I like Twitter. In fact, I probably tweet more than I should. I also like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and I have little doubt that I’ll like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. But the sequel’s Twitter integration, I’m not so sure about.
The folks at Bits, Bytes, Pixels, and Sprites fired up the multiplayer demo, and noted the options for the game’s Twitter integration. Basically, the game would like permission to “tweet your progress as you play,” auto-updating your status to tell your followers things about your Uncharted 2 session:
- When connecting to multiplayer
- When a cinema file is uploaded
- When a chapter is completed
- When earning multiplayer money
- When earning trophies
- When reaching a level milestone
My thoughts after the jump.
Admittedly, it could be useful to alert buddies when you’re hopping online to play a multiplayer game. But the rest of that stuff is akin to telling your friends with automated messages that you’re using the toilet, making breakfast, or getting into bed. Not only is it likely that no one cares, but one of the things that makes Twitter great is the personalities, the humanity behind each individual message. Spamming Twitter with stock “I just earned $2,000 in Uncharted 2‘s multiplayer” messages makes me cringe a bit.
The good news is that it’s up to the user to choose what updates are pushed to their Twitter account. The bad news is there’s going to be someone out there who thinks anyone gives a damn when they earn a trophy, complete a chapter, or earn money in multiplayer.
It’s a novel concept, and I applaud Naughty Dog for being the first to get it into a retail game, but it’s certainly not new — services like Raptr help people flood Twitter with emotionless (mostly pointless) game playing updates. Does anyone think they’ll utilize this in any helpful manner, either as a sender or reader?
