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Forums - Sony - Why the PSN fails and how to improve it ~ Do you agree with this article?

Munkeh111 on 14 March 2009

I think the article is rubbish, I have barely ever experienced lag on PSN, I have had far more lag on GeoW 2 than any other game on any platform

Also, the last paragraph doesn't make much sense. It is free to get an XBL account, and there are more PSN accounts than XBL (20M PS3 and 17M XBL unless I am mistaken)



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hatmoza 2.0 on 14 March 2009
Harkins1721 said:
I dont get why Sony just doesnt hire a team to put PS1 classics on the PSN. I cant tell you how many i would end up buying.

 

 

You my friend are the winner of this thread



makingmusic476 on 14 March 2009

1. Dump Home

Home was a bad idea from the start. Pumping millions of dollars into a system where people actually feel enclosed in a virtual space was a feat even I thought was impossible. Even if it was opened up and players could shape it, Sony would lose the ability to control the experience. It’s a lose/lose situation, and removing it now before it becomes its own expensive quagmire would allow them to push resources in other directions. Sony are pretty good at cutting their losses, but judging from the comments from the upper eclelon, its unlikely this will happen in the next decade.

2. Wrap the console with the online experience

The 360’s NGE may have its critics but what it does well is provide an avenue for gamers to push themselves into online. Activating a broadband connection tells you everything that’s going on as soon as you boot up - who’s online, what they are doing, what’s new in the marketplace, what events are coming up, what games have released and so on. If you haven’t been on in a while, you can see at a glance what’s happening. It’s easy to join in on any game in progress or join a group of buddies as they do a pub-crawl of gaming.

PSN needs this. It’s far too clumsy to access the separate parts of the network on the system, and the friends list function is appalling. Home doesn’t solve this problem like it was promised to. Sony needs to take advantage of the overwhelming amount of free visual space on the UI and pull the gamer in.

3. Develop localized regional communities/matchmaking

Outside of the US, one of the major problems for gamers is lag. You only need to hit a few forums to see the compaints about latency spoiling the whole experience for gamers. Sony needs to take the initiative and start prioritizing gamers according to their location. The hype (or hyperbole) of a global community of players has taken second stage to an underwhelming experience of being tossed out of games or suffering through slide-show play time after time. In this case, it’s a problem for both PSN and XBL, but XBL’s system is probably more likely to match you to a local, since it uses its own central servers then relying on the developer’s. Which leads me to my next point.

4. Create a central system

PSN relies heavily on using servers provided by the developers to host games. Because of this, its impossible to change games on the fly or keep track of what’s going on across all titles. Again, Home was supposed to be the savior of this particular conundrum, but it’s far too chunky, slow and laboured to appeal to fickle gamers. If Home must stay, then allow both a 2D and 3D (if you must) experience for those gamers who just want to PLAY, rather then wander around from box to box, hunting for a “lounge” to “discuss the possibility” of playing Killzone 2. This isn’t World of Warcraft, and this isn’t a raid. I’d just like to be able to jump from Resistance to LBP thanks.

1. After all the millions they've spent on it?  That'd be one of the worst ideas ever.  They just need to improve it to make it useful for people.  From what I hear, it's turning a profit daily, from the sales of useless items like clothes, so they might as well at least keep it around for that.

2. I don't see the problem here, but whatever.

3.  Dedicated servers help to keep lag on the low side for the most part, and you can always avoid games with people from other countries.  Hell, I play fine with people from Europe.  It's only Kiwis I have trouble with (Squilliam has a horrible connection  xD).  Sure, better matchmaking would be nice, but it's not necessary.

4. So in this guy's insane world dedicated servers are a bad thing?  He whines about lag in #3 then advocates moving to an entirely P2P system?  And I also don't see how dedicated servers would prevent you from "keep[ing] track of what's going on across all titles."



Jo21 on 14 March 2009

the closest to lag i have experience on the PSN

it's trying to kill non-gravity.

but i have never lagged myself.

"who’s online, what they are doing, what’s new in the marketplace, what events are coming up, what games have released and so on."

all that
we already have it.
and they are even linked to playstation.com site.



markers on 14 March 2009

psn rocks my world. haven't paid for live since i got my ps3, mostly because im a cheap bastard. if you lay out all the specs live has more bells and whistles but the psn works just as good. i have yet to lag out of a game, buying / dling works just fine, its laid out nicely, wonderful movie selection, its all good...and to top it off its free.



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piratikkio on 14 March 2009

i love psn too... and it's free.



PLAYSTATION®3

IllegalPaladin on 14 March 2009

I feel that Home needs to be changed from it's current form. Numerous people hate it and while I don't have that big of a problem with it, I think the experience is really lacking and lacks any real incentive to load it up.

-I think Home should focus a lot on mini-game type stuff and drop the whole second life type thing. Get the tools out for the creation of mini-game type advertisements for games and other products. I hear the RedBull air race was pretty cool (though I could never get to the damn thing because of the crowd of people). I think shifting the focus to fun and mini-games and dropping the whole "let's have a virtual BBQ with virtual food on virtual chairs!" mentality that has plagued it since it's inception is a necessary thing.



PSN could also use more integration and such into the games and experience of the PS3. No way am I going to deny where the PSN has come since the slow and clunky days of the web based PS store and lack of trophies/in-game XMB though.

- They've been listening to people and have been putting out many firmware updates since the PS3's launch and really giving the PSN and PS3 a lot more features and abilities. They should keep it up and start to consider taking all their current and future additions and making them standard in the PS4. They should take a page of all the standard features available on the Xbox 360 and all it's games.

 

For lag, unless we're talking about a certain problem, I haven't experienced that many issues while trying to play games online through the PSN. Sure, there might be some road bumps with the release of certain titles (COD4 for example), but I've had a good time playing games like Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Warhawk, and Call of Duty 4 online. Also, I feel that the Halo series does matchmaking pretty well, other games not so much.

-I don't know about anybody else, but I'd kind of prefer the server (game) browser that's normal with PC games. Sure, matchmaking can really keep things regulated, but I don't like being forced to have the system find a game for me to play in. Something I really hated in Resistance 2's matchmaking was how you enter matchmaking for a large game, it sets up a match for 60 people, and then only 10 people show up. What's worse is that the custom games where you could browse usually included custom settings that I find pointless and thus, the only way you can get experience to level up is to use the matchmaking system.



Carl on 14 March 2009

This is a fail article.
PSN > Live simply for the price alone
Home generates profit
Dedicated servers is whats needed for most games imo, dont want no laggy ass connection when im sniping people. Killzone 2 for example, runs as smooth as any other game ive ever played online.
PSN has the Info bar... this i read everytime i sign on.
The friends list is cool imo



                            

Orca_Azure on 14 March 2009

vgcharts > psn :)



Xxain on 14 March 2009

I think home should drop the photorealistic and go cartoony like Nintendo and MS