You sir, are now my role model.

I stopped reading on the second page of that Gamasutra article. It seemed to me that the distinction between evident and concealed luck transparency was simply a matter of perception.

Every one of the five examples given were clearly evident to me. There's not much point in reading an article when begins its explanation subjectively, presented objectively.

Some friends dragged me in to an arcade a few weeks back, and I can confidently say that at least one arcade in Sydney, Australia is booming. It stands to reason that there may be others. I think there is room for a Guitar Hero arcade version.

My thoughts exactly. I bet we could think of plenty of companies who have shipped far more than a billion of something.

The "stellar product" is simply more online distribution. Companies need to make it as easy as possible to purchase and download media.

I've always believed that the reason piracy is so prevalent is because it's so convenient. If you don't live near a store, it's much easier to just download something; luckily, buying it online is just as convenient.

There is still a lot of room for online distribution systems to improve. I think that if we continue to let these systems evolve, the piracy problem will shrink (at least somewhat).