Because our prisons are already nearly full...

https://www.gov.uk/government/...

An interesting article by David Simon on a similar theme.

This to me signifies the decline in musical quality of late.

It's so easy to obtain (and by obtain I don't mean own) music now, there is no effort or desire required by the listener. And if the listeners don't have to try, then why should the artists.

*This may be a thinly veiled get off my lawn post.

The thing that always gets me mildy piqued is when a film's protagonist leaps onto narrow ledge, catches themselves by their fingers and then somehow is able to pull themselves up from this peril. Cf. The elevator shaft leap in the first Die Hard film.

This could be (and probably is) me mis-remembering, but I'm sure most films clocked in at around the 90 minute mark* until Tarantino released Pulp Fiction. Then everybody had to copy and have 150 minute+ films.

*Historical epics aside.

Now this is why I play games that don't necessarily have an ending - the Football Manager series being a prime example.

I'm *still* playing the 2010 version of the game (which was released in Autumn 2009) and I dread to think how many hours I've racked up.

In order to avoid a very unhappy 33rd birthday.

If I had the points this would be modded up.

I know the poll specifically states 'Devices', but my cat is definitely solar powered.

If I had mod points they would be heading your way.

I like also that it sounds like a headline from The Onion.

And as he nicely plugged during the show, he has a new series "Wonders of the Universe" starting in March.

Personally I found this an interesting set of programmes. Yes there was some filler, but it was nice to see something vaguely intelligent on TV. All the old semi-heavyweight documentaries on UK TV have either disappeared (Equinox), or turned into a kind of lightweight, 'look what our CG department can do' fluffy documentary series (Horizon; see also Panorama).

I still miss impenetrable Geometry programmes on Open University at 4am. *Sniff*

I was about to raise exactly the same point. I know Edge is something of a 'Marmite' publication; some people hate it with a real passion, labelling it pretentious or that most White Van Man title of "wanky art-bollocks". But it does remain to my mind one of the few places that treats games with any kind of reverence or actual critical appreciation, and try to at least transcend their seeming perception as an opiate for numbskull, gadget-addled teenagers.

Personally, I've always been a fan of games that never really end.

- The Civilisation series.
- numerous Microprose simulations.
- The Football Manager series.
- MMOs (WoW & Eve in particular).

None of these ever finish and as such have more replayablility (if that is an actual word).

Of the games that I own that do 'end', very few have made me want to. Notable exceptions being Half Life 1, 2 & the episodes so far, Deus Ex, the first KOTOR game.

I think, what I'm trying to say in a very round about way, is that a lot of games are failing to create any kind of narrative that are making players *want* to finish them and the games that succeed despite this lack of narrative are ones in which the player creates it him/herself.