Ian Bogost Has Trouble With Simple Tasks Like Buying PSN Games
Countering the idea that digital downloads make games more accessible to the average consumer, game developer and critic Ian Bogost presented Gamasutra with a long list of events documenting a particularly trying experience getting a couple of titles from the Playstation Store. Unfortunately, the piece reads less, "These are valid concerns everyone should have" and more, "Wow, this dude is a grumpy old man." A snippet:
My controller has a low battery, so the PS3 tells me to plug it in. I do so. Now I'm sitting a foot from the screen.I try to access the PSN Store from the system menu.
The PS3 tells me I have to install a System Update before I can do this.
Back to the menu. I access the System Update and it starts downloading.
Progress bar. I wait five minutes.
Ok, it's done. The PS3 reboots.
Now it's ready to install. It reboots again first for some reason.
Ok, really ready to install. Another progress bar. Five more minutes.
The update finishes installing. PS3 reboots once more.
Yeesh. That sure sounds trying, although most of that process requires no additional input from the user. Just go make a sandwich or something.
For more whining about whining, read after the jump.
Pretty much any activity can sound like a chore when you list each tiny step one after another. (Tying my shoes: Grab one lace. Then grab the other. Cross them. Finish the knot. Make a bunny ear. Now make another...") Certainly frequent updates are a bit of a pain, but Sony's definitely slowed the pace in recent months. Assuming a gamer connects the PS3 to the internet more than once a week, he or she should be able preemptively take care of updates, and keeping a controller charged is just good planning. Alternately, buy a Blu Ray Remote - it's not perfect, but the batteries stay charged just about forever, and you can use it to navigate the menus while the controller charges.
Continuing through the process of paying for, installing, and then playing the game, he finishes the opinion stating "when I buy a DVD movie or game, I just pop it in and start playing. No system updates. No reboots. No fuss." Actually, about half of my Xbox 360 games have required downloadable updates if I wanted to play while connected to Xbox Live, and PSP and Wii games often have required firmware updates before they'll play (although the updates are usually stored on the disks and don't require downloading).
Basically, the experience provided is a pretty specific "Worst Case Scenario," minus things like hardware failure or network problems, that most gamers will likely only experience once or twice during the lives of their consoles. Will these problems be enough to turn people off of downloading games? I can't say. Bogost has a noble purpose - before we decide this new distribution method is the future, let's work out the kinks - but it descends so quickly into nitpicking it's hard to take seriously. It's not a perfect system, but to put the small problems on par with the larger ones won't solve anything. Frankly, my biggest complaint is that the store requires you to add money in intervals of whole dollars, yet everything on the site costs $X.99, leaving me with one extra cent in my account every time I complete a purchase. I want my pennies, Sony! With interest!
Opinion: Inside Digital Game Download Hell [Gamasutra]
Dawdle
Posted to on 26 January 2008
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: digital downloads, ian bogost, playstation store, psn, sony, whining
Yeah... we would've taught him how to do it in the lab but... we don't have a PS3 for the lab yet, sorry.
-GA Tech Digital Media Grad Student
Sounds like he neglects his console. I've had mine since July or August and have yet to run my controller down.
I also find it fairly simple to find content on the PSN since you go search alphabetically.
Oh and he sucks at Calling All cars which is actually a rather simple game....
System updates confuse my simple little mind.
Plus, if someone criticizes the PS3 because they forgot to charge their own controller, I think there's nothing credible about their comments.