I assume by "species" you mean "humans from wealthy western nations"?

Agreed! Bethesda games sit in my mind as the worst perpetrators of this. Higher difficulties aren't really more difficult, everything just becomes immersion-killing damage-sponges.

Steamlined? I'm not convinced. I'm near-constantly picking the wrong conversation selection when I try to use the mouse; the menus seem to prefer (though inconsistently) what's currently being 'selected' by the WASD keys, not what you're actually clicking on with the pointer. And getting to the correct skill on the…

I'm not sure that branding things makes those things your property. Though that would be weird and dystopian indeed if that became the case.

That's amazing! It reminded me of this.

Not at all. Classic mode is entirely free. Pirated versions don't require minecraft.net registration.

I don't understand this, either.

I don't know if anybody actually compares their sales numbers to a Super Mario Bros game. That'd be like publishing a book and comparing sales to number of Bibles sold. No-one's gonna mind if you don't outsell the Bible.

Have...have you ever seen a homeless person?

That's like watching a video of people playing with legos.

"Only"?

That video is so tedious.

That's an interesting point, actually. I'm not sure why that's the case. I assume (?) that there are valid business reasons for it, but I don't know enough to figure out what it might be. Movies cost just as much (and sometimes more) to make, but cost $8 at the cinema and $20-40 for home viewing.

Just because it's worse in other places doesn't mean we shouldn't be invested in our society, civically engaged, and passionate about issues. If ordinary people aren't there to defend free, open society, nobody will.

I agree.

It's a pretty good answer.

EA account shenanigans have been driving me crazy for years. At this point I have a few games on one account, some on another (after they prompted me to switch over!), a few are apparently lost forever...

Still, though, this is really interesting. Thanks for the link!

I've never had anything but problems from EA. I've purchased games from them before, only to lose them to the internet ether, later. I've purchased DLC that randomly decides to become unauthorized mid-game. I don't trust EA's ability to deliver its content to its customers.

Steam isn't a monopoly. Everyone simply prefers them, and hates EA.