• Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Obfuscate is not a commonly used word. English is my 1st language. So im pretty confident about that. And the point isn’t that the word isn’t common. It’s that you were trying to say i used an uncommon word and described it using an obscure word. Which is really ironic.

    Fomo isn’t obscure just because you haven’t heard of it. It also isn’t nonsense just because you aren’t affected by it. I’m not affected either, i dont buy things with real money in games. But i can see that it’s real.

    The shortest way to counter you here is to simply say: it’s clear from your reply that you accept fomo exists. Its also clear that you agree that CIG are employing predatory tactics to squeeze money out of gullible people. But mainly its clear that you missed the part where i mentioned that skins in fortnite are a massive money maker in the fomo market. They dont affect your gameplay (basically your entire countrr argument) but they are a huge money maker for epic games because its all about peer pressure.

    You can pretend that people other than youself arent affected by fomo in star citizen but it won’t make you right. Cosmetic items are one of the biggest factors in fomo and making it work. Most games dont offer advantages that you can pay for.

    I am happy to accept that i dont know much at all about SC as i dont play it. But what im “shoehorning” is not fake just becauee you dont see it and it doesn’t affect you.

    Im not even trying to prove a point here. Fomo and game companies use of it is a fact. And it applies here.

    • sugar_in_your_tea
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      1 year ago

      Obfuscate is not a commonly used word

      Really? I’m a native speaker and I use it a lot. Maybe not in casual conversations with friends, but I use it a ton in a workplace setting and when discussing current events in a more than passing manner. Looks like it’s gotten steadily more popular in texts since the 50s.

      And yeah, fomo isn’t obscure, but it is an acronym that’s relatively recently become popular (Google trends says the last 10-ish years).

      Regardless, arguing about whether words are uncommon is silly, English usage varies by region, and people who speak English as a second language can have a really odd set of vocabulary.

      • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Doesn’t the graph showing the use of the word obfuscate show that it’s 0.20 per million people that use it today? Is that a percentage? So i would need 5 million people before i find 1 person that says it? And has it only risen in use since the 50s? That’s fairly recent in the grand scheme of things, considering it’s such a small rise in use.

        Anyway, your use of the word is anecdotal, and after 35 years on this planet, i find it amazing that its maybe the first time I’ve ever seen the word used outside of a book. So if we compare your anecdotal evidence to mine, we arrive back at zero.

        You even said you dont use it casually, only in a professional setting.

        I happily accept that non native speakers do end up with an odd vocabulary. But that doesnt change that the word isn’t very common.

        • sugar_in_your_tea
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          1 year ago

          It’s 0.20 per million words in books on Google Scholar AFAIK. So it has been getting steadily more popular in books that they track, in terms of word frequency. It said nothing about colloquial English (not sure how that could be tracked).

          And the 50s isn’t recent as far as modern speakers is concerned. Someone who would’ve been a kid at the time would be in their 80s today.

          FOMO as a term is much more recent (like 10-15 years), though as a concept it’s much older (very similar to “keeping up with the Joneses”, which is >100 years old).

          You even said you dont use it casually, only in a professional setting.

          Well yeah, if I’m talking about dinner plans or something, it’s not an idea I need to convey. It comes up a lot at work though.

          It’s not a five dollar word where there’s a handy, more common replacement. I guess conceal or obscure can work in some cases, but I’d only so that if the listener doesn’t understand the initial word. I work with a lot of non-native speakers, so I’m used to providing short definitions if I use something they haven’t come across (even for relatively common words).