Now you're pulling a single sentence out of an entire context and dismissing that particular context. That's not how it works.
The next parts of that piece are equally important:
> But what if someone were to find a way to edit the saved games and
assign the items and currency without effort? That would be terrible,
because it would help players consume the content much faster, and therefore
run out of it sooner than expected. If that happens, they will have
nothing that prevents them from thinking, and the tremendous agony of realizing
their own irrelevance would again take over their life.
> No, we definitely do not want that to happen, so let's see how to
encrypt savegames and protect the world order.
Clearly "protect the world order" is hyperbole. It is clearly signalling that none of the above is to be taken literally.
Moreover, the "prevents them from thinking" is another form of signalling. It's meant to say "Think about who you're buying from, and what you're buying into." What is absolutely not meant to say is this: "your experience as a gamer is invalid because you buy into a questionable product/service/business model."
The entire piece is satire. It's self deprecating. Satire asks that the reader takes a step back, self deprecates for a minute... and then reflects on what's actually being said.
The next parts of that piece are equally important:
> But what if someone were to find a way to edit the saved games and assign the items and currency without effort? That would be terrible, because it would help players consume the content much faster, and therefore run out of it sooner than expected. If that happens, they will have nothing that prevents them from thinking, and the tremendous agony of realizing their own irrelevance would again take over their life.
> No, we definitely do not want that to happen, so let's see how to encrypt savegames and protect the world order.
Clearly "protect the world order" is hyperbole. It is clearly signalling that none of the above is to be taken literally.
Moreover, the "prevents them from thinking" is another form of signalling. It's meant to say "Think about who you're buying from, and what you're buying into." What is absolutely not meant to say is this: "your experience as a gamer is invalid because you buy into a questionable product/service/business model."
The entire piece is satire. It's self deprecating. Satire asks that the reader takes a step back, self deprecates for a minute... and then reflects on what's actually being said.