And it is a small step from corporate control to a corporate state (or one that is corporate controlled).
There can be no doubt that Americans are already living in a corporate-controlled state. Sure, elections are held, but it's nigh on impossible to get elected to high office (U.S. House, Senate, President) without enormous political "contributions" from corporate coffers. How many times have we heard the old trope about "protecting American businesses" from our elected officials? Indeed, they've said it so many times that people actually *believe* businesses need protection rather than the other way 'round. However you feel about the healthcare debate, or the TARP bail-outs (too big to fail? WTF!?!), or no-bid defense contracts, etc, one thing should be eminently clear to those on all sides: these days, it is impossible to tell where the government ends and the corporate board room begins.
Maybe this is a step in the right direction but I'm severely underwhelmed by what qualifies for "innovative" when it comes to games.
I couldn't agree more. But this would mean game studios would have to start hiring people with *gasp* liberal arts degrees! In all seriousness, and to take your point further, three-dimensional MMOs offer greater artistic opportunities and pose greater challenges than your run-of-the-mill videogame. These worlds have the capacity to incorporate much of the ingenuity and creativity of the human experience - from art to music to the written word - but always manage to fall woefully short of the mark. I think the reason for this is fairly simple: games like this are massively expensive and have to recoup [or demonstrate the possibility to recoup] significant capital outlay in a relatively short period of time. It's not ars gratia artis. Would a game which incorporated the theatrical devices of Shakespeare, the rich descriptiveness of Henry James, and the subtleties of games like Go or Bridge into a real-time 3D environment be better [read: more engaging and less prone to bots/spammers] than WoW or its ilk? Probably. Would it sell? I doubt it, unless it offered something for those less attuned to subtlety and artifice.
One way to make your old car run better is to look up the price of a new model.