[Citation Needed]

Because I'm pretty sure that hasn't been proven. It's just a conspiracy theory that's been kicked around a lot.

FYI, infant mortality rate comparisons are mostly meaningless. Everyone has their own standards when deciding if an infant is "stillborn" or not. Generally, if the baby is in a condition that they can't treat at all, it isn't counted. That's what the U.S.'s rate is comparatively high -- they try to save more infants.

http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/060924/2healy.htm

You're not allowed to ask that! The answer is always "more money for education is needed", no matter the results.

And here I thought it was your job to make the U.S. a better place. My bad! Does this apply to government workers in other nations too?

IMHO, there's all sorts of "the truth" that should be covered up. Like how negotiations with China about North Korea are going, or what the U.K. diplomat really thinks of the Prime Minister.

A lack of long cutscenes and spell animations is dated?? I'd say that those two things are dated. Most modern games aren't like Final Fantasy or Metal Gear Solid. Well I guess the newest Call of Duty has a lot of cutscenes, though I didn't hear about them being long.

What really dates some older games for me is the interface. Some of the best loved classics of yesteryear have horribly clunky interfaces.

• First person games with no freelook.
• Layers upon laters of nested menus.
• No key or button remapping.
• Cluttered, unintuitive information screens.
• Other bad decisions that are obvious in retrospect.

The Democrats took control of Congress in 2006. It's not like they were out of power until 2008.

This was especially funny in WoW whenever endgame content got rebalanced, and especially when 10-man raiding got introduced. All the hardcore players wailed "those noobs are getting to kill our bosses!*"

(*note: in World of Warcraft, most endgame content is located in dungeon "instances". i.e., every group gets their own copy of the dungeon, so nobody is actually losing anything.)

I'm amazed that there's still such a focus on click rates. Tell me, how many clicks do TV ads get? Or newspaper and radio ads? Ads need to look interesting and deliver their message, that's it. Clicks are just a bonus. They only happen if you can entice people to learn more AND it looks at least a little trustworthy (i.e. not adspam).

To be fair, most of WoW's launch problems stemmed from the fact that they had demand unheard of in the MMO industry. They were expecting Everquest numbers and got... well, WoW numbers.

Penny Arcade eventually reinstated the award, by the way.

On the other hand, the official WoW message boards have become a cesspool. If they have one OPTIONAL Real ID-only forum, then I guarantee that it'll quickly become the best one they host.

The same will probably happen in-game. Real ID enabled players will probably be better behaved on average, since they've (theoretically) got their actual identity on the line.

It'll be interesting to see it play out.

I just want some of Apple's innovations without the drawbacks. That's not hypocritical, and certainly doesn't merit a three paragraph rant about "haters".

To be fair, they probably think "Well none of our supporters are in the anti-war movement anymore, so everyone left must be the real crazies!"

(Hm... I know I was just kidding around, but that almost sounds like a brilliantly evil idea.)

I absolutely wouldn't buy a house in an area with no cell reception. If others feel the same wouldn't that lower property values?

Americans really need to give up this law and order fantasy where they think they can modify people's behavior just by creating laws(attn pro-lifers and anti-drug crusaders, this means you)

Just Americans? So this doesn't happen anywhere else, or do you just hold Americans to a higher standard? (Which would be kind of flattering.)

But nation-baiting aside, that's a pretty broad statement. I can think of a couple things I'd like to do but I don't because they're illegal. So I guess laws have modified my behavior.

My personal pet peeve is games with a dozen little pieces of DLC, which get released but never get reduced in price (aside from the odd sale once in a blue moon.) My personal policy has been to wait for the "ultimate" or "game of the year" edition which has all the DLC bundled in. Because unless I'm playing with other people, there's no pressure on me to play a game right away. It's not like there's a shortage of games to play in the meantime.

As for specific types of DLC, I'll give my takes on them:

1. Expansion Pack - Great! A full-length or half-length expansion of the regular game is usually welcome.
2. Mini Expansion - Good! The ones that act as an extension of the main game are better than the ones that are like side quests.
3. Micro Expansion - Bad. By "micro", I mean a single extra quest or average dungeon, tacked on somewhere in the game world.
4. Song Tracks - Fair game, as long as the original Guitar Hero/Rock Band game came with a good song selection.
5. Extra Cars - Also fair, as long as they're not unbalanced in online play.
6. Map Packs - Lame. Plus it divides the community between the people who bought it and those who haven't.
7. Extra Items - Usually lame. Like a special weapon or armor that you're given early in the game. Often unbalanced.
8. Cheats/Unlocks - Terrible. Paying for stuff that really should be free. Like paying to unlock all the fighting game's characters.
9. Cosmetic Enhancements - Mixed bag. Harmless or cool in multiplayer games, pointless in single player games.
10. New character - Wildly mixed. Maybe it means you can play through the game again in a whole new way. Or maybe he/she makes little difference. Or maybe they suck, like a really cheap or bad character in an online game.