Ken Burnside on how screwed Asmodee is

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

um, no, it is 2.1 Billion, the Saudi Fund does not deal in single digit millions, and even if they did, that would be reported as 2.1 (or 2,1) million, not 2,100… Google also verifies that it were 2 Billion

Saudi group reportedly abandoned $2 billion deal with the Lord of the Rings game company

The Saudi government has been moving into gaming.

www.theverge.com

Embracer Group - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

“After a US$2 billion investment unexpectedly fell through, the company was more than $2 billion in debt”

You're absolutely right! My mistake... the numbers seemed so ridiculously high that I assumed the error was missing that a comma can be used to represent a decimal. Also, the odd use of '1200 million' instead of '1.2 billion'. Either way, should have looked it up first. Good catch.

 

[billd91]

You're absolutely right! My mistake... the numbers seemed so ridiculously high that I assumed the error was missing that a comma can be used to represent a decimal. Also, the odd use of '1200 million' instead of '1.2 billion'. Either way, should have looked it up first. Good catch.

The problem could be where the source of the 1,200 million value originally came from that Ken Burnside included in his facebook post - because there are places on the globe where 1,200 million is NOT 1.2 billion. Long scale vs short scale numbers.

 

[Umbran]

- because there are places on the globe where 1,200 million is NOT 1.2 billion. Long scale vs short scale numbers.

The cue is that, in the world of numbers, you would not write $1.200 million unless those trailing zeroes were especially meaningful.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

The cue is that, in the world of numbers, you would not write $1.200 million unless those trailing zeroes were especially meaningful.

Although that cue is countered by the other cue which is the oddity of expressing $1.2 billion as $1,200 million. Just reread the original post though, and there are a pair of mentions of figures under a billion dollars ($410 million and $143 million). The outwardly strange expression of the $1.2 billion figure could have come out of a want to express all the figures in the report in the same unit i.e. in millions of dollars.

 

[billd91]

Although that cue is countered by the other cue which is the oddity of expressing $1.2 billion as $1,200 million. Just reread the original post though, and there are a pair of mentions of figures under a billion dollars ($410 million and $143 million). The outwardly strange expression of the $1.2 billion figure could have come out of a want to express all the figures in the report in the same unit i.e. in millions of dollars.

Maybe. But if the source of that figure was originally French (or one of several other European countries) where long scale numbers are a normal feature, 1,200 million would be correct notation rather than 1.2 (or even 1.200) billion. In long scale, you don't get to a billion until you've got a million millions (equivalent to a trillion in short scale numbering) rather than a thousand millions as in short scale.

 

[SlyFlourish]

The Asmodee announcement with the LOTR license was enough of a push for me to buy One Ring and Moria at Gamehole Con (along with delicious PDFs backed up on my 7-5-2 backup system).

 

[Bill Zebub]

I read "Ken Burns" in the thread title.

Now I'm imagining a documentary called "Tome of Horrors" involving slow pans across artwork from the original module while the narrator leads us inexorably toward a TPK.

 

[Agamon]

I read "Ken Burns" in the thread title.

Now I'm imagining a documentary called "Tome of Horrors" involving slow pans across artwork from the original module while the narrator leads us inexorably toward a TPK.

Okay, I want this now. Or at the very least, a Ken Burns odnd documentary.

 

[mamba]

In long scale, you don't get to a billion until you've got a million millions (equivalent to a trillion in short scale numbering)

but they have a different word for that, mill-ion, mill-iarde, bill-ion, bill-iarde, and so on, they would not call it 2100 millions, they would call it 2.1 milliarde

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Maybe. But if the source of that figure was originally French (or one of several other European countries) where long scale numbers are a normal feature, 1,200 million would be correct notation rather than 1.2 (or even 1.200) billion. In long scale, you don't get to a billion until you've got a million millions (equivalent to a trillion in short scale numbering) rather than a thousand millions as in short scale.

Interesting thought. My maternal language is French (French Quebec also uses long scale), so I am pretty familiar with the difference between long and short scale But even in a country that uses long scale, you wouldn't say '1,200 million' when you mean 1.2 billion. In French, for example, a billion (1 followed by 9 zeros) is called 'un milliard'. 'Un billion' in French is what you'd call a trillion in English i.e. 1 followed by 12 zeros.

In French, you'd say '1.2 milliards' instead of '1,200 millions' when you mean 1.2 billions dollars. In other words, long vs. short scale has nothing to do with this notation. In other, other words, countries (at least French speaking ones!) have actual words describing a billion vs. a trillion and don't resort to what you've proposed.

I think my hypothesis about wanting to standardise the units to millions of dollars is what's happening here.