HappySqurriel on 07 March 2007
stewacide said:
PS Home will be a huge failure. These sort of avatar chat systems have been around for well over a decade and have always been crap. Second Life has a strong fanbase, but it also has a lot to offer this doesn't.
PS Home looks too ambitious, complex, and unfocused for 95% of the userbase out there, but too confining for the 5% Second Life hardcore.
Also Sony is just asking for all kinds of legal and PR trouble with this system: how long until some kid gets molested, someone starts a White Power room, someone says f*ck in the presence of Jack Thompson? Considering how vile Xbox Live is, and that's a system people pay for / can be banned from and MS is nominally policing it, how out-of-control will this free system be?!?
On the upside Little Big Planet looks *VERY* cool, although it will totally miss its market on the PS3 (a la Viva Piniata)
sieanr said:
I agree with this in every way. The whole concept of having an avatar and rooms, ect seems like a complex way to do menus that could accomplish the same thing fast, albeit not quite as pretty. Despite the fact that this is just like phantasy star universe, it seems as though they did just a bit too much and could end up being a big hassle and I definitely think most people will never toy with this since it's way too much.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob
http://research.microsoft.com/adapt/TaskGallery/
I just wanted to add that some times when a company trys to create a user interface that is more userfriendly they make it worse for the vast majority of users ...