Zombie Hood

Standing on my soap box

If you haven’t seen or heard then “you must be blind as Anne Frank!” because the Playstion Network has been down for “maintenance” since early April (Thank you Clerks 2 for the Anne Frank comment). A lot of gamer blogs and gamer sites are commenting on the outage, and I thank them for their gaming journalism and really getting to the bottom of the issue. Though for the most part, they can only get as much as SONY releases to the public.  Basically a person or group of hackers were able to penetrate deep into SONY’s security and access personal information on the 70+million users on PSN.  Obviously SONY pulled down the Playstation Network and Qricotiaosicuaty services (Qriocity). More recent news is that the hacker(s) also got to the SONY Online Entertaintment servers (SOE) with the same personal information being compromised, but for around 20 millions users.  Justin and I are familiar with SOE because the rocky relationship we had with them while playing Star Wars Galaxies – arguably the most amazing MMORPG… “before the darks times, before the Empire” ‘s combat update.  But I digress.

I’ve been keeping up with the outage because I would like to get back online with my PS3, but for me it’s not because I am itching for some online gaming.  No, it’s because I have some DLC for Mortal Kombat that I would really like to download! I would say that’s about the biggest disappointment, aside from not being able to download the newest Back to the Future Game epidsode.  But while staying informed about the situation, I read some comments on a blog about how big of a hit this is to SONY, and how the Playstation 3 can “only play games that I put in it now”.  The blogger sounded pretty upset at the idea that he could only play the games he physically owns.  God help us all if we no longer play the mounds and mounds of PSN games that we no longer have access to (temporarily).  He made no mention for himself that he was upset because he cannot play with his online buddies.  He alluded to other gamers being upset for that reason, but not himself. I suppose it depends on the kind of gamer you are, and whose allegiance you swore to when the console arms race began. But the fact that everyone is up in arms about PSN being down and “if they don’t get it back up soon, I’m switching to Xbox 360!” is pretty ridiculous.  Are we that reliant on being connected that we can’t manage to have an outage on a network THAT’S FREE!? How did we manage to game during the N64 and PSX years? Oh that’s right, we planned hangout sessions and played something called “Split Screen”.  A term that is rarely used or seen on the back of video games anymore. Even during the original Xbox, Gamecube, and PS2 days, when there were only specific games that had online connectability people still managed to play in the same room on the same TV.  And this was BEFORE everyone had a large HDTV.  It seems like we’re such spoiled brats nowadays. For instance people are acting like SONY owes them something for the PSN outage.  So far SONY has offered up a few “We’re sorry” gifts to all PSN users.  A 30 day trial of PSN Plus, or a free month to those PSN Plus users already subscribed.  They’ve even mentioned a few free games.  For me, that’s fine.  Others, however, aren’t so pleased with that. I can understand an outage being frustrating to players that are solely on PS3 OR have most of their time and energy invested in PS3.  But if you have two or all three of the major consoles, why not spend some time with them during this outage? I’m mainly on Xbox 360 because that is where all of my friends are. So when the outage hit, I was easily able to let my PS3 rest while I play games on 360.  Even during the outage I have managed to enjoy playing Mortal Kombat on PS3 without the desire to be connected.  The first weekend of its release me, Javier, Justin, and Mike all gathered at my house and played a 4 player brawl.  It was a lot of fun! Granted I look forward to playing online against my brother, but I don’t feel any anger or rush to play him online.

But aren’t I the same guy who complained about SOE when they “ruined” Star Wars Galaxies? Yes, and I still agree with my gripes back then, and now.  My gripes about Star Wars Galaxies’ demise wasn’t in reference to their servers being hacked by a group of losers with nothing better to do.  I was paying on a monthly basis to play a game that I enjoyed.  SOE decided that the game I was playing wasn’t fun enough, and without my consent decided to change the game from under me.  Though I continued to pay, I sadly watched as the magic and enjoyment of the game slowly disappeared. Instead of attempting to keep its loyal fan base, SOE decided to change their online gaming model to hold onto fans that were switching over to World of Warcraft, instead of listening to their devoted Star Wars fan base.  Essentially it was a knife in the back of fans who were prepared to pay and play the original Star Wars Galaxies until the servers were completely turned off and retired, like myself.

So has SONY finally gotten what it deserves? I would say no. SONY is definitely feeling the pain of having to completely rebuild its PSN security, but I think the gamers are put out more than the corporation.  A wise butler once asked his battered super hero master, “Why do we fall sir?  So we can learn to pick ourselves back up.” I think that is a key saying for SONY.  Through these petty hacker attacks, they’re now beefing up their security, and will know who and what to lookout for in the future. I don’t think that it will make them a new or more tolerant fan loving SONY.  If anything it is going to make it more difficult for those gamers who enjoy hombrewed games and applications; the users who were mildly breaking their Terms and Conditions Agreement.  SONY will come down harder now on anyone looking at their PS3 or PSN funny. I look forward to PSN coming back up, but I am neither pissed at SONY nor pulling my hair out while trying to figure out what to do with my “free” time.  I think people complaining need to chill out a bit and go do something more entertaining… like rearranging their sock drawers.