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There isn't much between minesweeper and Unreal for non-dedicated PC gamers.

You need to try the indie scene. There's a ton of stuff out there in this range. Check out Manifesto Games, for some examples.

Much of the piracy is simply limited time and money budgets and wanting to try lots of games. They are not priced for casual gamers.

The developer who initiated this thread is an indie developer. Indie games often have free demos, are priced way below $50, and cover a whole range of tastes, from casual to hardcore, and people still pirate their games.

Piracy isn't really about price sensitivity. In fact, almost none of the reasons that I've seen pirates give are really valid. They're usually rationalizations, after-the-fact. Here are some examples:

• Games are too expensive. Sorry, people pirate games at every price point.
• The games for sale are all too low-quality to pay money for. But they aren't too low-quality for you to play?
• Indie games are too low-quality, but non-indie games are too expensive. Why pay for the Focus you can afford, when you can steal a Lamborghini for free?
• Information has no value. Then we might as well mothball the United States, because we don't manufacture anything anymore.
• I never would have paid for games, anyway, so I'm not a "lost sale." We'll never really know for sure.

This is why people really pirate games:

• It's easy to get pirated copies of games -- sometimes easier than getting (or using) the legit copies -- especially if there's particularly onerous DRM on the legit copies.
• If people have a working copy of a piece of software, they feel entitled to use it, regardless of where it came from. I'd argue that this is normal, psychologically-speaking. In fact, it takes an unusual effort to rationalize not using software that you have your hot little hands on.
• In some countries, the prices are well-and-truly too high. Australians pay way more for video games than Americans do, for example. That's nuts -- especially now that our dollars are almost the same (yikes).
• People legitimately want to try games before they buy them. Sometimes, no matter how noble the original intentions, they never get around to buying, even when they like a game. Or, they finish the game before they get around to buying it.
• There are usually no personal consequences, whatsoever, for pirating game software. It's not even something kids are punished by their parents for, usually. In fact, their parents may be pirating games, themselves.
• The societal consequences for game software piracy aren't easy for most people to understand, or even necessarily believe. The crime feels victimless, even though it isn't.

Here are some lessons:

• Legitimate free trial software reduces piracy. Consumers have every reason to want to try your software before buying it, and they're going to be more inclined to buy the retail version, if they don't already have a working pirated copy of the full retail version in-hand.
• On a related note, releasing your own free version of your game (whether demo, limited, or what have you) into the wild allows you to have some control over what is out there. There will still be unrestricted versions in the wild, but having an official copy in the pipe means people will find it when they look for pirated copies.
• Game prices in foreign countries should be adjusted to account for relative currency changes. Currently, people in some countries really are being ripped off, and the developers are not the ones getting the big payoff.
• If people have to fight your DRM to play legit copies of your game, they will look for pirated copies. Don't treat your legiti

I'm not going to argue that it's bad because the Columbine massacre was horrible, and any game based on it is inherently in bad taste; you're right that this is a straw horse, and in fact, I'd agree with you that any game that was about the massacre but also "insightful, somber, and respectful of its material" would have merit. But to claim that Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is "insightful, somber, and respectful" is either ingenuous or stupid.

In fact, Super Columbine Massacre RPG! seems to have been created specificially to glamorize the murderers, sensationalize and trivialize the tragedy, and create a controversy to promote the designer. In versions of his website that are now available only through web.archive.org, he earlier said:

"CONTENTS: A FREE Role Playing Game (RPG) for your PC devoid of malware, spyware or other junk not related to 'killing as many fuckheads as possible!'"

Somber and respectful, yes? And later:

"FINALLY, remember Reb's ['Reb' was Harris's online handle] words: 'Don't follow your dreams or goals or any of that shit, follow your fucking animal instincts: if it moves kill it, if it doesn't, burn it. Kein Mitleid!'

In other words, it's pretty obvious that the designer is among the sick crew who do indeed view Harris and Klebold as martyrs, in some twisted sense, rather than the psychopathic slaughterers of innnocents that they obviously were. [further content snipped]

This game aspires to be art, and art is fundamentally an act of communication. Therefore, my primary interest in playing it was to experience what it had to communicate. To my disappointment, I quickly found that the little communication contained in this piece is sparingly interspersed between long periods of gameplay.... [snip]

On the one hand, this is hardly a trivializing or exploitative treatment of the subject matter - the accusations to that effect, and the actions which they have instigated, are two inches short of bigotry. On the other hand, it appears to me to be as simplistic as those other interpretations of the Columbine Massacre which the game itself showers with scorn. "The System" is the easiest of targets, being unable to speak for itself, and hated by all because it affords complete freedom to none. This game under-emphasizes the fact that the "system-less" life its protagonists desire has been lived through by countless generations. Nowhere does it mention that this life amounted to one Columbine Massacre after another, and that our system, for all its hideous flaws, is our only protection against that kind of life.

We might claim that this game has been successful as an act of communication, simply because it has stirred so much discussion. Then again, as Costik rightly asserts, the main reason for the commotion was that it is a game that tackles a serious subject, regardless of how successfully it does so. But even if it is a successful act of communication, it is certainly not a successful game, because none of its communication is done through gameplay. If a film critic were able to transcend the controversy and give this game a fair try, he'd probably say: "that's an interesting satirical cartoon you got there, but why are there so many long, irrelevant breaks in the story, and why do I have to keep pressing keys in order to watch it?" If this is really the flagship of art-oriented gaming, we are in deep artistic trouble. But we already knew that.

Same page explains why I think the controversy is wrong-headed, and why this game has merit.

• Starscape My favourite indie game of all time, but I shan't go on about it as it's been covered enough by Slashdot. Starscape does not appear to be available anywhere else but Manifesto.
• Alien ShooterSwitch off your brain! Here comes the Gore! I can't help but revel in painting the backdrop with alien blood!
• Uplink Once again, not a lot needs to be said about this title as it's been covered to death right here on slashdot.

• Starscape My favourite indie game of all time, but I shan't go on about it as it's been covered enough by Slashdot. Starscape does not appear to be available anywhere else but Manifesto.
• Alien ShooterSwitch off your brain! Here comes the Gore! I can't help but revel in painting the backdrop with alien blood!
• Uplink Once again, not a lot needs to be said about this title as it's been covered to death right here on slashdot.

• Starscape My favourite indie game of all time, but I shan't go on about it as it's been covered enough by Slashdot. Starscape does not appear to be available anywhere else but Manifesto.
• Alien ShooterSwitch off your brain! Here comes the Gore! I can't help but revel in painting the backdrop with alien blood!
• Uplink Once again, not a lot needs to be said about this title as it's been covered to death right here on slashdot.

I'm a game developer. What exactly is Manifesto supposed to do for me? He's obviously not going to put my game in a box and sell it retail. He's not going to get me a development kit for the major consoles. (As you know, only large-scale publishers can purchase those dev kits, at any price.) He's basically going to sell my game for me online, and take a cut. Gee, thanks pal. I can accept PayPal on my own, thank-you-very-much.

The Manifesto Manifesto is nothing but a list of complaints, not a list of services that Manifesto offers.

But then, suppose I'm intrigued, so I want to sign up and sell my game through Manifesto. How do I do that? The "Help" page is busted.

It was a success and very fun. I may be biased since I'm on the advisory board, but I and many others thought so too.

At Mekensleepwe're thinking exactly the same way. We wanted to work on persistent, social, online games. And we wanted to release it all as Free Software. Unsurprisingly, publishers were not in a hurry to follow us there (not that I cared) and, from my previous experience, I had learned about the dangers of vulture capital.
So we decided that working on a small scale product was the way to go. With a little luck, it will provide a sustainable stream of revenues and at a minimum, it got us further along on the technological side of things.

So far, things are looking good.

Indeed, the futur looks rosy for independent, self published, developpers. If the Korean and Chinese markets are any indication, there will be some massive successes. And for the less successful - those who won't have enough pull to attract players by themselves - online distribution structures like Manifesto Games will help. Also in-game advertising seems about to become a big trend, at least for a certain type of games. I'm not saying it's a good (or bad) thing for gaming, only that smart indy developpers will take advantage of it.

To sum it up, if you can afford it and you know were you're going, I highly recommend self-publishing.
  `It's an extreme sport.

They didn't mention Manifesto Games, the new startup established by Greg Costikyan, author of the Scratchware Manifesto

If you mean purely online, you missed photo streams (aka: blogging with pictures), video blogging and game publishing - not to mention the completely obvious (and so last-decade) free web sites. For simply distributing content, there's always BitTorrent and - my favorite underexploited - "magnet://" style links which can point to content on Peer 2 Peer networks.

On the live front, there's also the whole webcam thing which gave rise to the camwhore movement. Shoutcast type things for "internet broadcasting" your own radio station. You can also creat your own internet television station if you want.

The very latest cutting edge variant on this is peer to peer streaming video, often refered to as CoolStreaming. There's maybe a 2 to 5 minute delay in the stream as it takes a little while to patch together the video before it's decodable. While so far it's popularity seems to be limited to China (where it's used to pirate / rebroadcast regular TV channels), the main advantage is that you should be able to establish your own streaming P2P television channel with an almost unlimited number of viewers - from your existing broadband internet connection.

And finally, where the online world meets the offline, physical items are designed and sold online in virtual stores, then physically published and shipped on demand. Like Cafe Press for stuff with logos - and Lulu for things like books and CDs.