This week, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment America gave a rather impertinent comment to Fortune magazine, dismissing Nintendo handhelds as "babysitting tools." We think this calls for a role reversal.
I don't have a specific image for you to 'Shop this week - we haven't gone open-ended for a couple of months. But I couldn't pass up the chance at a timely piece of news that everyone noticed. So let's put Jack Tretton in daycare - either as the caregiver or the client.
Other fair game include PSPs, Sony-exclusive characters - or, yes, even Kevin Butler. Put them on a sign outside a daycare center, put them in one, put Reggie Fils-Aime giving the whole bunch a time-out. Maybe a bunch of Helghast supervising 4-year-olds. Or flip the script and give them juice boxes. Just make it recognizably Sony, recognizably infantile, and recognizably funny.
Google Image search is your source here, but if you need to be reminded of what Tretton said:
"Our view of the 'Game Boy experience' is that it's a great babysitting tool, something young kids do on airplanes, but no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those. He's too old for that."
Now, very important. We have a hiccup in our comments (again) and I want to be doubly sure your submissions are not caught in the blast. Please read this:
When uploading your image, please include the URL where it is hosted as text within the comment itself.This will give me a fallback in case I can't access the full-size version (and it'll also show your fellow commenters where they can see the full size if they like.)
There's one other important rule going forward: Please keep your images under 1MB in size. Many were having problems last week uploading pictures and we've discovered an apparent size restriction in our commenting engine. I apologize for not pointing this out, as I wasn't aware of it myself. To be on the safe side, let's keep things 1MB or less. If you upload and you get the broken-image icon, reduce it further in (file) size.
I'm sorry that the rules for effective participation are now longer than the challenge itself; I just want to solve as many frustrations as I can before they happen.
You know the drill: The 20 best will get rounded up and published at the end of next Saturday. Meantime, I and the rest of the starred commentariat will approve and promote as many as we can so folks can see them and pass judgment.
This is your no-frills step-by-step procedure to participation in the Kotaku 'Shop Contest.
1. Create your 'Shop.
2. Upload it to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. It's stupid simple. No account is necessary.
3. This is very important: You must use the URL of the image itself. In imgur, this is the second URL it gives you after you upload the image. It's under "Direct Link (email & IM)"
4. At the beginning of the comments roll, click "Start a New Thread"
5. To the right of your name, select "Image."
6. Paste the imgur URL in the image URL field. It's the field that says "Image URL."
7. You can add editorial commentary if you want, but you can hit submit and your 'Shop entry will be uploaded to the comments.
As an added inducement, I want to let you know I do star commenters who send in worthy/funny submissions - whether or not they're chosen for the final 20. This may not happen immediately. I usually start rounding up a gallery by the middle of the week. This is my subjective call, but I do want to recognize as many contributors as possible, and show gratitude for making this such a popular feature on weekends.
8. This is important: Keep your image size under 1 MB. It will not upload to comments if it is over that size.
Now, Gentlemen, start your 'shopping!