Yes, Virginia, there really is Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

I've worked a lot of different places in a lot of different capacities in my life so far. I've worked as an apprentice private investigator, as a telemarketer and as a computer consultant. I have operated a snocone stand and a video game review websites. I've worked at Autozone, Wal*mart, K-Mart and Service Merchandise. I learned something everywhere I went. One of the things that I learned first hand, while at Service Merchandise, is that every year there are one or two "hot items" that, statistically, every child wants for Christmas. It may not actually be every child, but from the perspective of someone working in the toy department, talking to parents that have trekked to every Toys'R'Us, K-Mart, Wal*Mart and department store in the city (and, possibly, the surrounding area) and they're all asking if you have that one toy that they couldn't find at any of those places... and that's the same toy that everyone else is asking about... and the next truck is expected to have two of them on it... that's certainly what it feels like.

It's been quite some time since my Service Merchandise days and I'm not nearly as familiar with children's toys as I used to be, but it seems like a few years back, this trend was true of new consoles being released, as well. When the PS3 first launched, it was just as difficult to get one's hands on as a Tickle-Me-Elmo or a Color Blaster from back in the day. But, all of these were examples of products that caught the attention of the children. While it's true that the parents earn the money and make the purchasing decisions, it would be foolish to think that that adorable high-pitched whine (which can only be made by small children or dental drills) doesn't help them make their decision in favor of getting whatever it takes to shut the thing off.

These objects of desire that capture the waning attention of the American youth typically have certain key elements that make them more attractive. They may be: novel, new, interactive, collectible, and, of course, well marketed to children... ...which brings use to the subject of this post: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. This list could very well part of the features listed on the initial design for the game... and they've delivered on all of them.

I expect that Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is going to be a contender for the most popular product this Christmas season. I has all the earmarks of one, and, while the game is rated for Everyone 10+ and the figurines are rated 6+, our reviewers who played the game enjoyed it immensely and most pre-ordered every figure they could and ran out to Target and Sam's Club to get the exclusive characters, as well. I've read of people changing pre-orders based on getting access to special extra items and J.R. Nip went out and bought the game for a second system just to get the exclusive figure from it that he can't buy packaged separately from the game. While it's true that some of our reviewers are collectors, they're far above 10 years old, I assure you.

I don't know that supply will be able to meet the demand this Christmas season...

Maybe if we all just pretend there's no problem...

So, I just read an article on Daily Finance entitled, "Sony Spits on Innovation." No, they don't do so physically (I checked)... it's a metaphor for the fact that Sony's response to having their gaming network (the PlayStation Network - or "PSN") hacked to heck and back is to slap a Bandaid on it and then make everyone who uses it agree that they won't sue if the network gets hacked again.

I get it... and agree... with the basic sentiment. Sony is a major force in the world of electronic entertainment. IF they offer online gameplay, it should be secure. User information should not be vulnerable to attack... and the first step is that any unnecessary customer info should not be stored to begin with. My credit card should not be sitting on a server somewhere, waiting for some hacker to break in an buy themselves something nice simply because I decided I wanted to buy a DLC song for Rock Band.

However, in addition to being a gamer and a game reviewer, I am also a software engineer. As such, I can tell you that if you're interested in writing secure software, that pretty much has to be taken into consideration from the beginning. Every time a new function/method/interface/webpage/etc. is created/fixed/upgraded or otherwise changed, it has to be tested to make sure that it is still secure... and that changes to that piece don't cause exploitable issue in other parts that interact with the part that changed. It's a tall order, especially when a lot of software developers don't know how to write secure code.

So, truthfully, taking the network code they already have and simply throwing resources at it in the hopes of "securing" it isn't truly an option. It would be better -by far- to start from scratch, either by purchasing something from a third party (MicroSoft... wanna make some more money from XBox Live?) or by building a new online network from scratch, throwing some talented developers in a dark room and throwing pizza, Red Bull, Dr. Pepper and beer into the room at carefully metered dosages to achieve the optimum development environment and keeping them in there until a new, secure, PlayStation Network is done.

That process, however, takes money, talented individuals and, well, time. Lots of time... We're not talking geographic time, here, but we're definitely talking about more time that your average gamer (and, for that matter, even PlayStation fan-boys) are willing to wait to get back online with the PlayStation Consoles. Online gamers should be fairly familiar with these types of agreements, for that matter, since you sign agreements every time you join a network or start to play a game online. This time, however, someone actually read one... hence, the flack.

I like PlayStation games, but I'm not a big online gamer, personally. For that matter, it seemed the general consensus was that Xbox LIVE had won the online gaming contest some time ago. If Sony wants to compete (on any level) in the online gaming arena, they need to reinvent their online gaming network... and I expect that, at some point, they will.

Personally, I hope that this agree-not-to-sue-us clause is merely something to buy Sony the time needed to complete the above-mentioned dark room-pizza-beverage scenario. In the mean time, you can either choose to play at your own risk or simply not play Sony games online.