While simultaneously wresting any sense of agency from them. How perfectly modern.

It isn't just safety in a driving sense, safety has become an all encompassing ideal. Life isn't good unless you and your own are safe at all times, from all things, even from themselves. Just look at all the baby boomers pushing the encroachment of CPS (CHild Protective Services) into all aspects of parenthood? Don't you DARE let your children roam free (exactly how those baby boomers did), or the authorities will descend on you with full fury. Don't you DARE let your young adults experience even a small amount of freedom from constant supervision, make sure they're SAFE at all times by keeping tabs on their movements and implement technological solutions that serve to wrest any and all autonomy from them.

Safety trumps EVERYTHING.

Well consider yourself lucky to be among one of the last generations who got to experience even a slight amount of freedom from parental, and State supervision. This technology has less to do with easing parents minds, than providing the security services a convenient "in" for the complete surveillance of everyone's movement. Do you really think the tracking turns "off" when you're driving?

My kids, who just turned 8, are unlikely to even learn how to drive. They'll live in a world where all cars are self-driving, and which report all location data to the security services for National Security. We'll be sold on the convenience of self-driving cars, in return for the manufacturers knowing where every car is at every moment. Since self-driving cars will be leased, and not sold (even if they were sold, vehicle registration takes care of the identification), they'll know, more or less, who is driving where and when. Those who drive themselves will be viewed with suspicion, and likely treated as subversive actors. Only a criminal would care if there's a record of their every move.

Before you shrug it off as "well so what if Ford knows where went?" Consider that the security services will certainly have complete access to all of that data, for National Security purposes, of course.

This isn't "tin foil hat" territory any more, it's standard fucking practice.

And the third thing is going to be the security state's jackboot crushing their neck for subverting "lawful" surveillance of all human activity. In all likelihood the parents will be held equally responsible for their children's terrorist activity.

This has less to do with "shit head 20 somethings" then the modern trajectory of keeping tabs on your children in any and all circumstance. Compare the ideas presented in this story with the recent stories of parents getting Child Protective Services called on them for letting their children walk home unattended. This is just an extension to the idea that children (or young adults) can't be trusted to act properly on their own, and must be under parental--or failing that, state--surveillance at all times.

Somethings gone horribly awry in our society when we can't even trust a young adult to act according to traffic laws and this technology is simply a proxy for the idea that children/young adults need to be under constant supervision, lest they have the temerity to develop an autonomous identity.

How in the hell did civilization ever manage to develop as far as it has without children and young adults being under the constant watchful eye of parents or other authority figures? If you find yourself asking why people aren't more concerned with shit like the NSA's surveillance, look at stories like this, where people are encourage to distrust their own flesh and blood to be able to make responsible decisions! How much longer until we're deluged with stories about chipping children, much like we chip pets, in order to ensure they're safe at all times!

The security state flourishes in this country because we want so much to be safe that we'll give anything and everything for even a slight increase in the feeling that we (and our children) are safe from anything and everything, thanks to the valiant efforts of our security services and corporations.

Let's not pretend for a second that the companies pushing this technology give a flying fuck about the safety of your kids, they want more data, more control, more ways to encroach on areas that used to be free from opportunities for advertisement and the wholesale monetization of human existence. You don't need to know the exact location of your 20 year old kid, you don't need the peace of mind that they're not speeding and sowing chaos. You want it because you've bought into the idea that everything and everyone is out to get you and yours and only the crushing embrace of the modern security apparatus will grant it to you.

Congratulations, you know where your kid is at all times, and in the process crushed the humanity out of them in preparation for the cradle to grave security state surveillance they'll be subjected to.

Good fucking job America.

I know, but I couldn't be bothered to find out whatever the fuck they call it now. Grabbing an ethernet capture log is the important bit.

They should acquire Ubisoft. Consolidation will fix everything that is wrong with the games industry today! /s

So you're asserting that their gathering "full blown data telemetry of exactly how and when you use the product, collected behind the scenes and reported/sold based on whatever terms the company feels like today." Obviously you must have some proof of that. Maybe some Ethereal captures of data being sent off to some server someplace? No? You just noticed they track how many hours you played?

Where's the beef? Otherwise your tinfoil hat may be a bit too tight, or possibly built with the wrong polarity. I think their microwaves may inadvertently be frying your brain.

It's true! Gabe N. has a swimming pool filled with the data collected from your game playing. He even drowned some hookers in it. OPEN UP YOUR EYES!

Not to mention that getting around Steam requires little more than a single hacked DLL. Steam's DRM is bollocks, it doesn't stop anyone from anything. Steam's DRM is basically making it easy to keep all your games centrally located and easy to launch. Let's not mention the frequent sales and deep discounts; it's all a cynical ploy to destroy consumer freedoms.

Absolutely. The exception proves the rule, after all. Since some games have DLC which isn't just cut content tacked on after the fact, it stands to reason that all DLC is the same.

What other industry can you release an unfinished product and then charge for the finished bits?

"The 2016 Ford Focus doesn't have a radio or an air conditioner, but they should be available first quarter 2017 as upgrade packs."

Can't see too many suckers lining up for that great "deal."

Jim Sterling ranted about this. Basically, at some point the creative types who started a studio start to feel overwhelmed by the managerial aspects of running a company. So they bring in "professional management," many of whom from come industries entirely unlike the games industry. So some CEO who previously ran a shoe manufacturer gets brought on into a game studio and proceeds to enact policies that would, were making games anything like manufacturing, make things more efficient. Instead, these policies completely destroy the creativity of the team, and eventually the people who were making the great games move on to greener (money ain't the only green!) pastures, leaving a desiccated husk of a studio which continues to churn out garbage hoping desperately to move units based solely on the whatever brand recognition remains intact.

Whether or not you consider games to be art, creating games is undeniably a creative endeavor. When the bean counters move in with their metrics and demands for predictable results... well, shit like SimCity 2013 happens. If the new management is lucky enough to have a highly regarded franchise, expect them to churn out yearly increments of whatever they think works. You only have to look at the endless Battlefield and Call of Duty releases to see that reliable sales figures is more important than creating new and interesting games. Like OP said, a factory that produces widgets. Formulaic crap is the order of the day, and despite the fact that we all know it sucks, people still eat it up.

Neither did an easily replaceable battery or SD card slot. The S6 is a iPhone wannabe piece of trash. Can't wait to see how bloated with useless garbage this it is. Samsung is pants on head retarded.