A Grain Of Truth
on
Pornified
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Actually there is a little grain of truth in there. While there have not been any technological breakthroughs that I am aware of that were driven by porn, personal observation indicates that new web technologies tend to be adopted earliest by porn sites as a group. So porn may not drive innovation, but does seem to drive adoption. This encompasses everything from using Javascript in clever ways to serve images (or nastier stuff) to using Flash for page elements and attempts to make it hard to steal site content easily. There are a lot of tricks porn sites use for good or ill, that often eventually find their way to mainstream sites.
Patent retaliation? Excuse me while I choke... This sounds like a really bad idea. I understand the frustration and anger that the software patent mess has given rise to, but isn't the GPL about freedom? To this point, the language of the GPL is largely positive, but adding patent retaliatory language pushes the GPL closer to the very dark side that its supporters often rail against. Such language can only hurt the adoption of OSS and the GPL.
Arguments about transaction costs and whether these are truly micropayments aside, I guess now is the time to bring out the goods. Your garage band mp3's, artwork, games, whatever. This might make setting up a bazaar like those in online games like Final Fantasy XI something worthwhile. The bonus is that digital goods never need to be replenished. Hmmm, sounds like a new project for the coming weekend!
Once again this reveals that the real source of Microsoft's wealth and power is actually Office and not Windows. When organizations start to get away from Office, they soon discover that they can escape Windows too. If the state of MA is serious and not just using the threat of OpenDocument to get cheaper licenses for MS Office, then it won't be long before they discover that they can save some more money by moving to Linux rather than having to upgrade thousands of computers to run Windows Vista once MS drops support for earlier versions of Windows.
As we move into a post PC era, large accounts like government organizations will become even more important to Microsoft as the consumer business begins to shrink. So they're going to fight very hard to keep Office in play. So expect a really sweet licensing deal for MA. The funny thing is that MS Office is still a strong enough brand that even if they supported OpenDocument, it probably wouldn't cost them a lot of Office sales and it would avoid the true losses that a hardline stand seems guaranteed to result in. Maybe Gates will realize this and step in...
Well to quote Uncle Jed, weeeellllll doggies! That's a lot of units. As with most successful things, prepare for loads of imitators and maybe even a new peripheral from Sony. Though I suspect a similar game could be created using the eye toy.
Historically, the Chinese Communist government has always taken action against any group or anything that gains a significant following. Anything that can compell thousands, if not millions of people to do something is a threat to government power. Online games currently have such a following in China. Not only that, as mentioned by one person in the article, they also provide an avenue for contact with people outside of China. Together, these things are a serious problem for the government. The recent uproar over GTA and the death of the South Korean player gave perfect cover to the government to crack down on something that might be a threat to their authority.
Forget about going head to head with EA, or Ubisoft! If I can just make beer money with little flash games, I'll be quite happy. Seriously, with little overhead and some quirky, addictive games, the small timer can do quite well picking up quarters that the EA's cannot really afford to reach. That's what I mean by conquering the world one pixel at a time. Now if I could just get those titles finished!
I think things are going to rough until good middleware emerges maybe 6 to 12 months after the 360 launches. The PS2 was difficult to get a handle on at first too, but eventually developers got it as their knowledge and tools improved. It's really a big open question though as to whether the 360 and the PS3 could have been designed to be easier to develop for and have greater performance potential. It will be interesting to see how hard or easy the Revolution will be to develop for, but I think from here on out, most developers will be more dependent than ever on smart and capable middleware. Oh, that middleware is really going to be expensive too!
Hopefully, a year after launch we'll all be complaining about all of the sequels and ports on the 360 rather than glitches and buggy games!
The patent is a pretty fun read actually, which makes me wonder if they put this through as more of a joke than something serious. I can imagine the listed inventors sitting around talking about the game and someone suggesting somewhat flippantly that they see if they can patent their sanity system. To a company like Nintendo, the cost of the patent process is insignificant and heck, they must do something to keep up with their famous Redmond neighbor in the patent race.
I love this part from the patent,
The human mind is a somewhat fragile control system. When circumstances beyond imagination are encountered, the brain must attempt to deal with the improbable and impossible as reality. Sometimes it is just too much for the individual to handle. In these instances, insanity may take hold of the individual, temporarily disabling or forcing the person into a catatonic state.
I wonder if the state of the current patent system is one of those circumstances mentioned...
This move makes sense from the standpoint of smoothing the transition to Intel chips. It may mean additional challenges for Apple's support personnel, but the bottom line is that Apple's typical customer doesn't care what chips are in the box as long as Macs act like Macs and iPods act like iPods, etc... Apple managed the transition to PPC pretty well, so there is a good chance that they'll be okay going to Intel, afterall, there isn't any big rush to do this that I've heard about.
Hmmm, I guess this rural outsourcing could work as long as there's electricity, plumbing, and high speed internet access. The main thing that would concern me personally about living in a rural region is the fact that as a minority, I might not be too welcome. But heck, I'm not that wild about hob knobbing with the neighbors anyway, so if the nearest is miles away, well so what? I prefer the big city for its excitement and diversity, but small towns have their charms too. A bunch of tech people moving out there can only make this better, right?
There's a lot of talk here about on the job training and CS programs responsibilities, etc.. But it occurs to me that this sort of problem will always exist as long as we have to rely on mortal human beings to maintain systems. Isn't it about time to turn this sort of thing over to artificial intelligences? Yeah I know the technology for this is not quite there yet, but imagine the elegance of AIs running on the latest generation of hardware taking care of their parents and grandparents so to speak.
There are good reasons to maintain old mainframe systems (usually involving time and money), but given the reluctance of humans to pursue such careers, automation may be the best bet.
I'm no Nintendo fanboy, but I cannot help but wonder if Xbox 360 and PS3 are going to price themselves right out of the market and give Nintendo a big win in the next console round. It's not just the cost of the console and the games themselves. As others have mentioned, the next gen offerings from MS and Sony are going to be relatively difficult and expensive to develop for. This could leave the door wide open for Nintendo to become the console of choice for the great middle swath of developers that don't have the resources to develop on the other machines, whose high prices may result in smaller market penetration.
If Nintendo plays the price game right, wooing consumers with a capable low cost and easy to understand (no multiple models here) console, and wooing developers with an easy and cheaper to develop for console, they could win the round.
I know that the new generation of consoles usually have more expensive launch prices, but it seems that something is different about this launch. It's taking place against the backdrop of a relatively sluggish economy in the major console markets, high energy prices, and each major console manufacturer facing financial difficulties or at least reduced profits. That makes me believe that we won't see a fast drop off in prices after launch as has been the case in the past. And some major publishers have invested a lot of money in either securing exclusive sports licenses and/or buying out the competition. In short, no one will be in a hurry to lower prices.
If Nintendo plays this right, they could win. And I can think of no company more desperate to get back to the top of the gaming heap than the big N.
Wow! I think the 72000 prescriptions disturbs and riles me up more than the spam. We're talking about one greedy twisted doctor here. I only wonder how many more like this are out there yet to be caught. I wonder if this guy was any good with his patients or really just in medicine for the money, which I guess obviously just wasn't enough!
All I can say is thank you again OS/2! If Microsoft had not felt a real threat from OS/2 which at the time was starting to show some signs of life, if not on its own merits but its ability to run Windows apps more stably, Windows 95 would not have come out as it did. I don't know if a less rushed Windows 95 would have been better or not, but it is funny looking back to think that only now with Windows 2K and XP are there Windows desktop solutions that rival the ancient OS/2 in stability and features. Though I still miss the Workplace Shell.
It might seem a little weird right now, but small steps like this will probably hasten the day that far more capable robots become generally available. It also prepares a future market by getting people accustomed to these mechanical devices. Besides, the Japanese still save too much money, stuff like this can only be good for the economy there!;-)
w00t! Now I can sit on the couch and surf the web on my PSP with Sony's blessing. I must say that when I bought my PSP a few days ago, the 2.0 update was one of the main things I was waiting for. While I don't really care much for convergence devices, I was attracted by the prospect of doing things with the PSP that take advantage of its great video display other than games.
Ugh! Are they crazy? It looks like Xbox 360 is going to price its way right out of many living rooms. There's no way I'm paying $600-$700 for this. Where is the market they seem to be aiming for? What launch games will justify this? And quite honestly, what is the current Xbox not doing that is going to make people go out and buy a much much more expensive console without a lot of games? This bundling madness has got to stop or else it's going to put a real damper on the launch much like expensive bundles did for the PSP launch.
Well maybe doomed is too strong, but they really haven't made their lives easier with 2 models at launch. As far as developers are concerned, the hard drive might as well not exist. As others have noted and as has been the case in console history, most developers will not develop for hardware that is not standard on the system. The lack of a hard drive standard on all systems puts them back on level with the PS3. That coupled with questionable backwards compatibility, means that Xbox 360 is a new system going head to head with the PS3. The probability of success drops considerably when looked at that way. How can the 360 out-PS3 the PS3?
Microsoft knows all of this already, so what must their game plan be? Assuming that despite all of the hype, that the 360 and the PS3 are equally powerful, then how does MS win? Microsoft's greatest strength has been being able to provide developers with the tools they need to make the best of Microsoft platforms. If MS can make the 360 drop dead easy to exploit, then it can do well despite the lack of a standard hard drive. Ease of development was one of the things that propelled the original Playstation to dominance.
In the end, I think that dropping the standard hd signals a true break with the 1st gen Xbox. MS learned some tough lessons, and now I think they're wiping the board clean and starting over. That may have been the plan from the start. This sounds a bit like the typical Microsoft bets the whole company sort of strategy. Which is not too far from the truth entering a post PC period when MS cannot depend upon shipping more and more copies of Office and Windows. It's funny that Sony's life also depends more and more on a games console as well.
A nice little read. But this just tells us what we already knew, it's gonna be a do fight baaaaaaabyyyyy! And that can only means good things for gamers. Even the Dreamcast had some nice games in its ultimately losing effort. So I think we're gonna see some really interesting stuff coming out of Japan on Xbox 360. Some have said here and elsewhere that the Japanese will never embrace a foreign console, but I don't think it's that simple. The impression I have is that the Japanese like new things that are cool whether they come from Japan or not. That's why Nintendo and Sony, for example, would even bother with so many variations on their consoles (special editions, etc.) that come out in Japan but generally do not make it to the U.S.. And that's why there are a million and one cell phone models in Japan, and so on. In Japan, companies have to keep things fresh and new to stay in the game. If the Xbox 360 can deliver fresh, new Japanese games that people will want to play, then they have a shot. They may not take down Sony and Nintendo, but a really strong showing would be as good as a win in the land of the rising Sun.
This isn't really any big surprise. Microsoft Office became the defacto standard a long time ago, so not using Office automatically puts you out of step with the majority of businesses. Even if StarOffice and OpenOffice had 100% compatibility, they would still not be Microsoft Office. Whether by ethical means or not, Microsoft won the market, so until such time as PCs are no longer in use or we no longer need tools like Microsoft Office, competitors don't stand a chance no matter how good they are. Indeed, Windows itself is not the secret of Microsoft's power, that would be Office.
It would be a big mistake for MS to launch the 360 with multiple versions. I don't think that there has ever been a successful console that launched with more than one version/price point. Now if they want to launch with different colored models, that's fine, but if they start monkeying around with the inclusion of the HD, then they'll be giving the game back to Sony. Honestly, the HD and Xbox Live are the Xbox's only advantages over the Playstation 2. Look at how poorly the PS2 HD add-on fared, and the promises of support that Sony itself broke. If the HD is not standard in all 360s, then it will fail as well, putting 360 on the same level as the PS3.
In the console world, the launch is a one shot deal. Whatever comes out at launch is what is going to be supported. Enhancements and redesigns may come later in the console's life, but that base model that rolled out on day one is the one that gets full support by developers. Splitting the market on day one would be very foolish.
Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer printed text books to eBooks any day. I think that one way this is likely to play out is someone will figure out a way to crack and then print out the pages of these electronic textbooks. Why? To have a nonvolatile completely portable version of the book that doesn't need electrical power and never crashes. Naturally this will be shared with friends.
Given the current globalization of software development, our concerns about the ethnic distribution of game developers simply doesn't matter anymore. Those game development jobs will have fully escaped U.S. borders by the time the kids playing now (many minorities) are old enough to apply for the development or design positions. With that in mind, effort would be better spent trying to figure out how to make better games no matter who develops them. With each generation of new hardware we see what's possible make a great leap forward, but so far I haven't really seen very much new and different in the games themselves. Of course I know very well that this a difficult task at best regardless of what color you are!
Exactly, the truly dedicated/addicted could always get around system imposed limits which would have the potential of interfering with gameplay. So like the epileptic seizure issue, all that can really be done is give people some good advice and hope they will take it.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually there is a little grain of truth in there. While there have not been any technological breakthroughs that I am aware of that were driven by porn, personal observation indicates that new web technologies tend to be adopted earliest by porn sites as a group. So porn may not drive innovation, but does seem to drive adoption. This encompasses everything from using Javascript in clever ways to serve images (or nastier stuff) to using Flash for page elements and attempts to make it hard to steal site content easily. There are a lot of tricks porn sites use for good or ill, that often eventually find their way to mainstream sites.
Patent retaliation? Excuse me while I choke... This sounds like a really bad idea. I understand the frustration and anger that the software patent mess has given rise to, but isn't the GPL about freedom? To this point, the language of the GPL is largely positive, but adding patent retaliatory language pushes the GPL closer to the very dark side that its supporters often rail against. Such language can only hurt the adoption of OSS and the GPL.
Arguments about transaction costs and whether these are truly micropayments aside, I guess now is the time to bring out the goods. Your garage band mp3's, artwork, games, whatever. This might make setting up a bazaar like those in online games like Final Fantasy XI something worthwhile. The bonus is that digital goods never need to be replenished. Hmmm, sounds like a new project for the coming weekend!
Once again this reveals that the real source of Microsoft's wealth and power is actually Office and not Windows. When organizations start to get away from Office, they soon discover that they can escape Windows too. If the state of MA is serious and not just using the threat of OpenDocument to get cheaper licenses for MS Office, then it won't be long before they discover that they can save some more money by moving to Linux rather than having to upgrade thousands of computers to run Windows Vista once MS drops support for earlier versions of Windows.
As we move into a post PC era, large accounts like government organizations will become even more important to Microsoft as the consumer business begins to shrink. So they're going to fight very hard to keep Office in play. So expect a really sweet licensing deal for MA. The funny thing is that MS Office is still a strong enough brand that even if they supported OpenDocument, it probably wouldn't cost them a lot of Office sales and it would avoid the true losses that a hardline stand seems guaranteed to result in. Maybe Gates will realize this and step in...
Well to quote Uncle Jed, weeeellllll doggies! That's a lot of units. As with most successful things, prepare for loads of imitators and maybe even a new peripheral from Sony. Though I suspect a similar game could be created using the eye toy.
Historically, the Chinese Communist government has always taken action against any group or anything that gains a significant following. Anything that can compell thousands, if not millions of people to do something is a threat to government power. Online games currently have such a following in China. Not only that, as mentioned by one person in the article, they also provide an avenue for contact with people outside of China. Together, these things are a serious problem for the government. The recent uproar over GTA and the death of the South Korean player gave perfect cover to the government to crack down on something that might be a threat to their authority.
Forget about going head to head with EA, or Ubisoft! If I can just make beer money with little flash games, I'll be quite happy. Seriously, with little overhead and some quirky, addictive games, the small timer can do quite well picking up quarters that the EA's cannot really afford to reach. That's what I mean by conquering the world one pixel at a time. Now if I could just get those titles finished!
I think things are going to rough until good middleware emerges maybe 6 to 12 months after the 360 launches. The PS2 was difficult to get a handle on at first too, but eventually developers got it as their knowledge and tools improved. It's really a big open question though as to whether the 360 and the PS3 could have been designed to be easier to develop for and have greater performance potential. It will be interesting to see how hard or easy the Revolution will be to develop for, but I think from here on out, most developers will be more dependent than ever on smart and capable middleware. Oh, that middleware is really going to be expensive too!
Hopefully, a year after launch we'll all be complaining about all of the sequels and ports on the 360 rather than glitches and buggy games!
The patent is a pretty fun read actually, which makes me wonder if they put this through as more of a joke than something serious. I can imagine the listed inventors sitting around talking about the game and someone suggesting somewhat flippantly that they see if they can patent their sanity system. To a company like Nintendo, the cost of the patent process is insignificant and heck, they must do something to keep up with their famous Redmond neighbor in the patent race.
I love this part from the patent,
The human mind is a somewhat fragile control system. When circumstances beyond imagination are encountered, the brain must attempt to deal with the improbable and impossible as reality. Sometimes it is just too much for the individual to handle. In these instances, insanity may take hold of the individual, temporarily disabling or forcing the person into a catatonic state.
I wonder if the state of the current patent system is one of those circumstances mentioned...
This move makes sense from the standpoint of smoothing the transition to Intel chips. It may mean additional challenges for Apple's support personnel, but the bottom line is that Apple's typical customer doesn't care what chips are in the box as long as Macs act like Macs and iPods act like iPods, etc... Apple managed the transition to PPC pretty well, so there is a good chance that they'll be okay going to Intel, afterall, there isn't any big rush to do this that I've heard about.
Hmmm, I guess this rural outsourcing could work as long as there's electricity, plumbing, and high speed internet access. The main thing that would concern me personally about living in a rural region is the fact that as a minority, I might not be too welcome. But heck, I'm not that wild about hob knobbing with the neighbors anyway, so if the nearest is miles away, well so what? I prefer the big city for its excitement and diversity, but small towns have their charms too. A bunch of tech people moving out there can only make this better, right?
[pop open the bubbly for post 500]
There's a lot of talk here about on the job training and CS programs responsibilities, etc.. But it occurs to me that this sort of problem will always exist as long as we have to rely on mortal human beings to maintain systems. Isn't it about time to turn this sort of thing over to artificial intelligences? Yeah I know the technology for this is not quite there yet, but imagine the elegance of AIs running on the latest generation of hardware taking care of their parents and grandparents so to speak.
There are good reasons to maintain old mainframe systems (usually involving time and money), but given the reluctance of humans to pursue such careers, automation may be the best bet.
I'm no Nintendo fanboy, but I cannot help but wonder if Xbox 360 and PS3 are going to price themselves right out of the market and give Nintendo a big win in the next console round. It's not just the cost of the console and the games themselves. As others have mentioned, the next gen offerings from MS and Sony are going to be relatively difficult and expensive to develop for. This could leave the door wide open for Nintendo to become the console of choice for the great middle swath of developers that don't have the resources to develop on the other machines, whose high prices may result in smaller market penetration.
If Nintendo plays the price game right, wooing consumers with a capable low cost and easy to understand (no multiple models here) console, and wooing developers with an easy and cheaper to develop for console, they could win the round.
I know that the new generation of consoles usually have more expensive launch prices, but it seems that something is different about this launch. It's taking place against the backdrop of a relatively sluggish economy in the major console markets, high energy prices, and each major console manufacturer facing financial difficulties or at least reduced profits. That makes me believe that we won't see a fast drop off in prices after launch as has been the case in the past. And some major publishers have invested a lot of money in either securing exclusive sports licenses and/or buying out the competition. In short, no one will be in a hurry to lower prices.
If Nintendo plays this right, they could win. And I can think of no company more desperate to get back to the top of the gaming heap than the big N.
Wow! I think the 72000 prescriptions disturbs and riles me up more than the spam. We're talking about one greedy twisted doctor here. I only wonder how many more like this are out there yet to be caught. I wonder if this guy was any good with his patients or really just in medicine for the money, which I guess obviously just wasn't enough!
All I can say is thank you again OS/2! If Microsoft had not felt a real threat from OS/2 which at the time was starting to show some signs of life, if not on its own merits but its ability to run Windows apps more stably, Windows 95 would not have come out as it did. I don't know if a less rushed Windows 95 would have been better or not, but it is funny looking back to think that only now with Windows 2K and XP are there Windows desktop solutions that rival the ancient OS/2 in stability and features. Though I still miss the Workplace Shell.
It might seem a little weird right now, but small steps like this will probably hasten the day that far more capable robots become generally available. It also prepares a future market by getting people accustomed to these mechanical devices. Besides, the Japanese still save too much money, stuff like this can only be good for the economy there! ;-)
w00t! Now I can sit on the couch and surf the web on my PSP with Sony's blessing. I must say that when I bought my PSP a few days ago, the 2.0 update was one of the main things I was waiting for. While I don't really care much for convergence devices, I was attracted by the prospect of doing things with the PSP that take advantage of its great video display other than games.
Ugh! Are they crazy? It looks like Xbox 360 is going to price its way right out of many living rooms. There's no way I'm paying $600-$700 for this. Where is the market they seem to be aiming for? What launch games will justify this? And quite honestly, what is the current Xbox not doing that is going to make people go out and buy a much much more expensive console without a lot of games? This bundling madness has got to stop or else it's going to put a real damper on the launch much like expensive bundles did for the PSP launch.
Well maybe doomed is too strong, but they really haven't made their lives easier with 2 models at launch. As far as developers are concerned, the hard drive might as well not exist. As others have noted and as has been the case in console history, most developers will not develop for hardware that is not standard on the system. The lack of a hard drive standard on all systems puts them back on level with the PS3. That coupled with questionable backwards compatibility, means that Xbox 360 is a new system going head to head with the PS3. The probability of success drops considerably when looked at that way. How can the 360 out-PS3 the PS3?
Microsoft knows all of this already, so what must their game plan be? Assuming that despite all of the hype, that the 360 and the PS3 are equally powerful, then how does MS win? Microsoft's greatest strength has been being able to provide developers with the tools they need to make the best of Microsoft platforms. If MS can make the 360 drop dead easy to exploit, then it can do well despite the lack of a standard hard drive. Ease of development was one of the things that propelled the original Playstation to dominance.
In the end, I think that dropping the standard hd signals a true break with the 1st gen Xbox. MS learned some tough lessons, and now I think they're wiping the board clean and starting over. That may have been the plan from the start. This sounds a bit like the typical Microsoft bets the whole company sort of strategy. Which is not too far from the truth entering a post PC period when MS cannot depend upon shipping more and more copies of Office and Windows. It's funny that Sony's life also depends more and more on a games console as well.
A nice little read. But this just tells us what we already knew, it's gonna be a do fight baaaaaaabyyyyy! And that can only means good things for gamers. Even the Dreamcast had some nice games in its ultimately losing effort. So I think we're gonna see some really interesting stuff coming out of Japan on Xbox 360. Some have said here and elsewhere that the Japanese will never embrace a foreign console, but I don't think it's that simple. The impression I have is that the Japanese like new things that are cool whether they come from Japan or not. That's why Nintendo and Sony, for example, would even bother with so many variations on their consoles (special editions, etc.) that come out in Japan but generally do not make it to the U.S.. And that's why there are a million and one cell phone models in Japan, and so on. In Japan, companies have to keep things fresh and new to stay in the game. If the Xbox 360 can deliver fresh, new Japanese games that people will want to play, then they have a shot. They may not take down Sony and Nintendo, but a really strong showing would be as good as a win in the land of the rising Sun.
This isn't really any big surprise. Microsoft Office became the defacto standard a long time ago, so not using Office automatically puts you out of step with the majority of businesses. Even if StarOffice and OpenOffice had 100% compatibility, they would still not be Microsoft Office. Whether by ethical means or not, Microsoft won the market, so until such time as PCs are no longer in use or we no longer need tools like Microsoft Office, competitors don't stand a chance no matter how good they are. Indeed, Windows itself is not the secret of Microsoft's power, that would be Office.
It would be a big mistake for MS to launch the 360 with multiple versions. I don't think that there has ever been a successful console that launched with more than one version/price point. Now if they want to launch with different colored models, that's fine, but if they start monkeying around with the inclusion of the HD, then they'll be giving the game back to Sony. Honestly, the HD and Xbox Live are the Xbox's only advantages over the Playstation 2. Look at how poorly the PS2 HD add-on fared, and the promises of support that Sony itself broke. If the HD is not standard in all 360s, then it will fail as well, putting 360 on the same level as the PS3.
In the console world, the launch is a one shot deal. Whatever comes out at launch is what is going to be supported. Enhancements and redesigns may come later in the console's life, but that base model that rolled out on day one is the one that gets full support by developers. Splitting the market on day one would be very foolish.
Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer printed text books to eBooks any day. I think that one way this is likely to play out is someone will figure out a way to crack and then print out the pages of these electronic textbooks. Why? To have a nonvolatile completely portable version of the book that doesn't need electrical power and never crashes. Naturally this will be shared with friends.
Given the current globalization of software development, our concerns about the ethnic distribution of game developers simply doesn't matter anymore. Those game development jobs will have fully escaped U.S. borders by the time the kids playing now (many minorities) are old enough to apply for the development or design positions. With that in mind, effort would be better spent trying to figure out how to make better games no matter who develops them. With each generation of new hardware we see what's possible make a great leap forward, but so far I haven't really seen very much new and different in the games themselves. Of course I know very well that this a difficult task at best regardless of what color you are!
Exactly, the truly dedicated/addicted could always get around system imposed limits which would have the potential of interfering with gameplay. So like the epileptic seizure issue, all that can really be done is give people some good advice and hope they will take it.