Over the past weeks, we’ve been reading lots of forum posts, comments to blog posts and news posts and even heard questions coming into our consumer services hotlines. To better serve the community, we’ve decided to provide a weekly update on the hot topics and answer the burning questions you all have.
First off, wanted to introduce “Sam_Protagonist” to everyone. He’s our global community manager for LittleBigPlanet and our eyes and ears for all things community. You can find him interacting on the EU and US forums providing updates to the community. Keep a look out for his forum posts and occasional LBP News Site posts for the latest updates.
So for our first installment of ‘SACK IT TO ME’ – we’ve decided to summarize some of the major topics the community wants answered…
Moderation
The level moderation process is something we’re continually improving. The small percentage of levels moderated have been done so after the community has reported them using the Good Grief tool. We never moderate levels that have not been reported in this way. The vast majority of moderated levels were due to offensive material, however we are evolving the way moderation happens to ensure that creators are made aware of why their level was blocked. More to come shortly.
Servers
We hope you’ve noticed that over the past few weeks, we’ve been working away and our servers are now much improved – from the updated scoreboards to the connection speeds. Just know we’re constantly looking to improve the experience and your feedback has been very helpful. Additionally, below are a few online stats for your viewing pleasure:
- # of user generated (UG) levels = 177,657
- # of comments = 1,093,491
- # of times Story levels have been played online = 36,661,881
- # of times UG levels have been played online = 22,463,892
- # of levels played online = 59,125,403
Play Create Share stats & Search Functionality
Now that the servers are stable, we’ll continue to improve the “Share” experience. We’ve heard your requests to get better search functionality to find levels and getting the PLAY, CREATE, SHARE stats up and running on the Info Moon and have put this on the top of our list. So stay tuned for a few announcements
In the meantime, there are a few ‘other’ ways to find some cool levels:
- LBP Review League (US Forums)
- LittleBigPlanet Stages (an un-official list on Facebook)
- “10 LBP levels you have to play” (GamesRadar.com)
- “Top 50 User-Created LBP levels” (UGO.com)
- Search for LBC1 levels and help judge the first LittleBigChallenge: PS3 Second Anniversary
LittleBigChallenge: PS3 Second Anniversary Updates
We’ve been excited to see all the posted “LBC1” level submissions for our first in-game LittleBigChallenge, so much that we wanted to share a few of the ones that caught our eye. After reading the forums, looks like we struck a nerve with a few of you thinking these updates are unfair publicity to the selected. Wanted to re-assure you that our intention to highlight a few of these levels, is to celebrate the creation of a variety of levels from a variety of creators – NOT to indicate any frontrunners or winners. Judging is completely separate from these updates and the evaluation of these levels will take into consideration a creators creativity, game design, innovation, use of tools, etc – NOT just “hearts” and “plays”.
As an insight to the evaluation process, we plan to first collect the formal e-mail submissions, list out the levels w/ various stats (on the server side), then have our judges spend a few days to play thru and judge levels and award the top 5 creators for this challenge.
Also, check back on Friday where we’ll list out the submissions-to-date, so you can spend the weekend playing the Challenge levels.
Day 1 T-shirt
Finally, some of you are wondering what happened to the Day 1 T-Shirt mentioned in the past. This was available in other countries for (equivalent of) $4.99, but we decided to hold back its availability in North America as we evaluate if such a unique item (RARE + $4.99 + time-based) is appropriate for our PS Store. There may be other RARE items like this in the future, so check back on future DLC announcements.
… We hope this answers your current batch of questions. Comment away below and let us know what else questions you want answered for next weeks batch…
I love this game, but sadly the issues that come with this game – the level moderation on levels that are 100% unique have stopped me from enjoying the game properly
I always knew it wouldn’t go smoothly being a console game, it hasn’t been done like this before and there were bound to be problems but i expected everything to be running properly nearly a month after the EU release.
I have a more general question this morning.
How come this generation is the generation of game patches?
How come we can’t have a high profile game launch without incident or very low incident.
Is it possible that before communication was not all that great and there were still loads of issues with games but no place to voice them?
It just seems like I can’t get a solid game release on the PS3 with little or no incident.
Warhawk – server issues
MGS4 – server issues
LBP – server issues
SOCOM – server issues as well as many other game issues
Resistance 2 – server issues
Killzone 2 – most likely server issues (100% pure speculation)
I see a pattern here …
Do we need to start paying for PSN?
I know that totally sucks but I mean you get what you pay for most of the time right?
@99 Good point about the thanksgiving costume and to expand on that, the additional costumes are DLC so they don’t take up anything but what 2MB of server space and probably loads of bandwidth for people to download them.
Let me go ahead and state what Mark probably really wants to say, but can’t because #1 It would be a bad business move, and #2 It’s clear that the complainers would not be able to handle the criticism, and their heads would likely explode.
Wow….what a bunch of whiny babies. I love all of the DEMANDS for free content for LBP. Why is it that we are expected to get anything free from Media Molecule?
We all paid the $60 to get the game. The $60 paid for what was on the disc, nobody has ever claimed that we were paying for future content. You guys should be happy with what we have been getting for free! These guys could have easily tried charging a monthly fee for access to all of the FREE online user created content.
Of all of the games that come out, you’re getting so much more free content than any of them. With all of the stuff you can unlock in the game, and all of the user created level, MM could have just sat back and let the game go, but no, they ARE still making content. Some of it is free, some of it costs money, and some of it costs what may seem a ridiculous amount of money. If you don’t like the price, don’t freaking buy it.
For those of you claiming that paying for something that doesn’t actually improve gameplay is ridiculous….it’s called a vanity purchase. There are people out there that are willing to pay that price, and for them they are happy. I’m sure one day MM will put out a costume you will HAVE to have and will pay $2.99 for, but you know some other dude will be on here going on about how “$2.99 for this costume is robbery!!! How dare you try and charge me for something I don’t really even want!!!”
Grow up everybody…video games are created to entertain us, and make money. We have been entertained(don’t even try and deny it), and they have made money. They continue to release more to entertain us, we continue to make them money. Simple process. If you are not entertained anymore, do not give anymore money.
Please any Snapshot option so we can take pics and copy to a pendrive to show our friends?!
Not sure if it is feasible at this point but the game would be much more accessible to casuals if there was an Easy setting in the Story mode. A lot of the game’s sales will be based on word of mouth and if that word is the controls or level design can be frustrating then it will put casuals off. Or they will try it, get stuck and never play it again.
Simple things like tweaking the number of lives or adding some gates to the harder parts or tightening the controls and then publishing an Easy mode could increase the game’s appeal.
I know this is already to page 3 but thanks for all the responses Mark. I know some people are disappointed and don’t like what you had to say, but at least they are getting answers. Anyways, I was wondering whenever they get the Play/Create/Share stats up.. they will update automatically right? I mean include everything from when you started? I don’t think I’d be too happy if it started at 0 when the update is implemented.
Also since you’re commenting on levels, try my 2 bad/short levels out! Search P-Sheddy!
Can we please get additional functionality for score bubbles and leaderboard scores? It feels kind of pointless collecting score bubbles in levels, when they give no rewards other than having your name on top of the leaderboard. Could we give creators the ability to trigger actions in a level once a player has accumulated a certain score? Same thing with the leaderboards. Maybe let the creator hand out prizes (or keys to unlock additional levels) for people on the top of the leaderboard.
Sorry for another post but I missed something. Can we get a feature to link our levels together such that when players complete our levels, and maybe based on the performance with their score, prompt them to go directly to the next level that is linked.
Love the game !
but there are a few problems that have been mentioned previously.
but even with the problems this game is still easily the best game I have played in perhaps a decade.
There is one problem I don’t know if you guys are aware of so I shall explain here.
to make wheels for my monster truck (the best monster truck in lbp by a mile lol) I basically get a round bit of rubber, size it then cut out the centre and place a cog inside the hole so it looks like a wheel with a proper hub or whatever its called.
When I make the tyre it does not cut out correctly, there is a nasty straight line where a curve should be.
are you guys aware of this glitch ? if not I would happily make a blank level with an example of the problem for you to look at, don’t think my monster truck level will show the problem because its zoomed out a little when you get into my truck.
If you are already aware of this problem then consider my post useless ;) I don’t mind hehe
regarding the t shirts, how do I register for that ? I got my copy within week 1 and I wouldn’t mind a real life t shirt or even just a t shirt for my sackboy ;)
thanks for reading..
CAN WE PLEASE GET IN-GAME XMB MUSIC?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
When I first got the LBP I thought we could take pictures that were already on our hard-drives and turn them in to stickers but so far the only way to make a sticker that I have seen is to use the eye toy. Will this feature ever be added to LBP? If so will It be in this version the sequel or a add on pack?
Please respond this question has been bothering me for weeks.
I suspect in game music like you can do on the 360 for example is more of a sony dashboard thing and I don’t think MM can do anything about it ?
I could be mistaken tho, never once tried to play my own music while in game on the ps3 or the 360 for that matter.
http://www.gamesradar.com/f/10-littlebigplanet-levels-you-have-to-play/a-20081104165827244072
Oh look at the first one, God of War: Demon Skull.
AKA one that got moderated.
>_> You could have pointed to a list that didn’t have moderated levels..
in light of the question about the eye toy and stickers.
I have the old ps2 eye toy that works fine for video chat but when I try and take a photo in LBP the image shows but is extremely dark, so dark you can only just barely make out the image.
is this normal and if so I have to buy the ps3 specific eye toy for it to work ?
I wouldn’t mind doing that but I cant really see why I should as my ps3 eye toy is most certainly detected and capable of taking pictures, its just extremely dark.
correction to the above sry lol
“I wouldn’t mind doing that but I cant really see why I should as my PS2 eye toy is most certainly detected and capable of taking pictures, its just extremely dark.”
A friend called me this week to tell me about the most incredible game she has ever seen,because she knows that i am not a big fan of games, and she knows that i finally broke down and got my kids a playstation because i love music and so do my kids and once they played guitar hero it was only a matter of time. The game is little big planet, and from what I’ve seen it is exactly what i’ve been looking for and hoping for in games -trouble is i bought my kids a playstation 2 and it only comes in playstation 3- what the hell? what are we supposed to do with the ps2 now ? This is exactly why i held off getting involved with these games in the first place- also i am complaining to the better business bureau about the use of alcohol in the booty game because it is for kids and totally unnecassary, and while i was trying to figure out how to contact sony i read some of the comments from the people playing this new game and wondered about the rest of their lives,do they ever see the light of day -they knew way too much about the game and the inner workings- sad commentary-i’m done-wont be back
I really don’t see how you can find levels that have blood in it offensive.
Some levels from the STORY mode have blood in it. (ex. The Terrible Oni’s Volcano)
Not going to bother talking about the t-shirt, search system, or how only “a small percentage of levels have been moderated.”
what the hell ?
so a guy buys a last gen system and expects to play cutting edge next gen games on it, sorry but I have to find that a little bit laughable.
That is no fault of sony, the period of time beetween the ps2 and 3 is completely fair and they cant be expected to bring out next gen games on a last gen system.
Buy a ps3 is you want the latest cutting edge games, no other way to do it.
Do you complain about DVD players because they fail to play your VHS collection ? of course not.
IF you can you should buy a ps3, little big planet alone is worthy of the investment and you do get a fairly adequate bluray capable network capable media player.
I love the game but unfortunately since I got bit by the constant death bug, I have not played it since I had to delete my game save to fix it. This bug has been posted several times in the LBP forums without response from Mm… Nothing like working hard to complete all the levels… going into design mode with some local friends… and then getting a corrupted game save because of a stupid bug that was reported as far back as the beta… Grrr… Let me know when those types of issues are fixed and then maybe I will take a break from Resistance 2.
What booty game is for PS2? Also, my SNES doesn’t work to play Crysis. I smell a fake posting as this isn’t where an unknowing customer would come to post a complaint. If it is, my apologies. But I don’t think kayte fleming can possibly be serious if she has stumbled on this site, she is probably savvy enough to figure these things out.
@118
Totally agreed. The PS2 came out…what…in 1999? That console is 9 years old, and if she just now got it, she needs to understand that she’s not going to get the most up to date games on the system. She’s lucky Sony is awesome and still releases games for the PS2. She could have bought an xbox, and found out it was a paperweight. I’m sure 10 years from now she’ll be buying a PS3, and wondering why PS4 games can’t be played on it.
@120
Your SNES doesn’t play Crysis? This is a travesty!!! I suppose now you’re going to tell me that my cd player isn’t going to play vinyl records! What is wrong with technology today!?!?!
Great game, tons of fun with the family..
Not sure who’s idea is this $5 t-shirt but it’s crazy. I see how your pricing it so it statys rare but that’s kind of weak. Even the 2.99 customes are to pricey, .99cents is all a customer should ever be.
Thanks for all the feed back.
New story level packs with new costumes,stickers and more prizes?
Costume Bundles DLC that would include multiple costumes that easily allow someone to catch up with all the DLC that’s all ready out there?
New tools and objects for creating levels?
The ability to save ones pod.
Thanks again!
What I would like is the ability to change from day to night on the same level. Also a feature to cut out materials with stickers (in create mode of course). Image importing and It would be cool if Mm would release all the levels (small parts of levels) we have seen in trailers, showcases, stage demos etc. These are at least a few things I would like to see. Any possibility?
I’ve seen it in the forums, so I know I’m not the only one–how come nobody’s mentioned the full profile issue? Constantly having to delete stuff–what a pain–I’m trying to create over here! And try my Firewalker level!
Great game and fun for all ages! However it would be nice to have MORE development tools in the form of a patch!
I hope you are still reading these comments… I don’t wanna sound like a cheap-o here, but you really should re-look at the prices you’re charging on the costumes. Aren’t these supposed to be like micro transactions? The prices should be half of what they are. .50 for the animals, $1 for the themed ones. And $5 for a shirt. I can’t even comment on that lol. I wanna buy some costumes, I just don’t wanna spend that much. Ok I know a few dollars isn’t much, but if you keep releasing costumes over time, that will add up. The only one I think is worth it is the pack of animals, but I’ve still yet to purchase any.
Speaking of costumes though, you should try to get Activision/Treyarch to let a Call of Duty WaW theme go out for purchase with Sgt Reznov and Sgt Roebuck, or at least some WWII themed costumes. And maybe an Auron one from Square. Forget Sephiroth. Auron is one of the few characters I’d pay for. And maybe a generic girls set. With lots of pink stuff. Just don’t be overpriced please :)
@Mark
LBP is an awesome game. Only two other series of games have made me stay up too late, not realizing what time it was, Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo.
Regarding DLC, price it however you want. I will buy it or I won’t. My credit card only works if I decide it should. I have bought some and passed on others.
I am glad to see server issues are still being worked on. I have seen the improvement as I used to never be able to get into a four-player game without someone getting dropped. Now we can do it, we just get some lag.
I have very little problems with the search feature. I can usually find what I am looking for. That said, an option to view levels published in the last X days (X should be adjustable by the player and go up to a week) would be a bonus. My biggest issue is searching deep for new levels that are good. Too many get overlooked.
And if anyone cares, please try my “Wrath of the Volcano God” level. I need comments to help me improve it. It is a story-based platformer, not some exploding rocket car full of trophies.
I am surprised you only have 1 “global community” manager. That seems very short-sighted considering the sheer quantity of content and questions thats obviously forced you all to speak up a bit more about it.
On regards to the Search engine, as many have said it needs to be completely revamped to match the initial GDC 2007 showing, with filters such as “best of the week” “best of the day” etc as shown in the original promo. 5 Star ratings also do nothing currently, and I’m pretty sure theyre actually non-functioning right now but no-one has admitted that yet..
Also Sackbook.com has severely shown you guys up with your integration plans for the community, as its an incredible website with almost everything we’d expected from LittleBigWorkshop!
@ 102 Enforcer_X
Yeah, i see a pattern too… and i think the sollution might be… GET A NEW INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER! i have no problems with Warhawk, MGS4 orResistance 2
@127 teh_g33k
Im not sure if you realise, but having a full profile thing means you have too many collectibles… if you go to your community objects and delete the ones you don’t need you should be good, i myself didn’t need anyone of them so no problem for me:P
Also, i agree with Yuriki, being able to change the lighting of the scene in different parts of the level would be great, it could be fixed with adding lights but that is a needlessly tedious affair
Mark,
I have been wondering something. Some people who bought LBP in other places(not the US) have recieved free gifts like tshirts and little plush Sackboys. Why did we not get these things in the US? I thought there would be Sackboy merchandise by now. There is a plush available on play-asia.com but it’s head is too big. I want one that looks like the ones I have seen pictures of on flicker. I would be willing to pay for other kinds of goodies as well. It makes me upset when I walk into Wal-Mart and see things like GH shirts and PJ’s. Wii PJ’s and boxers. Mario jackets, etc. When can we expect to see LBP merchandise out in NA? I want a Sackboy of my very own. Possibly a t-shirt, too. Oh and by the way just so you know, be smarter than the competition and make some female tshirts, too. All the stuff I mentioned finding in Walmart is for guys. Otherwise I would have boght it too.
Mark,
I’m hoping you can field these two:
1. I’ve recently “maxxed out” my ‘items’ in the game, meaning I get the “You need to delete SOMETHING or you can’t save your profile.” message. Then it’s Sophie’s Choice… do I delete Prize items (for level creation)? Photos? Costumes? Can you guys consider making an archive feature of some kind, or a better way to sort/manage the huge catalog of items you get through the course of playing? Pie in the sky: The ability to choose what to keep/delete after completing each level.
2. Pod Decoration. I love that you can decorate your own space, and I used to spend a bit of time doing it but now I keep my pod bare. The reason? Vandalism by other players who visit. Can you consider a feature where players can “save” their pod decoration like a costume? This way you can just “Wash pod” and not lose all your design efforts.
Thanks in Advance,
MercuryPDX
For the record, all of my community items have been deleted. I keep getting the full profile message and I keep deleting, but I don’t have much more to delete. I’m left with about 15 of my own custom objects, 10 costumes, 15 stickers, and 15 levels. That’s not excessive. Especially when you consider 1/2 the stuff is created by my kids. “Sorry son, your stuff has to go.” — What a horrible dad I’d be.
Play, create, share–but only this much?
$4.99 for the T-shirt, I’d love to see how you can explain this costing nearly $10 in the EU store.
If you guys in the US get pissed at $4.99 (which is extortionate) how do you think us Brits feel when our own countrymen who made the game charge us double what they charge you!!!
Sony really dropped the ball with everything about LBP, it was as surefire hit until they meddled with it (release dates, moderaton, advertisment, gouging with DLC).
Why won’t anyone answer my question? Why was the Halloween mask not available until November 19th like was posted by Mark Valledor on this playstation blog?
The SpaceSuit was, but the Halloween mask was not. Check my download history. I downloaded all DLC characters on November 18th, but the mask was gone.
I’ve asked every form of customer service and they have all been less than helpful, the Playstation blog never got back to me and Mark Valledor hasn’t responded either. I just wanted to download the Halloween mask, as promised. Is that too much to ask for?
Please answer my question.
My original question is posted here:
https://blog.playstation.com/2008/10/30/available-116-official-lbp-dlc-on-the-playstation-store/comment-page-5/#comment-131732
and here:
https://blog.playstation.com/2008/11/25/littlebigplanet-weekly-download-update-thanksgiving-edition/comment-page-3/#comment-131735
Thank you.
Where the hell is the good greif tool? i’ve never heard of it or seen it anywhere on the game. Is it only a tool for moderators? it says for the community though.
If i knew where to find this, I would probably use it quite a bit for some levels i have seen.
I also get the “profile is too large, you must delete something or die” popup while playing. IT IS SO ANNOYING!. I’m grasping on to a object hanging above fire, electricity or deadly gas and then get that popup message and i drop to my death. It is so frustrating. I deleted nearly ALL my saved costumes. and deleted ALL my photobooth pictures but still get that message.
HOW CAN THE PROFILE BE TOO LARGE IN THE FIRST PLACE WHEN THERES ALL THAT HARD DRIVE SPACE? WHY CANT THE PROFILE JUST GET BIGGER?
Thanks for backing me up on this, spectrace
@Spectrace: Ditto on teh_g33k’s sentiment.
The Good Grief tool can be found by hitting the select button.
Nice to see someone on the blog who consistently replies to the commenters :)
And past the first page :D
Too bad I don’t have LBP yet.
Haven’t had the time/money to get it.
Asking for it for Christmas though ;)
love thew game… but the only thing i would like to see some fixing is searching for new levels.. that would most likely be it really
maybe add under the news section “Game of the week/month”
or maybe staff pick
keep it up
awesome game… think ill go play some more now
Wow! Thanks for the plug for my Facebook app. :) The number of users surged last night… I suspect it was because of this!
I was worried that there weren’t enough people reviewing levels, but I think that trend is starting to change. Thanks!
Umm, I don’t know if its a problem with my wi-fi or not, but I have not been able to post my levels. I click publish, then it says, “error, try again later”
Please tell me what is wrong.
:)
Hey I would love to see a Little Big Soundtrack! I love the music in the game and would love to have the album! I hope Media Molecule is making a soundtrack available for purchase! I don’t want to buy the songs individually because I end up spending more. :(
Thank you for the answers and showing us that Media Molecule listens but it still feels like a black hole.
Perhaps you guys can add a life circle ( the thing you spawn out of) that gives unlimited lives.
So if it’s a really hard part of the stage and you dont want players to get frustrated and just not even start the level over, this lets them keep trying without punishment.
Also, rumble emitters, so when players walk by, your controller rumbles…
Hopefully you consider these and play my level World of Poo
Is there a chance that the Level Edit functions will be refined? I would like to be able to edit behind things better. Could we possibly get it so the camera moves more left and right so that we can look down our levels say from Sacks POV?
Also I have had a problem with some objects when selected Shooting Sack off to either the left or right and “breaking” them I presume its due to the complexity of them but my thermometer is still ok. So why then does this happen?
Also I dont know if its just me but I have had several creatures that I have made ignore the Creature Navigator light. Am I missing something on its placement???
I’m going to crack up if you offer a DLC shirt for $5. I don’t care how rare it is. And I’m going to laugh even harder at anyone who actually drops $5 for a shirt. Give me a break. How much are new levels going to be if you ever offer them? Keep in mind, we got ENTIRE MAPS for Call of Duty for $2.50 each. For $2 on your model, I get a hat and some shoes to deck out my guy and then it’s a waste when I get board with it.
Combining your pricing model for DLC (a little money hungry in my opinion) along with my continued frustration to play online (I’ve pretty much given up at this point), this game has been collecting dust. I wonder if I should trade it in and move on?