Critical Reasoning

The Action-Packed Gaming Company, based on the success of the previous season's video game featuring the character Sam Li, of the popular Fist of Awe series of martial arts movies, developed for the current season a similar martial arts game featuring a new character who is also a martial arts master. The new game had improved 3-D graphics, enhanced multiplayer capability, and dozens of new martial arts moves developed by real-life masters. However, marketing surveys showed that teenagers were uninterested in this new game, and the game sold very poorly.

The passage implies that an explanation for the failure of the new game is based on doubt regarding which of the following assumptions?

A. Teenagers make purchasing decisions based on the technological merits of video games, not the name recognition of the games' main characters.

B. Buyers of video games prefer to purchase games based on popular movies.

C. The Fist of Awe series of movies was extremely popular with teenagers who regularly purchase video games.

D. Technological improvement from one video game to the next does not guarantee a corresponding increase in sales.

E. The successful video game may have benefited from advertising associated with the Fist of Awe movies, a benefit the failed video game did not have

The Iceman wrote:The Action-Packed Gaming Company, based on the success of the previous season's video game featuring the character Sam Li, of the popular Fist of Awe series of martial arts movies, developed for the current season a similar martial arts game featuring a new character who is also a martial arts master. The new game had improved 3-D graphics, enhanced multiplayer capability, and dozens of new martial arts moves developed by real-life masters. However, marketing surveys showed that teenagers were uninterested in this new game, and the game sold very poorly.

The passage implies that an explanation for the failure of the new game is based on doubt regarding which of the following assumptions?

A. Teenagers make purchasing decisions based on the technological merits of video games, not the name recognition of the games' main characters.

B. Buyers of video games prefer to purchase games based on popular movies.

C. The Fist of Awe series of movies was extremely popular with teenagers who regularly purchase video games.

D. Technological improvement from one video game to the next does not guarantee a corresponding increase in sales.

E. The successful video game may have benefited from advertising associated with the Fist of Awe movies, a benefit the failed video game did not have

It's basically asking which one of these assumptions DOESN'T help us understand the conclusion. The word "doubt" means we're actually looking for the opposite of what we usually do in assumption questions.. we always negate the choice and if it opposes the conclusion then we choose that option as our answer.. here if we negate choice A then we have :
Teenagers make purchasing decisions not on the basis of technological merits of video games, but on the name recognition of the games' main characters.
It actually supports the conclusion (replaced popular character with a new character, that is why teenagers were uninterested in this new game) so our correct answer is A

IMO B.

I rounded the answer choices to B,C, and E. Of all these 3, B seems to be the best option

OA, please!

IMO A

I instantly eliminated B,D and E.
I though C had more points than A, but negating A seem to refute the conclusion.
Therefore A. OA please.

Thanks.

The question stem asks for the manufacturer's assumption.
Thus, we can rephrase the passage and the question stem as follows:

The Action-Packed Gaming Company, based on the success of the previous season's video game featuring the character Sam Li, of the popular Fist of Awe series of martial arts movies, developed for the current season a similar martial arts game featuring a new character who is also a martial arts master. The new game had improved 3-D graphics, enhanced multiplayer capability, and dozens of new martial arts moves developed by real-life masters. The manufacturer predicts that the new game will be even more successful than the previous season's game.

The manufacturer's prediction depends on which of the following assumptions?

The assumption is WHAT MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to be valid.

Answer choice A:
For the new game to succeed, IT MUST BE TRUE that teenagers make purchasing decisions based on the technological merits of video games, not the name recognition of the games' main characters.
Yes: if name recognition is important, then the new game will not succeed, since its main character lacks name recognition.

The correct answer is A.

GMATGuruNY wrote:The question stem asks for the manufacturer's assumption.
Thus, we can rephrase the passage and the question stem as follows:

The Action-Packed Gaming Company, based on the success of the previous season's video game featuring the character Sam Li, of the popular Fist of Awe series of martial arts movies, developed for the current season a similar martial arts game featuring a new character who is also a martial arts master. The new game had improved 3-D graphics, enhanced multiplayer capability, and dozens of new martial arts moves developed by real-life masters. The manufacturer predicts that the new game will be even more successful than the previous season's game.

The manufacturer's prediction depends on which of the following assumptions?

The assumption is WHAT MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to be valid.

Answer choice A:
For the new game to succeed, IT MUST BE TRUE that teenagers make purchasing decisions based on the technological merits of video games, not the name recognition of the games' main characters.
Yes: if name recognition is important, then the new game will not succeed, since its main character lacks name recognition.

The correct answer is A.

If this was an ordinary assumption question, what would have been the answer..(B)?

First game -> success: based on popular character

Second game -> Technologically advanced BUT not a popular character -> Company assumes that it will succeed (of course!)

Buyers: Teenagers

Inherent assumption -> Teenagers look for technological merits more than popular character. So, the second game will succeed

Hence the answer...