Geosautus Interviewed
The man behind LittleBigPlanet's best levels on the recent moderation issues. Related stories (more)LittleBigPlanet Goes 3D
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Article written by nofi in Features, on Sunday, November 16, 2008 at 22:45.
We’ve discussed at length why Media Molecule are moderating certain LittleBigPlanet levels, but when levels are culled from Geosautus, the game’s leading creator of user levels, we thought it was time to reassess the situation. For the unaware, despite only having the beta, Geosautus’ levels like World of Colour are still unmatched in terms of professionalism and quality, although that might well change very soon…
TSA: Hi Geosautus. So, how was the fact that your level was moderated communicated to you?
GEOSAUTUS: Well, My PS3 is broken so I haven’t really been able to play the retail version of LBP yet. The only info I’ve gotten is through various forums commenting on the sudden absence of my (and other people’s) levels. I feel totally helpless.
TSA: So how do you feel after all your hard work has been denied the audience it deserved?
GEOSAUTUS: It seems as though both God of War and World of Colour has been taken down. God of War was understandable – since it contained copyrighted material and pretty excessive gore it didn’t really come as a shock. Today I read that World of Colour had been moderated too. It contained no copyrighted or offensive material so I don’t understand why it was moderated – and with the current system I doubt that I’ll ever find out. I’m furious.
They need to sort this stuff out. I usually spend about a week or so building and testing each level before publishing it, so if both my levels have indeed been moderated that’s two weeks of work wasted. What makes it all even more frustrating is that when some of my levels were stolen (e.g. copied and republished), they didn’t do anything about it. So stolen levels are okay, great levels are not. Nice. The moderating system is clearly broken.
TSA: Has there been any communication regarding changes that would allow the levels to be reinstated?
GEOSAUTUS: I have just sent emails to members of the team at Mm, but I haven’t recieved a reply yet. If they can’t work this out, I can see a lot of people – myself included – abandoning this game. And that would be a real shame.
TSA: Do you see LBP level design as a potential way into the industry for you or others like you?
GEOSAUTUS: Sure, why not? I think that great level design is great level design, regardless of the tools you are using. I think that LBP is a great and inexpensive (granted you already own a PS3) way to test your level design skills.
TSA: How do you design your levels? Do you design in a linear fashion from start to finish, or do you design sections one at a time and then link them together at the end?
GEOSAUTUS: I usually build levels in a completely linear fashion. Just designing one bit at a time, rarely knowing what the next section will be like. This changed a bit in Mad Mansion where I had the last section planned out before I started building it. I have also started planning my next level. But right now I’m just not sure if I’ll continue making levels. I’m just really frustrated right now.
TSA: What’s your favourite level of the user created stuff you’ve played?
GEOSAUTUS: I haven’t really played any LBP since the beta. My PS3 broke the day before I got LBP. I did get a chance to play Azure Palace at a friends house, and I really liked it. But appearently it has also been moderated. They need to stop moderating all the good levels!
Thanks for your time.
Everyone interested in this aspect of the game should read and sign this petition.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
SteveTheSkorie | 16/11/2008 22:59
Team TSA: Writer
1132 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
hhhm, yeah.
Give it a couple of months and we wont even remember this whole moderation shibang.
Oh well.
Maybe Im just being a bit optimistic, but life is happier that way!
djhsecondnature | 16/11/2008 23:01
Team TSA: Media
815 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
It’s just crazy the levels that they’re moderating. God of War I can understand but I have played both World of Colour and Azure Palace and not only were they great levels but included nothing that infringed on the EULA of LBP. I wish Sony and MM would come out and explain what is going on and sort it out. Otherwise this could begin to ruin one of the great aspects of LBP and I’m pretty sure many people will boycot it in protest.
fredrikpedersen | 16/11/2008 23:18
Member
78 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I thinks its awesome that someone Norwegian is the top LBP creator(-curator).
Veldig bra gjort!
cc_star | 16/11/2008 23:19
Team TSA: Writer
5868 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I’m going to throw my hat in to the ring, and say I’m creating nothing until the picture comes clearer.
I brought the game to create in, and whats the point if it gets deleted with any form of correspondence allowing you to change anything which is potentially causing the problem.
I’m even considering trading the game and buying it again in Febuary if the issues are sorted by then, if I do that, the 2nd copy I buy will deffo be a second hand one, I’m feeling about as generous to Sony/MM as they have been to me.
Good scoop TSA
glennpfc | 17/11/2008 00:12
Member
301 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Have world in colour and Azure’s palace actually been modded? they worked fine earlier for me :S I don’t want to spread hear-say.
glennpfc | 17/11/2008 00:39
Member
301 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Hate to reply to my own comment, but after investigating it appears both levels have been taken down…sad panda
stefhutch20 | 17/11/2008 00:36
Member
365 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I was wondering where World of Colour had gone. It’s a shame because it was one of my favourite levels.
crow-sama | 17/11/2008 02:36
Member
165 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
World of Colour. World of Colour!? Hold up! Doesnt Mm see that that’s the biggest level out there! What are they doing! Granted the GoW level was right to be moderated but I have seen a level that blatantly uses every curse word and yet it was still up last I checked! I hope they don’t take out the sackhouette levels!
3shirts | 17/11/2008 06:55
Member
1788 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
I agree that they need to do something about the communication. To take down levels so widely and highly regarded without so much as an email to explain why is frankly disgusting. These levels take weeks to make and to lose that work for no good reason would be soul destroying. Sony have problems being over cautious with this stuff I remember Mr Nastytime’s hilarious Singstar videos being moderated despite nothing that broke the EULA or was rude/offenasive. It seems they take stuff down if enough jealous little picks flag it as offensive and it then wallows in an ever growing pile of ‘to be checked’ content.
Michael | 17/11/2008 08:24
Team TSA: Development
2026 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
This guy spends “…about a week or so building and testing each level before publishing it…” – so everyone thinking a week wasn’t long enough for the TSA LBP compo, the bar has been set!
Pixl1983 | 17/11/2008 09:07
Member
439 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Damn.
I knew someone would pick up on that. Are you entering Michael?
megapode | 17/11/2008 09:33
Member
0 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
There’s definately something weird about all of this…
Alex Evans used World of Colour as one of his ‘poster child’ levels during the Media Molecule talk at GameCity 3. He absolutely loved it and this was the level that was left playing for everyone to try out.
Interestingly, during the presentation, he showed how the ‘good grief’ function could be used but very quickly said something along the lines of ‘don’t actually send that – you need to cancel’.
Now, that kind of suggests that the moderation might be a bit more automated than we have been led to believe.
How many people have accidentally ‘good-griefed’ a level and from that it gets borked? (Just a thought…)
Spotter5 | 17/11/2008 10:53
Member
714 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
They moderated World of colour!?! that was an awesome level! it was even in the official playstation magazine…
funkyellowmonkey(ps3 id) | 17/11/2008 12:46
Member
285 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
@megapode, good griefed by accident or not, the moderators at Sony should be doing their jobs properly!…
cc_star | 17/11/2008 22:06
Team TSA: Writer
5868 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
He is saying that the Grief Button is actually a DELETE button, which removes the level from LBP’s servers and the creators ‘my moon’
Well he’s not going that far, but others have!
Alex from MM’s comments appear to suggest that as well (allegedly)
masoke | 24/11/2008 06:48
Member
291 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
World of Colour is back – I played it last night (again), and hearted it (again).
Are there any other stories about levels being un-moderated?
I wonder if the Good Grief button (or a trigger number of presses) takes the levels offline and puts them in a queue for them to be officially checked over, and perhaps put back up. That would make sense, would show why the number of stories of people with moderated levels is much lower than Media Molecule say.
Revolution | 24/11/2008 11:24
Member
237 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
Yeah I played it this weekend as well.
And I saw this Metal Gear based level which had changed its name from MGS something to MTS something due to moderation.