Another Year Of Playstation Growth? #2 - Sony Communities
by Tom Hardman - August 29th, 2008
Part of our ongoing look at the plausible future of Sony’s gaming empire, this episode pulls out the magnifying glass and takes a long hard squint at the concept of group play and something we like to call 'Sony Communities'.
The ability to add your friends to your Xross Media Bar (XMB), contact them, share conversations and even invite to some games has been a fantastic resource. Coupled with the long awaited ability to access friend functionality mid-game has made this an effective, nay, essential ability on the console. Setting up your friends now has both a social and competitive element thanks to the introduction of Trophies and the ability to message each other mid-game.
We’d like to see this developed further though. Most online PC games developed clans over the years, and now the functionality they require is being built into the games themselves. On consoles we still have the same aspirations to team up with like-minded people but we’re largely limited to simply applying tags to our screen names. We want 'Sony Communities' to be the the consoles answer to clan-warfare. The concept doesn't have to be entirely game oriented, but built-in support for tags and groupings would make the community, friendship and sharing aspects of the PS3 a breath of fresh air in it's market. Developers could role in their own aspects to provide the much more tailored functionality demanded by fan-bases, making it a hallmark of the internet-driven gaming experience.
The Friends system currently in place wouldn't change, instead additional options would be added under the same heading, in-keeping with the existing XMB hierarchy. At first you would simply see the option to create your own team of renegades, something we'll simply refer to as a 'Group' from now on, to emphasise the potential the prospect has outside of the hardcore Clan/Guild/Pact contingent. Creating a Group will require a unique name and tag, the basic concept could stretch further to say that a minimum number of members must be invited and in agreement before the Group is formed to insure that there's not an overpopulation of one-man armies. In addition to this, it would offer the ability to preset a lot of the Group features. Once it's created, it's time to populate.
Anyone can be invited to a Group, like the Friends system it requires the invitee to accept, and options should be present to allow the ability to track invitations, rescind, or utilise timers to give limited offers. The Group Leader is responsible for the management of their creation and as such can also declare certain members to have the capacity to make alterations themselves, apart from remove the leader, or delete the clan.
Each member of the Group is given a new icon on their XMB, showing the Groups chosen logo and name. There's no list of members to check the status of like there is with Friends, but don't worry, any Friends of yours in the group won't disappear from their normal spot on your menu. Instead the icon will open up to provide a small range of options:
Group Status – A separate page with the online and offline status of each player, and what game they're playing at the moment. This has to be separate unlike the Friends as it will require longer to load and should be made easier to read and search through.
Group Stats – It's basically your 'Compare Trophies' function, again placed into a separate section for the same reasons as above. This could be extended into a more useful tool (check back to a later episode for more on pushing Trophies further)
Group News – A very simple page with a few sections that will allow the Group leader or nominated members to detail whatever they like. Tournaments, matches, insight into new games etc.
Group Comms – A very basic message system, allowing people in the Group to create topics, reply to messages and inspire some console-based chat.
Group Chat – Essentially the normal chat function without the capacity for video. It should allow a notable number of people from the Group the ability to talk to each other via headset without the necessity for being in-game. Important for talking about the upcoming game, or comparing the weather.
We reckon that an undertaking of this size will be potentially huge, just looking at the likes of the Steam client available for the PC will be rough indication of what’s possible. From an early perspective, we reckon group sizes of no more than 50 to be about right. Each player should be able to join no more than three groups at a time, keeping it a more respectable challenge for development whilst allowing players to join both that Resistance 2 clan and that Cliff Richard fan club at the same time.
As we mentioned though, the Groups don't have to be game orientated in the slightest, by presenting that functionality as a standard throughout the PlayStation Network experience, developers would be in a position to push further interest in their titles by adopting the mechanics we've laid out. The demand is clearly there; previously released games like Call Of Duty 4 allowed you to insert a clan tag to the beginning of your name, but nothing ever tied you to that actual clan, and no doubt there is still thousands of one-man clans roaming around the battlefields. With an established system for creating groups outside of the game, no doubt the game could have offered anyone looking to play as a team, friendship, or full blown-army an entirely different experience.
Let’s start from scratch, taking COD4 as our example and see how the game could be improved with this standardized Sony functionality. First of all, if your prowess is noticed by a fellow team-mate, they can directly or indirectly invite you to their friends group, which just so happens to be a COD4 clan called 'Mort's Marauders'. There’s nothing restricting the clan to that game of course, allowing them to stretch their horizons into other games, but as that is its main function you’ll be expected by the other members to be a COD4 player to join up.
You eagerly accept the invitation and find yourself with a new group on the XMB. As you enter it you’re given the options to look at the various pages. Looking at the Group Status page you can see that there are another 40 members for you to get acquainted with. You can see which of them are online, and what games they’re playing. You head to the Group Comms section next and write a quick thanks for the invitation, and state your intent to show everyone else just how it’s done on the battlefield.
Fancying a bout of COD4 you slip in the disc and go through the usual process of entering the online-multiplayer component of the game. It's here that gaming take a swerve towards the future, rather than thrust into selecting a server as yourself, you have the option to play either 'solo' or as one of your Group members. Players without any groups will automatically bypass this stage and notice little difference in the game at all. You however are part of two groups; your new COD4 clan 'Mort's Marauders', or a group of friends from college 'The Hair Bear Bunch'. Choosing to enter ‘solo’ which will enter you as an individual, groups and friends can still see you in-game and send you invites like normal.
Choosing to keep your college exploits quiet for now, and entering as a member of your new COD4 clan, you can setup a game much like normal, with your ‘friends’ being pulled directly from the group membership list instead. With your Group selected, you automatically sport the associated tag and any kills you earn will be done as a member of that group. You can gang up online, arrange legitimate clan matches or fun afternoons with set groups of friends much easier this way. Because your tag is automatically set when choosing your play-type, other players will know that there is a tangible group of people behind that name of yours. Allowing the bigger names, or the better teams to hold their heads high knowing that they cannot be imitated.
The console market has been driving forwards the concept of community play and increasing concentration on multiplayer aspects. Their hardest challenge has been to combat the capabilities of PC’s, but this new generation has made online consoles a must-have rather than a luxury. Games such as Resistance 2 and MAG are looking set to push the boundaries of online capabilities even further, but we still feel a little out of water when it comes to meeting new people, forming teams, and getting ourselves recognised in our favourite games.
Gaming contests are the fore-runners of turning the industry into a media and globally accepted pastime and has been closely linked to sport on a number of occasions. Console use has been rising sharply, but with little support for all the great things the PC has offered us, it isn’t yet set to be the new platform for online gaming. This is where 'Sony Communities' comes in, Groups are the groundwork required to offer players the chance to form their own Groups; clubs, clans, guilds etc. The interaction between those Groups is then the spark required to have a bustling community and a much more competitive element, highly sought in online gaming. The keywords here are contribution through enjoyment.
We'll be touching on the Sony Communities concept further in multiple episodes of 'Another Year of PlayStation Growth'. Until then though: What are your thoughts on our concepts for friendship groups, clans, guilds and teams? Is there anything else you’d like to see rolled into it, or do you have totally different ideas altogether? Comment below or hit our
forums for a chance to discuss the exciting possibilities of future gaming.
Next Time
We take a look at crossing the boundaries between console and PC. Most of us have spent our time in the forums at some point or another, how much can our consoles provide us with to make that a more fitting experience? Will the trend of increases in this area like Youtube video support, web functionality and new rumours about screenshot hosting reach any higher? We’ll be looking at the likes of live blogs, forum gizmos and online profiles, hit us now with your suggestions and it could well be your input that we feature in our next gaze into the future.
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