There are two grand statements a Playstation 3 owner can whip out when engaged in debate with an X-box 360 or Wii owner over who owns the superior machine. First, is the fact that the PS3 doubles as a Blu-ray player. The second: the Playstation Network, or online playing, is absolutely free. However, today users have been logging on and finding out that the Playstation Network has vanished. Instead gamers are greeted with a message stating: “use of Playstation network has been suspended.” This means there is no online play for any games and one cannot visit the Playstation Store via PS3 or PC.
I am sure that Sony representatives are getting an ear full of complaint calls and the online help site for Playstation Network is probably buzzing with concerned gamers. It is nothing to worry about though, in fact, people who have owned a PS3 for quite some time now might even expect “Playstation Network Suspended” to be a routine message; indeed it is routine maintenance. The down time for the Playstation Network this go-round is scheduled to only be for six hours, though that is possibly an optimistic guess. The Playstation Network is suspended so it can update to operating system version 2.4. This means that when a player is able to get logged on to the network, they will next have to spend some time downloading the update to their machine and then installing it. This is all a simple series of button pushes, but depending on your internet speed can take a good deal of time.
Naturally 360 and Wii owners make “Playstation Network Suspended” messages the butt of many jokes about the PS3 system being inferior. As a PS3 owner, and casual gamer, right now I’m not complaining: free is free! In the past I’ve only actually tried to log on once and been denied due to the Playstation Network being suspended. I thought I had been banned for cheating in the game Resistance: Fall Of Man, due to my having tried to report a cheater the previous night and him threatening to report me when I really was not cheating. (As a quick side note: reporting a cheater to the Playstation Network is generally a waste of time and nothing comes of it.)
Back on topic: yep, I was panicked. I sent an unpleasant message to the Playstation Network and ultimately got a very friendly letter back from customer service informing me that the Network was down for repairs and updates. Well, that wasn’t too bad, there are other things to do in life than play video games; though many having paid near five-hundred bucks or more for their machine probably reserve the right to complain that the ability to sit on their butt and play an online game all day if they so wish has been hampered. I was not aware that this current maintenance was about to occur, perhaps Sony mentioned it on the official Playstation Network website, but in all actuality I never visit the site. It is rare even for me to visit the Playstation Store as well. So, when the Playstation Network is suspended I think Sony needs to get the word out to their gamers a bit better. An example: have a program that sends a private message out to the systems of users that are logged on.
So, what are gamers to do since the Playstation Network is suspended? If they have a stack of PS3 games, they can play the single player games. I know the game Enemy Territory: Quake Wars offline is the same as online in many ways and not many gamers have given it a chance. Gamers will probably still be grumpy though, faced with playing their games offline, due to game makers these days seem to focus less quality time on single player and make it all about the online. Furthermore, the PS3 hasn’t released that many stellar titles to its game library, leaving a gamer with many second rate titles to go rent or play that seem to have been churned out for money and not customer satisfaction.
Another gaming source for many PS3 owners may be PS2 games, if they nabbed a backwards compatible PS3. Other than that perhaps they still have an older video game machine and it is time to dust off the classics. Of course most hardcore gamers are going to log on to the internet via their computers and spend the day filling up forums and messages boards with complaints and exclamations: “Playstation Network Suspended!” Perhaps the upcoming Comic-Con in San Diego in July will ease in more positive banter for debate. Can’t everyone just get along and talk about their excitement for the new Star Trek movie?
Personally, I’m not a Star Trek fan, but this scheduled Playstation Network maintenance did come on a good day: Tuesday. Tuesday in the USA is new release day for movies to DVD. Supposedly we only have to kill six hours of time before the Playstation Network suspension is over, so going down to the rental store and checking out what new movies are there could provide a decent back-up entertainment source. Dare I even suggest reading a book as an alternative source of entertainment? You can travel to just as many outlandish fantasy worlds in the printed word and save your thumbs from blisters. If nothing else there are loads of free e-books online, or comic books and graphic novels are seeing a surge of popularity due to Hollywood tapping into them as great source material for screenplays. Heck, spend your time writing your own graphic novel or thinking up your own video game so that in the future you can be on the other side of things when online gaming grinds to a halt.
Playstation Network Suspended! Laugh it up and enjoy the day Microsoft and Nintendo fans, but the Playstation Network is only suspended for a limited time to hopefully improve it with new, superior features. Of course the Playstation network will probably be suspended again within the coming weeks for another update. With agen judi online you can play online multi-player games. It is really easy to log in to this website as well, you can play games like poker and blackjack.
