Great post, thank you.

I remembered so many instances (many mentioned in this article) of feeling confined by games. What if I don't want to torture, what if I'd rather let the bad guy go, what if I'd rather do anything other than shoot the final boss 5 times in a puffy orange growth?

While many of these constraints could be technological (how many games could realisticly support thousands of unique interpersonal interactions), I agree with the author in that many of these "boundries" are simply the result of beating something that worked at one time throughly into the ground. Isn't that just the way (mainstream) entertainment works now?

That being said, I think people are begining to expect more from games. Not a shocking statement, I know, but does anyone else remember the outcry at Mass Effect 3's ending? All the choices we agonized over were forced to end in 1 of 3 ways and Tali's face was revealed to be a lazily modified stock photo. The developers decided to release supplemental material to placate their audience. Though the ending remained canned and ersatz, the fact that action was taken could be a good sign.

People here at work are all a buzz about the Nye/Ham debate, but I can't seem to force myself to ride that wave. It's difficult to shake the feeling that each side will be preaching to their respective choir, though I hope I'm wrong and many minds are changed/challenged.

If you prefer women shorter than you because it's physically more comfortable/practical, shouldn't the inverse hold true as well (women preferring men shorter than themselves)?

This is such an interesting topic, I wonder if there is any height preference info on homosexual relationships. I'm going to try and find some.

Very well said. “people have their daily worries about what it will take to get them through the day, the week, the year, the whatever.” This reminds me of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. People are focused on feeding their children, keeping a roof over their heads etc. If they do find some time to think critically there’s a bevy of groups/corporations just waiting to pump them full of toxic misinformation.

This is not to mention the fact that many under-class people are disenfranchised or simply don’t vote, though I have heard that is slowly changing.

(Anecdotally, growing up in government housing I can recall the popular consensus being that it’s pointless to vote because “they’re all crooks anyway.”)

Well said.

I spent last night checking out the Soviet Propaganda...amazing. Thank you for the recommendation.

How bad do things have to get here before people stop coming do you suppose?

Here's an interesting article about the slowing of Mexican immigration: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/us/mexican-immigration-to-...

From the article.... "The report presents a striking change from earlier findings by the Pew Hispanic Center on the number of Mexicans who have been returning to their country. While earlier Pew studies said the data did not show any exodus, the report published Monday includes new data from the 2010 Mexican census revealing that about twice as many Mexicans returned home from 2005 to 2010 than in the previous five years. In all, about 1.4 million people moved from the United States to Mexico in that time, the Mexican census showed"