There’s an incredibly vague piece in the New York Times today about Playstation Home, Sony’s answer to Xbox Live. “As players progress through a game, they will unlock various virtual prizes that they can then show off to friends and rivals, the executives said.” According to an earlier Kotaku post, this is implemented as a little virtual environment — a room with a custom avatar in it, that you adorn with stuff that represents your achievements. That about sums up why I game: to decorate my little 3D virtual roomlet! I game to serve an electronic doll!
God, why can’t I stop bashing Sony? There’s just something so me-too and good-enough about this idea. “Hey, can you give me something that’s basically exactly like Live, except with a little Second Life thrown in?” “Yes. Yes, I can.” Prove me wrong, kids. Anyway, there should be more news out of GDC today.
In other news, Apple TV could serve as a gaming platform.
I actually kinda want Apple TV, though at the moment I don’t actually own a television. If I did I might have watched Edward James Olmos, in an in-the-moment improvisation, spontaneously destroy a valuable ship model on Battlestar Galactica (as described in this podcast — scroll to 42:20 — thanks Metafilter.)
