People are allowed to sell cosmetics. Unfortunately it is such a successful business model that it's eliminated any motivation for a developer to incorporate mod support in to their game. Of course who are to blame? Gamers of course. It's the natural progression of a small-time hobby, where modding support is encouraged as part of building a community around a game, to the mainstream hobby we have now, which encourages a game to have a maximum life of a month or two, DLC, and without any need to bother with mod support because people will move onto another game the next month.

Though given the fact my original post about this was too confrontational (and true) for at least one Slashdotter to accept, they had to mod me down of course. Nothing I said was wrong or a lie - it's just the state of gaming today, but too many people are addicted that they can't accept they might be strung along for the ride.

Sounds like bullshit to me. I occasionally play the original Neverwinter Nights game and still find new and interesting things about it. Why? Because people willingly make, for free, the things that other companies charge for. Skins, weapons, items - with something like CEP (Community Expansion Pack) there are hundreds of high quality thingies that people made and you can outfit your character(s) with.

Companies have successfully brainwashed the current generation of gamers into believing that cosmetic items are worth money. I suppose I can see some merit in paying a small amount of money for high-quality items, but I grew up during a time when companies still encourage user-made stuff (mods) in their main games. That's all but disappeared now, and gamers welcome that with arms and wallets wide open. Fuck modern gaming. It's all about taking advantage of as many naive kids as possible

Actually, fuck that. I'll just dispose of this account and make a fresh one like I always do, since it's now tainted with a misguided insult.

Fuck you and I hope you die painfully and alone.

No need for the insults, heck I even said "I'm not so sure" as to mean "I'm not so sure I agree with the sentiment". I was just explaining the general feeling I get from reading comments here about Bill's fortune and how it was acquired. Why else do you see such hatred for Microsoft here?

Sorry if it it appeared as though I agreed with the sentiment.

The general argument around here though is that the money Gates is using through is charity is "blood money" - money gained from building his fortune via the acquisition and destruction of companies during his tenure at Microsoft, as well as all the other dodgy business activities conducted during this time. So it basically diminishes his charity's accomplishments when you think about where the money comes from, or so they say.

I'm not so sure. He's probably buying his way into heaven at this point, but if it helps funds research into keeping people alive, I'm not sure I care too much where the money came from.

Capitalism itself is fine.

Unregulated capitalism is a nightmare, a cancer that destroys people, society and whole countries if given the chance.

Australia is a police state.

No it's not. You just said that because it makes it sound like you have something powerful and insightful to say. It's an insult to those who've actually had to live in REAL police states in various other countries. Australia is not even close to a police state. If anything the US is far closer.