The point is, a good single-player game can be played over and over - sure, at some point it gets boring, but if the game is decent, you'll have spent weeks in front of your computer trying to figure out different paths etc and it will be more than worth your money. Baldur's Gate (I & II) are examples, as they provide a very detailed world you can explore with many characters. But that's not the real thing - there are countless of RPG-style games with different characters and worlds, but they are far from being as enjoyable as BG after you ve finished them for the first time. The point with these games is just that they are realistic. Realistic in the gaming sense, but that's what makes them fun. In BG, Myst, LBA and so on you can really interact with the game. The latter to had pretty linear storylines and can be completed in far far less than 70 hours, but people love them and still play them. I don't know why that is, I just know that most $60 AAA games will be forgotten in a few months.

Nintendo has proven that they can create fascinating games (and consoles). Mario, Zelda and more, people love them and they never got old in 25 years. Can you give me any other company that has affected the gaming world as much as them?

Then it's the problem of the gas companies, not the boiler manufacturers. I might have done that, but unless I actually played with the gas connections, nobody can blame me. Maybe I built in a gas metre from another company and used it after my contract with the original gas company ran out.

Similarly, I think that if you mod your Xbox and put homebrew on it, it can't be illegal. If you actually torrented the newest Halo and ran it on your modded Xbox, then that's a problem in regard to illegally obtaining a copy of a copyright-protected game and it's not about whether I fiddled with MY Xbox or not. Heck, people can buy guns in the USA, but nobody complains unless you use it to do something illegal. Stating that buying a gun is illegal because it can be used to break the law will surely be countered by loads of NRA supporters.

You own what you buy. That's why you pay for it. If you don't want your customers to mod your stuff, don't sell it. Nobody can complain if I sell my boiler modded to fit British plugs on ebay. On the other hand, I would sue that Rosario guy for infringing my privacy by recording me on video at home.

Freedom as speech is not as flawless as you think. If it is in place, as in the US, some people will abuse it, for example by sharing videos where children are sexually abused. If it is not in place, other people will abuse it, in this case the government. If there is a restriction on certain websites, it is very unlikely that the government won't restrict other sites. That is the beginning of censorship in every country. The problem is finding a solution that has the least drawbacks, not the one that is perfect. If you can put ANYTHING on the web, expect others to use that right.

... now we finally have touch screens! *goes off buys Nokia smartphone*

But it still might work. Or it might not.

... in America and to a certain extent, Europe. Especially the Middle East and parts of Eastern Asia are politically very instable, the same for Africa. Still the security measures are far from being as high and intrusive as in the developed world. People panic about a light flood in Cornwall when a few days ago a tsunami in Bangladesh killed 500.000 people the first night. Same for terrorism, it happens all the time, it's just that the media don't report about it.

Again, the One-Child policy is a serious threat if you think about long-term employment.

And God said, Let there be a big bang. Genesis 1:3

Well, if Perl can get along with pure ASCII... And humans are definitely not descended from octopuses, so no.