Qcore from PSN

Hey all,

I'm Jeremy, who led the creation of the menus. I just want to thank you guys for having a calm, balanced discussion. It's a breath of fresh air. Your concerns have been heard, and those of us on the creative side are doing everything we can to meet them. Some of the more finance-related issues are of course up to mother Sony, but they're listening too.
Welcome! Sony and probably Future, which is the publisher of the magazine.

I guess future editions can contain things like Trophy support, special maps/levels for LBP etc.
 
To correct just one issue on timeframe, Patsu suggested episodes 2 & 3 were almost done -- not so. One of the greatest benefits of digital is you can release very soon after production, and we're still very much working on the next episode. This timeframe helps us stay current and respond to feedback, so keep it coming.

Wow, how did I miss this post ? Hi Jeremy, thanks for correcting me :)
I really look forward to future issues. Do keep up the momentum. Will correct my mistake in GAF too.

P.S. What are your high scores on Death Orb? :)

Haven't played it yet :p
 
My problem here is that you can't skip them. Apparently they force you to sit through 10 to 15 seconds of the ad before allowing you to skip. In most other media it's possible to avoid forced ads. Tivo killed tv ads 8+ years ago, you can skip through the trailers when you boot a dvd, turn the page in a print mag, XBLive ads don't force you to watch something before performing a task, etc... This forced ad concept on QCore all but kills any interest in it for me, but your mileage may vary.
I would like to see the ads become skipable in the near future, but the 15 secs or less of ad time won't stop me from experiencing the dozens of minutes of each section's content.

Even a compromise of being able to skip the ad after the first couple of secs. would be a welcomed change.
 
The idea of a paid subscription service subsidized with ads sounds reasonable to me. Yes, we are paying, but I assume we would be paying more without the ads. At least that's how I look at it.

Now, my issue with the first episode is the amount of content. If they're going to subsidize the cost through ads, I was hoping for quite a bit more substance. The quality of the content that was there was nice (for the most part), its the quantity that seemed to be lacking.

Like patsu mentioned, video control is crucial. Thankfully, pause and stop are there. FF and RW would be greatly appreciated though. If I understand correctly, it seems to be running as its own application (as a game would). I wonder if it can use the built-in video player to play video instead of its own custom player. That would solve playback issues. I have yet to see a game do this, however, including the ones that have video clips in them. So, I'm guess that's an issue (perhaps that functionality is not exposed to devs).

I like the overall "feel." It feels like its being targeted at a older audience (21+). I don't mean the content, but the setup and design. I can't really describe why, though.

Those are my first impressions after an initial viewing. Haven't checked it out again yet.

I am curious as to how they plan to mold this as they go along. If there's a certain target market already, or if they're trying to reach a broader group at first and then focus it as time goes on based on who's buying.

On a side note, the concept Qcore is based on holds a lot of potential. Particularly if SCE opens it up to 3rd parties. Essentially, allowing the PS3 to play host to digital magazines from any publisher, similar to Home. Have preview issues, and let the user decide what they want to subscribe to.

EDIT

Oh, almost forgot. Someone mentioned that they could not skip the MGS ad. I could for some reason. It was the only ad (outside of the intro Hulk video) that I could skip, btw.
 
I enjoyed the content, it got me excited about Force Unleashed and SOCOM. It's hard to say if I got my money worth @ $25 considering I already own CaC, I have 12 more episodes to decide. I like the concept though.
 
It's hard for me to feel ripped off after parting with a measely 3 dollars.

Yet here I am. Gig and a half of Qore sitting on my hard drive. Three dollars not in my pocket.

I found the content lacking. Bigtime.

Of course, I was soured by being smacked in the face with a spoilerific mgs4 ad. After the initial panic, I attempted to skip or halt it somehow. Failing that, I literally turned my head away and covered my ears. I'm glad no rational person was present to see me behaving in this way.

And in truth, if it wasn't for that poorly judged mgs4 ad, I wouldn't characterize my feelings as "ripped off" so much as "dissapointed".

Qore can keep my three dollars but they likely won't be getting anymore. Unless, of course, they reserve any regular free content for paying customers only. Eventually they will manipulate me by featuring something I just have to get my hands on. Then they will get the three dollars and a heapin helpin of resentment.
 
Just played it again, briefly. A couple of new things I noted:

The ads (besides BK) are actually just shorts of full trailers that are included in Qcore. Including the MGS trailer.

Watched the full MGS trailer in Qcore to see if there was anything new. There might not have been (looks like an old trailer) but I did notice "Her name was Olga." How the heck did I miss that before? And Big Momma for that matter.

Blade is right. I can only skip it after the first 15 seconds.

Jeremy said:
P.S. What are your high scores on Death Orb? :)

2, with 18 returns. :p Only played it brierly. I'm curious as to what was used to make it? Strangely enjoyable.
 
2, with 18 returns. :p Only played it brierly. I'm curious as to what was used to make it? Strangely enjoyable.

18 returns? You can do better than that. :) In-house record over here is just over 50. I used the same tech to build Death Orb as the rest of the menus, so that gives you some idea of how flexible the tools are.
 
18 returns? You can do better than that. :) In-house record over here is just over 50. I used the same tech to build Death Orb as the rest of the menus, so that gives you some idea of how flexible the tools are.

Welcome! And that is pretty cool that it is the same tech. I think I may have hit 24 returns but I haven't even won a game :LOL:

I finished watching all of Qore this past weekend. I must say I enjoyed it for it being the first episode. It has a nice slick interface with fast menu navigation and quick loading. It would be cool if for each episode you were to change the colors of the borders to a deep red or a dark blue and then back to the gray/black. I do wish the ads were not forced as I just want to quickly move to the content. Other suggestions include:

Fast Forward, Rewind for Video
Submit Form - Questions, Feedback, etc.
Preview Channel - What can we look forward to in the next episode.
 
Wow ! That's pretty good. I only achieved 26 returns so far. The mini-game should be surfaced as one of the menu options though. No point hiding it :)
 
Can anyone tell me a technical reason why QORE is not remote play compatible? It really seems like this application is the perfect candidate for remote play.
 
I'd also like an autoplay mode so that the whole thing play from the beginning to the end uninterrupted.
 
The July edition leaves me with the same impression I had from the inaugural edition, although it "feels" like I am able to skip much sooner than before. Death Orb is still hidden, renamed, but still fun. There should also be a better method of informing me that a new edition is available as an annual subscriber. The download size and times including install are still unbearable but on par with the normal PS3 process. Given the download sizes so far one would think there was a wealth of information in this ViMag, so far, that is not the case. Calling All Cars and Death Orb/Death Orb Revisited are my rationalizations for the subscription, so far.

Getting the Naruto demo ahead of time was cool, too (if you care about such things), but otherwise, yeah, spot on.
 
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