your just forgettign the dreck they had before. For every Secret of mana or Space invaders they had 4 secret of evermore and ET. The sequlitis, unfun dreck is as common as it's always been. Only now the over all quality has gone from terrible to mediocre.
Look at what you have now. compare. Do you want austin powers #2 running things or doctor evil himself. Gates is borderline evil and unethical but compitent and successful. Cheney/Bush is openly evil and incompitent. choose the lesser evil or choose cthulu.
Right now the principal reason we need accountants is because there are so many exceptions to the income tax system. Namely to address all the things that would also be wrong with a consumption tax (in addition to the ones that already exist). If you made it easy and simply had no tax on essential items then it changes nothing. The rich already hardly pay tax, the poor as well. The middle class foots the bill to run thigns and is often has their interests trumped by big business from the top end and liberal lobby groups ont he bottom. There is 0 benifit for a shift. A rich person spends much less of their income and any tax on their investment is alreayd in place by income tax on the employees of their investment. So it's hcangign for the sake of change and nothign more. It will likely victimize the poor and middle class more since a much larger % of their income is spent and cannto be avoided whiel the rich just may nto get that thrid SUV or LV set when they are int he US. At bets it's exactly the same at worst it becomes aregresive tax to make social mobility harder by makign everything more expensive.
Like everything else star wars related in the last while, it'll be a good to mediocre game of it's genre that heavily trades on the star wars name. All SW titles in the recent past have been this way. Only notable for the franchise tie in. Republic comando is a good but nto exceptional FPs, Galactic Battlegrounds is a okay but boringly repatetive C&C style RTS, then a hodge poge of bland action games. The onyl notabel exception is lego star wars which is amazingly fun and interesting. I suspect a Wii SW licence games will be mostly boring and gimmicky.
They elected a former oil exec and his CEO. Who then proceeded to fill the coffers of the company they once ran and started a war that looked like it was base don oil. You can't tell me they will not eventually get some benifit from this. I can imagine numerous and expensive speakign engagements in Bush and Cheneys future paid for by haliburton.
The current admin has as much conflict of interest as gates would. I don't hear washington screaming for impeechment yet.
A sales tax is regressive, since the less you make the higher % of it you must spend to live. Rebates and what not will complicate things and will not change one wit the group that pays the majority fo the Tax now. The middle class. A consumption tax does nothing because the rich don't often spend like idiots like th elowe rmiddle class does. A major market for things like sean jean, SUVs, "luxury goods" is the lower class trying to buy economic respect. Undoubtly their principal cash cow is the upper middle class but a sales tax does almost nothing except making escaping taxation easier for the rich, harder for the poor and the same for the middle class.
Also the top % of america doesn't often pay much tax. There are enough loopholes that the seriously rich make a pitiful overall contribution. The majority fo the tax burden is carried by the middle and upper middle class. The upper and lower class either pay little or are such a minority that they do nto contribute significantly.
I wouldn't argue about Sony. They have made some significant blunders. But I think we're a bit harder on them for inane reasons. The price of the 20 gb ps3 is almost exactly the same as the PS2 in Canada when adjusted for inflation. Part of the price criticism is actually a weak US dollar compared to the Yen/Yuan. The Ps3 isn't that bad. Although I'd prefer it with rumble, with a ps2 memcard slot instead of the CF/SD/memstick ports. Otherwise it isn't too bad. I actually have a Ps3, DS and a Wii. Ninty got most of those features right although the shallowness fo the current library is disconcerting for a "mediumcore" player like myself. I have a fairly modest amount of time to spend on games but like my games deep and full of story. Like FF tactics, disgea etc... So far ninty has given me minigames and odd control experiments. so I got a PS3 and am holding my breath for MGS4/FFXIII while playign my exstensive back library of ps2 games on the PS3.
I have to sigh everytime a sony exec speaks and puts his foot in his mouth. Even this whole "home" thing isnt' that exciting. They dont' seem to have a good plan although it seems to be a good product. I think the product is good. They just need to shut up. Stay the course they set and throw some neat features at us. The PSP downloadable games are neat. The Ps1 games comign are good. They just need to shut up and develope. It's when marketroids geta microphone that sony completely fucks themselves.
I like the Ps3, I like the wii. I hope neither of them lose. I'm indifferent to the 360.
Can't say support from EA and Activision will mean much. Sports sequels and repatative comic licence games? I'd liek Square/enix, konami, capcom, namco, and bioware throw their hat in. I prefer if EA and Activision go bankrupt tommorow.
You don't know the back story. Nintendo has the arrogance thing too, and earlier. Remember Nintendo circa SNES/NES. Tyranical ball busters. The Wii's a hit and soon they will go back to that. Don't forget they are a business. They aren't cut elittle mario. They will play hardball. Who knows maybe Chris had three meetings. Sony is shitting themselves because they're falling behind so they kissed his ass and asked politely for spore to use there cell chip like a $2 whore. MS needs help keeping up as well so they kissed his ass and asked spore be multiplayer with rockets. Nintendo thought their back in the SNES/NES days and told him they'd licence him if they would just let them sleep with Chris's wife. Who knows.
PS2 was $459 ($536.87 after inflation) at launch PS3 is $549 for the 20gb.
It seems very close. Remember that the Us dollar has taken a huge tumble in the last 4 years. The Us number don't line up that well. Partly because our dollar is stronger against the yen now then before and the US dollar is weaker. so while inflation did not explian the price difference, a weaker US dollar does.
You could get a decent 1500 computer at that time with a GeForce mx card and a modest amount of ram on a p4 1.8 ghz. In fact that is what I spent on my white box circa 2001. Less if yrou willing to god with cheaper parts (celeron/less ram).
You know, another highly successful company is similiar. Blizzard brings nothing to orignal to the table but is widely successful. Innovation is not the key to success. It's a mixed bag of polish, hype, FUD, marketting, production management etc... Sony hasn't done a great job but the PS1 was a great product the PS2 was over promised but again was a good product (comparison to dreamcast are often wrong on technical details. It is a stronger machine btu has weak points which DC did not.)
Tiem will tell. Sony did stumble a lot but they're a big faceless borderline evil company just like MS and the big N. Remember Nintendo was a tyranical licencer too and Ms has a lot of their own skeletons. Choose your evil.
Is there anything here that you can't get for less than $600 elsewhere?
Blu-ray
PS3 games (Restistance/MGS4/FFXIII)
Cell processor that can be a 60 gb Linux machine with built in wi-fi
It's not as bad as people say, it's nto as good as astroturfers scream. It's simply a product. It's some pros, some cons. Time will tell if it works as a product.
You have no garentees with corporations. No more garentee that MS will not drop Live if it becomes economically unfeasible. No more garentee that Nintnedo will drop the Wii channels if they become troublesome (porn on Wii).
There are obviously more games and online services for a PC than a Playstation, and these days a PC is cheaper. You can quickly hook up a notebook to an HD TV and a joystick of your choice and have a similar experience to PS3. You can disable net access, uninstall most of built in programs and enable autoplay to run games when a disk is inserted if you are concerned about ease of use.
Game consoles really made sense when they were at least 3 times cheaper than a PC, for people who couldn't afford a regular computer, or a second computer for kids. Perhaps Nintendo Wii is still in that league.
By your rationale the PS2 and xbox must have been abysmal failures. They weren't 3 times cheaper then PC's at the same time. Consoles big advantage is uniformity of developing platform and a large install base. PC gaming is distinctly different as well. Drastically different styles of games most of the time.
$600 is the current and near future price. This "feature" will be on after the price drops. It gives those who bought a ps3 a post hoc justification for their purchase. It adds value to their brand.
Can you explain how knowledge retention acts as a selective pressure?
The more someone can remember, the more that they can be taught or learn from their mistakes. Ate a poison ivy plan, got sick. Avoid those distinctively leafy plants. Ate a tomatoe plant, got sick. Avoid tomatoe greens. The more you can remember, the less likely you'll eat poisonous plants. The seldctive pressure is obvious. As well our inclination to listen to our elders balanced by our need to rebel plays a balance at food exploration and poison avoidance. The most expendible portion of the human race is the one most liekly to try new things. They are our testers. If they die the others will find the body and likely note down what he might have ate. If they can Id it they teach that to the others. The more you can retaint he more likely you'll avoid that plant.
If an organism encounters a brand new plant that it's never seen before, and has never ever heard anything about it, how does it know whether or not its poisonous? It wouldn't. And for an explorative, risk-taking animal like a chimpanzee or human, they are going to encounter a lot more poisons than a picky, grazing animal with a good sense of smell such as an antelope.
The majority of humanity wouldn't eat it. the reckless teens will try it in small quantities. IF they die their cohorts and elders will eventually figure out why and it becomes cultural knowledge.
"Drug culture" permeates all of human activity. From drinking tea and coffee in the morning, to drinking beer and wine on the evening and weekends, to taking medicines when you get sick, all people everywhere take drugs on a daily basis.
If you've done any cultural studies you find it seem heavily anecdotal. Eat something once, got sick avoid it and spread the word. Someone dies, find a cause (right or wrong) spread the knowledge. The true is the same for medicinal plants. eat X, feel better. Spread the word (right or wrong). It's a nice romantic "arts school" idea that psychodelic drugs shaped intelligence but I don't think there is much support for that. Also veyr little seperates use fromt he animals and it's more cumilative knowledge and desterity then any fundemental biological difference outside of our thumbs.
Although battlenet just arranges for match making and assigns a random "host" if it's not custom maps. Peer Hosting. But most people don't know that or can't even tell. Guild wars provides free servers.
I'm willing to go along with your theory, but you don't say what the selective pressure specifically was, other than that there was some. You have effectively said nothing other than "Human consciousness and intelligence evolved."
I did specify "knowledge retention". The only significant difference between you and a monkey of dolphin is very dexstrous opposible thumbs and a very deep pool of inherited non genetic information (civilization). Human consciousness or intelligence isn't a good distinction since we don't know if chimps talk about religion or what not and it's a piss poor qualifier since the majority of humanity hardly has all the "reason" or "intelligence" that early 19th century wing nut used as the difference between us and the animals.
Plenty of other mammals on the Africa lived basically the same life as early humans -- hunting, foraging, living in intimate groups. For example, elephants, gorillas, baboons, chimpanzees, bonobos. Why are we the smartest?
Dextrous opposible thumbs, and inherited culture/knowledge. Aside from those we have verified that those animal you outlined have a lot of the "mental" traits we associate with people. Chimps can use tools, elephants have religion and society, etc.. The major difference is we have very dextrous hands while even chimps don't have as much control as us and we've build upon 4000+ years of human knowledge.
My contention was that the selective pressure was plant toxins that our non-humans encountered in their foraging activities. If you're going to take risks and try eating new plants while strolling in the woods, the person who was able to get themself through a bad trip ( which is a sure bet when you're eating random plants ) without getting themselves killed would have increased reproductive success.
Which is ridicoulous. Avoiding those plants would convey a more significant advantage then being able to weather the trip. And if you have dipped into the drug culture you'll find the intelligent and un intelligent will both be hugging each other and saying retarded things to each other on Exstacy. There is no functional difference. It depends more on your resistance to drugs as opposed to your intelligence.
Just like the liver and the kidneys separate toxins from poisons, my contention is that a healthy mind separates reality from fantasy. Reality comes from our senses, and fantasy comes from poisonous plants and the malfunctionings of our minds.
And my contention is your idea is ridicoulous and betrays a lack of information on biology. What is a healthy mind? Does it have a genetic basis? is it 50/50 enviromental/gentic? does it give any advantage to plant poisons like death cap? The answer is 1- we don't really know 2- some slight correlation 3- likely 4- no. You have nothin man.
Finding food sources perhaps. But being "self aware" is pretty independant of mild plant toxins. I think your dipping your pen a little too deeply into the "arts college" mentality. From a bachlors of science genetics/compsci perspective it would be more likely that there was a progressive selection for extra thought capacity and eventually we got the to this slightly insane monkey that your surrounded by. Likely partly through plant differentiation. Being smart enough to tell what is a button mushroom and what is a deaths cap mushroom is a easy way to have a selective edge. Being able to teach it to your children and other relatives is better and being able to analyze it to derive narcotics to do various medicinal stuff is better still.
The counter-Veblen effect. People believe get what you pay for. If you are asked to pay 0 they assume must be a reason. Either it is illegal, there are strings, or the product is so bad it has a value of 0. Silyl isn't it. If I just wrap up linux in a $300 gold plated box anc charge 350 for it they'd buy in droves.
If I was Blizzard, and was considering making a World of Starcraft (or world of Diablo)
MMORPG players are essentially the same lot of people. Very few new players are added to that pool and the last addition was Blizzard loyalists for WOW. Addign a SC MMORPG would canabilize their subscirbers base more then add to it. They'd be smarter to release a RTS. Having 2 compellign products int he same space just weakens their individual positions.
There is a Warhammer Fantasy MMOG currently under development.
I thought it was already released and was massively successful. Kiddign aside WOW occupies so much fo the same space (for obvious reasons) that a MMOG based on warhammer seems redundant.
Slashdot Mirror
your just forgettign the dreck they had before. For every Secret of mana or Space invaders they had 4 secret of evermore and ET. The sequlitis, unfun dreck is as common as it's always been. Only now the over all quality has gone from terrible to mediocre.
The net effect is the "rich" do not pay much tax themselves. So irregaurdless of the intention it results in a light tax burden up top.
Look at what you have now. compare. Do you want austin powers #2 running things or doctor evil himself. Gates is borderline evil and unethical but compitent and successful. Cheney/Bush is openly evil and incompitent. choose the lesser evil or choose cthulu.
Right now the principal reason we need accountants is because there are so many exceptions to the income tax system. Namely to address all the things that would also be wrong with a consumption tax (in addition to the ones that already exist). If you made it easy and simply had no tax on essential items then it changes nothing. The rich already hardly pay tax, the poor as well. The middle class foots the bill to run thigns and is often has their interests trumped by big business from the top end and liberal lobby groups ont he bottom. There is 0 benifit for a shift. A rich person spends much less of their income and any tax on their investment is alreayd in place by income tax on the employees of their investment. So it's hcangign for the sake of change and nothign more. It will likely victimize the poor and middle class more since a much larger % of their income is spent and cannto be avoided whiel the rich just may nto get that thrid SUV or LV set when they are int he US. At bets it's exactly the same at worst it becomes aregresive tax to make social mobility harder by makign everything more expensive.
Like everything else star wars related in the last while, it'll be a good to mediocre game of it's genre that heavily trades on the star wars name. All SW titles in the recent past have been this way. Only notable for the franchise tie in. Republic comando is a good but nto exceptional FPs, Galactic Battlegrounds is a okay but boringly repatetive C&C style RTS, then a hodge poge of bland action games. The onyl notabel exception is lego star wars which is amazingly fun and interesting. I suspect a Wii SW licence games will be mostly boring and gimmicky.
They elected a former oil exec and his CEO. Who then proceeded to fill the coffers of the company they once ran and started a war that looked like it was base don oil. You can't tell me they will not eventually get some benifit from this. I can imagine numerous and expensive speakign engagements in Bush and Cheneys future paid for by haliburton.
The current admin has as much conflict of interest as gates would. I don't hear washington screaming for impeechment yet.
A sales tax is regressive, since the less you make the higher % of it you must spend to live. Rebates and what not will complicate things and will not change one wit the group that pays the majority fo the Tax now. The middle class. A consumption tax does nothing because the rich don't often spend like idiots like th elowe rmiddle class does. A major market for things like sean jean, SUVs, "luxury goods" is the lower class trying to buy economic respect. Undoubtly their principal cash cow is the upper middle class but a sales tax does almost nothing except making escaping taxation easier for the rich, harder for the poor and the same for the middle class.
Also the top % of america doesn't often pay much tax. There are enough loopholes that the seriously rich make a pitiful overall contribution. The majority fo the tax burden is carried by the middle and upper middle class. The upper and lower class either pay little or are such a minority that they do nto contribute significantly.
I wouldn't argue about Sony. They have made some significant blunders. But I think we're a bit harder on them for inane reasons. The price of the 20 gb ps3 is almost exactly the same as the PS2 in Canada when adjusted for inflation. Part of the price criticism is actually a weak US dollar compared to the Yen/Yuan. The Ps3 isn't that bad. Although I'd prefer it with rumble, with a ps2 memcard slot instead of the CF/SD/memstick ports. Otherwise it isn't too bad. I actually have a Ps3, DS and a Wii. Ninty got most of those features right although the shallowness fo the current library is disconcerting for a "mediumcore" player like myself. I have a fairly modest amount of time to spend on games but like my games deep and full of story. Like FF tactics, disgea etc... So far ninty has given me minigames and odd control experiments. so I got a PS3 and am holding my breath for MGS4/FFXIII while playign my exstensive back library of ps2 games on the PS3.
I have to sigh everytime a sony exec speaks and puts his foot in his mouth. Even this whole "home" thing isnt' that exciting. They dont' seem to have a good plan although it seems to be a good product. I think the product is good. They just need to shut up. Stay the course they set and throw some neat features at us. The PSP downloadable games are neat. The Ps1 games comign are good. They just need to shut up and develope. It's when marketroids geta microphone that sony completely fucks themselves.
I like the Ps3, I like the wii. I hope neither of them lose. I'm indifferent to the 360.
Actually I was a die hard Nintendo guy. I dispised Sonic and played every FF/Dragon quest/megaman game I could get my hands on.
Can't say support from EA and Activision will mean much. Sports sequels and repatative comic licence games? I'd liek Square/enix, konami, capcom, namco, and bioware throw their hat in. I prefer if EA and Activision go bankrupt tommorow.
You don't know the back story. Nintendo has the arrogance thing too, and earlier. Remember Nintendo circa SNES/NES. Tyranical ball busters. The Wii's a hit and soon they will go back to that. Don't forget they are a business. They aren't cut elittle mario. They will play hardball. Who knows maybe Chris had three meetings. Sony is shitting themselves because they're falling behind so they kissed his ass and asked politely for spore to use there cell chip like a $2 whore. MS needs help keeping up as well so they kissed his ass and asked spore be multiplayer with rockets. Nintendo thought their back in the SNES/NES days and told him they'd licence him if they would just let them sleep with Chris's wife. Who knows.
Lets do a CND comparison since I'm in canada
PS2 was $459 ($536.87 after inflation) at launch PS3 is $549 for the 20gb.
It seems very close. Remember that the Us dollar has taken a huge tumble in the last 4 years. The Us number don't line up that well. Partly because our dollar is stronger against the yen now then before and the US dollar is weaker. so while inflation did not explian the price difference, a weaker US dollar does.
You could get a decent 1500 computer at that time with a GeForce mx card and a modest amount of ram on a p4 1.8 ghz. In fact that is what I spent on my white box circa 2001. Less if yrou willing to god with cheaper parts (celeron/less ram).
You know, another highly successful company is similiar. Blizzard brings nothing to orignal to the table but is widely successful. Innovation is not the key to success. It's a mixed bag of polish, hype, FUD, marketting, production management etc... Sony hasn't done a great job but the PS1 was a great product the PS2 was over promised but again was a good product (comparison to dreamcast are often wrong on technical details. It is a stronger machine btu has weak points which DC did not.)
Tiem will tell. Sony did stumble a lot but they're a big faceless borderline evil company just like MS and the big N. Remember Nintendo was a tyranical licencer too and Ms has a lot of their own skeletons. Choose your evil.
Six Hundred Dollars.
Is there anything here that you can't get for less than $600 elsewhere?
Blu-ray
PS3 games (Restistance/MGS4/FFXIII)
Cell processor that can be a 60 gb Linux machine with built in wi-fi
It's not as bad as people say, it's nto as good as astroturfers scream. It's simply a product. It's some pros, some cons. Time will tell if it works as a product.
You have no garentees with corporations. No more garentee that MS will not drop Live if it becomes economically unfeasible. No more garentee that Nintnedo will drop the Wii channels if they become troublesome (porn on Wii).
There are obviously more games and online services for a PC than a Playstation, and these days a PC is cheaper. You can quickly hook up a notebook to an HD TV and a joystick of your choice and have a similar experience to PS3. You can disable net access, uninstall most of built in programs and enable autoplay to run games when a disk is inserted if you are concerned about ease of use.
Game consoles really made sense when they were at least 3 times cheaper than a PC, for people who couldn't afford a regular computer, or a second computer for kids. Perhaps Nintendo Wii is still in that league.
By your rationale the PS2 and xbox must have been abysmal failures. They weren't 3 times cheaper then PC's at the same time. Consoles big advantage is uniformity of developing platform and a large install base. PC gaming is distinctly different as well. Drastically different styles of games most of the time.
$600 is the current and near future price. This "feature" will be on after the price drops. It gives those who bought a ps3 a post hoc justification for their purchase. It adds value to their brand.
Can you explain how knowledge retention acts as a selective pressure?
The more someone can remember, the more that they can be taught or learn from their mistakes. Ate a poison ivy plan, got sick. Avoid those distinctively leafy plants. Ate a tomatoe plant, got sick. Avoid tomatoe greens. The more you can remember, the less likely you'll eat poisonous plants. The seldctive pressure is obvious. As well our inclination to listen to our elders balanced by our need to rebel plays a balance at food exploration and poison avoidance. The most expendible portion of the human race is the one most liekly to try new things. They are our testers. If they die the others will find the body and likely note down what he might have ate. If they can Id it they teach that to the others. The more you can retaint he more likely you'll avoid that plant.
If an organism encounters a brand new plant that it's never seen before, and has never ever heard anything about it, how does it know whether or not its poisonous? It wouldn't. And for an explorative, risk-taking animal like a chimpanzee or human, they are going to encounter a lot more poisons than a picky, grazing animal with a good sense of smell such as an antelope.
The majority of humanity wouldn't eat it. the reckless teens will try it in small quantities. IF they die their cohorts and elders will eventually figure out why and it becomes cultural knowledge.
"Drug culture" permeates all of human activity. From drinking tea and coffee in the morning, to drinking beer and wine on the evening and weekends, to taking medicines when you get sick, all people everywhere take drugs on a daily basis.
If you've done any cultural studies you find it seem heavily anecdotal. Eat something once, got sick avoid it and spread the word. Someone dies, find a cause (right or wrong) spread the knowledge. The true is the same for medicinal plants. eat X, feel better. Spread the word (right or wrong). It's a nice romantic "arts school" idea that psychodelic drugs shaped intelligence but I don't think there is much support for that. Also veyr little seperates use fromt he animals and it's more cumilative knowledge and desterity then any fundemental biological difference outside of our thumbs.
Warcraft 3/D2/SC (battle.net)? Guild wars?
Although battlenet just arranges for match making and assigns a random "host" if it's not custom maps. Peer Hosting. But most people don't know that or can't even tell. Guild wars provides free servers.
I'm willing to go along with your theory, but you don't say what the selective pressure specifically was, other than that there was some. You have effectively said nothing other than "Human consciousness and intelligence evolved."
I did specify "knowledge retention". The only significant difference between you and a monkey of dolphin is very dexstrous opposible thumbs and a very deep pool of inherited non genetic information (civilization). Human consciousness or intelligence isn't a good distinction since we don't know if chimps talk about religion or what not and it's a piss poor qualifier since the majority of humanity hardly has all the "reason" or "intelligence" that early 19th century wing nut used as the difference between us and the animals.
Plenty of other mammals on the Africa lived basically the same life as early humans -- hunting, foraging, living in intimate groups. For example, elephants, gorillas, baboons, chimpanzees, bonobos. Why are we the smartest?
Dextrous opposible thumbs, and inherited culture/knowledge. Aside from those we have verified that those animal you outlined have a lot of the "mental" traits we associate with people. Chimps can use tools, elephants have religion and society, etc.. The major difference is we have very dextrous hands while even chimps don't have as much control as us and we've build upon 4000+ years of human knowledge.
My contention was that the selective pressure was plant toxins that our non-humans encountered in their foraging activities. If you're going to take risks and try eating new plants while strolling in the woods, the person who was able to get themself through a bad trip ( which is a sure bet when you're eating random plants ) without getting themselves killed would have increased reproductive success.
Which is ridicoulous. Avoiding those plants would convey a more significant advantage then being able to weather the trip. And if you have dipped into the drug culture you'll find the intelligent and un intelligent will both be hugging each other and saying retarded things to each other on Exstacy. There is no functional difference. It depends more on your resistance to drugs as opposed to your intelligence.
Just like the liver and the kidneys separate toxins from poisons, my contention is that a healthy mind separates reality from fantasy. Reality comes from our senses, and fantasy comes from poisonous plants and the malfunctionings of our minds.
And my contention is your idea is ridicoulous and betrays a lack of information on biology. What is a healthy mind? Does it have a genetic basis? is it 50/50 enviromental/gentic? does it give any advantage to plant poisons like death cap? The answer is 1- we don't really know 2- some slight correlation 3- likely 4- no. You have nothin man.
Finding food sources perhaps. But being "self aware" is pretty independant of mild plant toxins. I think your dipping your pen a little too deeply into the "arts college" mentality. From a bachlors of science genetics/compsci perspective it would be more likely that there was a progressive selection for extra thought capacity and eventually we got the to this slightly insane monkey that your surrounded by. Likely partly through plant differentiation. Being smart enough to tell what is a button mushroom and what is a deaths cap mushroom is a easy way to have a selective edge. Being able to teach it to your children and other relatives is better and being able to analyze it to derive narcotics to do various medicinal stuff is better still.
The counter-Veblen effect. People believe get what you pay for. If you are asked to pay 0 they assume must be a reason. Either it is illegal, there are strings, or the product is so bad it has a value of 0. Silyl isn't it. If I just wrap up linux in a $300 gold plated box anc charge 350 for it they'd buy in droves.
If I was Blizzard, and was considering making a World of Starcraft (or world of Diablo)
MMORPG players are essentially the same lot of people. Very few new players are added to that pool and the last addition was Blizzard loyalists for WOW. Addign a SC MMORPG would canabilize their subscirbers base more then add to it. They'd be smarter to release a RTS. Having 2 compellign products int he same space just weakens their individual positions.
There is a Warhammer Fantasy MMOG currently under development.
I thought it was already released and was massively successful. Kiddign aside WOW occupies so much fo the same space (for obvious reasons) that a MMOG based on warhammer seems redundant.