The average game player is 34 years old and has been playing games for 12 years. At least according to the ESA. http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp

I'm sure they are crying their eyes out that they *have* to charge people more money for something that nets them higher profit margins.

You're only looking at DNF from right now. Why don't you go back to 1997 when it was originally announced, when they would be asking for these investments. "Hey guys, we want to make a new Duke Nukem game! Its going to be awesome! Summer 1998!" At that time that sounded great! Duke Nukem 3D was awesome, why wouldn't I want to help finance a sequel? Its a slam dunk sure fire seller! Why don't you ask the people that actually did preorder the game how that turned out for them?

I'm confused. If you're just stashing it in your pocket, why does it matter what it looks like?

If the vendor is at fault, why is the customer the one being punished?

That's what they say, anyway. We don't know if they really will do that until it actually happens.

Hopefully you've made backups of all your games since you won't be able to redownload them anymore. You could download someone elses backup, which anyone could do. With Steam no longer checking to see if you own the game, I guess that means every game on Steam will be free to anyone that wants it. No cracks. No hacks. Do you think all the publishers that have games on Steam would let that happen?