Uncategorized|November 25, 2008 1:26 am

Hawkes Editorial: The Arrival of Objectivity



Thanks to the generosity of listener ErwinEnFire, I will received a 40GB PlayStation 3 a few weeks ago.

Honestly, it’s one of those strange moments in my life. I appreciate the gift, but it’s just not something I’m used to. The fact that someone wants to offer me their old PS3 is just so left field that at first I thought I had entered the twilight zone. I half expected the corpse of Rod Serling to intone, “Submitted for your opinion, David LaMont, alias Cooper Hawkes. Father, husband, computer geek, gamer. He has traveled the boundaries of the internet seeking a level of fame the size of Tay Zonday and Tron Guy, but instead he StumbledUpon the darker recesses of the world wide web and crossed over… into the Twilight Zone.”

The music rises, then Rod rips my throat out. ‘Cause he’s dead.

We’re talking Zombie Rod, folks.

What follows are my collective thoughts on a day-to-day basis, beginning with Erwin’s e-mail about shipping and tracking number, culminating in the opening and setup of the new PS3.I’ll do my best to minimize the use of “excited” as my singular adjective.So sit back, grab a beer or a shot or both, and enjoy the narcissism. (more…)

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  • http://intensedebate.com/people/starcade starcade

    Some of the earliest user created content I recall was probably back in the early 80s for Pinball Construction Set, and Lode Runner. The latter is supposed to appear on XBLA, although I suspect with a graphical update and probably (I'm guessing) sans the custom editor.

    If you look hard enough, you can find a couple of 360 titles that do offer some level of user customization that can be distributed to others. Forza 2 comes to mind with custom paint jobs. I think by in large though, Microsoft has struggled with the concept. I'm sure it's something they'd like to support, but as we're seeing with LittleBigPlanet, there's concern about content from a legality point of view– because you know SOMEONE is going to sue if there is an infringement present. I'm sure there's other concerns too, such as if the content is too adult.

    (cont…)

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/starcade starcade

    There are possible ways to address the issue such as a review prior to release, but no one really wants to go that route due to the amount of resources it may require. Then you have the YouTube/Craigslist user control model, where others flag the content if them deem it inappropriate. And although that kinda works, there's multiple issues with such a system, it may potentially create new issues.

    Actually I don't envy Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo, because this will be a tough one to overcome initially. I think we'll see more user generated content at some point, as I think customization is a good way to achieve and sustain customers. I know I played Lode Runner far longer than I would have any other game, because of the custom content.

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