I'm colour blind myself. (Seriously).

I'm currently looking around for a cheap monkey suit. I have my own supply of bananas.

Another ridiculous study proving nothing. And an unfinished one no less.

As the poster above said... FUN is more important.

This just seems like a study put out by game developers to justify doing even crappier AI than we already get.

Or of course they didn't ask any actual hardcore gamers who go back to the Atari 2600 as I'd rather spend an hour playing Maze Craze on that than most of what's released today.

DRM doesn't stop piracy in the slightest. A check of any torrent site shows that.

As you rightly said, it's about control. This claim that "honest people subsidize thieves" is absolute nonsense as:

A) Despite the claims to the contrary, most people wouldn't buy the games they pirate anyway (when I did it back in the day it was for the collecting). Also people should be grateful for piracy as they're preserving these titles.

In ten years time, if you want to install Spore for example, will you even be able to install a legitimate copy and get it authorized so you can actually run it? The pirated version will still be around and you'll be able to still use it. DRM like Securom which requires online activation conveniently puts an expiration date on the games you buy. If you can't play them in ten years time, you're only choice will be to buy new games, which is exactly what EA and the like want. Once again, it's about control. Piracy is just a red herring.

B) If piracy ended tomorrow, prices would NOT drop. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a rube. These are folk in the money making business. Look at Starforce protected titles. Uncrackable when they came out. GT Legends took TWO YEARS to crack. Yet the game came out at the exact same price as everything else within that genre. Actually $5 more here.

The reason games are cheap on Xbox Live is nothing to do with piracy, and everything to do with market exposure and standardization. On XBLA games are released pretty much every week, promoted well on release etc... The points system sets down a very rigid price structure.

It's more that than anything else. It seems rather than DRM being the selling point, it's convenience and standard pricing. Stats from the like of Valve have shown that when a game is put out at a cheaper price, sales increase far beyond what was expected.

It would appear that the folk behind Xbox Live have figured this out when laying out the service. It's better to sell 10,000 copies at $10, than 2,000 at $30.

Look at Steam last Christmas. Bioshock sold an astronomical amount due to it being reduced to $5. Left 4 Dead also did the same when Valve reduced the price. So much so they said how surprised they were.

Oh for fucks sake, it was a genuine question, not an attempt to flame. WHY is this guy's opinion given so much weight? I mean Stallman, ESR, Linus etc... Yep, those guys I get. But Cory?

WHY is all I'm asking. (And no doubt another idiot mod will mod me down, which just confirms everything people say about mods on here.)

I'm more interested in why ANYONE pays attention to anything Doctorow has to say. Why is he relevant to anything outside his trivial little website? Why is so much stock put into the opinion of this guy? Particularly when he's stating the obvious like in this particular gem.

Zero gravity probably makes the actual copulation bit kinda tricky too.

While I think Bill Maher is a misogynist dickhead, he does have one great quote on suicide.

It's our way of telling God "You can't fire me. I quit!"

The sad thing is this guy should NOT have had to go in a closet and blow his head off. Never ceases to amaze me how we euthanize animals on compassionate grounds, and yet we humans, we're expected to suffer.

I can get behind the idea, promoting all the bad stuff in Windows 7, especially the DRM when Microsoft is one of the few companies with the clout to stand up to the entertainment industry, but the website is horrendous. It's 1998 all over again!

You're going to choose to believe a study that involved a mere 94 people?

I take a great deal of pride in my intelligence. And I choose to think this study is absolute bollocks since it involved less people than went to my sister-in-laws wedding.

Yep. That's the problem right there my friend. A survey of 94 people and they publish this nonsense when there are so many other factors probably at play.

The fact is in 100 years people will look back and see how backward we are medically. Over the last 8 or so years I've learned a lot about the medical profession etc... And it's left me with no faith at all in doctors. I know more and more people with medical issues doctors just can't fix. I have stuff that's been going on for years and doctors just throw up their hands and say "Damned if we know".

In short, the gods have been shown to be false gods. Studies like this prove it. 94 people is a statistical aberration. 94 people doesn't prove anything. Yet this study is getting play everywhere, and the thing is almost nobody will listen to the details.

I'm overweight. I exercise as much as I can (chronic back problems), I don't eat lots of sugary stuff. I don't drink soda. I don't eat junk food. (I can also claim it's glandular though, legitimately, as my thyroid is completely fucked. TSH should be around 4. Mine is in the 70 region).

I get extremely angry with the prejudice toward fat people that studies like this enforce as there are so many other factors going on. Of course abusing fat people is one of the last prejudices that's considered socially acceptable, and these idiots and their statistical aberration have now added another arrow to the quiver for assholes to fire at fat people.

Eh? I'm overweight and see my doctor regularly for various things. He has never once harassed me about my weight.

In fact only one Doctor ever has. Of course I didn't put much stock in his diagnosis when, after suffering flu like symptoms for a month, no appetite, fever etc... He said I just had a cold. Then prescribed antibiotics for said cold.

I've also had two alcoholic drinks in the last 18 months.

You're making an awful lot of generalizations there. And the overweight people I know do not fall into the "woe is me" category. In fact the only alcoholics I've ever known were thin people.

Of course I live in a country where how much money I make has no bearing on the quality of healthcare I receive.

I do agree with the rest though. I mean this week we've had this nonsense, with a whole 94 people studied to come to this grand conclusion that because I'm overweight my brain is going to fall apart. (To be honest I'd rather lose my memory and think it's the 1980's than be aware of my failing body and how all my friends are dead)

There's also the "SUGAR IS GOING TO KILL YOU" study from a day or two ago.

A week or two back it was gamers aren't adolescents but sad depressive loners in their 30's, a study which only surveyed people 19 years of age or older in the pacific northwest where, according to people I know who live there, it rains all the time and people tend to be miserable as sin.

Reminds me of the old adage: "Giving up smoking, drinking and eating bad food doesn't make you live longer. It just feels like it."

Mencken once said that puritanism is the fear that someone, somewhere, is happy. Instead of persecuting for sex like you said (immoral behavior) they now do it via health.

I've always said to people that my body is a temple... To a long dead religion.

This study is such absolute balls. Like the "gamers are depressed loners" study that popped up on here last week, it's another flawed study.

Seriously, Slashdot needs to stop promoting these ridiculous studies. Fully expect the "sugar is bad" one from a day or two back to turn up on here soon.

A study, with so much bluster, and they studied just 94 people.

Chuck a couple of zeros on that, then perhaps you have the makings of a worthwhile study and not just an anecdote.

There is increasing evidence that obesity is not the death sentence so many seem to claim. There is also more and more evidence proving the BMI that determines if you are obese is absolute garbage.

You need a contract for internet access? Jesus. I can just call my ISP and say "Shove it. Cheers!"

Was that really necessary? Yes, the story is about Europe, but has clearly been going on elsewhere for some time, but nobody cared, but now it's Europe everyones panties are in a bunch.

I download a TON of stuff. I would happily accept a speed throttle.

Of course if they charge you by gigabyte over the cap they make more money than just throttling you.