Oh, so it's apparently not meaningless, and not even confusing, as you were able to figure out its meaning right away.

No. Read this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAA_Gaming_industry

The terms supposed meaning is about various aspects of game quality and also implying some kind of scale. But it is commonly used in a very vague way to denote "game with very large budget" or "game from huge publishing house" Things which have nothing to do with quality and are vague to the point of meaninglessness.

Look, if we're going to stop using terms just because they don't mean what they originally meant when first coined, we lose about three-quarters of the English language. That ship has sailed.

Yeah, it is confusing, because "very large development budget" is extremely ambiguous.

As it turns out, "AAA" is shorter to say and type than "a game with a very large development budget", hence its common and semi-nonsensical usage.

"AAA" is a marketroid term which means at least three things: a good game, a popular game, or a game with a large development and especially marketing budget. To the marketroid, each is coterminous with the other two.

Similar ambiguity exists around "hardcore" which means roughly the intersection of gamers who seek out challenging games, gamers who play competitively online, and gamers who enjoy adult content like sex and violence.

Nitpicky, but generally the scale with something like that is AAA -> AA -> A

ok, but even that is never used. For instance no publisher ever announces the release of their new "AA" or "A" game.

AA is absolutely being used in the gaming press, particularly to distinguish mid-sized decently-funded (eg, Kickstarter'd) studios from proper indie games.

I doubt you'll find many instances of "AAA" in press releases either. It's an industry term, not intended for the general public.

It's supposed to be A each for:

1. Graphics & Sound

2. Controls

3. Gameplay

So the game would get a magazine review rating of A,A,A (top in each). Hence, AAA.

Remember, it was coined at a time when those three factors were significant to a gaming experience. Not so much now, but still relevant enough.

I'm pretty sure the terminology actually comes from Major League Baseball farm teams: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_League_Baseball#Current_s...

I can't recall a gaming magazine that used a grading scale as described.

Fair enough, how would you like us to identify the tentpole games like Madden or Call of Duty, vs the smaller games that have less artwork, fewer levels, and limited professional voicing/bodywork?

Apparently he wants everyone to say "a game with a very large development budget" because "AAA" is some sort of Americanism and he doesn't approve of Americanisms. As a compromise measure, I would actually go along with this if the rest of the English-speaking world would let go of the term "maths".

"an AAA game"

Hopefully the "an" is a typo and you don't actually pronounce AAA as saying the letter "A" three times. :)