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PS UK boss Ray Maguire’s told Videogamer that LittleBigPlanet was delayed out of “respect”. We like to think he said “innit” as well.
“I just think it’s about respect,” he said. “We weren’t to know that a product that’s been in the marketplace since 2006 by a Grammy award-winning artist would have this kind of effect.
“But I don’t want to see anyone upset by something that we’ve done and we have to put it right so we did put it right. I think it was the right move.”
Sony decided to delay LittleBigPlanet, its flagship Christmas game, thanks to a song in the original version containing expressions from the Qur’an.
Viewing 12 responses
Psychotext said:
They’re down with the big dogs.
Hunam said:
Manchester Cathedral obviously doesn’t have high enough rep.
Shatner said:
Henry Hill: [narrating] One day the kids from the neighborhood carried my mother’s groceries all the way home. You know why? It was outta respect.
–
I digress. And the constant mentioning on Manchester Cathedral is so tit-for-tat-I-can’t-think-of-something-to-say-so-I’ll-pretend-like-I-ever-gave-a-shit is wearing thin.
Firstly it implies one religion is more important than another religion (and we all know where that leads).
Secondly, few seem to be aware of the differences of changing something in a game BEFORE its released and MONTHS AFTER its released. Or the differences between a peripheral audio track and an integral piece of gameplay and level design (clue: they’re not the same things!)
Thirdly, fewer still seem to consider the possibility that Sony may have learned lessons from a previous religious clash and are applying them to this latest one.
But, yeah. Why engage the brain when you can make a snappy one liner on the internet instead? Save the brain power for thinking up new insults when you encounter people on the opposing team in an online FPS game. Much better!
Psychotext said:
Why do I get the image of you sat there twitching every time you read the site Shatner?
Shatner said:
I don’t know.
yupyup said:
Technichal limitations aside Shatner, from the PR front it does seem like Sony treated one Religions potential offense as more important than another. It’s definitely easier to deal with it before a game has been released, but are you saying it couldn’t have been patched to remove the sequence entirely (not played it personally so I can’t comment), pull copies from shelves, edit and re-release like GTA:San Andreas? Not exactly the most elegant approach, but they would have been seen to at least be trying to do something about it.
It would certainly be interesting to see how Sony would deal with it after this LBP incident.
Shatner said:
Yupyup, you can’t remove technical limitations from this because it’s as much about technical work as anything else. If you want to remove the technical side then you’re just bastardising the scenario for the sake of simplicity or convenient comparisons.
Sure it could be patched. But the Manchester Cathedral part of the game is a significant chunk of gameplay (both inside and out). Yeah, take it out and you’ve lost 5% of the game. Re-designing, re-scripting, re-balancing, re-optimising an alternative chunk of game is NOT the same as deleting or disabling a music track that has no knock-on effect on gameplay whatsoever. The cost of that sort of work in R:FOM would run into 5 figures at the very least and it would also split the product ownership in two AND mess up map balancing in online play. Not the same as an audio track at all.
And, as I said before (not that anybody seems to have noticed) the it’s possible the LBP action is a course taken from lessons learned with Resistance FOM.
The “Oh, I’m going to say something snappy on the internet. Watch me go!!” mentality suggests that in the two instances everything else is equal and Sony’s decision to act differently in one case than the other is arbitrary. If you apply a modicum of thought (it may prevent you from getting your snappy comment in quite so quickly though) it’s very clear just how different these instances are.
What’s more important to todays gamers: understanding games or making snappy but dense comments on the internet?
DISCLAIMER: Yes, it’s another lengthy reply. Gee, I guess sometimes things need explaining as the simple, snappy approach is usually completely at odds with reality. Imagine that!
yupyup said:
Not sure if that last wall of vitriol was aimed at me or not, but my questions were legitimate rather than ’snappy one liners’. This time, at least.
Not every games player is a games developer so it may not be as thunderously obvious to everyone as it might be to you.
So roughly how much will it have cost to recall/delay LBP then? Up to 5 figures? Who foots the bill Sony or Media Molecule? Again genuine question before you launch into another paragraph of contempt.
Also why would a split product base matter in the case of R:FOM (had it been patched/reissued). Surely it would only matter for online ultiplayer and therefore the patch could be forced on users?
Vincent said:
I would’ve thought the main difference was that LBP has a low age rating that specifically sets out to appeal to as large a group of people as possible, and RFOM has a mature rating aimed at, well, people who like shooters. With LBP, they don’t want anyone playing to be offended and the music track isn’t integral to the game. The cathedral on the other hand adds to the theme of the game, and taking it out (if it were technically realistic) would compromise the game’s artistic vision. Not the case with LBP at all.
pjmaybe said:
It’s also worth pointing out that the Manchester Catherdral part of RFOM 1 is one of the DULLEST parts of the entire game.
Shatner said:
No contempt. Only for supposed know-it-alls who are more concerned with internet kudos than they are to spend 30 seconds thinking something through. It’s not about what you know, it’s about THINKING BEFORE SPEAKING. Things don’t need to be thunderingly obvious. But if you actually think before you (not ‘you’ but others) make a smartass comment you’ll run less of a risk looking like a vacuous smartass.
In fairness, you yourself already stated you weren’t familiar with what the Manchester Cathedral part of R:FOM was – it was a significant area of game play in the first half of the game. It wasn’t something peripheral or that could be simply switched on or off without any impact to gameplay (and all the factors that go into creating gameplay). And audio track is, pretty clearly, a much simpler deal – particularly as it’s merely a licenced music track. It’s not even incidental or thematic music tied into the events of the game. With respect to the LBP part of this conversation THOSE parts are obvious. You don’t need to know a thing about development to appreciate that, you just need to stop and think for a moment before hitting SUBMIT.
As for manufacturing costs, particularly for first party stuff, I really can’t say. The costs of a piece of work go beyond production line stuff. There’s the human cost too. Editing code to prevent access to content on a disc (like an audio file) could be pretty straightforward stuff. Testing it, compiling it, going through product certification – that’d probably be the larger part of the work. The more humans involved the more cost. Again, that’s a pretty obvious statement there.
As for the split and things being forced on users – look how upset ‘users’ got when an audio track gets removed. Now consider what would happen if a signature piece of gameplay got removed from the game or that everyone was forced to patch a chunk of the game (even on single player and even if they never played it online). It wouldn’t be pretty and you can guess which party would be blamed for everything, as usual.
I’d recommend going back and checking gamers reaction to the original R:FOM / CofE thing. The sentiment was that CofE’s opinion wasn’t welcome and they should keep their noses out. Now we’ve got people saying it’s not right that CofE’s concerns weren’t acted upon if another’s beliefs are. People only seem to care so long as they can complain.
The principle (And the thought) gets lost in the rush to blame people for whatever you think can stick.
Oh, and as for vitriol, you’ve not seen anything yet.
Psychotext said:
/pokes Shatner with a stick