words and video games

I never realized how important language and translation is to video games. As someone who does not game all that often I tend to only realize these things when they are mentions such as in clas when talking about the japanese website (which has now been translated). Additionally the reading helped me further understand this with the "All your base belong to us" game. Its so important culturally when we see how these meanings have transformed with the reworking of the phrase "Osama All Your Base"When I play a game I just assume that I don't need words to play but in reality I am lost without them. 

So I mentioned a New York Times article in class last week. The article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/fashion/05iphone.html?scp=7&sq=iphone&st=cse.

On a similar topic but a different article  the iPhone and iTouch continue to be extremely important in the video game industry. "The surprising emergence of the iPhone and its phone-less sibling, the iPod Touch, as hand-held game consoles has started to change the dynamics of the $40-billion game software industry...It's not just the device that's having an effect. It's also Apple's App Store, an online marketplace where users can browse through 25,000 software applications from thousands of publishers. Many are games that take advantage of the multitouch screens, accelerometers and Web connections featured in the iPhone and iPod Touch. On a typical day, six to eight of the 10 bestselling apps are games." According to the article over 800 million applications have been sold since July. Thats a significant number of games to be selling for one device. Just as PS3 and xBox have been doing by selling games, levels, music etc online through their console thus becoming digital and moving away from discs-the ipod/iphone uses the same technology and idea allowing users to buy their applications seamlessly though the click of a button. Isn't that the magic that the itunes store provides -easy buying with little feeling that it is a purchase until you receive the credit card bill. Thats how music and all video games should be sold if the industry is smart to follow this trend- why wouldn't you use an application that allows you to forget that you are purchasing a product with money and only reminds you of the final outcome- playing your new game quickly.