matrixfusion

Dear Sony Computer Entertainment of America,

Hi. It's me again. How have you been? How are the robot children? Oh that's good. .....They're going for HOW much? Seriously? Wow, was that your decision, or.... oh, you let THEM decide their price. Huh. Probably not a smart idea.

Anyway, I really just wanted to say one thing.

What the hell, Sony. What the hell. As if gamers didn't need anything else to raise the ire of out-of-touch baby boomers who think video games, and technology at large, is the Machine Devil built to suck out their souls.

Okay, seriously, a minimalist "art-house" ad may look nice, but at this point, you need to cut the bullshit and focus on selling consoles, which is the ONLY thing that will save your company. You're posting NINETY-FOUR PERCENT DECREASES in profit estimates. You're faced with recalls of a product that should NEVER have such catastrophic problems. Your game division is so deep in the red that, at this point, the only thing that can possibly save your entire company from complete ruin is a $599 console/computer/internets/Blu-Ray player/nuclear bomb. And every single day, there is more and more negative news about your games, your products, your company, and your future.

This time last year, you were on top of the world. Now? I don't really know if Sony is a company we'll see, this time next year. You ask us for our hard-earned money and commitment to the "next generation" of consoles. Maybe what we need isn't the "next" generation, but a "new" generation.

The moment video games stop being about games and gameplay, there is a fundamental problem.

Tell the robot children I said "disk read error." Happy Halloween!

Love, matrixfusion

Sony.

Sony, Sony, Sony.

What the hell. What the hell is wrong with you people. A year and a half ago, you were on top of the world. People literally KILLED for your product. (Not necessarily a good thing, but work with me.) A year and a half ago, "video game" meant "PlayStation." That's what people bought for their kids when they asked for video games.

And now, at the eve of your launch of what was SUPPOSED to be your best console yet, what was SUPPOSED to be a superior video game console, you have already done far more damage to yourself than any other game company in twenty years. And now, you're screwing your customers directly. You don't care about your customers, you don't care about your products, you don't care about your games, you don't care about the costs, on both sides, for this pipe dream of "next-gen gaming." You're ruining the industry and setting the gold standard for rising video game costs, rising development costs, and decreasting quality, innovation, and just plain fun.

When video games stop being about games and gameplay, there is a fundamental problem. You are the source of that problem.

And it's not like you can do much else better. Good luck with the battery recalls.

So basically, once again this is a case of Joystiq completely overreacting and creating a lot of bad blood between gamers, and once again commentors are freaking out because of someting so trivial.

Joystiq, I love you guys, but sometimes..... Christ.

PLAYTIME IS DANGER-TIME

SMILES ARE TOOLS OF TERROR

HAPPINESS IS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION

FUN IS FORBIDDEN!

FUN IS FORBIDDEN!

FUN IS FORBIDDEN!

Wow, that sounded weird, let me try again.

If a game is short but has high replayability, that's pretty much the best combination you can get. Games that allow you to either pick it up and play for a few minutes OR sit down for a long time are really ideal. Like I tried to say before, levels are a big part of it. I don't know why game makers use a level structure more often, or at least try to subliminally divide the game into sections or chapters or acts like all the old NES game did.

Like I said, I have a LOT of time to play games, but I really can't get into tedious ones.

Well, there's a couple of things I want to say. I have about 10 GC games I haven't played yet, but I don't regret it because they're all really great games and none of them are really that long. I don't like long and tedious games that add filler just to make them long. If a game is long, but fun, that's fantastic. But when a game stops being a game and becomes a chore, that's where I draw the line. I have plenty of time to play long games if I want to but I really don't like playing games like RPGs. They just are so exhausting, and boil down to a lot of menus and a lot of things you only find out if you go online.

Another problem is the perception that you must play EVERY GAME RIGHT NOW as if, in ten years, they won't exist anymore, or that they won't have been rereleased, or a new version will not have come out. That's why I sold my old GBA: I had a backlog of games I wanted to get, but the DS had newer entries or versions in those same series.

I really think the point here is, is that games ARE getting too long. Wind Waker, for example, isn't that long, but I'll be damned if it isn't fun as hell. The key is being able to play a game in either short bursts OR in long spans. Zelda very easily lends itself to that, as does games like Mario and Katamari Damacy and Shadow of the Colossus. It divides the game into levels, basically, even if you don't realize it, just like all the games of yesteryear. God of War is another example of a game that is awesome but never tedious or long.

Kingdom Hearts? I'm sorry, but I just couldn't get into it. WAY too tedious. And PRESS X FOREVER LOLZ

ATTENTION: SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT OF JAPAN, EUROPE, AND AMERICA

STOP

SAYING

WORDS

THANK YOU

I kinda think it's interesting that someone is, for once, looking at games as art and not just as throw-away entertainment. And I'd like you see you write something better, Mr. Seth. At least he put forth the effort.

That's why I don't play long RPGs like that, that require books to even win the game.

For me, fun is more important than difficulty. If a game is fun but relatively easy, that's what counts. A game that is difficult for the hell of it is not fun. And when the only way to beat that difficulty is with a guide, it's a waste of time and money and the game usually isn't that good anyway.