E3 ‘07 Sony: Little Big Planet: Slick, But Quickly Boring
- Scribbled on July 15th, 2007 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Casual Gaming, E3, PlayStation Network, Previews, Sony PlayStation 3
Kotaku has posted impressions of their hands-on experience with Little Big Planet, stating:
On the surface, the game looks amazing and it’s obvious the development team is putting a lot work into it, but I’m just kind of baffled as to exactly what the point of it is…The graphics are very slick and the few little backgrounds they showed that you could swap out were cool and included things like a desert, a graveyard and Zen garden. The space in which you can build your creations is pretty large and some of the “inventions” shown were pretty wacky. Once you build something, you can store it in your inventory and then share it with other players. It’s what I would probably call an art game with some community aspects.
Is this another flOw disaster waiting to happen?
July 15th, 2007 at 11:41 am
[...] like Lost gamers left the demonstration wondering if it’s going to be cool or a flop. The concept…well, we don’t know the concept, but you can build things and share them [...]
July 15th, 2007 at 11:49 am
First, casual games need a casual gamers perspective (not saying they didn’t in this situation) and that changes a lot. What one person thinks is boring may be another persons favorite addiction.
However… this doesn’t seem that way. From what I read, it seems that they’re hoping for something cool, but like a season of Lost, they have more questions now than they did before the demo.
What type of demo leads people to ask “huh?” more than “aaaweeeeesoome!”
These folks write, daily, and thousands of people read it. Impress them or don’t bother showing them. Don’t wait until TGS for gamers to know what the heck you’re building if you’re giving a demo NOW.
Just my opinion, could be awesome. Dunno. Gotta wait until TGS I guess.
July 15th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Jonah,
Are you saying that the Kotaku writer who tested the game thinks it’s boring or that you personally think the game sounds boring?
July 15th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Wow, I’m sorry but that seems so biased. You can’t just base a game’s premise off of one guy’s time with the game.
LBP looks to be a game that centers around what you make of it. The developers aren’t even sure what people will end up doing, or using it for. It could be one guy’s platformer of choice, or even somebody else’s first step into clever game design.
July 15th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
It’s not “bias”. It’s boredom. (laugh)
July 15th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Well, nowhere in the Kotaku post does the word “boring” appear. The fact that the writer doesn’t yet know what “the point” of LBP is hardly suggests that he thinks it is boring.
What he’s saying is that he doesn’t understand the objective of the game. Is it to design wild and wacky worlds simply for visual/creative appeal? Is it a “make-your-own-game” where you design your own levels and then run through them to complete some goal? Or is it a combination of the two?
The writer explicitly states that he was shown the level creation function in LBP but was given vague responses as to what, if anything, the game turns into once a level is created. He specifically noted that questions were asked about whether there is any plot but was told “[w]e’ll be talking more about that at TGS.”
He closes the post with comments like:
“it is still a rather intriguing title”
“I will be interested to see how it develops”
“at this point it seems a little early on to get a real handle on exactly how it’s all going to work”
“I’ll definitely be wanting to check in with it again to hear these more detailed announcements.”
Those comments certainly don’t give the impression that the writer has decided the game is boring.
July 15th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
I’ve spoken to a bunch of writers at E3. They all said “boring”.
July 15th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
No problem. Since you are basing the “boring” comment on unnamed writers at E3, that would certainly be good information to include in your actual post since, as it is currently, it suggests that the Kotaku article is where you got the “boring” impression. It just causes some confusion when the title is based on opinions of unnamed writers but attributes their opinions to that of the Kotaku writer who never suggested it was boring.
It seems like your discussions with these unnamed writers would make for a great story here at Gamestooge. I’d be very interested in seeing some names and quotes so we know who we’re talking about and more of how they feel. Good work with the inside E3 info!
July 15th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
If they’re not going to name themselves, it’s not my business to. After all, they have to worry about being tactful to large companies.
I don’t.
July 15th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Ah, I see. Damn those journalists and their fear of repercussion!
It’s crazy how quickly opinions can change. The last time LBP was demoed, the internet was overflowing with bliss from writers who were extremely impressed and excited with the game. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
July 16th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Wait wait wait… What do you mean fl0w disaster?
Flow was a smashing success for the PSN…