When Worlds Collide

Sony's launch slogan for the Playstation 2, “Live in your world. Play in ours,” now seems like the pinnacle of corporate responsibility. Sony sold a new experience that people would want to explore for days at a time, and at the same time warned their customers to maintain a life outside the game! I can't imagine Sony ever acting like that again, not with Everquest II as a hot product. Now, BBC News | Technology | Losing yourself in online gaming is full of stories of people who play Everquest (or Worlds of Warcraft) for eleven hours a day or more, cancelling their real lives to do so. “As gaming becomes ever more mainstream, and games ever more immersive,” says the BBC, “there will be no hiding place for social problems.”

Sony, taking advantage of this, has signed a deal with Pizza Hut whereby you can order pizza from the game interface, have the credit card you used to pay for the game billed, and have your dinner shipped to your door. All without having to even get up to pick up the phone. And this deal is only the beginning. Chris Morris' current "Game Over" column for CNN Money, quotes Sony: “We don't want to do anything that will take people outside the game experience. We don't want to create armor that has the Nike swoosh or you have to drink Coke for health.” In other words, Sony plans to introduce even more in-game advertising that works at a subliminal level, affecting the player without being noticed.

People, games are fun. "Addictive," even. They work on a deep enough level to influence you without you noticing it. I hope we'll all remember that while we play in their worlds, we still live in ours.