This is the part where we blame Sony

It’s been known for a while that the Playstation Network has been down for some time due to a major hacking issue, with Sony’s transparency and accused negligence brought into question. Yes, we get it: hacking is bad and should not be taken lightly.

However, there are two things that must be addressed with knowing that. One, Sony deserves to be called out and should be called out, and two, Sony might’ve brought this upon themselves. Before any of you rage like a wild fanboy, let me explain.

For one, it’s a journalist’s job to hold people’s feet to the fire, whether they’d be politicians or corporations. Their job is to not take sides, unless they’re a pundit or are looked for to provide their opinions on things, and to tell you the truth about something, regardless of if what they say is something you want to hear or not. So it bothers me when someone claims that the press isn’t giving Anonymous a tongue-lashing. They have been, even though it’s not clear as to if this is a direct action of the infamous group or just someone acting on their own. Either way, they will share some blunt of the blame, and it’s up to you to determine if they deserve the blame or not. Thing is, if you think they do, then you should do it because you truly believe that they do and not just because some company or your fanboy friends told you to. That’s hard for people nowadays to even attempt to do.

And Sony should be called out for this blunder. Even when the system was deemed unhackable up until recently, leaving the keys in the car for this long is not something you can just say “poor Sony” and absolve them of any fault. They are the ones responsible for the PSN being secure, and with how much we’ve been fighting for them, we deserve at least SOME transparency when something goes wrong, and not this delay of five days before we have any information and the tinfoil hats get overused. Even if it’s a bit of information, give us SOMETHING so we know you’re at least showing that you know what we’re going through. It made you seem like you didn’t care, and just put that hacker line out there as a means of distraction so you could take all the time you want without having any blame put on you. Sorry, but outside the fanboy elitist crowd, it doesn’t work that way. We want our experience secure, Sony, and you pulled an epic fail here.

But where did all of this start? Why would hackers or anyone else that has had a bone to pick with Sony lately in the homebrew and modding scene? This brings up the second point that must be addressed.

We must be careful not to confuse hacking with modding. The latter is involved in giving something additional functionality to something that was not originally intended to have. This can be done by means that manufacturers and developers provide, or otherwise. The issue is that as long as it does not infringe on anyone else’s right to enjoy the same product, then it should be allowed regardless of what the company that made the product intended such actions or not. I know some people will have a problem with that point, but there’s no denying that there’s a difference here.

When my World of Warcraft account was hacked, I was not the happiest person in the world, but I knew the steps I was to take. I contacted Blizzard, they were kind to me, and promptly rectified the situation. I even got to auction off the Saronite Ores that I found in my bags once I was able to get back onto my game. Lesson learned, though: I bought a Blizzard Authencator. Haven’t been hacked since.

However, having been hacked, I did not, and still don’t, hold any animosity towards those in the WoW mod community. Those are the people that give the game additional functionality. Stuff that can give on screen warnings that you need to get the hell out of the fire you’re standing in, or that you should use a certain ability, or replacing the UI, or something in between, is highly welcome and is sometimes even highlighted by Blizzard themselves. I held no quarrels with them whatsoever, and can trust those people to be able to come up with cool ways to improve the game.

The point I’m trying to make here is that Sony must learn to separate the term “hacker” from “modder”. They must also relinquish this hatred they have for the homebrew community. I know what you will say: it’s just an excuse, or that they are crappy. The former is not true (just use The Google), and the latter is a matter of opinion. Emulation of older games, whether you consider it moral or not, will not hurt your multiplayer game.

The reason why Sony might’ve brought this upon themselves is that they are playing the “guilty until proven innocent” card more than they have to be. They have targeted hackers, modders, homebrewers, and everyone else in between. You can say all you want that hackers were why Sony nuked OtherOS, but it’s just not the reason, if you care to read that it was a monetary reason why the PS3 Slim never had it to begin with, then guaranteed to not be removed from fats, then suddenly removed for “security reasons” because someone found a small security hole that Sony could’ve fixed in ways other than nuking the entire feature. It doesn’t matter if you think that it was an underused feature for whatever reason you might have. If it warranted enough importance for Sony to reassure owners when the Slim models never had OtherOS that the fats would not be touched, then it’s important enough for people to raise a fuss about once Sony goes behind their back and do what they said they wouldn’t when they take an extreme measure about something that didn’t need it. It shows that there was a different reason, and that Sony used the excuse as a way to get out of a promise that they had no intention of keeping.

The reason that Sony brought this upon themselves, in part? It’s that they have taken homebrewers, modders, and hackers, put them into the same box, put the label “the bad guys” onto it, tell the loony fanboy elitists “these are the guys you must want to see die in a fire, not us”, and then just sue, sue, sue them (with using every low down dirty trick in the book to win the suits). The problem is that the people they are telling this to are buying into it way too easily, giving others no inch if they even question the words the elitists use while on their soapboxes, and backstab anyone who dares say “no, I can’t defend Sony on this one.”

And this is where I stand on this. I WANT to defend Sony, as I have in the past. I have never taken the hackers’ side, as no one else involved in this debate has ever done. No one has ever said that we should just LET people steal credit card numbers, or pirate games, or cheat on multiplayer games. No sane gamer has ever actually said or implied that. I want to be able to say that Sony is correct here.

But I cannot defend Sony on this one, nor can I say they are correct. Because I don’t think they deserve it, and because I don’t think they are correct. They must stop treating modders as hackers, and stop this unwarranted grudge they have against homebrewers. There’s raw, untapped talent there that can break through to the big time if given the opportunity. Then, and only when Sony separates one from the other, can we then take them seriously when they say that someone has compromised the network. Reinstating OtherOS should also be involved in the mix. We might’ve not used it that much if at all before, but I bet that, if it was reinstated, with the advertising it would have had via the class action lawsuit, that we would use it then.

And when someone actually DOES compromise the network in the ways we shouldn’t charge the modding and homebrewing communities for, then Sony needs to be more transparent (there’s a difference between making sure no one copies what the original did and not being truthful with your customers) and accept more responsibility when things go wrong that could’ve been prevented.

Now, you can rage. Just be sure it’s for the right reasons, and that you’re not proving Rob Foor correct. That would be the LAST thing we need in this debate right now: a reason to have to go to the SDF/MDF parodying moniker to describe what we’re seeing right now from the elite. We deserve real debate that actually observes both sides of the issue in a mature and adult manner. No gamer deserves to have to sift through thousands of immature brattish comments to get to something that comes from someone that actually knows how a debate is supposed to work.

And wipe those smiles off of your faces, 360 fanboys: you don’t act any better. There’s a reason why I consider Rob Foor to be a disgusting excuse for a human being, and you’re one of the reasons why.