Learn English – Is the sentence “How is ” localised to game-specific forums

internetsentence-structureusage

I keep seeing people say "How is X", where X is the name of a game or a band. I think the implied question is about the entertainment quality of the thing in question, e.g. "Do you find this game fun?", "Are X a good band in your opinion?", "What do you dislike about X?".

Most of the time sentences of this form don't even parse in my head, especially when the name of the game is a character's name them I'm especially confused. e.g. "How is Batman?". (Well, when a mummy and daddy love each other very much…)

I've mainly seen this usage on reddit. The main place I see it is in the gaming related threads, but I don't know if it's localised to either of those two things.

Is this common usage in some part of the world or is it localised to the game playing community on a certain internet forum? Does anyone know how long has it been going on for? Do and of you personally use this form?

Some reddit links hastily obtained via google:

Best Answer

I am surprised that you, a native speaker of English, find this use of How is/was X? odd or novel. I have heard it all my life:

How's your sandwich?
How was school today?
How's the new Stones album?
How's college?

And a little Google-booking carries it back to at least the early 19th century, in a very colloquial novel of manners:

How was the Opera that night? We will give the account of it which appeared in the paper of the following day. —Charles White, Almack’s: A Novel, 1827, p. 146

“Pray, how is the tea tonight?” —ibid., p 179

It seems to me this is a standard form for a question inviting a description or assessment. Extending it to new video games is obviously a recent development, but it's hardly novel or localised.

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