Le carnet à Michel / Mike's Blog / ミシェルのブログ

Again, this has to stop someday. I mean, this massive media slaughter is fueled by something that's for sure. Since E3, people started to see red and waving angrily at Sony… come on.

First there is the very boring presentation. They showed games, they showed stuff we all knew, figures we all saw. Then the big announcements of the day were all diffused, sounding all like dud bullet shoots. Then there are faux pas everywhere.

Let's face all the criticisms as I saw them coming in.

The price tag is too high. Wrong. Very wrong. Everyone everywhere knew they would have to drop pants and bend over to get next gen console from Sony, like they had to in order to get the premium 360, and it even includes the Blu-ray, something the 360 doesn't have.

Just look at the Blu-ray drive. If you want a Blu-ray player, you will have to shell out some impressive amount of dough, from 1K$ to 1.8K$ according to the official Blu-ray site. So for a few hundreds (up to more than a grand) less than a standalone drive, you get a next-gen console too. And that's even counting Sony's own Blu-ray player.

So everyone's expectations were the price tag would be high, the player itself is high, the technologies involved in creating such beast are high, nothing here worth even noting, worst case, we should be happy the price tag is not higher.

Sony are copying the Live model from Microsoft. Wrong wrongity wrong. What are you expecting again? To have something so novel that it'll be a total new Internet, hey there won't even be wireless and no blue cable and from a satellite dish included in the system, you'll be able to connect to everyone anyone freely? There are not 2000 ways to create online gaming possibilities. There's the free one (Nintendo), the subscription ones (PlayOnline, 360), the online purchase models (Yahoo! Games, …) and there are the ones where you can buy everything and anything directly (MSN). Anything you want to do will fall in one of these models.

There are features you can add, like messenging, friends list, ability to manage these from a computer, identification, discussion, e-mail, blogging, but again, these are all available on a modern PC, on modern Internet (please don't talk about Web 2.0), and I don't think they even can reinvent the wheel on these. So it's bound to look like the Live model.

Sony are copying the features of the Wii remote. Well… maybe a little bit. But let's face it. Their superb 3d-rendered artistic controller would probably fit better in some art gallery than in the hands of people. We are used to PS controller, its weight, the way it feels. Changing it would require a lot of involvement from people. Why change something that's not broken? But then, you have to give something to people… And hey, Nintendo did have a good idea there, so why not fit one in our controller? I think the thought was to fit one more feature there, add up some wireless, and here you go. However, off you go with the vibration, but that I could've predicted after the Immersion lawsuit, saying that with or without merit for these frivolous lawsuits, but it's still there. So while pondering about that (back then Revolution) remote, I am sure they got the idea that it would be controlled by some accelerometer and said they could fit one in their own solution.

I am not so sure, though, that I want to use that controller to move around. I'm one heck of a mobile player, as people who saw me play know. If I have to remain stable, I will probably break my own leg in frustration.

There won't be HDMI on base console. That's a big mishap. PS3 is all about being next generation and High Definition. All the videos we are shown are in high-def. The console smells, oozes, feels, needs HD contents. Of course, there will be HD contents, using the trusty component cables. I'm sure you will be able to play the games using your Y Pr Pb cables and it will work wonders. But Blu-ray will be strongly limited to potentially low-definition. Remove everything you want from the console, but please puh-lease, leave the HD there. Again, it's all about costs, and the cost involved in the HDMI licensing is probably very steep… hence even if the chips are all there and cost pennies to produce, the protocol and license must be a very high price to pay, per console. But then, that's not my problem.

Licensing will disallow selling back the games. That's even oh so more wrong I can't seem to put an end to it. I buy all my games. I lend them to my friends, and they give them back to me, hopefully in one piece (never had a problem so far). Some people go rent the games, try them and if they like, they buy. On my side, I wait for them to do rent and comment, and I ask my favourites clerks what's the best games of the month, then I pick from the winners. If I am not allowed to sell the games, or if I am not allowed to lend my rightfully bought games to my friends, or get a game from their stash to try it out, I will not buy them, plain and simple. Even if it's the latest Square. I can do with my 100$ in my wallet, thank you, I have other uses for it and if it's a pain to buy a game, I will not. And if no game, no console. But then, licensing is only licensing. And people will lend and sell and do whatever they want with it, there will probably a big lawsuit and Sony will probably retract from this very bad idea altogether.

All in all, there are reasons to buy in Sony's bashing… But these are not the same ones than people usually are giving in their conversations, and it should not resort into plain vanilla Net bash, simply a slight inconvenience and should be sent back to Sony for "comments". The price is OK, base console will be HD but probably not movie playback, it is a good idea to have the "usual" controller and might be useful to have the gyro there. And licensing might be only that: licensing… if it's software with key and stuff, then it's really bad and people will not buy into this, especially when people have alternative with XBox 360 or Wii that are key-less and restriction-less.

Now, can we please have a decent conversation on the topic please?

Amis: Michel, avoir rien à dire, bwahahahahahah!
Michel: Ben oui mais là laissez-moi une chance d'expliquer.
Amis, toujours morts de rire: C'est ça c'est ça … *tape sur les épaules*

Non c'est vrai, j'ai rien à dire. En fait, un article de journal m'a fait réfléchir récemment sur les comment et pourquoi je blogue. La journaliste stipule que c'est pour s'exprimer, donner son opinion, et être pris au sérieux. Je crois qu'elle n'a pas compris l'ampleur de phénomène, et surtout la diversité de la faune blogosphérique (ish, y'es 6h du mat', un effort, Michel).

Dans mes groupes de blogues, et dans le Yulblog, par exemple, vous allez retrouver plusieurs styles. Il y en a qui entretiennent un blogue pour effectivement pousser leurs idées politiques. D'autres, ils veulent donner leur opinion sur un sujet et le faire entendre. D'autres sont en quête de visibilité parce qu'ils en ont besoin, soit par égo, soit par travail. Quelques uns ont aussi besoin d'un contact semi-humain. Il y a ceux qui s'en servent comme agora de discussion avec leur groupe d'amis. Quelques uns s'en servent comme journal personnel. Finalement, certains ne démordent pas d'un sujet… mais j'en passe.

Pour moi, mon blogue, c'est moi, et c'est pour mes amis. Bien franchement, fuck it si ça ne fait pas plaisir à toute la planète. J'ai perdu tous mes anciens articles récemment, mais je ne m'en porte pas plus mal, pour moi ce n'est pas comme si j'avais perdu ma vie, en fait, j'ai juste perdu quelques centaines de milliers de mots, rien de plus rien de moins.

J'ai donc trois façons d'écrire. Soit pour gueuler sur un sujet quelconque, tenir au courant mes amis de divers sujets; soit un sujet d'intérêt local ou un texte d'opinion un peu mieux chié que d'habitude, dans ce cas je vais publier sous Yulblog; soit un sujet d'intérêt spécifique, dans ce cas je m'assure d'avoir des mots clés que les aggrégateurs peuvent bien cerner.

Mais je ne cherche pas les liens, les groupes (Yulblog est l'exception à la règle), les échanges de liens, d'envoyer mon site à travers le monde, j'en ai pas besoin. Je ne cherche pas non-plus à avoir un auditoire assidu et fidèle, certains lisent mes propos et j'en suis bien content, et j'écris pour eux un peu… mais je ne cherche pas à faire dans les sujets d'actualité ou à envoyer les nananes qui feraient plaisir à tous.

Je sais c'est quoi qui ferait plaisir, je saurais quoi écrire pour aller chercher des auditoires plus fidèles, je pourrais sérieusement aller chercher dans le millier de lecteurs sans même faire un pli. Mais je ne le cherche pas. Je suis un programmeur, je me tiens dans l'ombre de mon produit. Si mon produit se porte bien, je me porte bien. Même envers la critique, je vais rester content de mon produit. Je suis un ingénieur de son, je me tiens dans l'ombre de l'Artiste. Si l'Artiste fait un bon spectacle, je suis content. Et je ne suis surtout pas ninja! Moi passer inaperçu? Are you kidding me?

Et vous, pourquoi vous bloguez? Posez-vous la question quelques jours… ça vaut la peine de se faire un petit examen de conscience de temps à autres.