Hair of the Dog - Week of Nov 15, 2009
We’ve got just the thing to cure your weekly gaming hangover… every Saturday morning, Hair of the Dog compiles a round-up of interesting Naughty Dog and UNCHARTED 2 links from around the web.
By arne | Twitter @arnemeyer | Saturday November 21 2009

We’ve got just the thing to cure your weekly gaming hangover… every Saturday morning, Hair of the Dog compiles a round-up of interesting Naughty Dog and UNCHARTED 2 links from around the web.
Reflecting on UNCHARTED 2: How They Did It - Gamasutra
Kris Graft talks to Co-Lead Game Designer Neil Druckmann to discuss the development of UNCHARTED 2, what it feels like now that we’re done with the game and the reception the game has gotten from game critics and our fans alike.
Vote today for PlayStation’s 17 VGA Nominees - PlayStation.blog
SPIKE TV announced their nominees for the SPIKE 2009 VGA Awards and the PlayStation family received 17 nominations across a broad range of categories. We’re real happy to say that UNCHARTED 2 leads all the PlayStation title—actually have more nominations than any other game—with a record 8 nominations, including Game of the Year.
UNCHARTED 2 dev talks Twitter - GameSpot AU
GameSpot Australia chats with me about the Twitter feature in UNCHARTED 2 and how we’re using social media to stay in touch with our fans and get their feedback on our game.
Social Media Fires Up Video Game Marketing - MediaPost
Earlier this week, I spoke at a panel hosted by Digital LA about video game marketing along with Tracy Williams (Activision), Benjamin Collier (THQ) and Nick Williams (OTX Research). Hosted by Kevin Winston, the panel covered a broad range of aspects of marketing, from planning out campaigns with multiple titles, to dealing with leaks and, of course, about leveraging social media.
Win a copy of UNCHARTED 2 from Talking About Games! - Talking About Games
Don’t have UNCHARTED 2 yet? Talking About Games is giving one away in a contest. Entering is easy—you just have to sign up for their UNCHARTED 2 game night, to be held at 8:00 PM EST on Saturday, December 5. They are accepting entries until 6:00 PM EST on November 30 and all entries are automatically registered to win a copy of the game.
Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin’: UNCHARTED 2 - Destructoid
Destructoid’s comedy video series about video games, Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin’, takes a good, extremely Firefly-laden analytical look at some story themes UNCHARTED 2 suspiciously shares with a cult hit TV show.
Is It Time For the Academy To Consider Video Games? - ThreeMinds
On their ThreeMinds blog, digital agency Organic—who developed the LittleBigWorkshop website—posts a mini-review of UNCHARTED 2. Writer Brad Mancuso thinks we did a whole bunch of things right to really earn our “cinematic” game badge.







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Posted by: PeteX19 on 11-21-2009
ND if you truly read over the forums, blog comments and Tweets why don’t you fix the 40k penalty issue.
The amount of people myself included that have received 40k penalties for connection errors and PS3’s freezing is rediculous.
At the moment your not deterring quitters your deterring everyone who plays the multiplayer. Sort it out soon ND before players stop playing altogether.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: Naildown55 on 11-21-2009
i know dude i went down a level twice becuz my internet kept dying
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: Eternal21 on 11-21-2009
Stop complaining and fix your connection, or buy a new router. I play non-stop and never had any issues with U2.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: Mike12888 on 11-21-2009
Agreed. Ever thought of FIXING your internet? The 40K should serve as some extra motivation.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: PeteX19 on 11-21-2009
Just because my internet goes down shouldn’t mean a game punishes me for it.
Besides I played 3hrs of MW2 multiplayer straight and didn’t loose connection once.
It’s obvious you feel this way because it hasn’t happened to you. But for alot of players, its annoying and frustrating as hell to see your progress wiped for no good reason.
Don’t get me wrong I love the game but there are better options than a 40k penalty.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: DChalmes on 11-21-2009
Same, I play U2 and get connection errors 95% of the time, then I go play something like WarHawk and I have a ping of 90....
it’s really annoying and I know my internet is not to blame, and even if it was, would you not be pissed if lost a lot of earnings due to connection errors? I think so.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: arne on 11-21-2009
FYI—Warhawk uses dedicated severs, whereas we do not.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: ZBlacktt on 11-22-2009
Eternal21, awh, please don’t be so clueless. A connection drop is something that just happens. Just because the issue has not happen to you. Does not mean it’s not happening to others. So don’t sit here and defend the dev’s problem of not fixing the issue. It happen to me last night and I lost 40k. It’s happen to me before that too and I lost 40k. The game has also froze on the screen and I lost 40k for that as well. So there is a problems with this penalty.
Rather than cover it up or just look past it. It’s better to come here and address it so they can come up with a better way. Which I already know of one. I have over 140 hours in the online. I’m level 51 and have over 35,000 kills. I know this game very well I think. It can be made better so that more players don’t leave like they have.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: xii_gloryFADES on 11-23-2009
Not all Warhawk servers are Sony-dedicated.
UC2 does have connection problems. I’ve played the above mentioned game, CoD4, Battlefield, and a slew of other MP games and never had disconnects.. but it happened somewhat regularly to me or friends on Uncharted 2. Just my .02.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: lichterloh on 11-23-2009
ZBlacktt, I’ve been in two co-op objective matches with you and both times you went “I don’t want to play on easy” and suddenly you had a “connection error”.
I very much prefer Crushing myself, but still, that reeks more of quitting than a physical connection problem, don’t you think?
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: wlchrbandit on 11-23-2009
I have the highest connection possible in my area, tops at about 6.5Mb, but between like 4pm and 9pm it drops to about 1Mb. This aint my fault, I have just stopped playing U2 since they implemented this!
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: DCaff on 11-24-2009
Its not always a fixing your internet problem...i have great internet but sometimes i just get dropped or the ps3 freezes, so your an exception..you should still want them to fix it....and 40k is ridiculous, once they did that i quit playing..it is to harsh. Uncharted was my fav multiplayer game but to mw2 it is were they give a normal penalty
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: DChalmes on 11-24-2009
no shit sherlock....
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: DChalmes on 11-24-2009
*edit* that was to arne
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: anonimato333 on 11-27-2009
It´s not a router problem cuz here in Spain at least it happens to a lot of people.I think the penalty is fine BUT only for those players who voluntarily abandon.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: arne on 11-21-2009
Currently we’re confident we’ve made the right decision regarding penalties for leaving the match—remember you don’t get docked any cash for the FIRST time. We’re keeping a close eye on in-game stats and forums and we will make adjustments if and when we feel they are warranted.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: PeteX19 on 11-21-2009
Thanks Arne for replying at least I know where ND stands on this now.
My first time was on day one of the update, which resulted in a time delay as you said it would. So the safety net of that is little use to me now.
The second followed a few matches later exactly the same way as the first, I will tell you all the details. It consisted of the match starting but grenades didn’t go off, some players floated around the map, I was unable to pickup any weapons and kills were not registered. A few minutes in and the game ended, and one of the other players was highlighted in black on the results board(he must of ended the game). I pressed circle to go back to the main menu, on returning to the multiplayer I had a 40K penalty.
This example happens to me alot but now it usually ends in the game freezing and me having to reset the PS3.
Can you at least tell me why this happens?
Its a shame your not doing anything about the 40k issue. A number of people on my friends list have already traded in the game because of this. Missing out on potential DLC and the replay value of the single player.
I have just dropped from level 47 to 46 and don’t see the point in playing the game in its current state.
With respect I don’t know how many comments on this issue (which plague every post you release Arne) are needed before its seen as a wrong decision by Naughty Dog. Hopefully it will be ratified at some point, until then the game will go on the shelf gathering dust.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: bLOOdTyPeX on 11-21-2009
Do you guys play ranked matches who are experiencing the penalty?
From my experience I have gotten the connection error few times after the update and no $40K penalty… BUT I just play the all competitive mode and not ranked.
Also I agree with PeteX19 this is hurting the online community the numbers have drastically dropped only 6k people are online on weekends and even less weekdays. This basically sucks because I LOVE the multiplayer.... Bring on the DLC!!!!!!!!
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: PeteX19 on 11-21-2009
Hey bLOOdTyPeX
I play mainly Co Op Arena, TDM and Objectives. It has happened three times on ranked mode for me.
Co Op Arena seems the worst for Connection Errors in my experience, saying that it is the mode I play the most.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: ZBlacktt on 11-22-2009
PeteX19, yep that’s where I play as well ( Co-Op’s ) and yes it is a problem. Despite arne saying it’s not an issue. I guess the USERS are just wrong and we love the 40k loss huh. What happens here is this. If you enter a game and some lame kid wants to team kill you for no reason and you’ve had enough and leave the game. Then on your next game you get a game freeze or game connection error. Then yes you are docked the 40,000 points for NO fault of your own. There is a better way and I would think ND could come up with the answer. I know of one that’s an easy fix for all.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: mgsguy on 11-21-2009
Hi arne. I just wanted to address something that happened to me while I was playing online. It is true that I have quit a game once. But the second time, it was for no good reason. The match was over, and right after the match, I turned my PS3 off. (Not the best idea, by the way) The next day I got a message that said that I lost 40k. I don’t understand. The match was over, as in, it was on the leader board. You have no control over anything during that time, so why is this considered quiting a game?
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: J32-J32 on 11-21-2009
I lost 80k tonight after playing for 4 hours. I think it is not right to deduct 40K everytime the internet connection goes down. It is right to deduct 40K if a player leaves the game. Would a bank charge its customers a fee for every transaction that was not completed at no fault of their own? Get it right! Do the right thing! If you claim that you are monitoring the game stats then please give me my 80K back.
J32-J32.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: lichterloh on 11-23-2009
I’ve played a few hours of co-op every day for the last weeks and I can attest that the penalties have not had much if any influence on people’s quitting.
That said, most of the quitters in co-op are green-badges, fewer blue, so I reckon the majority are first-time offenders.
I’m moderately supportive of the idea of a quitting penalty but in co-op it just doesn’t work, unfortunately.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: BODACIOUS34 on 11-23-2009
Honestly, I could care less about the penalty for leaving(due to the fact that myself and some of my friends all play under my account, I’m not particulary worried about the stats and what not) Anyway, there is obviously some sort of connection issues with the game because it’s the only one that I have problems with… Don’t fret though, it’s not going to keep me/us from playing, but it definitely would raise the enjoyment factor if we could play more than 5 or so rounds without being disconnected for syncing errors and so on…
Anyway, what I’m getting at, is that if ya’ll could possibly detect what the problem(s) might be and could fix them.....taaadaaa!!!!! No more complaining from all of these people, plus me and my buds can get back down to business, melting the barrel off of the M-4....
So that’s my 2 cents… Thanks for all the hard work you guys have done for us, the game is awesome with problems or not and I appreciate the time and effort ya’ll have given us already
Thanks,
BKB
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: BODACIOUS34 on 11-23-2009
*edit*
Forgot to say this above, I understand where the people are coming from about being penalized for bad connections. If I was playing for stats and all, it would be a definite bummer to lose points/rank after an unintentional disconnect (yes they happen, frequently). I’m just saying that if there is a way to fix the connection problems on ND’s/PSN’s end, it would kill two birds with one stone, 1. People being deducted points and 2. Steady game play. 1+2= Tons of fun chaos and less complaints… sounds like an all around good deal to me
Just wanted to say that before any trophy addicts started to hose me
Keep up the good work ND
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: NotSoSilent on 11-24-2009
Sucks that you people are not listening to what the Community is calling for. I played the game till the Halloween Title update and Havn’t played since. Played 5 games that day and lost 3 levels because I get stuck with Bad people hosting the game and then get dropped. ND might make good games but they SUCK for making updates.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: DCaff on 11-24-2009
Well if that is were naughty dog stands on the issue then yall can kiss my as$...there are far to many good multiplayer games out there like mw2, gears of war, and halo to put up with that kind of bullshit...yall just lost my vote for game of the year and i will be trading it in for something that is fun and fair..
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: clone555 on 11-25-2009
Arne, you guys screwed up and you know it. The reason people are complaining so much is because they get fined when the game fails. And it fails in many ways.
We see dozens of complaints here about lost connections. And we see others pointing fingers and telling players to go sort out their connections. Introducing this type of penalty in a peer-to-peer game with obvious connectivity instability issues was a poor call. Whether they are users network/router/broadband provider problems or not is besides the point. The fact is connectivity is unstable for many players for many reasons. I sincerely doubt you even though about how connection errors would lead to penalties… You missed that, and you know it.
Even if I have a good connection, and I play through and never quit, we hear stories now that if I am playing a co-op game, and the host leaves, then we get a ‘connection error’, and every player gets a penalty? Again, I sincerely doubt you thought of this scenario. You missed that one guys and you know it.
And even if the connectivity issues were not a problem, you never even considered why people hit the quit button. Problems with match making and stacking teams of high level players against new players is just one of the reasons people quit.
There really must be a better way.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: nineofus on 11-21-2009
i dont think i should lose 40k because i lose internet, It would be fair if i left the game.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: vermontboarder on 11-24-2009
Maybe it’s already been discussed but the number of online players has dropped off significantly since they started this silly policy. What was 20K appears to average around 6k. I’m sure many of those were first-timers just trying out the multi-player and deciding they didn’t like it but that’s still a huge drop of online players in what was supposed to be such a huge title, game of the year..blah blah..etc..etc.
I saw a quarter million people playing MW2 multi-player. But who’s comparing, right?
I don’t quit matches anymore. If (God Forbid!!) something in my life comes up that’s more important than watching Chloe’s sweet butt swinging back/forth....I just put down the controller and walk away. Sorry folks. I hate it too and don’t want to do that to my team mates but keeping this policy is completely ego-driven. It was a bad, knee-jerk decision, yet ND will not come forward, admit they over-reacted, listen to their CUSTOMERS and fix the problem.
ND: Are you listening?? THIS...IS....A....GAME. Nothing more. In 6 months, it will be a dinosaur. If you don’t believe me, go count the used copies of Fallout3 at your local Gamestop.
And all the people saying how their connection is better and “maybe if you upgraded”....you’re kidding me, right? Last time I checked, my computer/modem/PS3 used electricity. I know this may be hard to believe but I’ve heard that some homes actually lose their power from time to time, often without warning, due to...oh...silly things like storms, wind...rain. But c’mon...like that’s really going to happen in the middle of a match.
God, are you listening? Can you put that storm on hold for a few more minutes. I’m about to level-up.
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: YanivGenesis on 12-27-2009
Me too, got a penalty for a connection error
Log in to reply to this commentPosted by: Thecooktom on 01-10-2010
I received 3 40k penalties because of 2 conection errors and the game frezzing in one day. Then once more the day after. I am really pissed. I love the game but that type of thing makes me want to play something else. Ps THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH MY INTERNET CONNECTION!!
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