Topic: The unintuitive power of playstation

The PS4 is a cool gadget, but tonight I realised how difficult it was to use properly for a casual audience. My wife has been playing a match 3 game based on Frozen with Microtransactions :sad: But that wasn't the issue. Shutting down the game properly required this exact process;

Press circle to go back
Press circle to go back
Press X to go to the main menu
Press the Playstation logo
Stay in the picture and press options
Press X to close the game
Move over to the far right
Click X on shutdown console.

This was to exit a game and switch off the console to put the TV on. I'm not kidding that process took ages in real life. Anyone had any similar issues themselves or had people in their lives wrestle with the unintuitive ui?

I just push the PS button and close the game down from there then hit rest mode. I have to admit I am confused as to why you needed all those extra steps.

Personally I just hold the PS button and choose power options and turn off completely. I don't bother to quit the application as that will be turned off with the powering down anyway.

I do find it annoying that I have to select the powering down option every time and its not a 'default' or setting option. With the XB1, you can set the console to power down completely or go into 'standby' so everytime you turn off it always turns off according to your preference - something I would prefer to see in a OS update.

Can't she just hold the PlayStation button down and turn it off from there? You're right, though - but this is a wider issue with technology in general. I think Apple is probably just about the best at creating intuitive interfaces, but even then, if you give a device to someone who's never ever used one before, they'll still struggle at first.

You're quite right, though - the game controller as we know it is a huge barrier to some people. It's part of the reason why the Wii was so successful - everyone understood how to play tennis. Hand them a DualShock 4, though, and they're stumped. My Dad can't grasp the idea of dual analogue sticks, for example.

@get2sammyb: A lot of people can't get used to the thumbsticks and plethora of buttons. My daughters struggled with the N64 controller that only had 1 analogue stick and a lot less buttons too. It was one of the reasons why we had a Wii as they could actually use the Wii mote.
I know Kinect gets a bad rep and rightly so in some cases, but for my daughters, it was absolutely perfect for them as they loved dancing and fitness type games. The fact Kinect tracked the whole body position also meant that their was a lot more points to determine who was the better dancer rather than someone who could just move a Wii-mote or PS-move around without necessarily 'dancing' and meant my daughters could easily play with no need to learn any button presses or special controller movements. Even in Wii sports they struggled to do power serves or anything that required more than just movement.
Anyway that's a bit of a digress but I do think the PS is a bit more complex than it needs to be. A lot of the settings could be set as your 'default' preference so that if you have family, younger children or friends who are unfamiliar with the system, they could turn it on, load up a game and turn it off to your preferred default setting. The power off presents a few different options for example but could have a 'default' option so that when you select to power down it always does whatever you have as default. PS could have a way of selecting a different option - maybe by pressing the options button instead of pressing 'X' to bring up the alternatives.

For the playas not dem filthy casuals innit

What I found unintuitive was how to pause downloads. Common sense tells you to go to Library (where all of the games get downloaded to) and hit Options, but no, you have to go to Notifications, then Downloads.

I never use Rest Mode so the turning off process is sometimes a bit convoluted when compared to say, PS3. Still nothing beats just hitting the Power Button on my Wii U gamepad.

I mainly use rest mode so the controllers can charge and any updates can get downloaded.

@sinalefa: This is definitely something that is far from obvious. I originally had issues with this when I bought the console.

@Tasuki: That's fair enough, but the ps4 uses loads of elecy in rest mode. I think most people accept keeping things on in rest mode is fine (set top boxes / tv / alarm clock) but that's never been the case with a console before - I power the ps4 off every time. This is to save elecy and shave a couple of quid off my bill every quarter. Due to the power consumption of the ps4 even in rest mode it costs people in the UK between £12-£18 in standby a year. That means a saving of between £3 and £4.50 every bill.

@get2sammyb "Can't she just hold the PlayStation button down and turn it off from there?" She could - I've always thought it best practice to exit out of any applications or games first. (that's actually a genuine question, I'm unsure how safe it is to do)

PS4 on rest mode all the time for me, the convenience is great.

@themcnoisy: I've read many conflicting reports regarding costs, this site reckons $10 a year which is, what, £7 or so?

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/03/how-standby-modes-on-ga...

Appreciate every penny counts but I don't much mind paying a little extra for the convenience. If I didn't use the machine so much I'd say otherwise, but diving back into games in a couple of seconds is great, plus i'm less likely to leave the machine on idle using more power while I'm away/watching tv etc.

I'd actually rather not play it for a few days to recoup my £7 than stop using rest mode haha

@kyleforrester87: America has cheaper Electricity watt for watt. So its about £15 a year in the UK. Don't get me wrong its not worth going crazy over but then combine that with a couple of quid from hanging clothes out rather than put them in the dryer, manually do the dishes, switch all plugs off in bedrooms at night etc etc. Our energy bills are usually well cheaper than friends and family and we live in similar houses with more kids. But I digress - it even states in the article that you should 'obviously switch off all electrical appliances'

@kyleforrester87: The average price per kwh of elecy in the UK is 15.6p where as in the article America is paying 12 cents. So we pay a lot more money for Electricity. Using basic maths we should be paying 8p by using a currency calculator - but in real terms we are paying double in comparison to America for every Kilowatt-hour.

@themcnoisy: If you completely turn off the console, then why are your manually shutting the game down? It'll do that by itself when you turn the system off? Also, I think the issue of the wide playing a FTP Frozen game is being understated here. : P

@Jaz007: Haha, Its not me man, my wife she's.... she's.... I cant bring myself to say it.... a susceptible casual gamer.

On a serious note that's the answer I was looking for, as long as it shuts everything down as well I'm happy. I always thought it was best practice to close programs / games / applications down prior to shutting down but I also appreciate that advice is from the year 2006.

@themcnoisy: true enough didn't think about UK/US rate differences. Still it's not a big deal for me, no doubt that'll change if and when I have kids lol

Having multiple consoles, I shut mine down properly after use too. I don't leave them on Standby at all. The only time I might do that is if I know I will be returning to play the same game on the same console in a very short while (up to an hour) later. Its not just the energy saving but also I think its safer too - less chance of electrical fires and hopefully will prolong my consoles life. I can't always guarantee that I will be playing on a specific console and game the same day let alone the next day. I never use my consoles for anything other than gaming either and so I have no need to keep them on standby as they are not often used multiple times a day. I tend to game in 1 session so it makes more sense to switch them off properly after use.

For a while, I wasn't sure if this was serious or trolling.
But... what everyone else said before.

I just hold down the PS button close application, up across power and down. As for power consumption I have never known how much it costs to run it. How much power does it use in orange standy bye mode? I often leave that on if I am downloading big patches when I am out.

@Scollurio: Serious. Sounds mad but is it safe to power off straight from the ps button or is it better to shut down the programs first?

Once that's established I know for sure.

Try it yourself, play any game and from any point within the game pause it and exit out to the main menu, then close the program, then power down from the far right menu on the home screen. That's what I've been doing anyway....

@themcnoisy: How could there be something wrong with powering down that way? Do you ctrl+alt+del all your running applications before shutting down your computer? It just closes the applications for you as part of the shut down process.