Playstation Network: Reasons for hate?

[Googenstien]

After almost a year I have had zero issues with the PSN. If I want to download a movie I can play it as I stream with no issues, downloads and patches are fast and pretty much all online games I have played have been fine (EA servers are usually the ones with any isssues.)

I think people who ***** about it have DSL or maybe even dialup, with my 20mbps cable connection I never have any issues.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Well when I had my PS3 I noticed there was a furry on PS Home....so yeah, Sony supports furries

Also PS Home

 

[Delusibeta]

I have a 360, and my month's trial has expired a few days ago. Would I pay £40 a year for it? Hell no.

 

[Harlemura]

None of my firends have PSN. That's the only reason I don't like it, everyone's on Xbox Live.
I don't hate it for that either, it's not the network's fault I only know about five people who have a PS3, and only a couple of those I actually like.

 

[Akihiko]

I honestly prefer buying games for PS3 rather than my 360(Unless the 360 version is superior). For some reason I find the trophy system more pleasing. I mean "You got a gold trophy!" sounds so much better than "You got 50 gamer points!". Not to mention, you get a Platinum trophy for getting all trophies, rather than just a 1000/1000 on your games list. Shop is much better layed out too. Takes forever to flick through all the menu's to find older games which aren't on the page fronts on XBL. Patches are slower, mainly due to them inserting DLC in their patches so you see the DLC if someone else has got it but you haven't, you just can't use it. Online I haven't seen much difference in connection and lag, however, I rarely play online. My only problems with it is the Euopean shop is extremely lacking in PS cassic titles. I actually have to go on to the American store to buy some old games.

 

[NekoRose]

PSN functions, but that's about it. The thing I like about xbox is that it's all in one place. Want to start a chat? Invite a friend to your game? send a message? just hit that little x and it's all there, and it's consistent for every game.

PSN on the other hand leaves every game to handle its own online services pretty much completely, so it's a real hassle trying to figure it all out for every game you play, because they all have their own wanky rules. Metal gear online requires you to make, no joke, 3 accounts on 3 different sites before you start playing. Then to add a friend you have to go through all this shit only to find that for some reason your friends connection isn't good enough to even add you. there's no private chat/party system, the interface looks like an excel chart, and as a general statement, there's a bit more of an issue with connection on psn as there is on xbox live.

I'm pretty sure that's the only game that does that who knows I might be wrong

 

[Treblaine]

As of a few hours ago, I picked up a PS3 for the first time. I remember reading a while ago that people seemed to have a strong distaste for the Playstation Network. I've always owned a 360 and loved features of XBL, but I am quite impressed with the Playstation Network...moreso than I thought I'd be after hearing all the negative talk about it. It appears to me to be more organized as well as more aesthetically pleasing.

Is this new? Did it really suck at some point in time?
And why still all the hate and claims that it "isn't as good as XBL?"

Not trying to pick a fight, just looking for something that I may be missing...

There is no reason.

I had a PS3 since 2007 and from all the bullshit I heard online I thought "XBL must be amazing"

So I got an xbox 360 and from the 3 months of free gold membership I found it absolutely abysmal. Worst online gaming network I've used in years only this one had the GALL to charge as much as £40 per year, that's equal to $65 per year.

I think it is ENTIRELY down to a kind of "Investor's justification".

All these XBL users are spending $50+ per year on their service, they NEED to rationalise it as being great to ease their worries that they are wasting their money.

Many Xbox 360 games have some good ideas but the XBL ecosystem means they will always be horribly executed.

 

[icyneesan]

The only thing I found bad about the PSN is when you play with other people because a lot of them seem to be really big do**he-bags and f*ck-fa**ots >__>

Personally I think PC Online gaming is still the best

 

[Treblaine]

PSN functions, but that's about it. The thing I like about xbox is that it's all in one place. Want to start a chat? Invite a friend to your game? send a message? just hit that little x and it's all there, and it's consistent for every game.

PSN on the other hand leaves every game to handle its own online services pretty much completely, so it's a real hassle trying to figure it all out for every game you play, because they all have their own wanky rules. Metal gear online requires you to make, no joke, 3 accounts on 3 different sites before you start playing. Then to add a friend you have to go through all this shit only to find that for some reason your friends connection isn't good enough to even add you. there's no private chat/party system, the interface looks like an excel chart, and as a general statement, there's a bit more of an issue with connection on psn as there is on xbox live.

What you may call "simplicity is great" I call the exact same thing "less control is bad"

Admittedly I am a PC gamer but when you say thinks like "interface looks like an excel chart" that is what I want! I am not the person to settle for some bullshit signal-bars-equal-lag representation of latency, I want a precise number in millisecond of how much lag I'm getting.

You know what it means having "everything in one place" in terms of business economics? A walled garden. Those are bad for the consumer in the long run as they are anti-competitive and exploitative.

It's not necessarily a good thing if Microsoft controls so much of the online experience, this leaves the actual game developers marginalised and constrained. Gabe Newall - who recently defected from Pro-360 to Pro-PS3 camp - praised the PS3 for being far more open to developers, even though technically more challenging; clearly the benefits outweigh any costs.

The reason PSN might have more connection issues is because it has lower latency standards.

I would often connect on Xbox Live only the "connection" was absolutely atrocious, terrible lag and virtually no game would tell me how much lag I had, probably deliberately concealing it so as not to reveal definitively what poor value you were getting. But with P2P based multiplayer so popular on consoles inevitably some of your friends are going to have poor connections and that's inherent to the internet. It's not worth connecting if you have something 300 milliseconds of lag which causes such de-synchronisation especially considering the host always has Zero lag by default.

The only way to "code this away" is to not connect to friends by preference but by prioritise by lowest latency on your internet connection. But still my problem with my experience on 360 is even with this I'd end up in games with huge lag STILL!

If you want to play with your friends I suggest PC gaming with dedicated server model, or invite them over for LAN / Split-screen multiplayer.

 

[Treblaine]

*double post*

 

[Kuckles]

As of a few hours ago, I picked up a PS3 for the first time. I remember reading a while ago that people seemed to have a strong distaste for the Playstation Network. I've always owned a 360 and loved features of XBL, but I am quite impressed with the Playstation Network...moreso than I thought I'd be after hearing all the negative talk about it. It appears to me to be more organized as well as more aesthetically pleasing.

Is this new? Did it really suck at some point in time?
And why still all the hate and claims that it "isn't as good as XBL?"

Not trying to pick a fight, just looking for something that I may be missing...

Well the first reason for hate of this sort that comes to mind, is "fanboyisme".
As yet another way of saying "My console is better than yours.".
A hype that seemingly almost everyone with internet connection and one of the consoles seem to have. I myself having the advantage of owning all the consoles, don't really get this, but that's not the point.

Another reason is well... you don't need to pay too play on-line, therefore the only income received from the PSN is that from the games, which probably cost money to make available on PSN. Result: Tighter budget for the actual network and the servers.
Maybe that the hate is therefore based on a seemingly worse connection during multi-player, though I myself don't have that problem.
I don't even know if this really is the case, but it makes sense in a way.

And some just find everything that's not American or not from Microsoft, not worth buying or using it, and think sony and their PSN are... I don't know inferior or something?

The the last thing being of course that the PSN and the XBLA are two totally different things and the interface and way the games use the PSN/XBLA is different between the two. But then again it's all up to you deciding which you like best, if one works better for you, use that.

Anyway, your right about the PSN all hate towards it probably isn't reasonable, or actually based on something. The PSN is as well as the XBLA are both adequate ways to play and buy games and game related products.
The difference being the free playing on PSN.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Because Xbox owners want to have 1up on PS3 owners.

Honestly I don't really see the point.

I don't hate the PSN service. I just don't like it as much. The interface and it's various systems are often kludgy, the service has been unavialable for a variety of reasons significantly more often than XBL, and the service simply has less to offer. The reason I don't hate the service is precisely because it is free which means I'm perfectly willing to accept a less robust system when a game interests me on the PS3. Were they to charge a similar price as XBL, I would expect both the quality of service and the quality of the experience to increase accordingly.

 

[Geekosaurus]

Not so much hate, just fanboys arguing.

 

[Tattaglia]

the layout is terrible

Why? I hear a lot of people saying that but isn't it just up to personal preference? I own both consoles and they seem fine.

BASED ON MY PERSONAL PREFERENCES the layout is terrible.

But why? You must have actual reasons for not liking it. And next time, make everything bold and in caps.

 

[Tattaglia]

the layout is terrible

Why? I hear a lot of people saying that but isn't it just up to personal preference? I own both consoles and they seem fine.

BASED ON MY PERSONAL PREFERENCES the layout is terrible.

But why? You must have actual reasons for not liking it. And next time, make everything bold and in caps.

Because it is generally inconvenient, and as is Sony Standard, it takes several hours to get things to work right (Such as connecting it to my computer and still having to manually input every bit of internet connection information to get it to work).

Plus, the Private Party Chat and the non-terrible headsets help make Live preferable.

Fair enough. Although I don't get any of those connection problems I will agree that the PS3 headsets are fucking awful. I have bought two and both of them broke within days of purchase.