In some ways, intelligence and our helpless infants have gone hand in hand - in order to accommodate a larger brain capacity, human evolution has meant that our infants have been born earlier (when the skull is smaller). The alternative was a wider pelvis I think which would have worked against the ability to walk/run away from predators.

I want to see the book (and soon to be movie), The Road, made into a game. That'd be survival horror. The main character runs most of the course with no more than a couple of bullets!

Please don't say "[insert animal here]" in a mammoth topic...

Surely there's a difference between some "special downloadable maps" and (as stated in the summary) "the final boss"?

"I've talked to some developers who are saying 'If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free.'"

Surely they mean they've talked to marketing/admin at a games development company? Which in-the-trenches developer, likely a gamer themselves, would want their games to play out like that?

Make a good game. Sell it. If the replay value is high enough, people will keep it rather than selling or renting it. Same if you provide legitimate, on-going DLC (whether free or paid). Engineer some stupid scenario whereby you drag more money out of people for the hell of it and you'll miss sales.

Might be wrong, but I think typical projector bulbs are usually replaced after they reach their half-way point. Might've confused someone.