On the article about black video games avatars "insiting" violence, I would add from personal experience playing a little San Andreas on Xbox that I never felt the things described on the article or your post. I played some of the game while not doing reckless arson or car slaughter and when violence was necessary for a mission, it was as "normal" as I do my shooting in Halo, I never felt like CJ insited me something. Then again, I do sandbox games carefully and try to avoid as much violence as posible, even if it defeats the whole porpuse. At the same time, in Colombia GTA was pretty much a video game staple and mostly what guys (and kids) did was rampage, but it didn't matter which GTA so long as it was GTA.
On the Avatar article describing digital media, I welcome digital as it is handy for things that are hard to buy physically, it's necessary for space porpuse and the warranty (though not exactly aplied to everything....). However, I don't really give up on physical, if only because I like to collect things and the for the cosmetics, though there's also the fact that not everything is online. I'd be also interested in what the future shows.