Good News! Sony Curbing Twitter Updates from Uncharted 2

[DoctorFinger]

I like Twitter. I don't like people who feel the need to automatically update Twitter with every single thing they do. So the news that Uncharted 2 would include Twitter integration was not something I was a fan of. Those fears were confirmed when some game journalists like Geoff Keighley (http://twitter.com/Geoffkeighley) got their hands on early copies of the game and turned their Twitter feeds into a tedious game update. Thankfully Sony appears to have recognized just how...annoying this could be. For the time being they've completely disabled the automatic Twitter updates from the game. When the title actually launches on October 13, a patch will be applied which limits how many Tweets can go out for the game.

This of course is just a preview of what will happen when Twitter integration comes to Xbox Live in November. That will most likely result in a tsunami of tweets about Achievements and Netflix viewing habits. Please don't let that happen. I beg of you.

Sources - Playstation Blog (http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/09/twitter-update-uncharted-2/); 1UP (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176266).

[Gorvi]

I am so glad I don't use Twitter, this sounds incredibly annoying.

[Dukefrukem]

Wait what? You can tie your twitter account with games now?

[Narradisall]

Wow, that does sound awful. Also could be full of massive web based spoiler spamming fun, or else just "...has completed level 1, 2, 3, 4, etc etc"

[menage]

Screw twitter, only usefull for direct feeds for conventions and such, Normal people should stay well clear with their rambling about having bought new shampoo or having made a star shaped shit in the toilet.

[Ghostbear]

I enjoy twitter, its an interesting way to communicate. That said, something spewing update after update sounds enormously irritating.

[National Kato]

I'll be using Twitter to update on my 24-hour charity gaming marathon. menage, I'll keep my poo tweets to a minimum. Like, only if they're shaped like Mario or something.

[LongStepMantis]

I am so glad I don't use Twitter, this sounds incredibly annoying.

I've always found twitter itself to be incredibly annoying. I'm not saying you can't make use of it, people do, but so many people seem to think others give a shit what trivial things they do during the day. We don't. No one cares.

It's like having a really boring diary that you get other people to read.

For those of you who use it for social information with your friends or important updates, I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the people who tweet that they're taking their kid to McDonald's for dinner.

[menage]

I'll be using Twitter to update on my 24-hour charity gaming marathon. menage, I'll keep my poo tweets to a minimum. Like, only if they're shaped like Mario or something.

At least you have a goal with those (as in you're documenting something important to you and others), Some people even use that stuff to update when their cat went to sleep. Twitterthe app is fine, it just get's massively abused by uninteresting people.

[violent]

The towers of Babylon are crumbling.

[Doctor Setebos]

Screw twitter, only usefull for direct feeds for conventions and such, Normal people should stay well clear with their rambling about having bought new shampoo or having made a star shaped shit in the toilet.Or, alternatively, you can join in the fun and create your own Uncharted 2 inspired mundane Twitter updates (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23gametweets). :D

[menage]

Or, alternatively, you can join in the fun and create your own Uncharted 2 inspired mundane Twitter updates (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23gametweets). :D

That's just way too intense for me:p.

[Ink Asylum]

You know the solution for a twitter user who spams too many tweets or tweets about insignificant shit? Unfollow. Or never follow them in the first place.

I'm a twitter user, but I haven't been getting bombarded with Uncharted 2 tweets because I don't follow them.

Complaining about the content of someone's twitter stream is like complaining about the content of certain websites, or what certain people post on their blogs. You don't want to see it, don't go there. Simple as that.

I follow ~150 twitter accounts. I pick them myself and if I don't like the content of their stream I unfollow. The accounts I do follow are generally content-producers that I want to hear more from. Podcasters, bloggers, geek icons, musicians, artists, companies, actors, comedians. If they didn't provide value with either entertainment, information, or interesting links I wouldn't follow them.

Through twitter I learn about events in NYC I wouldn't have heard about otherwise. I learn about projects and interact with content producers. I get a lot of information without needing to visit dozens of different pages, much like an RSS feed. I joke around with people I know personally. I've landed freelance design work.

I know I come off like a Twitter cheerleader, but I just don't get the hate for it. It's a content delivery system. You tailor what content that delivers to you. Do people use it for stupid shit? Sure they do, just like people post stupid shit on their facebook pages, their blogs, their web pages, or put into magazines, books, or on television. Holding a medium to account for the banality of the content that the majority produce using it is irrational.

[bapenguin]

I still think the idea that it would tweet when you start the game is a good one. Like I said over at CO, it's like Social matchmaking.

"bapenguin is playing Uncharted 2"

Oh nice, let me go see if he wants to play some co-op.

[Dukefrukem]

I still think the idea that it would tweet when you start the game is a good one. Like I said over at CO, it's like Social matchmaking.

"bapenguin is playing Uncharted 2"

Oh nice, let me go see if he wants to play some co-op.

Hmmm. good point. Too bad I don't use twitter that often though.

[AgtFox]

The thing is I don't think the Twitter is mandatory with the game. I know I don't plan on tying my Twitter account to the game at this point. I also think there might be options inside of the menu that can pick which stuff you want Tweeted. I could be wrong on that though, but that would certainly be the correct way to do this.

[Ink Asylum]

As an opt-in feature that would be great. Or an in game option you could click to send out a tweet that you're playing a multiplayer game.

Twitter is a useful intermediary between instant messaging and full-out blogging. People are still figuring out creative ways to incorporate it into their social lives or businesses. Dismissing the entire tool just because some people use it poorly just doesn't make sense to me.

I follow a number of street vendor trucks that have discovered that if they tweet their location they can get a lot more customers than just parking somewhere and hoping for foot traffic to buy something. Every morning my favorite waffle/cupcake/ice cream/schnitzel truck lands in my twitter stream and I know if I can stop there on lunch or after work.

Someone who wants to deliver content through Twitter knows that if they provide useless, annoying, of too many tweets they will lose followers. It's a self-regulating system. People who abuse it lose their audience. No one's forced to read anyone's tweets so people have to work to build and maintain an audience.

[AgtFox]

I follow ~150 twitter accounts. I pick them myself and if I don't like the content of their stream I unfollow. The accounts I do follow are generally content-producers that I want to hear more from. Podcasters, bloggers, geek icons, musicians, artists, companies, actors, comedians. If they didn't provide value with either entertainment, information, or interesting links I wouldn't follow them.
You haven't followed me :( ;)

[Adam Blue]

Raptr allows you to enable an end of the day summary. Makes sense. Uncharted should have options built-in like Raptr does. Geoff's Tweets weren't too annoying as it did no physical harm for me to see them in-between others (he has it tied to his Facebook too). I still don't get Twitter, but it has helped make my site more successful than ever, so I'm not leaving it anytime soon.

Although, I don't get complaints, like Gorvi. You physically have to look at a Tweet to read it, and you physically have to follow/unfollow people. So unless you have a gun to your head, you can control your own actions or put simply, how you use Twitter.

[AgtFox]

Found it, you can turn specific events on and off:

http://thebbps.com/images/stories/2009/09/uc2twit2.jpg

Thanks to thebbps.com (http://thebbps.com/)

[Doctor Setebos]

I still don't get Twitter, but it has helped make my site more successful than ever, so I'm not leaving it anytime soon.If you've figured out how to use Twitter to help promote and market your site, then I think you "get" Twitter just fine. :)

[menage]

You know the solution for a twitter user who spams too many tweets or tweets about insignificant shit? Unfollow. Or never follow them in the first place.

I'm a twitter user, but I haven't been getting bombarded with Uncharted 2 tweets because I don't follow them.

Complaining about the content of someone's twitter stream is like complaining about the content of certain websites, or what certain people post on their blogs. You don't want to see it, don't go there. Simple as that.

I follow ~150 twitter accounts. I pick them myself and if I don't like the content of their stream I unfollow. The accounts I do follow are generally content-producers that I want to hear more from. Podcasters, bloggers, geek icons, musicians, artists, companies, actors, comedians. If they didn't provide value with either entertainment, information, or interesting links I wouldn't follow them.

Through twitter I learn about events in NYC I wouldn't have heard about otherwise. I learn about projects and interact with content producers. I get a lot of information without needing to visit dozens of different pages, much like an RSS feed. I joke around with people I know personally. I've landed freelance design work.

I know I come off like a Twitter cheerleader, but I just don't get the hate for it. It's a content delivery system. You tailor what content that delivers to you. Do people use it for stupid shit? Sure they do, just like people post stupid shit on their facebook pages, their blogs, their web pages, or put into magazines, books, or on television. Holding a medium to account for the banality of the content that the majority produce using it is irrational.

My beef wasn't really with Twitter the app. You're right of course.
I just get pissed off at times at the incredible need of a lot of people to profile themselves. 10 years ago every celebrity was painting, now everyone who has remotely been on tv is writing a memoir or book for instance. But the people using Twitter the annoying way are probably poeple buying those books:D

[Adam Blue]

If you've figured out how to use Twitter to help promote and market your site, then I think you "get" Twitter just fine. :)

Haha...I just mean 'get' as in I don't get any enjoyment out of its use. Mainly because I have probably quadruple the amount of actual friends in Facebook, so I'd prefer just doing it straight up through there. Instead, I tweet to then post of FB.

For my site, I ping to tweet to update FB, or a blog update to ping to twitter to FB. *Head explodes* Oh, and Raptr hangs out somewhere in-between.

[Ink Asylum]

Found it, you can turn specific events on and off:

http://thebbps.com/images/stories/2009/09/uc2twit2.jpg

Thanks to thebbps.com (http://thebbps.com/)

That's the best way to do it, as long as all of those options default to OFF.

[AgtFox]

That's the best way to do it, as long as all of those options default to OFF.
You are correct, but I'm pretty sure they'll all be set to ON (as seen in the picture) once you put in your Twitter info.

[ElektroDragon]

I never want a game to post Twitter updates for me. End of story. Bad idea from the get go. Complete squandering of development time and effort. Don't they realize employers look at Twitter accounts when examining candidates? Not to mention that no one following me could possibly care about such an update. I guess it doesn't matter if you're a 15 year old kid with sort of gaming show-off complex. I honestly don't know what they were thinking except "maybe embracing a trend will sell more copies". As if THIS game needed it!

[Doctor Setebos]

Don't they realize employers look at Twitter accounts when examining candidates?If a potential employer refuses to hire me because I have a tendency to talk about video games on my personal Twitter account, something tells me I don't want to work for that company. :D

[AgtFox]

I never want a game to post Twitter updates for me. End of story. Bad idea from the get go. Complete squandering of development time and effort. Don't they realize employers look at Twitter accounts when examining candidates? Not to mention that no one following me could possibly care about such an update. I guess it doesn't matter if you're a 15 year old kid with sort of gaming show-off complex. I honestly don't know what they were thinking except "maybe embracing a trend will sell more copies". As if THIS game needed it!
I think they did it more because the 360 is getting Twitter connectivity and they wanted to be first out of the gate with Twitter connectivity. I'm going to doubt it took much time for the developer to set this section up. The game has been done for a while now.

[Adam Blue]

An option of an end-of-the-day summary is needed. Otherwise, I wont use this feature.

[RandoM51]

Twitter is probably one of the arguments against our induction into the Milky Way Commonwealth. I can picture the aliens in session, debating whether or not to extend an invitation to us. Exhibit A will be the man-made wonders of the world. Exhibit B will be Twitter, Survivor, and Milli Vanilli.

If you have the free time to actively give a shit about how somebody else did on stage 4 of some game, you quite frankly have way too much free time. Woohoo, all aboard the cyber-decadence train!

We're so far around the bend that we need distractions from our distractions.

[Ink Asylum]

The same argument could be made against the internet as a whole. The vast majority of traffic and content on the internet doesn't reflect all that well on humanity.

[Adam Blue]

If you have the free time to actively give a shit about how somebody else did on stage 4 of some game, you quite frankly have way too much free time. Woohoo, all aboard the cyber-decadence train!

We're so far around the bend that we need distractions from our distractions.

You posting and replying here is no different. Take a look at yourself before you shoot down others.

Although this is no different than how you have always acted...which lumps you into your own category for mockery.

[OldJadedGamer]

Twitter sucks donkey balls. This is the only person worth following:

http://twitter.com/Shitmydadsays

"Anytime someone sells you food in a sack, it's not a sack of food, it's a sack of shit."

[Purple Santa]

Twitter sucks donkey balls. This is the only person worth following:

http://twitter.com/Shitmydadsays

"Anytime someone sells you food in a sack, it's not a sack of food, it's a sack of shit."

I took a look and I agree, that's worth following.

[Ink Asylum]

I'm amused that while he has nearly a half million followers the only person he's following is Levar Burton.

[menage]

I took a look and I agree, that's worth
following.

That was pretty great:P

Does say shit alot doesn't he:D

[RandoM51]

You posting and replying here is no different. Take a look at yourself before you shoot down others.

Although this is no different than how you have always acted...which lumps you into your own category for mockery.

It wasn't mockery, it was reality. If you can't see the difference between discussing things on a forum like this and following somebody's every twitter update like a starstruck groupie, there isn't much to discuss.

How many different systems are really needed to aid the spread of useless trivia? IMHO, it would be great for everybody if one unifying service incorporated all of it, without cross-posting and with great indexing... something along the lines of Google Wave.

Other than inline rich media I don't see twitter as anything significantly different than fingerd and the .plan files. of the previous decade(s). The wheat to chaff ratio when it comes to online information continues to get worse. Pretty much why Google is a success in the first place.

[TheEpicOfTyler]

Found it, you can turn specific events on and off:

http://thebbps.com/images/stories/2009/09/uc2twit2.jpg

Thanks to thebbps.com (http://thebbps.com/)

I wouldn't mind having that first option turned on as long as my friends aren't connecting and disconnecting all day.

I could do without the rest of those however, not everyone of my Twitter friends plays video games, no need to subject them to that.

[Ink Asylum]

It wasn't mockery, it was reality. If you can't see the difference between discussing things on a forum like this and following somebody's every twitter update like a starstruck groupie, there isn't much to discuss.

That you dismiss a tool merely because you don't like how most people use it is akin to reducing the internet to merely a porn delivery service. Twitter is a form of distributing content just like an RSS feed, or text messages, or e-mail, or whatever. If you want to direct your distaste at the actions of the people who use it, go right ahead, but it's ignorant to conflate the value of a tool, a fairly nascent one at that, with just what the masses use it for. Doing so is just "The internet is a fad!"-level cynicism.

Tons of small businesses, large businesses, and content producers have found innovative ways to enhance their products and services through Twitter that either can't be done, or not done so easily, with existing content delivery services, but because a bunch of fawning fans follow the every move of their favorite celebrities, something they do with pretty much every form of media invented, you declare it worthless.

[Slack3r78]

It wasn't mockery, it was reality. If you can't see the difference between discussing things on a forum like this and following somebody's every twitter update like a starstruck groupie, there isn't much to discuss.
You don't get it. What's new?

I use it to follow software development without having to constantly check dozens of different websites for updates on individual apps. I follow a few 'celebrities' because they're entertaining. A few bloggers because they have interesting things to say. A few companies because they announce products and specials via their feeds. Things that are interesting and worthwhile for me.

Probably the most useful thing for me is that my friends and I use it as an easy way to organize what we do together. It's easier to just send out a tweet asking if anybody wants to get drinks after work than it is to try to call, email, or text everybody individually.

Tweets from games? Yeah, that's stupid. But dismissing the entire medium as useless because you're too myopic to find a use for it is ridiculous.