It is not necessary for life, but to cut yourself off from TV, movies, games, books and magazines completely would leave you at a social disadvantage. If all media you used was in the public domain you would risk isolation.
More important though, greed does work both ways. I think the media companies could make MORE money if they weren't so scared and I want to pay for my media. I want to support the people who make it, but just like giving to charity, I hate to do it when I know most of the money goes into taking my money (think advertising) and only a cut goes to the people I want to be rich because they know how to animate a robot chicken.
You are just slightly overstating your case. You are right, the gaming aspect is the key one, and if it doesn't do it well, it is a jack of all trades and master of none.
But of these features have gaming advantages that are misseded. I really do think a DVD is too small for HD gaming, and Blu-ray won't fail in that way. It stinks that it's not as fast as a DVD right now, but that's not as bad as having to switch disks to play GTA, or losing 1080p cut scenes (so sue me, I like how good they look and the in game engine is usually not up for the job of close ups). It has to play music, video and go on the internet because... well it has 5.1 sound, a video card and an ethernet port. To not give us the power to use the hardware for basic tasks would be... disapointing. Which is I guess the real problem with the console, it's best know feature is how disapointing it is.
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It is not necessary for life, but to cut yourself off from TV, movies, games, books and magazines completely would leave you at a social disadvantage. If all media you used was in the public domain you would risk isolation. More important though, greed does work both ways. I think the media companies could make MORE money if they weren't so scared and I want to pay for my media. I want to support the people who make it, but just like giving to charity, I hate to do it when I know most of the money goes into taking my money (think advertising) and only a cut goes to the people I want to be rich because they know how to animate a robot chicken.
You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in shoebox in middle of the road.
This needs to replace the mouse. Give me this and Supreme Commander and I will... have fun.
You are just slightly overstating your case. You are right, the gaming aspect is the key one, and if it doesn't do it well, it is a jack of all trades and master of none. But of these features have gaming advantages that are misseded. I really do think a DVD is too small for HD gaming, and Blu-ray won't fail in that way. It stinks that it's not as fast as a DVD right now, but that's not as bad as having to switch disks to play GTA, or losing 1080p cut scenes (so sue me, I like how good they look and the in game engine is usually not up for the job of close ups). It has to play music, video and go on the internet because... well it has 5.1 sound, a video card and an ethernet port. To not give us the power to use the hardware for basic tasks would be... disapointing. Which is I guess the real problem with the console, it's best know feature is how disapointing it is.