Is Game 3.0 Really New?
April 10th, 2007, 7 CommentsIs Sony’s Game 3.0 truly a fundamentally new concept? Is user created game content only now being done for the very first time in history? Next-Gen dares to suggest that this might not be the case.
I remember Pinball Construction Set and user created Lode Runner levels and Eamon modules. No, user created content isn’t new and Sony didn’t invent it. Guess what? Microsoft didn’t exactly invent online games with Xbox Live nor did Nintendo invent gesture recognition.
Part of this is just the unfortunate way the world works. If you attend a big glitzy CEO keynote, you’re not going to hear some cranky old speech about the glory days of Pinball Construction Set, 300 baud modems, and wonky old VR gesture helmets. You’re going to hear well dressed, fast talking executives trying to generate excitement and optimism about their company’s current offerings.
Also, just as the Wii offers a far better implementation of gesture recognition then we’ve seen in the past, I really expect Sony (and others) to deliver a heck of a lot more interesting user created content options than Pinball Construction Set.
For example, one thing I really want to see is better content creation options for programmer types. I want something at a much more casual level than writing a whole game from scratch. I want to be able to think up neat algorithms and logical heuristics and see them work in a fun to use environment. Maybe an RTS game could support programmable unit behaviors or a puzzle game could support user-designed puzzle mechanics?
Do you think anything in the game industry is really new or is it all just variations and improvements on what we’ve seen before? Is anyone else looking forward to any particular type of user created content options?

If you’re like me, you are anticipating the launch of PlayStation Home like it was Christmas. You also have a sliver of hope that you might actually be chosen to be one of the lucky few to beta-test the Home service. And being such a Home aficionado, you probably downloaded the Home trailer from the PlayStation Store and showed it to your wife/husband or girl/boy-friend, or lacking those, your pet. (Although I have to say Home didn’t seem to impress my wife. She saw the scene near the beginning where a bunch of people were watching a video on the wall and immediately thought of The Island and 1984. Big Brother is watching you and all. Oh well. Can’t win them all.)



