I believe he's serious. He replied to my post on a separate thread with this argument.

I'm not the primary user of the PS3 (it's already updated when I use it) so I don't know the details of the time differences, but if it's 2-5 hours a year, that isn't a big deal. People often value money over time, and rarely think into things like opportunity cost. Lump patch time with hidden costs, if you must, as I've rarely heard complaints about it.

Anyway, what Xen said will usually take care of the problem. Also, plenty of kids (no salary) use HD consoles. Take it as an easy way for putting the kids to work!

Exactly that.... I saw it too.

Where did the old Squilliam go? This bitter-sounding, unfunny Squilliam is far less entertaining

Oh I know there is inklings of truth in his post, Squil rarely post pure frabrication, even when he is attempting to be humorous.

His usually approach is to start with a valid argument, then bend it until it becomes absurd enough to be unbelievable to most people with common sense (that's the hook my man!)

I respect him enough to believe that he knows that this valid argument is only for a very very minor subtype and that for the vast majority of consumers this is not the case.

Not your best work Squilliam...

I often choose to take the lower cost option for many things because the out of pocket expenses are less. And at this point in life I have more disposable time than I have disposable money. If at some point in the future I have an excess of disposable money and I feel like I'm running short of time to fit in everything I need and want to do, and I'm still gaming to any significant degree, then I might possibly look into this argument again.

Also my leisure time has no monetary value. Time is only money if you can actually exchange it for a monetary or other material reward. By definition leisure time is time you are unwilling to exchange for monetary or material reward. What you are exchanging your leisure time for is relaxation or fun or stress relief or sex. The additional time a free PSN service may use up over XBL is only problematic if it reduces the reward you are wanting to obtain from your leisure time. Any given time deficit for which PSN is responsible can be used for other leisure purposes, even if in any one instance it only amounts to 1 minute, like: making a cup of tea, or eating a biscuit, or having a quick snog then getting back to gaming (or rather having a slightly longer snog than you would if you were doing something comparable on XBL, so when it comes to snogging PSN actually provides for greater pleasure), or replying to logically flawed threads on web forums.

Time consumption on PSN is only problematic if the only leisure activity you derive any pleasure from is gaming. And all you do is sit staring at your TV screen watching the green bar slowly fill up. If that's the case then you are a rather sad individual.

Sorry Squill, I respect you and all but on this subject you have failed to provide a convincingly comprehensive argument in support of your assertion. But it was a good starting point to stimulate philosophical musings.

If you count it that way everyone would eats daily in the restaurant because the cooking time they spend in the kitchen plus the food cost plus energy would be more then going to a restaurant. Or everyone would need some people which make laundry for them and clean the appartment. Most people cant work as much as they want or get not enough money so its not a real factor this would apply to people which earn atleast 30 dollar oper hour and more AND can work as much as they want and get paid for it because then it would be really a waste of money. I know people dont cook clean their houses or travel by longer distances by car because it would be a waste of money. But 95% of all people are not like this even if they earn more then 30 dollar after taxes an hour if they are not allowed to work as much as they want and get paid for it. Even then it would be a bad buisness. You have to divide the whole time in the year 24*365/yearly income so even for example you earn 25000 Dollar a year after taxes and insurance your hour is just worth 2 Dollar and 80 Cent so your calculation makes ONLY sense if you earn more then triple that so you have to earn 80000 Dollar per year after taxes only in that case the time you have to invest into PSN more would be as worthy as the Xbox Live fee. And even then it is just equal cost. But in this case the time you spend for gaming would be so much money. For example you play 400 hours a year for the same price you could go a week to Hawaii. But you could also pay someone 30 Dollar for example the gardener so he would update always everything on your ps3 and you would have safed even additional 6 hours so Xbox Live would be even more expensive.

For example (you earn 10 Dollar per hour thats 88000 Dollar a year) Xbox Live would cost you 50 Dollar per year and 60 Dollar per year for installing updates thats 110 Dollar. PSN would cost you 110 Dollar for updates, So it would be equal. But you could spend those 50 Dollar which you dont use for Xbox Live fee to pay some of your employees. Au Pair or a women for the laundry is standard if your get this money. So you pay your employee 50 Dollars for updating your PS3. SO you wouldnt loose 110 Dollar for Updating anymore but spend 50 Dollar for updating total cost for PSN is 50 Dollar Total cost for Xboxlive is still 110 Dollar. Even if you would pay 30 Dollar for updating your Xbox you would have spend 80 Dollar a year so it would be still more expensive then PSN. And i bet your employees would do it even for free. Xbox Live is ALWAYS more expensive then PSN.

Seriously, hope you don't take offense but your humour is probably more dry than the drought stricken outback. You're the first average joe Kiwi I've had the pleasure of knowing with such tinder dry humour, I could mistake you for a Pom of all thing!

And you like Wheel of Time too Dammit! Just who the hell do you think you are? :P

I never made this as a joke, I just wanted to put this idea out there. Seriously its more interesting than a lot of topics which get repeated like 1,000,000 times.

WTF...there's a flaw with PSN?
I'd better cancel my subscription.
oh wait