Why have you been playing at all? You've had to grind for items since the first patch, why does including an option to skip over the grind make the grind (which I reiterate, has already existed) intolerable? Have you thought this through, or is it a hyperbolic reaction to a new feature you don't like?

I'm going to jump in early on this one. If you actually read the fucking article, nothing being put up for sale is only available through sale. Everything can still be found and crafted the old-fashioned way, with the same drop rates and the same recepies. This merely gives people who don't like grind a means to skip over it. Furthermore, they've ousted my most hated aspect of microtransactions, Game Co. Funny Money, allowing you to put money in as money, not as points, which you can then use on anything on Steam.

This is the best way to build a microtransaction system. Once again, Valve legitimizes a system loathed and reviled rabidly by slashdot posters and the OSS community at large. Bravo, Mr. Newell.

...will it use a new socket? I just shelled out for a fresh build because my mobo's processor socket was deprecated, I really hope they don't turn around and change it again so soon.

I'm sorry, what? People hardly buy desktops anymore? Are you posting from 2025 or something?

Ugh, not this again.

Let me state it clearly for the record: reducing power consumption never has and never will have any significant impact on ecological degradation as a result of pollution. The only way get rid of dirty energy is to get rid of dirty energy. We have access to incredible amounts of kinetic energy from wind and waves and thermal energy from the planetary mantle and good old sunlight, enough to outstrip anything that can be produced by coal, oil, or fission. The only reason we don't have it is that it isn't 'profitable'.

There isn't one, and there won't be because selling their best quality picture without any copy control is unprofitable. There is evidence, however, that selling low-res video without DRM is profitable, case-in-point being home videos sold with a third 'digital copy' disc to keep on your computer.

Keep on truckin', tin-foil-hatter. I'd bet money that in ten years you'd be embarrassed you ever posted this. I know DRM just busts your nuts, but it won't eat the media industry alive to the point of making any kind of video obscenely expensive to watch, no corp is stupid enough to pull that kind of move. They will continue to make it hard for people to make illegal copies of copyrighted material, but there is zero chance the home video market will be shut down this half the century, and even if it did, it sure as shit wouldn't be over Montgomery Burns style scheming.

I will be modded down for this because Slashdotters like to tell each other that they're oppressed and marginalized revolutionaries.

I'm not sure this is true anymore. You're absolutely right about the porn industry being the decider in the VHS vs. Betamax war, but you have to remember that this was pre-internet. Do you think the majority of consumers get their porn on video or online at this point? That's not a rhetorical question, I don't know that the data's been gathered, and it's a rogue element that will have a big impact on how this new tech will play out.

Personally, I think this 3D shit is a gimmick and it'll all blow over soon enough so this kind of market share stuff won't even come into play, but it's worth thinking about.

...and nothing of value was lost.

What a terrible attitude to have. The Open Source community is about shared effort for shared gain, not personal recognition. No matter the distribution that gets all the 'spotlight', it's Linux that reaps the reward, and the more ground Linux gains the better off everyone with a PC is.

We've got places like this back west in good ol' Portland, Oregon. There's a Barcade downtown that's all ages by day that rocks it just like this, and a pizza place nearby with some classics including an original Pac-Mac cabinet. The Wunderland is pretty solid too, especially since everything there costs 25 cents or less, but it's mostly ticket games these days.

I'm still holding out hope for an arcade 'revival' of sorts. The idea of video games as a communal pastime has a lot of merit, all it'll take is a bright spark of an idea, the lure of something you can't do with a home console to incite the gamers from their living rooms, dungeons, and desktops and back into the epileptic glow of the arcade.

Calm down, you're both right. China is oppressive and stifling to all free speech, yes. But the US isn't some paragon of human rights either. Fact is, to some degree or another, we're all under the boot of a manipulative, self-interested authority (or a dozen). What the hell good does it do to bicker with each other about the semantics?