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Originally Posted by Heksefatter Not to quibble or taking the thread off-topic, but to me, the "classic"-example is more an example of bad English than undigested PR-hype. The word "classic" still implies age in most contexts, and age is not a connotation developers want associated with their recent games. These days, age is BAD!

Age is "bad," but in the US, "classic" is...well, classic PR hype. It's been used for at least a couple of decades, usually in the form of, "destined to be a classic," or "a classic before its time!" or "already a classic, and IT'S ONLY BEEN OUT FOR 3 WEEKS!!!!!" In short, the timeline to reach classic status has been telescoped, thanks to PR, into a single moment of advertising. It is yet another victim of our oxymoronic age, wherein the consumer industry turns soimething into its exact opposite. Thus, classic, which always required years to evaluate properly, becomes instead immediate recognition without any use of critical faculties, whatsoever. This is poor English, of course, but it got that way thanks to PR campaigns that deliberately misaligned the language. If you can make black into white, down into up, and any word into whatever else you want, you can control the way a largely uncritical public thinks and buys.