Q17 - Ditalgame Corportation's computer video

[brandonbodie]

I was able to narrow this question down to C and E, then incorrectly chose E. I now see that the question stem takes out any uncertainty for the validity of the answer choices. This is helpful. I chose E because I thought C was going too far indicating that most people will decide they have to have the game after playing it during the playable period. But since the question stem requires us to consider this option as if it were true, this clearly makes sense.

Still, could someone please help to explain why E is wrong? Is it considered out of scope, since it doesn't actually provide a method of increased sales?

Thanks!
Brandon

[bbirdwell]

Hey Brandon, (E) isn't exactly out of scope for that reason -- it's just wrong for that reason

Remember our task: support the conclusion. What's the conclusion? That the copy protection will increase sales.

(A) says we just have to increase sales. Great. Will we, or not? Eliminate
(B) so are we going to increase sale? Eliminate.
(C) Ah! The users of copied games will have to have it! This will definitely increase sales.
(D) ok. So games are generally reviewed favorably. Will we increase sales or not? Eliminate.
(E) so our games are copied more often. So what? Will the copy protection increase sales, or not? Eliminate.

[isaac.botier]

Here's my breakdown. Hope it helps!

Q17. C
Question type: Strengthen (Assumption Family)

Once again we’re in the Assumption Family so we need to find the core. Here it is:

Ditalgame will begin using new copy protection feature --> there will be a substantial increase in sales once protection implemented

The argument assumes that the new copy protection will definitely lead to the company selling more games. What is it about the copy protection that will cause people to buy the games? Just because folks can’t copy the games anymore doesn’t mean they will automatically buy them.

To strengthen the argument we need to look for an answer choice that links the copy protection to increased sales.

(A) is incorrect because it doesn’t link the copy protection to the inevitability of increased sales. (A) is basically saying that if the company makes back the money it spent on the copy protection then sales increased substantially. But we don’t care about the company making back the money it spent on the protection. (A) would strengthen the gap in the following core:

Premise: Ditalgame recouped costs of copy protection
Conclusion: Sales increased substantially

(B) doesn’t even mention copy protection. The fact that Ditalgame’s market share
has been decreasing doesn’t help us conclude that sales will be increasing.

(D) is out of scope _ who cares about reviews of the games? We need to link the new protection to increased sales.

(E) is out of scope - who cares about the relative frequency of copying?

--

That leaves us with (C), which does a good job of strengthening the core we identified. If (C) were true, then copied versions of Ditalgames would be playable right up to the point that gamers are hooked. At that point they would have to go buy the game, thus increasing sales.

[jiangzihaoalex]

I need serious help with this type of question!! This is my train of thought during the test:

C says the game under protection is long enough to entice people. Even if this is true, so what?? Did it say it's good enough to entice people? What if it's fundamentally a crappy game?

So are we to assume that people being enticed to be part of the assumption? Coz the answer choice reads to me like it's only matter of how long the playable part is (just enough to entice people). Am I crazy to think this way??

I chose E but I am not happy with it either, but I thought it's better than C because at least it touched on attractiveness of the game.

[Yit HanS103]

I agree with the previous post. I didn't like any choice,but I went with E because it says that this company is copied more than the rest, which means that when the protection is implemented then the game won't be copied. To which I assume it will increase sales, they are being copied all the time then it must be a good game to play.
I eliminated C fast because to me it didn't make sense, I understood that people who has the copied game will play it so much that they'll want to have the original. If I akready have the copied version, why would I care to have the original? Unless there are some major differences btw the two, which was not mention in the stimulus.

Thank you

Pt66 sect2 q17

[ohthatpatrick]

(E) doesn't add anything to the conversation.

Since we already know that Ditalgame's video games are subject to widespread illegal copying, we have enough reason to think that "if we add copy protection, some of the people who used to play our games via illegal copying will no longer be able to do so [and hopefully they'll actually BUY the game instead]."

A comparison to another company doesn't add anything. We don't need (E) to know that Ditalgame has an issue with people illegally copying its games (it was already said in the stimulus). The language of (E) makes it sound like Ditalgame REALLY has an issue with people copying (maybe you thought in intensified the scope of the problem).

But they already put in WIDESPREAD illegal copying into the stimulus, so we already know the problem is dire.

I think what you're missing in your interpretation of (C) is that it says "playable just long enough for ..."

Like you can play the first couple levels and get hooked, but then it's no longer playable. Or you can play for 3 hours, but then it's no longer playable. So that's why we would expect someone with a copied game to potentially buy the actual game.

Once they hit a certain point in their copied game, the game is no longer playable (it doesn't function).