If I had mod points ... I'd mod you up.

I always love "the good new ideas" ... when they aren't actually stupid ideas, or simply a new name for something we've been doing for 15 years.

What you're likely to see if this comes to pass is that people who "opt out" are then bitching that they now have to actually, you know, PAY for things like email, search, social networks, etc, just like in the good 'ol days when GEnie, compuserve, AOL, Prodigy, and your local ISP were charging by the hour for access.

Yup. Lying. Or whomever told him the story was.

You can have a bench warrant posted for not paying or appearing for a ticket that *you signed* (which means you were given notice).

No notice, no warrant, no arrest.

There's a *slight* difference in how it works between a collections (civil) case and a criminal one. Specifically that whole "being served" thing.

Because they didn't. They figured out they could artificially restrict resale by selling me part of a game while "licensing" me the other part. With no benefit to me.

You keep trying to make the argument that this is like a MMO subscription service; it's not. I wasn't paying for this on a monthly basis as a service. Once I purchase it there is no recurring charge for service.

When I sell the game, I can no longer use the part they claim I don't own but I can't transfer it either, even though my license would never have expired otherwise. Because it was a one time fee you can't argue that the online portion has a cost that needs to be recouped - they already did that by charging me for it and upon selling the game, I can no longer use it. It's a net zero gain/loss in terms of resource utilization.

And here's what the effect will be on the used game market; sellers get hosed the most, and used buyers to a lesser extent. Resellers for the most part won't even care. Oh, and of course the game companies make money for nothing, which is their intent.

With this scheme, a game is instantly devalued $15 the moment you purchase it. If you're someone who sells their games when finished with them, this now means you aren't going to get as much for it when you sell it. The reseller will simply offer $15 less than they would have for the game so they are able to sell it to a used buyer who knows there's another $15 to be paid. They *might* split the difference, splitting the cost to both the seller and buyer, but they're still going to make their money. How is this a "win" for anyone?

As for why should gamestop profit hugely? For the same reason used car dealerships profit hugely by buying a car from someone and then reselling it at a higher cost (often with little more than some paperwork and a car wash involved). They provide a service for which people are willing to pay. That whole free market thing, you know?

I buy everything on Steam, and only when it's on sale. I haven't paid full retail for a game in years. Most of the time I buy it at 50% off.

When it was just that, it wasn't a problem. Most of my old games would happily install on your machine if I sold you the disc and you typed in the key. The keys were stickers on the jewel cases, and there was none of this draconian "You can only install this game 5 times, and only on Tuesdays"

Because it's not a subscription service that you could download the client for free anyway unless someone scammed you as in your example? You're comparing apples and steaks here.

How do I access that profile once I sell the game? I bought it, right?

It's not *now*. And therein lies the problem. It's an end run around the first sale doctrine by basically saying, "We didn't sell you that, we "licensed" it to you". Imagine if you couldn't buy a used car without paying Ford a "transfer fee" for the keys.

Personally ... I've never sold a game in my life, or bought one used for that matter ... the few bucks just isn't worth the hassle. But many, many people do - because they can't afford to buy everything they want new. There is a fairly huge secondary market with console games, and the game companies want to eliminate it because they somehow think people will magically have more money to spend.

If only there was some way to look this up!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

You're being generous. I have a 7 year old dual-opteron Sunfire v20z (eBay, $250) in the basement that is chugging along quite nicely.

Um, rock band 3 now has a real guitar, made by fender:

http://www.fender.com/promos/2010/rockband3/theguitar.php

You can also use it with an amp (or a synth, since it has a regular midi out from the midi pickup)

Can you buy a guitar and a midi controller/pickup for that much?

Because that's what you get for $300. It has a standard midi-out you can use for anything you'd like. That's not really that horrible. While I don't know which telecaster it is that they're using, most of them are in the $150 - $250 price range as a "standard" guitar.

And given that, I suspect you should be able to figure out how to use any other midi guitar with rock band 3 as well.

They key word you used is "assistance". If that's all it is to you, you're fine. I actually rarely use it, even though I have it on my phone. My biggest use is to center the map on my location because that's convenient.

If you don't know how to read a map, or figure out which direction is North, it's no longer "assistance". It's the only method of navigation you understand.

And in some states children are indoctrinated in some crazy shit involving magic underwear and Jesus hanging out with Native Americans. ::shrug::

(I have Karma to burn. Which is rather apropos given the topic)

The "conditions" may well be very easy to achieve once in a relationship, but if the woman is still pissed because you didn't take the trash out last night after you said you would and now the bin is going to be overflowing by trash day next week ... you ain't having sex. The "condition" was that you did what you said you were going to do.

(Can you tell I'm married?)

If you're even remotely attractive (Lets say, shy of disfigured), I'd say there's a very good chance. If the gender roles are reversed, there's a very good chance of getting slapped. I don't know if that's societal or biological, but I suspect it's societal.

Women decide when/if sex happens. Us men have to figure out what conditions have to be met in order for that to occur. The video game treatment, while simplified greatly, works along the same lines.