Tag: Sony

Michael Marsh, an 18-year-old gamer from Norwalk, Conn., wanted to set up a gay/straight alliance club in PlayStation Home, Sony's new free 3-D virtual world component for the PlayStation 3. The problem was that the words he was using - "gay," "lesbian" and "bisexual" - were being filtered from text chats and were not being allowed in the naming of clubs or in postings in club forums. Marsh, who is straight but supports gay rights, said he raised the issue with Home community managers during the private beta test, but the problems persisted after the public beta introduction of Home on Dec. 11.

"I can understand if they're filtering out profanity, but if feel like it's discrimination," Marsh said. "By blocking a word like 'gay,' which is a preferred term by the gay community, you're encouraging it as a bad word." The censorship issue is just one of a number of glitches and problems that have dogged Home, which was designed as a virtual social community for gamers. Users had trouble getting into the world on the first day and continued to have trouble connecting, prompting Sony to issue a patch aimed to fixing those problems. The fix, however, temporarily suspended voice chat.

But connections haven't been the only issue. Users have taken to Home forums to complain about harassment in the virtual world, with some women and minorities speaking up about racist or sexist comments. Others have complained that the virtual items in Home, like Diesel clothing, are priced too high. And a few have noticed their items have a way of disappearing from their virtual apartments when they're away.

Sony Computer Entertainment America spokesman Patrick Seybold said the company is working to improve Home on a daily basis and is incorporating user concerns and suggestions. He emphasized that while the virtual world is open to the public, it is still being tested and is a work in progress.

"The key message is it's a beta and it's evolving on a daily basis," he said. "We've said early on that user behavior and feedback will shape where we go with Home."

In the case of the censored words, Seybold said, Home employed filters to prevent defamation in Home's closed test version. But when the service went public, he said, it should have started allowing those words. Some other users, however, noticed that the filtering continued, and blocked words like "Christ," "Jew" and even "Hello," which apparently was flagged because it starts with the word "hell." Seybold said the company is looking into the censoring of words in Home's clubs.

Sony has reminded Home visitors about its policy of zero tolerance, which allows users to report abuses in Home to community moderators. And they're actively soliciting feedback. The long-delayed Home has been a major undertaking for Sony as it tries to build a more robust online community around its PlayStation 3 video game console. The world is not only aimed at fostering more connections between gamers but also represents money-making opportunities for Sony and other brands that want to sell virtual goods.

Ted Pollak, a market analyst at Jon Peddie Research and portfolio manager for the Electronic Entertainment Fund, said users need to be patient with Home, which is bound to have numerous kinks in the beginning. He said it took other virtual worlds and online games like Second Life and World of Warcraft a while to get a handle on problems and address them.

"I have to respect Sony for its Home efforts because it's a fascinating environment and it's very, very complex," Pollak said. "There's no way anyone can come out with a perfect virtual world out of the gate."

Still, users of Home are impatient and want Sony to make the fixes, particularly about the censorship issue. "It's not enough to say it's a beta," said Kevin Johnson, a 52-year-old retired graphic artist who has been following the issue since he started as a private beta tester. "Sony is major company, and they should have had a good understanding of these issues long ago. And it was brought to their attention before the open beta was launched."

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

0.0/60votes

Voting statistics:

Rate	Percentage	Votes
6	0%	0
5	0%	0
4	0%	0
3	0%	0
2	0%	0
1	0%	0

Tags: banned, playstation, Sony

Architect b. July 8, 1906 d. January 25, 2005 "The job of the architect today is to create beautiful buildings. That's all." Proportion, minimalism and geometry were elements Philip Johnson combined to create his masterpieces, which include iconic New York buildings. It seemed destined that Johnson, the descendant of Huguenot Jacques Cortelyou, who designed the town plan of New Amsterdam (later renamed New York), would leave an indelible mark on the city. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Johnson studied philosophy and history at Harvard. His education was regularly interrupted by long trips to Europe where he saw architecture that influenced his designs.

At New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), he co-curated an exhibition that tracked recent trends in building. The show, "The International Style: Architecture Since 1922," included Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe and provided the official introduction of modern architecture to the United States. During the Great Depression, Johnson pursued a career in journalism abroad. He subsequently enlisted in the U.S. Army. After his military service, Johnson enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he realized his passion for architecture. Philip Johnson's work is characterized by innovation. In a career spanning almost 60 years, he developed a reputation for flexibility and foresight.

Johnson founded the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA and served as a trustee of the museum. He was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal (1978) and the first-ever Pritzker Architecture Prize (1979). The Glass House (1949), which he designed for himself, is a modest 56-foot-by-32-foot rectangle with exterior walls made almost entirely of glass. The building, in New Canaan, Connecticut, incorporates the bucolic setting as an integral part of the home's ambiance.

His other seminal works are the New York State Pavilion for the World's Fair (1964), MoMA's east wing and sculpture garden (1964), Pennzoil Place in Houston (1975), and the Sony Building in New York City (1984).

The architect shared the last 40 years of his life with his partner, David Whitney, who died only months after Johnson.

0.0/60votes

Voting statistics:

Rate	Percentage	Votes
6	0%	0
5	0%	0
4	0%	0
3	0%	0
2	0%	0
1	0%	0

Tags: new york, Philip Johnson, Sony