[PS3] LittleBigPlanet Impressions
- Thread starter patsu
- Start date
Excellent. Beyond this basic moderation layer, they should also have private planets/moons for people to publish their levels for their own consumption; and also allow them to backup the levels.
Better yet, find one or more "outlet" for the users. For example, allow users to export their work into websites like a website builder. These tools will come in handy for marketing when the content is approved (e.g., with Disney DLC). Essentially, focus users in the positive direction rather than keep coming back to censorship.
If they receive threatening letters, they should announce it on the LittleBigWorkshop site too.
They will probably have many run-ins with the corporate attorneys.
Better yet, find one or more "outlet" for the users. For example, allow users to export their work into websites like a website builder. These tools will come in handy for marketing when the content is approved (e.g., with Disney DLC). Essentially, focus users in the positive direction rather than keep coming back to censorship.
If they receive threatening letters, they should announce it on the LittleBigWorkshop site too.
They will probably have many run-ins with the corporate attorneys.
That's a great idea! If only they had...previously announced that as a feature LBP would have...
Does Sony have any know-how when it comes to maintaining communities? SOE experience? It occurs to me that one reason the other sites work is because they were very much 'anything goes' -- youtube is barely moderated chaos, the legality of its content questioned pretty often, but content-filtering is left almost entirely to IP-holders.
Yes, this is my biggest concern of Sony running LBP. They are "too corporate" and will very likely fall flat. There are some early signs already but I have not ruled them out yet.
This is why I keep advocating a utility model for LBP rather than a community-heavy model. They may still have a strong following if the LBP utility is fun. easy to use and useful. But to keep users happy in the community sense is not Sony's strong suit because they think too much from inside-out (and have a near term profitability mandate right now). Very often, a community play focuses on marketshare and user "happiness" first to farm them.
Perhaps, they should outsource the entire community play (First and forth most, Home and LBP) to a separate entity.
Using the current censor-heavy approach, they may be able to establish a clean environment for family fun; but the quality, growth rate, and creative side will suffer. They can set a clear principle on censorship (like the Muslim song case), but they should work closely with the users to enforce the principles. Censoring content themselves is the last resort because it is resource intensive (and does not take advantage of any network effect; in fact, they become a victim of network effect if they go strictly that route). It's an organic play. Don't know how else to say it.
This is why I keep advocating a utility model for LBP rather than a community-heavy model. They may still have a strong following if the LBP utility is fun. easy to use and useful. But to keep users happy in the community sense is not Sony's strong suit because they think too much from inside-out (and have a near term profitability mandate right now). Very often, a community play focuses on marketshare and user "happiness" first to farm them.
Perhaps, they should outsource the entire community play (First and forth most, Home and LBP) to a separate entity.
Using the current censor-heavy approach, they may be able to establish a clean environment for family fun; but the quality, growth rate, and creative side will suffer. They can set a clear principle on censorship (like the Muslim song case), but they should work closely with the users to enforce the principles. Censoring content themselves is the last resort because it is resource intensive (and does not take advantage of any network effect; in fact, they become a victim of network effect if they go strictly that route). It's an organic play. Don't know how else to say it.
they really are limiting themselves 
. No representations of other people means no satire. No advertisements or business solicaitations means no corporate-sponsored levels. What's wrong with a Coca-Cola level if it's realy good and entertaining? What's wrong with a wannabe game designer including some promo content to drum up interest in themselves? It should be down to the community to decide what it likes and doesn't, what it will and will not tolerate, whether corporate presence is a violation of the community spirit or a good way to get high quality content. Moderation should come down to keeping out objectional material as common in existing media, not moderating the actual content style unless they don't want a true creative community. I don't buy Word to be told by MS that I'm not allowed to use it to write satirical plays or produce posters advertising my Kennel Club! Don't give me a creative tool and then list all the things I'm not allowed to use it for! Especially when that flies in the face of all the pre-release talk which was far more open ended and encouraging.
. No representations of other people means no satire. No advertisements or business solicaitations means no corporate-sponsored levels. What's wrong with a Coca-Cola level if it's realy good and entertaining? What's wrong with a wannabe game designer including some promo content to drum up interest in themselves? It should be down to the community to decide what it likes and doesn't, what it will and will not tolerate, whether corporate presence is a violation of the community spirit or a good way to get high quality content. Moderation should come down to keeping out objectional material as common in existing media, not moderating the actual content style unless they don't want a true creative community. I don't buy Word to be told by MS that I'm not allowed to use it to write satirical plays or produce posters advertising my Kennel Club! Don't give me a creative tool and then list all the things I'm not allowed to use it for! Especially when that flies in the face of all the pre-release talk which was far more open ended and encouraging.Not really an apt comparison, though. Microsoft isn't offering to host your plays and posters. On the other hand, flickr/youtube and the like do very very little to restrict such things (not strictly true -- youtube has been known to to take down anything if it receives a DMCA complaint, even if not by the copyright owners). And not to mention that the actual legality of these services hasn't even been seriously put to test (again, probably because they recognize that they don't have a leg to stand on, most likely, and so will respond immediately to threats of litigation).
A lot of community building ties back to "knowing/mining your audience" and "having the right soft and hard tools". With so many betas running, it should be possible to incent users to volunteer as first level mods. It has to be facilitated by LBP mod tools and workflow though.
By the way, the guy who did the Iridium style level also made a guitar hero style level that sort of works (not to fond of it yet though), but also a Tetris style level that I actually got addicted to! If the level at one point (something like 4000 points) didn't start throwing a whole bunch of blocks at once, I'd probably still be addicted to it right now. Initially you get the idea that it's way too hard to place the blocks properly and not have them be moved into unworkable diagonals by other falling blocks, but you get used to swinging them around, which things work where, moving blocks aside temporarily, etc. etc. and it's just really fun.
they really are limiting themselves
I agree with your point about satirical content and entertainment being the most important thing, but MM have said that they have only acted to moderate when a level has received complaints, and unfortunately in the world we live in certain companies tend to get really upset if you use their IP without their permission. Witness the periodic stories of fan fiction or art being wiped from websites. It makes you wonder what a company thinks it can gain by censoring its own fans, but I'm sure someone with a lot more business acumen than me can justify it
It would definitely be better if they could be more vocal about the reasoning or give a grace period to content creators to change the offending content though. Having said that the game has only been out a week here so presumably they're still finding their feet with the moderation side of things.
It's also unknown exactly how big the issue is. Clearly there has been some moderation as MM have responded, but does anybody know of any levels which have disappeared? The furore around the issue seems to be a lot larger than the issue itself so far. If this type of moderation becomes widespread and levels I have played or which are created by my friends start disappearing, then it's a real problem. As it is I have played some fantastic levels which appear prominently in the online part of the game, for which I would have predicted a very early demise due to copyright infringement, yet they remain in the game
By the gods, the default levels were pretty tough. What for ?
(Just completed the Islands, probably quite a bit more to go ?)
It's a pretty good game. Media Molecule may benefit more if they tune the difficulty of the Disney DLC down.
Now that Sony is punishing people using copyrighted material, that means my planned Nausicaa level will be canned too.
(Just completed the Islands, probably quite a bit more to go ?)
It's a pretty good game. Media Molecule may benefit more if they tune the difficulty of the Disney DLC down.
Now that Sony is punishing people using copyrighted material, that means my planned Nausicaa level will be canned too.
I probably missed it a while ago, but when I saw the first Japanese sales-figures of GTA IV and LBP I searched out their Famitsu scores, and they're both impressive:
Little Big Planet 10 10 9 9
Grand Theft Auto 4 10 10 9 10
Wow at both, great scores for non-Japanese games!
Little Big Planet 10 10 9 9
Grand Theft Auto 4 10 10 9 10
Wow at both, great scores for non-Japanese games!
the "Temples" levels. Very imaginative and fun to play. Was frustrated by the Dojo jumps initially but I think the game hits its stride soon after.Thanks catisfit for posting the clarificaiton. Good to see Sony respond so quickly. Hopefully they will also add an "Announcement" patch (link to simplified web page ?) to communicate with gamers directly instead of us getting exaggerated second-hand info next time.
Thanks for that. Sounds like people have jumped the gun a bit. Would be nice for some details. It wasn't made clear that the moderation was in response to griefing, and I accept that griefing should be followed with instantant censorship until the content is removed. Also the content can be modified. Where exactly did all the noise about lost work come from then? Were people plain lying, or did they delete their own levels off their HDD and now blame Sony?!
Are the "Temples" levels the best in the game ? I like them because they are dynamics (so many moving parts ^_^), varied and not too strict. Especially love the short Elephant segment (Don't know why, but I just get a lot of kicks jumping on the elephant).
I remember there was a "snakes in tunnels" level earlier on. That was great too.
Was scared of the flinging wheels in one of the earlier levels. I fell so many times. The Dojo jumps were difficult for me as well, but I guess they trained me well to take on the jumps in the Temples.
I remember there was a "snakes in tunnels" level earlier on. That was great too.
Was scared of the flinging wheels in one of the earlier levels. I fell so many times. The Dojo jumps were difficult for me as well, but I guess they trained me well to take on the jumps in the Temples.
I personally think the last, machinery-heavy levels are the best, but the Temples are more attractive. The next-to-last one, particularly, makes it feel like the whole level is one massive contraption.
