Sony's Home run (and Dylan hears a Who)

Living under assumed identities, it's IT Blogwatch, in which Sony finally gets some good press for "Home," a bold new plan to develop a virtual world based on its PlayStation franchise. Not to mention a Bob-Dylan-as-a-childrens-songwriter sendup ...

Kotaku dishes the dirt from the floor of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco:

Playstation Home is essentially a living world inside your console. It's probably a flawed analogy but think of it as Second Life meets the PS3.

The free service, which will go into beta this April and hit consoles this fall, will become a new menu item in the cross media bar.

When you select it you will be dropped into a virtual world peopled by life-like avatars. From what we saw during a press screening, customization of these avatars is incredibly flexible, allowing you to create something that looks as much like you as you would want.

Home starts you out in a central lobby. You use a virtual PSP in this world to access features, but can also just walk around. The main lobby we saw included dynamic advertising on billboards, games you could just walk up to and play, like bowling or pool and even a mini arcade that featured some cool little arcade titles.

You can communicate with others in the lobby by talking, typing, using motions or pre-written phrases.

Nodium nods nicely:

Sony is a strange creature. On the other hand, they have been mimicking the succesful products of other companies since the very beginning. On the other hand, they have shown over and over again that they are not following others when it comes to big, strategic moves.

Sony "Home" essentially seems like a Second Life clone without the ability to build your own objects except in a very limited way. Having total freedom to build your own structures and scripts is both the strength and weakness of Second Life. Over time, it has been riddled by a number security incidents… self replicating virus objects, stolen customer data etc.

I have high hopes for this initiative. It will finally bring secure 3D virtual communities to the masses.

IBMer Christopher Perrien makes another Second Life comparison:

Looks as though Home is Sony's version of Second Life as developed for the PlayStation audience. As teens are constantly exploring who they are and could be, maybe Home will work for this market. I obsevered with the advent of PS2 how Alex and his friends would separate on a Saturday evening to go home and get together on-line to Play Navy Seals SoCom. ... Interesting [that] it will be available both on the customer's TV set and not limited to PCs as is Second Life currently.

BBB ("for crying out loud, we're not the Better Business Bureau!") gushes and gushes and gushes:

Power is given to more than just the gamer, though, which is where the brilliance comes in. Game developers can use the virtual world to display trailers for their upcoming games, banner ads are literally banners in the virtual world and aren't limited to just advertising in the game industry. Sony gave them full flexibility to create their own online environments for players to visit, lending itself to more creative freedom for marketing. Users will be able to navigate areas from their favorite companies and chat with other players inside, play games, etc. Sony gave developers full freedom to advertise and create as they pleased within this new system. This creates a very friendly, enticing platform to work for. The introduction of a new trophy system gives a nod towards 360's achievement system, gives a win-win situation as well. Players are happy to have their bragging rights visible in a room full of trophies, developers are happy because other players see it as well, bringing more buzz for their game.

Joystiq cuts to the chase: Will there be sex?

That Sony's new social channel "Home" looks suspiciously like Second Life is hardly news to anyone who's seen the footage from Harrison's keynote. What I couldn't help giggling about the whole time he showed off the world, though, was just how much sex is going to happen in Home. Realistic avatars? Private spaces? Customization? Think about Second Life. So. Much. Sex. If there was any doubt, just remember Harrison's sample character who was supposed to say "Hi" but said "Ho."

Of course not, notes Gizmodo:

Developments in the game world though – public spaces where people meet –will be controlled by Sony to ensure that it stays family-friendly. You can also expect to see ads. There will be places dedicated to different games, prizes for reaching certain levels in games, a Hall of Fame, places to shop and share things with others, and even show the content stored on their PS3 to others while in their apartments.

The Venture Chronicles, which has given Sony a hard time in the past, is impressed:

The new Playstation Home service is probably less about being a Second Life killer and more about giving game consoles a new purpose in life, or in this case, virtual life. What I find appealing about Home is that it can extend the audience for PS3s beyond gamers, and for gamers it holds the promise of giving them something without a definitive ending point for them to participate in. In other words, games have beginning points and ending points, virtual worlds don't. ...

... Playstation Home could end up being something that has greater value to Sony that game titles, if the experience of Linden Labs with Second Life is any indicator. While not putting game titles at risk anytime soon, I can see a trajectory where Sony builds a killer experience for users while at the same time giving them a platform to converge their other businesses like movies and music into, and indeed building entirely new businesses around advertising and content.

cringer8 gives the Kotaku thread a reality slap:

Ummm, let's not forget *who's* promising this functionality. It's SONY. Many of these features could end up missing from the final product. They can't even handle background downloading and yet I'm supposed to believe this service will work as explained. Color me speculative. The past year has really made me cynical towards SONY's promises.

Another skeptic, Digital Urban, gets the final word:

The introduction of a virtual world on the PS3 is interesting but you cant help thinking that its not really about the users but more about extracting money from them once they are in the world.

Buffer overflow:

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• StillSecure, After All These Years: A brief history of NAC
• Liam OMurchu: 30 Second Backdoor
• Ed Skoudis: No Microsoft Security Bulletins Planned for This Month
• DrunkenData: IBM BCRS offers Self Assessment Tool
• Richard Koman: Dissident's wife to sue Yahoo
• Techdirt: Verizon Claims Vonage Owes It $197 Million For Patent Infringement
• Craig Borysowich: Do I Even Need a Prototype???

Around Computerworld

• Shark Bait: I don't need a bilingual computer
• Shark Bait: Wow! How do you think like that?!?
• Shark Bait: Now you see it, now you don't!
• Douglas Schweitzer: Security expert able to siphon data from RFID in transit!
• Shark Tank: Think they're trying to tell you something?
• Martin McKeay: PayPal tokens not perfect, but it's better than a password

Previously in IT Blogwatch

• Gates wants to open the gate (and lots of camouflage)
• Microsoft vs. Google Book Search (and a bizarre Navy raygun)
• USPTO does Web 2.0 (and hilarious employee vid)
• OneCare misses malware in Teutonic test (and Rube-fire)
• Wired has a dig at Digg (and training phocoenidae)
• Your CompUSA is ClosedUSA (and VXer hates Symantec)
• Ning nixes naysayers nicely now (and moon egg)
• Older posts

And finally... An alternative-reality Bob Dylan tackles Dr. Seuss

Computerworld's Senior Online Projects Editor Ian Lamont compiled IT Blogwatch today. Next week, regular Blogwatcher Richi Jennings will return.