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LBP Censorship: Enough Is Enough

November 17th, 2008 at 4:00 pm · 14 Comments

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Watching Click, the BBC’s technology programme in the early hours of this morning, there was an interview with a bloke from Media Molecule. According to said bloke, there is a moderation system in effect “24/7″ so that users who report a level’s content can expect to see some pretty swift action taken.

Does this mean, as I’m thinking, that the entire moderation system is automatic with no reasonable human input? A computer can hardly decide whether a level’s content is unsavoury or not, which would explain the unreasonable removal of both Azure Palace and World of Colour.

What has happened here has also highlighted the huge flaws in the moderation system for LBP and how easily they can be exploited. Griefers and other internet-based ne’er-do-wells have obviously reported these levels purely to see if they can be deleted by the Sony moderators (which, at this point, I’m guessing are a stack of VAIOs) and the obvious answer is that yes, they can.

Whether the levels can be recovered or not, I’m not sure. The creators of the levels involved can no longer load even their own copy of the level in the Create mode, but the fact that I was still able to find a record of it in my Hearted (favourites) menu, icon and all, means that recovery might be possible. It’s still not on that levels such as these are being removed without any sort of reason, and without even warning the creators of any ‘unsavoury’ content.

Obviously, it’s time for action, and one agitated user has taken to the interwebs to create a petition, requesting that Sony re-evaluate the moderation system for LittleBigPlanet and instate a warning system that will alert level creators to any potential issues to their levels, so that anything that could be considered offensive can be removed rapido without any further incident.

If you want to sign this petition, you can click here. Be sure to do so and tell others; the more people that sign it, the more chance there will be of rescuing future creations from the same fate as the Azure Palace and the World of Colour.

Get to it!

Save LittleBigPlanet – Little Big Madness

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  1. How NOT to complain about censorship, MadWorld-style
  2. Rated M for Moronic: More Wal-Mart Censorship

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Categories: Editorial · News · PlayStation 3

  • http://www.twitter.com/ognawk Kwangoski

    What’s wrong with those levels? That’s just baffling…

  • NoneOfYourBusiness

    It a terrible sight to see MM sabotaging its own game by destroying the very aspect of the game that made it so popular with gamers in the first place. Putting so much work into the design aspect of the game, only to skimp on the moderation is very irritating.

    Perhaps there should be a ranking system. Those with more reports get handled first, and if a certain level reachs “x” number of reports the game automatically flags it and removes it from the selecting option until a human moderator can examine it. Not delete it right away. I think that would be the most fair way to handle this, and it would deal with the griefers.

    Also, perhaps allowing MM to see who actually is sending the reports would be good too. Banning “Mr.X” for spending his entire afternoon reporting every level created so far isn’t the worst thing in the world.

    For every good and nice creator, there will be a mean and bad troll.

  • http://www.sarcasticgamer.com Yamster

    @NoneOfYourBusiness: I don’t think MM are managing this moderation system; I have a feeling it’s automatically managed by the servers as I said in the article.

  • http://www.imdragon.org imdragon

    There’s some really amazing stuff online, but unfortunately it disappears without reason. I personally like the levels that play songs, like the Zanarkand and Terra Theme levels.

  • SilverTorch

    Don’t have this game or even a ps3 but this still looks like bullspit. Those levels look awesome and completely original. If someone deleted my creation that took forever to make then I’d be pissed

  • kim andre

    @noneofyourbusinnes

    i chud not agre more lbp like that whuf be awsome like a litle big heaven

  • GamesAreFun

    I don’t think humans would be insane enough to delete original levels. It has to be a flawed moderation program. WE NEED HUMANS, dang it! We also need the companies of the owned copyrights to give LBP permission to delete levels because they can’t just delete them themselves.

  • NoneOfYourBusiness

    @Yamster

    I know you said the servers are currently doing the moderation without human intervention, but it was MM who put it there in the first place.

  • RAGNAROCK

    maybe the creators of the game are jelous of the awesome creations players are coming with lol

  • Cornman

    The deletion of those levels is a CRIME. I am a little surprised, and more than a little dismayed, that so little intelligent thought has gone into LBP’s level rating and moderation systems. Especially for a game that is so well done in other areas.

    Hoepfully, this issue will be resolved very soon, and all unfairly deleted levels will be restored to their former glory.

  • wolflive

    I always thought LBP was going to be an amazing fun game with endless replay value. I told my self “LBP would be the game that would make me go out and buy a PS3″. With all of this BS though I got to say, it dont think I’ll be getting a PS3 and LBP anytime soon. I don’t want to be one of those people who put so much in to a level, just to have taken down with any warning what so ever. Whoever in charge at MM or Sony needs to start thinking on how this “moderation” is looking to penitential buyers.

  • AnimeAssassin

    @Yamster

    I bought LBP last sunday and today I played The Azure Palace for the first time and it was Awsome. When and for how long was it deleted?
    I have not tried World of Colour but I did play the mirrors edge level and Mario and Sonic Levels today so I don’t think it is as bad as you think.

  • http://www.nothing.com gingerbob

    I think that they are deleting levels that are better than ones they’ll try to sell you later, because why pay for a good level when there are better free levels available. Level envy.

  • DeathRightz

    Azure is back up!!

    Kotaku just dropped the news here:
    http://kotaku.com/5091931/azure-palace-restored-on-lbp

    Looks like the moderation of this level was pending over the weekend. This leads me to believe that if anyone flags a level it’s automaticly pulled till they can review it. If it’s pulled late on a friday or sometime on the weekend, no ones there to monitor it and it’ll take till monday to be finalized

    this is a bunch of crap!