So Sony's announcement showed us a bunch of stuff everyone's talked about. So far the only thing that interested me was Knack (see previous blog) but most of us wonder about cost and it's lack of backward comptablility and all that.

More I see is Sony's whole "social intergration" thing. Honestly I'm not a fan. Remember this is the same folks who had that giant failed experiment called Home. Yeah remember how that was going to be so huge? Who wouldn't want to spend real money to buy virtual clothes and furniture in a Second Life knockoff?

But now I hear about how people can jump into your game and "help you" which I see being clogged up with the "stop having fun guys." For those who don't know who "stop having fun guys" are. Most commonly they're the ones playing SSBB who constantly go the "NO ITEMS! FINAL DESTINATION!!" But they manifest in other ways. When I would play World of Warcraft I often ran into players who would look at my gear or stats and say "wow your DPS sucks! Why don't you get better gear? You need to do this this this" And I often had to tell people that this was my first time playing and I was learning as I went and I didn't have another high level toon that could send me endless amounts of gold to buy up all the best gear at the auction house. Now in fairness my fellow guild members were polite about helping me out mainly so I could go on raids. Because the Catch 22 of WoW is you need good gear to raid but can't get good gear unless you raid. But I digress.

More and more gaming is trying to be this big social network where everyone knows what you're playing, when you're playing it, how you're progressing and this is of course reflecting back on our society where everyone wants to share everything all the time. Take a picture on your phone and a minute later it's on Facebook for the world to see. Heck my PS3 let's me post my trophies and any new PS Store purchases to Facebook. We may feel more connected but at times all this socializing gets on my nerves. I already expressed my annoyances with Facebook and how the wall is clogged up more with everyone posting random pictures or using it to shove their political/relgious beliefs down my throat.

For example my friend who is also a PS3 user is on all the time because he doesn't have cable and doesn't have a job and watches Netfilx all day long. It's either him or his daughter watching cartoons. And all too often I'll be playing a game and of course he can see what game I'm playing only to have him bug me later about what I was playing or why I was playing this instead of that. And since more and more games are wanting you to be online all the time, it's not like you can just sign off to get some privacy.

I'm not all that big on online gaming. I don't like FPSes and most of my experiences online haven't been enjoyable. Too many cheaters, trolls, and people telling me how to play. One of the reasons my husband and I got rid of our Xbox 360 was neither of us played enough online to justify that yearly fee. I've been in the camp of I don't think every game needs to shorehorn in multiplayer and sometimes you want to sit alone and just enjoy a single player adventure. I hate that single player modes are being ruined by forced Co-op with the AI partner being braindead (Epic Mickey 2) and I hate seeing a single player mode be gimped because the devs felt like the HAD to put a half assed multiplayer in there. I get annoyed in Little Big Planet 2 when I want to play a stage by myself and it's constantly saying "someone wants to join! Someone wants to join" and constantly telling it no. I like seeing people's creations but I don't want that experience ruined because some idiot 12 year old felt the need to butt in and constantly racing ahead of me making me die.

The worst part of this is more and more it seems like wanting to enjoy a solo experience makes you some anti social weirdo. I'm not. I like spending time with friends and family IN PERSON. I like playing stuff like Mario Kart and Smash Bros. with people in the same room so I can throw things at them if they start being dicks. lol And that's the thing, while all this online social networking might be nice, I'm sorry it is not a replacement for real human interaction.

And sometimes you'd like to be left alone.

Thanks for reading and if you want...

3DS Code: 2277-7938-7796

PSN ID: Slashingkatie