@hystavito Another place people bring game consoles, is to sci fi conventions to set up at the con's game room. Though most hotels have internet, and wireless, during a large sci fi con, connections get strained and constant internet connectivity is often impossible.
Here's why the console shouldn't require always-on internet. 1. In some areas, especially in some rural communities, stable internet connections are impossible to come by. The console may be impossible to use in entire regions (and these rural areas may only have one or two ISPs). 2. Metered internet. Now we have a console which might cut into people's bandwidth allotment. And even if the amount of data it needs is low, well, no more hogging the game console when one runes out of their data allotment for the month. 3. This is a biggy. If the PS4 doesn't require always on internet, you've just handed Sony a victory for this generation. Basically Sony will use that fact. Microsoft was seen as much more pro-community with the Xbox 360, with encouraging homebrew software development, etc. Now with the possibility of always on internet, Sony could make a point that they're more pro-community than Microsoft.
@EvilShabazz Actually, did the Sandy Hook shooter play violent video games, or video games at all. I heard all the saber rattling about violent video games, but not once heard anything about the shooter's tastes in games, or even if he played games.
For those complaining about digital downloads and being locked out of your games, don't be so sure with digital copies. With the whole DRM thing and game activation, you could easily get just as locked out of your physical copy as you would with a digital download.
As far as microorganisms are concerned, chances are, if any aliens set foot on our planet, most likely their microorganisms won't effect us, and vice versa for a number of reasons. First and foremost, most disease organisms are very species specific. Our diseases co-evolved with us. There are some more generalized microorganisms, but most of these still effects maybe a class of creatures (such as Rabies effecting mammals). Then there are some other problems. Chances are, any aliens are going to have a different chirality than us in their amino acids and sugars. Charality is the orientation of the molecules, often called right handed, or left handed molecules. Chances are, any alien species is going to be "wrong" in at least one aspect of their biochemistry's chirality. Any of their microbes, unless they're extremely flexible in processing molecules of any chirality, would likely die out, since there would be nothing for them to eat (though photosynthetic or chemosynthetic microbes may become a potential invasive species). Aliens which share the same chirality as humans and earth-like would probably be rare, but it would make it more likely earth could end up with invasive species.
When it comes to alien invasion, is aliens are encountered that desire our destruction for some reason, I doubt they're going to ever be seen on the planet's surface. They don't have to be. They could bombard our planet from orbit, or even from further away, and there would be no way for us to retaliate. We may never even know from where the attack came. Hell, they might even not use actual weapons themselves, but stick boosters into asteroids, and ram them into the earth. Or they can launch smaller slugs at significant percentage of the speed of light, turning them into kinetic nukes. Basically, we're hoping that any species out there isn't planning anything, because if they are, there's nothing we can do.
One thing that was mentioned, is the lack of radio transmissions and how quiet things seem. Keep in mind, earth is becoming much quieter and may soon become dead when it comes to human made radio noise. More and more of our transmissions are becoming lower powered, more efficient, and more directional. The radio era may in fact be a relatively short-lived period in a civilization's life, lasting a century or two, before they move in to much more efficient means of transmitting information. It still might be radio based, but at such miniscule power level, that it may be undetectable outside our solar system.
Molag Bal is still a minor deity, so he might know that in some future event, an entity still bearing the same soul as your player character will take his mace.
As an aspiring author, I've thought about cracking down on used book sales, after all, if I had a novel published, I wouldn't be getting any revenue from books sold at second hand bookshops, and places like the Salvation Army. I'd want a cut of second hand sales, just like the game developers. And yeah, I could see publishers doing this for books as well, since when you buy a book, you don't really own the book, you simply purchase the right to read the contents. Oh, public libraries, hmmm, I would love a cut of the library fines from people letting the book go overdue.
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