So I’m WAY out of the loop on the PS3, for various reasons from the price to the fact that I just don’t play games like I used to. Yes, I know, I suck. Although, isn’t it kinda cool to badmouth it anyway? So yeah, screw Sony, I hate that thing!

I have, however, been tracking this Playstation Home thing and this video on G4 makes it look pretty dang cool. Oh, and I like the logo a lot. Now, mind you, I would not use this at all. I have no interest in Second Life (I have very little interest in my first life actually) and I’ve never been that into the social aspects of gaming short of people sitting in the same room with me.

I am wise enough, however, to know that this probably has some really huge potential. Obviously games like Second Life are a big deal (not as big as the media says, but big nonetheless) and people have clearly proven with Xbox Live that they really dig the whole social and community aspects of console gaming. Of course those have been old news in PC Gaming, but console gamers have always been far more casual, so it was a bit of a surprise that either casual gamers have taken well to social gaming, or hardcore gamers are moving to consoles.

I’m not sure whether to look at something like this and think “aww, one less reason for people not to communicate in real life” or if this is a really neat use of technology to bring people together. For some reason this doesn’t bother me as much as Second Life because it seems to have much more of a purpose, in that it is tied to the games directly - love the idea of being able to meet people and hop into a game with them.

This story is made slightly more interesting if you followed the skirmish between Sony and Kotaku. Interesting PR lesson for Sony, especially after the NY Times ran a story and sent a shout out to Kotaku.