Behavior like this is not rational human behavior, thus it must be influenced by some outside force.
I think the point is that these are not rational human beings. I have also payed close attention to all of Sony's hype but you don't see me doing these things.
I am surprised that you lay the blame of responsibility on Sony for this. You are usually more intelligent than that.
Humans have ceased behaving rationally in general,
Because everything in society teaches us that we can do whatever stupid things we want and someody else will be there to blame and take money off of.
has anyone gotten one of these PS3 units and done any gaming?
From what I can tell of every stupid and insignificant review or bash of the PS3 so far... the games don't exist, or PS3 doesn't actually play games. It does, however, run multiple Operating Systems.