that might undermine the conclusion of the editorial.

Furthermore, the argument automatically and nonchalantly assumes that introducing video games that contains features that players favor would compel them to purchase the commodities. However, the author does not sufficiently address if there are many other factors that might color buyers’ willingness or even decision to purchase video games. The respondents in the survey might report that lifelike graphics would be the most important in a video game; they might not reveal other more swaying factors when actually facing the decision of which video games to buy. For instance, are the storylines arresting or are the video games replayable enough? In fact, there might be other reasons why Whirlwind video games were not preciously acclaimed by video gamers, such as lack of mesmerizing contents or impressive characters. Either case, if Whirlwind video games did not address those deficits, they still would not improve their sales should they introduce video-games with lifelike graphics.

While the aforementioned assumptions are certainly enough to question the validity of the conclusion, this argument contains several other quite possibly unwarranted assumptions. First, the author takes for granted that the only variable that would alter the tide of the business would be to produce games with lifelike graphic. However, such an assumption tends to founder readily since the author fails to consider other potential but equally influential factors that make buyers make the purchase. For example, since video games with lifelike graphics demand the most up-to-date computers, as explicitly stated in the editorial, people in the age group of ten-to-twenty-five could not financially afford such equipment and hardware. Furthermore, the author hastily assumes that the sales of Whirlwind would likely boost in the next few months. Although the trend of losing customers might be drastically reversed, as predicted by the editorial, it is equally plausible that the rival companies make notice of the gamers’ preference and design products that have more competitive edges than those of Whirlwind. Whirlwind video games might end up becoming an underdog during such a business tug-of-war.

Last, the author makes this assumption that launching an advertising campaign to reach to people ten to twenty-five years old, the age-group most likely to play video games, would be efficacious, which could aid the profits of Whirlwind video games. However, this assumption can be easily compromised given a lack of information about the content of the advertising campaign and whether the target audience would absolutely be convinced by what was embedded in the campaign. Besides, since the Whirlwind would launch such an extensive campaign, the cost of doing so might be astronomical; although this might help the company in the long haul, this would certainly restrain the company financially in the next few months, which would therefore go against the prediction made in the editorial.

All told, although the argument made in the editorial seems ostensibly reasonable; however, several stated and unstated assumptions made by the author are not analyzed or treated with more care. The litany of unsupported assumptions seriously jeopardize the certainty of the conclusion. If any one of the suppositions contained in the argument proved false, the conclusion would be factually wrong, as introducing lifelike graphics by Whirlwind video games then not be the best option to help reverse the company’s financial situation.