Well my faithful gaming friends, today I stumbled upon a few articles which piqued my curiosity (and even my anger) which I felt it would be a shame not to try and spread a little further around the net.
One of the articles of note just happens to be something I hadn’t heard anything about till this moment, that being the now leaked PSP Phone.
I truly had not heard any news regarding any such product to be in development let alone be in the phases of production to be “leaked”. I was scanning through random articles, to try to stay as up to date as possible on any and all news that comes out when I stumbled upon. Before I decided to write about it, I did some more digging, or at least look for the videos in which the Chinese Website IT168 displayed which circulated around the internet all the way back here. In my search I found out that it had been leaked one time before in the earlier stages of development later in the year last year or so the dates dictated.
I was shocked, one at myself for letting the mere mention of this information pass me by, and at the company Sony (developing under the name of Sony Ericson) has let the product leak out for the second time. The idea behind it sounds, honestly, awesome. One part phone, one part handheld gaming machine. I always loved the PSP, I haven’t had one in while but back when I had it, it was the ruler of the hand helds in my life. The idea of having a phone on my PSP back in the day (like it was that long ago) would have been fantastic for me.
One of the few images of what promises to be an amazing tool
Amongst the details and schematics for the phone, (which if it hasn’t been been given a release date or even a finish date how are their final specifications even out there?) they discuss about the “app” in which the games will be played was brought up, Playstation Pocket. During the normal run, the phone is in, of course, phone mode but with one click of Playstation Pocket app and your transmitted to the familiar PSP esque menu where you can activate your games, which is under speculation how they will be brought about. With this info being leaked, beside what specifics that were made on the hardware capabilities, there was no information what-so-ever on how or on what software Playstation Pocket will be running. No PS One game info, now downloadable game mentions, no future releases. Nothing besides the name, the pictures, and the video of a racing game in which it seems motion control was possible for steering.
What seems to me as a big hole in Sony Ericson’s intel circle is letting the entire net know just what we can look forward to but with the exception to information that seems rather important to a few potential buyers. I’d complain about marketing but that would make me look rather foolish in this case wouldn’t it?
In other news, a battle of ethics was found on a discussion board which just made me want to stand up and smack the man who started it all. I use the term discussion board very loosely due to the fact that 9/10 of the time you could barely understand what people were saying. Remember my article on editing and spell check? Yeah some people just don’t think about doing it before posting. I wont discuss too much about it but the debate was about the value of video games as “fake” enjoyment and how achievements weren’t achievements because they are so easy most people can do them easily. The one who started the fuss? Ironically, a man who wants to become a game designer.
His feelings about the state of gaming seem, if not hard to understand, to show he is picking a bad career choice. That or he believes that he can change the gaming mindsets. Either way this spurred an interesting debate on gaming ethics and if gaming is bad vs good. Major consensus?
A general matter of opinion statements, and in all respects I agree with that. I love games as a media/art outlet and it serves as an amazing way for people to tell stories of action, adventure, romance, and even war and allow gamers to experience it through their vision but allow the gamers their own free flow interpretation throughout the game world. It serves as a stress relieving hobby (sometimes stress inducing) and a great way to sit down a interact with a story or with a group of friends.
His reaction, he was still set in his ways. Below I’ll post his post that started it all, or some of it, then a link to the site so you can read some of the interesting (and misspelled) opinions of others.
“I love games, playing them and i do focus on becoming a game designer but i start to think thats just ethically wrong.
Games are made for money and how companies sell them? by making them “fun”(and of course correct marketing to create an impression to the masses that they will like so they are gonna buy it). But what is fun exactly?
For the majorities and the bigger percent of the market its simply “winning”…
People do feel better(and feel better about themselves) by “winning” or believing they “achieved” something or they simply have the power to choose or do something that they cannot in real life.Some games even behind the scenes lower the game difficulty so they wont disappoint you…
Games are simply becoming psychology buffs and not games that can sometimes also have some challenges that can count as achievements that require skill to be earned.
I dont say there arent people who like
Story
design
competition(it requires actual skill)
Social and be together with friends
But these are just a minority compared to most people who just “pay” games and never really come online to the internet
Whats the difference between games and drugs for the masses?
Both do some physical and sometimes mental damage
Both spend time Both require MONEY
Both waste some time
Both make you feel better even though you might not deserve it or have done nothing to earn it. You just pay money for it… Its just like tricking kids with candy…
Do you think its correct to fool people to give their money just to give them a think that makes them feel they suck less??even though they still suck a lot and “winning” the game doesnt make you suck less”
If any of you guys can make sense of that, please let me know. I understood what he meant, at times, but there are moments that he just gave me such a headache. Check out the site MMORPG for the rest of his post and the ensuing reactions.
And if you want to, post below of this post and let me hear what you think about these topics, ethics or PSP phone. Even if you have another subject you want to break me at, just post a comment and I’ll respond in kind.
