People or companies doing stupid or restrictive things en mass does not somehow make it right.

Purchasing a single-player game and having to tether it to a registration system is idiotic for the reason in the main article here. This continuing push to centralize all data in these private hubs is starting to show the flaws.

FTFA

I know it's socially cool to be anti-male, but come on.

I kind of regret using a Blu-ray player at times, because I'm nagged to be online to "Experience all the content" any time I want to watch a friggen movie.

Purely conjecture, but I believe it's less to do with "checking off a feature" and more to do with the following:
- Save time & money on content generation, since people who play multiplayer will use the same map over and over.
- Form of DRM / Piracy Protection, if there is 'server validation' then there's an indirect 'purchase validation'

Personally, I don't buy a game for multiplayer unless it's split screen, and those are few and far between. I'd play an older game like Goldeneye 64 with 3 buds long before playing any shooter over xbox live.

Perhaps it's an age or regional thing then. The last fansub circle I was in was in the mid-20's to mid-30's demographic which had a pretty stout "Buy it when it comes out in the states" stance.

Really? Source? That's almost shocking to hear, as my experiences have been so drastically different. I'd be interested to see that survey or study. Additionally, it would go pretty counter to the article above as well.

Why is this trash marked "Informative". It's clear that the parent has no idea who "Mr. Reeves" is.

This man gives most of his money to Charity / the staff that helps during the movie shoots / or to other actors. He's given 90%~ of his salary so that another actor could join the set that he felt 'fit the role' on more than one occasion. He lives like a real person (takes the bus, eats at local shops)..

He is one of the very few actors that actually does it because he loves it.

I'm confused, so you do care and are interested in piracy? Or do you mean "I couldn't care less".

To the GP, game publishers only look at / care about the piracy angle. Even if no one admitted that they wanted to pirate, these companies have a vested interest in keeping the game system 'locked down' and will see any openness on it as a threat.

The difference in this example is that you're not paying for the enforcement of my parenting.

Then 72% of US Adults shouldn't buy the games for their children.

Live is a portal that provides the following:
- Targeted Advertising, which makes Microsoft money
- Media purchasing avenue (Games, Videos, Add-ons, etc), which makes Microsoft money
- Multiplayer functionality around games which make Microsoft Money
- Subscription Fee, which makes Microsoft money

Only cost that has no/little return is from people who play multilayer constantly and somehow avoids seeing any of the advertisements.

This is really just a profit grab. I can't really blame them since they don't have to compete with anyone for their existing install base, but it does irk me.