At least according to the lovely folks over at Sony, who have decided to make me a member of the Gamer Advisory Panel or GAP for short. Now, this statement will be met with jeers and other assorted snide comments about me becoming a fanboy, but I am taking the high road (until I can find an appropriate retaliation mechanism.)
Now seriously, what does this all mean? My guess is that I was selected since I have two consoles from Sony (a PSP and a PS2) and a fair number of games for those consoles (I am a gamer after all). I do realize that this is part marketing and they believe that I will continue to purchase equipment from Sony and games for said equipment, but I have taken this and turned it into some humor by getting a photo of my Playstation Underground certificate on top of my Xbox360. The optimist side of me is hoping that Sony will use this as a mechanism for gaining valuable feedback and a way to feed the fanboys that partially drive the market, but the pessimist sees this as nothing more than a way to shmooze me to buy more Playstation games and upgrade the hardware (which I will not do since I still think the PS2 is a fantastic console with a ton of games I have not played.)
You can find the picture of my new certificate of importance placed in a location of prominence on my desk, and the text from my letter welcoming me as well after the jump...
And the letter:
Dear Tim,
Congratulations!
You're now a member of the Gamer Advisory Panel--an exclusive community of gamers with the power to shape the future of the industry. Enclosed is an official certificate verifying your elite status. Remember, this is the highest honor you can receive from Playstation--and we're thrilled to bring you into the fold.
You were selected from millions of Playstation gamers because of your passionate dedication to the world of gaming. Over the course of the next year, we will rely on you for your insight--and reward you with new opportunities to share your expertise. We'll be contacting you by email and regular mail, so be sure to keep your Playstation Underground Member Profile current by visiting www.us.playstation.com/myaccount/.
Tim, on behalf of the Playstation Underground--welcome to the Gamer Advisory Panel. You can now count yourself among the industry's most influential players. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Respectfully yours,
Jack Tretton
Executive Vice President
Co-Chief Operating Officer
Sony Computer Entertainment America
P.S. Don't forget: You're on the inside now, so we don't want you to miss a thing. Be sure to keep your Member Profile updated, and check the G.A.P. website often for more chances to participate: gap.us.playstation.com.
So there you have it, I am key to driving the gaming market in the future. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go deflate my ego..
Posted by Tim at Wednesday January 10, 2007 - 2:12 PM | TrackBack (0) | Category: Video Games | © 2007 Gaming Signal
Interesting. I too was invited to the Gamer Advisory Panel, except my certificate was signed by Andrew House. It says he is the exec VP? Is yours exec VP as well? I cant read it in the pic?
So far the best freebie was the ball cap. It's gray and fitted. Sharp lid.
My PSU# is 0806744117
I like how you posed it on the xbox 360 for the picture.
Posted by Trent on Wednesday January 10, 2007 at 10:42 PM
Well duh... you typed it out for me above.
Pretty sad I couldn't RTFB when I'm already on the page responding...
Posted by Trent on Wednesday January 10, 2007 at 10:45 PM
I don't know, but I think this goes beyond "fanboy."
Posted by Peter on Wednesday January 10, 2007 at 11:02 PM
Oh Timmah, I see the difference between yours and my GAP memberships.
Yours is actually with the Casual Gamer Advisory Panel.
evil damn snicker
inside joke
Posted by Trent on Thursday January 11, 2007 at 11:02 AM
You evil evil little man - and you know I just can't handle my advisory panels on hardcore 
Posted by Tim on Thursday January 11, 2007 at 1:02 PM