That all sounds very interesting, till you get to this part:

Quote: Originally Posted by Will Wright Soon games will start to build simple models of us, the players. They will learn what we like to do, what we're good at, what interests and challenges us. They will observe us. They will record the decisions we make, consider how we solve problems, and evaluate how skilled we are in various circumstances. Over time, these games will become able to modify themselves to better "fit" each individual.

Does this make anyone else a little uneasy? Sounds like a little too much infomration is being collected by a seemingly innocent piece of gear, but I wonder who could access this infomration to what with it.

Great link, Sorrow!
Foe: ohhh, that is kind of scary.
I liked the article, but i have one bone to pick with it (well, maybe 2 after Foe's Orwellian overtones post ): The article hit one of my soapbox issues, and it looks at it through rose colored glasses:

Now an entire generation has grown up with a different set of games than any before it - and it plays these games in different ways. Just watch a kid with a new videogame. The last thing they do is read the manual. Instead, they pick up the controller and start mashing buttons to see what happens. This isn't a random process; it's the essence of the scientific method. Through trial and error, players build a model of the underlying game based on empirical evidence collected through play. As the players refine this model, they begin to master the game world. It's a rapid cycle of hypothesis, experiment, and analysis. And it's a fundamentally different take on problem-solving than the linear, read-the-manual-first approach of their parents.

I have another take on this: it's called laziness. Not everyone who doesn't read the instruction manual is lazy. For some folks, learning about the controls and the game first hand is part of the joy of the gaming experience: that's perfectly reasonable, and i'm not going to talk trash about those folks.

For some individuals, on the other hand, not reading the manual has nothing to do with a more complete immersion in the game. It's because they're lazy. These are the people who spam chat channels with questions on the most basic information. These are the people who are too damn lazy to pick up the manual and flip a few pages to find the information that they want. These are the people who refuse to heed the advice of other people who tell them where to get the information (whether it's the manual, a database site, or the like), and who want other people to do the work for them.

Now there's nothing wrong with asking questions in game: that's one of the high points of an MMO - interaction with other people. There is, however, something wrong with pestering people to pretty much play the game for you because you know that if you spam the chat channels enough times, somebody will do the work for you and find your answer just to get you to shut the h3ll up. Unfortunately, this is all too common, and in all honesty it's one of the things that keeps my ignore lists alive and well.

I'm not suggesting that the opinions expressed in the article are wrong, only that they're severely myopic with regards to the passage that i quoted above.
If you're one of the folks who skips the manual because you like to learn and figure out on your own - more power to you.
if you're one of the folks who skips the manual because you know that there are other people who have read it, and you plan to get all of your information from them - you SUCK, welcome to /ignore