I shut down my system and restarted. I unplugged all of my cables and plugged them in again. Nothing worked. What most confused me is that my PS3 was not connected to the Internet, therefore there was no possibility it was some kind of virus. It was definitely something wrong with the system hardware itself. That’s when I noticed the date on my PS3 was set to December 31st, 1999. The day before Y2K.
I started to panic and decided that I’d stop messing around with the system and instead I rushed to my computer. I typed in the error code I was given into Google, and clicked around. Nothing was helping. After some web surfing, I found a forum that discussed the error, but the posts were 2 years old. As I scrolled through, I noticed that more and more people were posting that very day (Feb 28th, 2010), mentioning the exact same issues I had been having. Then I realized that the forum thread went on for another 20 pages. Clearly it wasn’t just me, and I took a breath of relief.
Eventually, I discovered that every Playstation 3 across the globe was having the exact same issues. There were people from numerous countries complaining about the same things that were happening to me. Eventually it was announced that it was an internal clock error (likely something to do with the fact that leap years occur on Feb 29th). The next day, the issue was corrected, but millions of PS3 owners lost data that they could never get back. It was deemed “the biggest system blackout in the history of the videogame industry” (IGN.com).
What I find so interesting here is that in the culture we live in today, I found that I, almost instinctively, went to the Internet and was able to find help from a random online virtual community. I was able to read what was happening to others on the other side of the world, which helped me understand what was happening to me. In this way, we were all interconnected and assisting one another. I had the answers at my fingertips – I had my peers at my beck and call. And much like when any other devastating news arises, virtual communities allowed all Playstation users to come together and mourn the loss of their trophies. I know I did. R.I.P. trophies. R.I.P.
Very interesting post! I agree that it's facinating that the first thing we turn to is the internet to find out more information on problems. I've had random charges on my bank account, or phone bill and because customer service sucks in the corporate world many people had previously asked the same questions I had and I was able to instantly find the answer. I think this shows the amazingness of the internet. Rather than sitting through hours of being on hold with customer service we were able to take it upon ourselves to find out what was going on. This is why we need to thank our active online communitiy! Yahoo Answers is an great site that provides a space for us to ask questions about probelms we've encountered and have immediate feedback from others who have either the academic knowledge or have experienced it. Of course there are some trolls out there that give unreliable responses but the more often people comment with the same issue or when they agree on effective solutions, the better off we all are!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it just the worst when your internet isn't working and then you have no way to Google the problem?
ReplyDeleteThat is so strange about the leap year and PS3's. What I like about your post is the feeling of panic we get when we lose digital rewards or information. It generally as no bearing on our "real life" but we tend to get anxious or upset when it happen. I remember the time my neopets account password changed by accident. I'm pretty sure i cried thinking I'd been hacked and my virtual pets would be left to starve (I was like 11, don't judge me). What is it about games that make us so upset, I wonder.