Must there be the dichotomy between small & interesting vs big & boring though? That's kind of my point (if yes, written a bit impromptu).

There were strings of quality games from these small companies with dedicated fanbases. Then when they got larger they just stopped making quality games for more lucrative, but significantly less innovative titles.

The 'mac' part is mostly in there as context and is not intended to start (a silly) mac vs pc "sellout" flame war. It probably has happened for other game companies - I just don't know them as well.

Typing fast with from memory. Bad to do on Slashdot... SidMeier did Civilization (the other 'sim' series). I meant Wil Wright.

Well Blizzard, I think you just died. It's amazing. As a kid on a Mac there was a heyday when in a few short years Blizzard put out Warcraft, Warcraft II, Starcraft, Diablo, Diablo II. When Bungie put out the Marathon series, the Myth series, and then Oni. When Sid Meyer put out SimCity, SimCity 2000, SimCity 3000. And then they all shuttered up, sold-out, and then died of money-poisoning.

Bungie's awesome demo of Halo got it swallowed up by MS, and a decade later there are no more Mac games of any repute. Blizzard had rumors of another Starcraft and everyone looked forward to a new Warcraft and Diablo - but the money-leech WoW came out and stopped those promising ideas cold. Sid, who's always had interesting ideas got caught up in that The Sims, that other massive money making scheme, and put out nothing of interest again until, like salt on a wound, a castrated Spore.

WTF. I think the only exception to these innovative Mac gaming companies going corporate at the expense of their initial fans is Ambrosia Software of Escape Velocity fame. Oh the days...

Exactly. This is part of our system. He is challenging what he feels to be an unjust law. Let it be upheld or stricken as to its judicial merits.
 
It is interesting that Massachusetts wiretapping has a two-party consent standard, whereas federal law only requires single-party consent.
 
  US Telephone Recording Laws

Check out what their stock did last week. It went from $1.00 to $0.22 in a single day - of course it rebounded back 'up' to 50-60 cent range a few days later.

Does not bode well for the company.

In that case, you have very little use of the data, as nearly any global predictions will fall outside the limitations of your model. Again, not your model's fault, but your fault in overestimating the model's ability.

You also make another critical mistake:

"I certainly think they SHOULD be guilty" - but you don't state who 'they' are.

Crimes cannot be committed by 'anonymous' or 'anonymous cowards' or 'Slashdot' or 'TBP'. Individuals commit crimes, individuals must be proven to have committed crimes, individuals are punished.

So it may be that TPB 'should' be guilty, but who would you convict? If evidence cannot be found that these men actually committed a crime themselves (evidence that points to them specifically and individually), then the wrong people were prosecuted.

This seems to be a flaw in the RIAA/Gov's viewpoint of the internet that results in so many 'LOLZ'. That the internet can function without a leader, director, or even a plan. That websites can moderate using masses of individuals rather than being edited by a known hierarchical body. You cut off a domain, and another pops up. And in that way no individual can be pinned as leading TPB - and none can be prosecuted; TPB or it's likeness is the mythical hydra - it cannot be killed by taking down individuals.

Really interesting analogy.

I think it could be extended far beyond microsoft, and to a kind of corporate society in general.

And that is why it is so disliked. In the same vein as disliking anything that deprives us of our liberty. There is an alternative, and I wish the power to take it.

As the defacto monopoly (which I personally avoid to the extent of my effort) it is worth complaining about.

How though?

Through what mechanism?

It does make sense. But how do you get there?

Histone modifications and other such epigenetic effects give a tested and possible avenue for exploration. An avenue that is currently being studied in the scientific community.

What biological mechanisms would create 'conditions' with such affects?

How do you expect that the 'chemical/hormonal environment' affects the progeny in a heritable manner?

It is quite possible that under certain environments certain sections of the DNA can be activated - and that these activations (in memory or elsewhere) can be heritable.

This is not necessarily what is going on in the article, but it is an interesting and tested if unknown means by which non-genetic heritability can take place.

We're just learning that Histone/DNA modifications can be inherited.

Histones (the spools around which DNA is stored) tell when the DNA source code should be 'active' vs 'inactive'. And these histones have a huge data space in the form of possible modifications (methylation, acetylation, etc.).

When DNA is replicated, these histones too are replicated at the same time. And they seem to be replicated in a semiconserved manner similar to DNA (half go to 'old' strand, half go to 'new' strand). And that there is a whole series of touring-like proteins that can 'read' 'write' or 'erase' these modifications.

If these modifications are made during an organism's life, they can be inherited by offspring.

Not only is the code being copied, but the 'marks' that tell which/when/where to read the code at any given time/condition too can be passed down. And that these marks can be written in real time rather than waiting for mutations in the code itself.

There was a recent study that XO females who inherited the X from their father had markedly different dispositions than those who inherited the X from their mother. DNA modification that is unique to how the male or female deal with their own X chromosome could be being passed down to offspring.

I think reality has it's part. I think in a game of conquest, to lack the ability to commit genocide is unrealistic. In the same way that a game set in post-apocalyptic-wherever where everyone is a marine probably involves some blood. As do war simulations.

But again, those are more choices of genre. However, the concept of detail/control do not traverse genres very well currently.

One must be careful, when talking about such issues, to not confuse the genre of the game, and appeal for the genre, with the mechanisms used by designers to make things fun. True, they overlap, but a detailed/control-oriented game doesn't always need to involve exploding body parts. (conversely, a war game does).

However, I've always been intrigued by the freedom of GTA. I personally have little desire to engage in the plot - but the intricacy of play is appealing. Though I agree, that makes those games, mightn't it be possible to make a game where such freedom is allowed (even to kill) but the direction or tone was not so obviously violent?

I would really like to play GTA, but I honestly am turned off by the missions I must willfully accept. I have great fun with the feeling of control - the ability to get in cars, travel around a huge map, and explore.

The control and competence is what makes that game appealing to me, not the gore or plot. And I think that is what is interesting - that a game can be fundamentally appealing for something outside of it's plot, theme or story.