The sky is not so clear at Steam either. There are still severe regional distribution problems with Steam games. For example, Skyrim, the big hit RPG of this month, is available through retail stores in Eastern-Europe but requires Steam activation. However, the game itself cannot be purchased in Eastern-Europe through the Steam store, which raises questions about the availability of future DLC in that part of Europe. Another not so happy example is the Lonesome Road DLC for Fallout:New Vegas. Local distribution is handled (or rather, mishandled) by 1C/Cenega in those countries, and while the first three DLCs are available, Lonesome Road still cannot be purchased if you are so unfortunate that you reside in that 'backwater' region. (Or maybe they are trying to goad customers into buying the Ultimate version of Fallout: New Vegas that will contain all DLCs). If you check the 'No Lonesome Road on Steam" topic on the official Bethesda forums in the New Vegas DLC section, you will see that the last response concerning the subject from Bethsoft was more than a month ago. So while Steam is convenient, and even offers an offline mode if you don't feel like being connected all the time, or you are on a portable rig without permanent net connection, regional distribution, however, is still a mess. And some people, even affluent ones, in that region, who could otherwise afford buying games as they are released, refuse to purchase them, and resort to piracy instead because 'if you treat us like crap, we will treat you like crap'.

This reminds me of the medieval model of planetary orbits - they used epicycloids to patch up the inaccurate circle-based model and created a mind boggling mess of intertwined circles until Kepler swept it all away with his elegant and simple(r) elliptical planetary orbits. I wonder if the same will happen to these 'theories of everything' based on spatial dimensions that look like twisted pretzel.

You make the same mistake that terrorists do. You judge a person / culture by standards that are either unknown or unacceptable to them. Also, if people face a superior military power that they have no hope to repel and they feel that the international forums do not give a damn about their plight and the outlook for them is grim, you have a breeding ground where extremist ideas will thrive. What is "lack of honor" for you may be "the ultimate honor and sacrifice" for them.

You can't escape harsh realities, even when you are online. You characters are on the Armory, their (your) every achievement, every piece of equipment that you wear, even your specialization (talents) is exposed to anyone who happens to know the name of your 'toon', and you just cannot opt out. So... there goes your in-game privacy. Welcome to the dystopia many governments seem to be dreaming of these days.

Leaks are easy to discredit. Tag them as a conspiracy theory and watch their credibility vanish. ;) On a more serious note, in a seemingly uncontrolled environment misinformation spreads just as easily as actual facts.