Epix
05-22-2007, 05:19 PM
An interview with Leo Cubbin of SCE regarding LBP:
The general consensus is that only a small proportion of consumers create content in spaces like these. How will you ensure that Little Big Planet isn't over-run by freeloaders, and there is always new content for players to consume?
We will put in what people will expect for a game at the time that it launches. There will be a full game's worth of Media Molecule levels and assets which users get to play with and to use as their building blocks. After the launch, once we start to see how the community goes, we can make content available for download very easily and very quickly. We can respond to a world event, like the Olympic games for example, and we may decide to do some cool sets for the community, or make country costumes. We might even build an Olympic village that the community can use to stage their Olympics in.
You give a blank piece of paper and a pen and say, "Be creative!" What do I do? People are looking for inspiration. With LBP we want to create a fuzzy felt experience, where we give the component parts to trigger the creativity. I don't think any of us as kids had a problem with cracking on and creating something when we were given a Lego set; it didn't really matter how it ended up. We're trying to give people the bare bones, and then we'll let them go. Obviously there are going to be sophisticated users who will make incredible things because they'll know how to create textures and images, import photos, videos, audio files. They'll know the things to do to make their contributions incredible, but at the same time incredible things can come from simplicity. Someone can do something unexpected which might spark a whole string on the community.
How do you imagine people will use the games industry's first mainstream independent publishing platform?
We've had an approach from a developer in the US who wanted to know if they'll be able to design a level for the game. Of course they can! Once the game's released anyone can design. We've also had a couple of bands who are interested in designing their own levels. They want to have a presence in an online community where they can give away stickers, unique images, music that can be downloaded. A reward at the end of a level. Some of the legalities about downloads are a little bit sticky at the moment, but if an unknown band or artist wants to make its products known, they can do it through us.(VERY COOL!!)
How will you ensure that the content is restricted to appropriate ages and sensibilities?
When you give people tools to do something creative, there's the temptation to do something childish. One of the good things with PlayStation3 is that it already has some controls. So you can set the PlayStation3 to a particular age of appropriateness. My daughter will only ever see age appropriate information. When it comes to playing other stuff on line, she'll only by able to peer to peer with other people of same age.
In the UK, we'll probably adopt a system similar to YouTube and Flickr where we post-moderate. Children won't be able to see sites that haven't been moderated. Once it's been moderated they'll be able to see. For adults, un-moderated sites might have filters which warn people that there may be content that's offensive to some people. But Media Molecule have thought long and hard about this and there are tools which allow moderation very quickly, allowing Sony to scan a level for images and other content that's appropriate or inappropriate.http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2007/05/22/interview_little_big_planet.html
The general consensus is that only a small proportion of consumers create content in spaces like these. How will you ensure that Little Big Planet isn't over-run by freeloaders, and there is always new content for players to consume?
We will put in what people will expect for a game at the time that it launches. There will be a full game's worth of Media Molecule levels and assets which users get to play with and to use as their building blocks. After the launch, once we start to see how the community goes, we can make content available for download very easily and very quickly. We can respond to a world event, like the Olympic games for example, and we may decide to do some cool sets for the community, or make country costumes. We might even build an Olympic village that the community can use to stage their Olympics in.
You give a blank piece of paper and a pen and say, "Be creative!" What do I do? People are looking for inspiration. With LBP we want to create a fuzzy felt experience, where we give the component parts to trigger the creativity. I don't think any of us as kids had a problem with cracking on and creating something when we were given a Lego set; it didn't really matter how it ended up. We're trying to give people the bare bones, and then we'll let them go. Obviously there are going to be sophisticated users who will make incredible things because they'll know how to create textures and images, import photos, videos, audio files. They'll know the things to do to make their contributions incredible, but at the same time incredible things can come from simplicity. Someone can do something unexpected which might spark a whole string on the community.
How do you imagine people will use the games industry's first mainstream independent publishing platform?
We've had an approach from a developer in the US who wanted to know if they'll be able to design a level for the game. Of course they can! Once the game's released anyone can design. We've also had a couple of bands who are interested in designing their own levels. They want to have a presence in an online community where they can give away stickers, unique images, music that can be downloaded. A reward at the end of a level. Some of the legalities about downloads are a little bit sticky at the moment, but if an unknown band or artist wants to make its products known, they can do it through us.(VERY COOL!!)
How will you ensure that the content is restricted to appropriate ages and sensibilities?
When you give people tools to do something creative, there's the temptation to do something childish. One of the good things with PlayStation3 is that it already has some controls. So you can set the PlayStation3 to a particular age of appropriateness. My daughter will only ever see age appropriate information. When it comes to playing other stuff on line, she'll only by able to peer to peer with other people of same age.
In the UK, we'll probably adopt a system similar to YouTube and Flickr where we post-moderate. Children won't be able to see sites that haven't been moderated. Once it's been moderated they'll be able to see. For adults, un-moderated sites might have filters which warn people that there may be content that's offensive to some people. But Media Molecule have thought long and hard about this and there are tools which allow moderation very quickly, allowing Sony to scan a level for images and other content that's appropriate or inappropriate.http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2007/05/22/interview_little_big_planet.html