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In the future, poor people will never win at video games. A new edition of EA's popular Battlefield game series will be free online, unless you want to buy weapons and other upgrades. Just as in World of Warcraft (where busy players sometimes hire people to level up their characters), people who can pay more will have a better chance of winning, except this time the cheating is officially sanctioned. (Naturally, South Korea has been doing this for four years.) Sorry poors, but gaming is now like the real world, where winning means having the most money.

Sure, maybe it's five to twenty bucks now, and it's just one game. But once Battlefield makes loads of cash in an increasingly competitive market, especially with the support of casual gamers who play for free and hardcore gamers who buy every upgrade, the model will spread, and soon your neighbor will be signing a record deal because he spent so much on Rock Band upgrades that he's technically equivalent to Bono, and you'll be in your dank little basement losing at Oregon Trail because you can't afford medical bills for your dysentery.