John M. Roberts defined games in three categories, paraphrased here:

"The categories proposed by Roberts at al. are staged; games of chance do not require any skill or strategy (dice games, coin tosses), games of strategy may or may not involve chance but do not involve physical skill (chess, go, poker), and games of physical skill require skill, and may or may not involve chance or strategy. Amusingly, this would place [video] games in the same category as footraces, boxing, and soccer – that of physical skill (1959:597-598)."

cite: Roberts, John M., Malcolm J. Arth, and Robert R. Bush. 1959. “Games in Culture”. American Anthropologist, 61(4):597-605.

Roberts was talking about games with a competitive element, where there must be a clear winner and loser.

Who are you to say that actions per second are any less determined by physical prowess than running and throwing a ball or swinging a stick? Obviously the strategic element in a game like starcraft greater than that of baseball.

when they can wring money out of it all the way down?

You need to have a love life for it to be fixable. Sorry.

Wow, when I did it all that happened were drugs, booze, and sex. I was just there for the math.

I'd expect most of the people capable of gaining admission to such programs will do quite well with or without them.

They dropped prices a few years ago. Raising them to wean people off the discs-in-the-mail is more or less inevitable. Unlimited streaming is still only $9.99, half what Netflix cost five years ago.

I pay $7.99 and never use a disc. After the change I'll pay $9.99 for streaming only and get more or less the same service. Still less than it was five years ago.

What's the big deal?

If the nomenclature bothers you that much, I am not sure I can grant the bolded claim.

The important thing about the gilded cage is, in some cases, the gilt. Not the bars.

Why, exactly?

I mean, what's so special about adulthood, really?

All that shit costs more money than even an overpriced movie once per week. Big-budget movies are cheap.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with catching a movie now and then. Cinema is not a lesser form of entertainment than your suggested alternatives, merely different.

Well, other than burning man - but I'd rather sit through Battlefield earth, in 3D, for a solid weekend than attend that.

Standard generic versions tend not to have 9 buttons. There was a time when Kensington had 5-button mice for $20, but they are hard to find these days.

I'd actually prefer more "non-gaming" models to have more buttons, but for some reason only "gamers" must want programmable buttons.

Yet you felt the need to comment anyway. Bravo. And anonymously, too. What makes fretting of the specifics of a mouse different than golf clubs, tennis rackets or the like other than the fact that video games are less socially desirable? It is obvious that in most cases the person worrying over the miscellaneous details isn't a pro and thus it doesn't really matter - but worrying over details can be fun in its own right.

I have one of the weighted mice, I bought it for more buttons (which have utility outside of games, too - one to go to the next browser tab, one to go back, forward/back browsing buttons, buttons for expose, etc). I just maxed out the weights and found that I do like a heavier mouse - it makes finer movements easier.

It is about to give up the ghost and the current logitech replacement has lost one button, so I'm not sure I'll go that route.

You are confusing what the game developers and marketers have said with what the community has said.

The only time I have ever heard the term "wow-killer" or anything like it was from a gamer that was consumed with the fervor of a new game - zeal of the converted.

What I -have- seen is developers/marketing pointing out one or two specific facets of WoW that their game does better or differently. Not the same thing.

One of these students called their teacher a pedophile, the other called a teacher bipolar. If tossing around a statement like that isn't criminal when it isn't warranted, then I'm not sure what libel and slander are.

They deserve the full might of the disciplinary hammer in this case.

I suppose in the real world they take credit for other people's work too, so that's all right then.

Even when you take this approach, students will try to cheat. I've done it, been there, googled the ridiculous sentences, and taken the tour of honor court.

Yes, you can minimize opportunities to cheat with cleverer tests and/or assignments, but until education is seen as something other than merely a stepping stone to a job "outsourcing thought" will continue to increase.