Phil Harrison's GDC keynote - Home, LittleBigPlanet & more

Not everyone needs a game with an objective. Some people just like being creative and playing in a sandbox. Is there an objective to playing in a sandbox?

As for concurrent users, SL has 57k out of 4million. WoW has ~500k out of 6-7 million. But WoW has a huge marketing campaign, including mega promotion in China. It's just Apples to Oranges. WoW is successful for more reasons than just being an MMORPG. There are plenty of MMORPGs that failed, and there are plenty of casual games that blow away WoW in sales. Sometimes, it's the right combination of marketing and being in the right place at the right time that leads to a winner. Trying to figure out why some companies succeed and others fail is perplexing. I think MySpace sucks ass. Many other companies did the same things years ago. hell, sixdegreesofseparation came way before Friendster. Why did iPod beat MP3 players? Why can't anyone beat eBay? There are timing, market inertia, path dependency/network effects to consider.

Personally, I hate WoW's art direction and graphics. I was much more fond of EQ2 as well as City of Heroes.
 
silhouette said:
Why less appealing? When I look at my use of non-gaming side of 360, I found out that I only frequently use messaging (mostly voice messages), that's it. (Oh, I also sometimes use the video chat with my buddies living 6K miles away from me, but that's rare). If I am doing neither of these things, I am jumping to a game directly. This is what a game console is for. If I would like to spend time to get socalize, I will do it outside my house. If I am going to play pool/billard, I would go to a bar. Take my friends with me, or find and meet new ppl. If I am going to spend time decorating somewhere, it is going to be my actual apartment. Why should I do that in virtual life? I guess that's why each of these virtual worlds more or less fails. Because, you have 0 objective and why do something in virtual world when you can do all of them in real life? Btw, some ppl mention Sims, MMOs etc. All of these 'games' have objectives/quests/etc. You play them because you still have a reason to play. At the end, everything Sony showed today (except LBP, which is really cool) the only thing I am interested is streaming media directly from my hard-drive. This is really a cool application and would enrich any video conversation you have with a buddy. So, at the end, I am not sure if this becomes a killer application to PS3. It can become something ppl get excited for and play with it for a while, but then never touch afterwards.
Click to expand...

Very good. The assumption is that PS Home is going to be a passive environment (i.e., no objectives), which I don't think it is (always) the case in its final form. What we see today is the skeleton/technology (since it's GDC).
 
V3 said:
Yes, build, destroy and conquer. That's normally how it goes in a sandbox.
Click to expand...

Somehow, I found my sandbox experience to be fulfilling enough with just the 'build' aspect from that enticing list you've compiled. ;)

Anyway but it's neither here nor there - Home will be about self-expression, and within that, it will be up to the individual user to judge whether it's a "worthy" enough medium to warrant their attention.
 
V3 said:
Yes, build, destroy and conquer. That's normally how it goes in a sandbox.
Click to expand...

Did you not grow up with any sisters? In any case, it's not an objective. There is no assigned quest in the sandbox. You do whatever you wish. No one gives you a quest. There is no scoring except those rules may by people playing in the sandbox together.

I spent years hanging out on MUDs, LambdaMoo, et al. There are an enormous faction of people who enjoy building stuff, who don't neccessarily have to rape, pillage, and destroy it.

Painters paint, not so they can burn their painting in the end. Sculptors sculpt, not just so they can blow up the statue with an M80. Coders code, because they enjoy solving problems or seeing the result, not because they simply want to delete their program.


What you describe is the subset of people who perhaps grow up to teens or adults who like writing viruses, or going to see monster truck rallys. I feel sorry for you if the only joy you can get in life is from watching shit blow up or destroying what you've created.

The problem with these discussions is people's psychological projections, that somehow their tastes are the standard and most people share them. If most people shared my tastes, there would zero first person shooters for consoles. I can't understand how people like playing Halo, GoW, RFoM, etc. it's SUPER annoying to me, going from mouse FPS to analog stick is like being liberated to being chained, it's like playing while wearing lead weighs strapped to all your joints. That's why games like HS are the most anticipated for me, as well as console RPGs. I had to laugh when I played BF2 on the XB360. Don't these people realize how absolutely terrible this experience is compared to the PC? In other words, I *HATE* FPS on consoles.

But apparently, millions disagree with me. The people bashing creative sandbox and social activities should keep an open mind.
 
Tap In said:
yep resistance online is great, I've read.... but not all PS3 games are as good online... so no need to point fingers. If you don't like it, don't pay but both systems have their drawbacks but Live has the same features online in every game. That's worth $ to me to not have to think about , but hey $50 is one roll on the craps table for me. ;)
Click to expand...

And i´m sure we could find some 360 titles that doesn´t hit the high marks etiher, but as you said just after you pointed fingers.. no reason to point fingers :)

For me, all the "stupid" seemingly unconnected fragmented Online aproach that we have seen from Sony is comming together. Just by watching one trailer i was convinced they actually had a plan and knew what they were doing. I´m sure every game will have the basic network support that is expected, aka you don´t need to use Home to play online with other people. But the other aspects of it like the social side, the trophys and all the other stuff you also have on live is just gonna be presented in a completely new and imho fantastic way. And on top of this, you have free games and a sandbox enviroment with lots of social interactivity where you can waste or enjoy your time for free and of course spend alot of dollars on stuff. Yeah i´m gonna buy a fucking big aparment so i have lots of wallspace for porn on the walls... hopefully it won´t be rent based :)

Home, This is Living..... ?
 
Colourless said:
Home looks interesting, but is the demographic that wants a virtual world/3d chat interface/social networking abilities actually the same people that are buying a PS3?

I am of course very negative on the whole having a virtual world just because you can. It's not a new idea and the reasons why they failed in the past haven't actually been solved.
Doesn't inspire confidence in me that they have solved the problems. Who said what when? It's not easy at all to follow the flow of conversations.

Oh and I know I'm just being picky now... but long hair, where is it?
Click to expand...

Supports Bluetooth headsets as well..
 
New Info About 'home'

HOME Space
• Design and build your own apartment, house or even neighbourhood.
• Purchase new landscapes, apartments and furniture
World
• Purchase new clothing sets, pets and accessories for your character
• Purchase functional items to add value to your private Home experience
• Leave your mark on the world with premium player-created content tools.
Entertainment
• Share photos, movies and music from your PS3 HDD with friends in your personal space.
Gaming
• Meeting game-specific lobbies to discuss games, get new content or team up for online gameplay
Lobbies
• Individual lobbies created by first and third parties allow for consumer interaction, commerce
Click to expand...

So it's WAAAY more than what they shown. Landscapes? Whole neigbourhoods? Wow this is really really impressive.

http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=313
 
My biggest concern is how do they work in the grand lobby where millions of users pile in?
I think they haven't addressed that, did they?
 
LittleBigPlanet ?

Game developers such as Factor 5 are presenting their technologies in GDC. Some closed door demos too.
 
It's a developer event (knowledge sharing, closed door negotiation, job matching, ...).

I think Sony is focused on Europe launch now.
 
dodo3 said:
It's impressive but what would you do with a neighborhood?
Click to expand...

If you are a clan leader you could have all your members live in the same neighbourhood.

Alternatively, if Sony do introduce gamer points of some sort, conceivably you could rent/sell your properties to people in exchange for these points.
 
quest55720 said:
I think home can pay off in the future when the price point gets to 199 dollar mark. I just don't see a ton of hardcore gamers who are the guys who would buy a 599 dollar game machine spending thier time decorating a virtual apartment.
Click to expand...
*Slaps forehead* There's this bizarre notion that most people buy a console for one game or app, it seems. You need an array of interest to appeal to a wider audience. Are the hardcore gamers likely to decorate their virtual apartment? Perhaps not, but what about their wife and kids? If you offer them a household friendly device with wide appeal, rather than a Toys-for-Boys machine that only dad plays, you have a lot more reach into the wider market.

This one aspect to PS3 offers services that hardcore gamers want in the networking, and also service that non-hardcore gamers can enjoy, thus widening the appeal. And that's something Sony have been doing very right IMO. They're offering lots of assorted stuff. They're not just targetting hardcore gamers and they're not creating content solely to appease the hardcore gamers! Neither is Nintendo. Neither is MS on the whole, wanting a wider appeal. They're not as adept at it yet, though.
 
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