Ok, the PlayStation Network was down for 24 days. 24 Days! To some that seems like an eternity, for me it was more of an annoyance than anything. The network was taken down due to some “security issues” then promises were made, information was compromised and dates for the network to be up and running again came and went. I know that there is more to this story, but I’m just giving you the abridged version.  What was a fandad to do?

While this was a big issue on news stations and heavily posted on blogs and forums across the world, I for one was upset, but not to the point that many others were.  Listen, I get the reason people were upset because they couldn’t play online.  People were mad that they couldn’t download games, demos or whatever else they download from the PlayStation Network.  I just don’t get the people who sold back their systems or bashed Sony for letting this situation to happen.  In this day and age when people have multiple systems, myself included, is one system being down the end of the world?

Now while the network was down I wasn’t getting on message boards complaining about Sony, instead I was on Xbox Live playing the Gears of War 3 Beta.  I was taking advantage of getting all the unlockables and getting the rust out of my game.  I wasn’t sitting on my computer badmouthing the company that I have been a fan of since PS1, instead I was playing with my little girl and enjoying the weather outside.

While this may seem as a jab to all the hardcore gamers out there, it is not.  All I’m saying is that in this world where we have bigger issues to worry about, getting upset about not playing your games online is not the end of the world.  Now I know some of you may have had your information compromised, so you have a legitimate reason to be upset, but to those who were upset about missing a few multiplayer sessions with your friends, why not get together with them and do some real playing outdoors. 

I, for one, have a few hours a day when I am able to play my systems and most of those times are when the wife and baby are sleeping.  I have a job, household duties, a pet to take care of and soon, classes to attend, so my gaming time is very limited.  When I am able to play online I spend most of my time listening to guys bash each other with racial or derogatory terms…this is supposed to be fun?  Is this really what the multiplayer experience is supposed to be?  I didn’t miss that one bit.  That is one of the reasons that I don’t wear my headset when playing games online.  I’m a grown man, I don’t need to listen to that childish banter.

As of this writing the network had gone back online and gone back offline due to another attack on person’s information.  Seriously, this is getting tiresome.  I understand that the person or persons that did this were trying to prove a point, but enough is enough already.  We get it, you’re cool because you bought a network down and bought about sadness to all who wanted to play online.  You’re kind of like the Grinch, but instead of stealing Christmas you stole people’s joy and information.  Now like the Grinch, can you please change your ways and give us back our joy so we can get on with our lives.  This isn’t funny anymore.

To make up for the lack of service, Sony is offering a Welcome Back Package to all that were affected by the outage and the complaints already started about what they are offering.  It seems that no matter what they do now, people are going to ask a lot from Sony and complain about the FREE stuff they’re getting.  I am pretty happy about what is being offered.  I was expecting a little something for all the trouble, but what they are offering is pretty generous.  Hopefully, this will be the last of the network being down and we could get back to enjoying our systems and playing online.