Community levels

Good evening!

Regular visitors to the LittleBigPlanet community levels may have noticed that the default community search has had a refresh. I thought I would take some time to explain what’s different and why we felt we needed a change.

Previously, the first few pages of the community levels displayed those levels which had the most activity in the last 7 days. However, we soon noticed a trend; once a level was popular enough to make it to the front page, it was likely to never leave!

Clearly, that’s great if you’re one of the few hundred or so creators with levels on the front pages, but not so good for the creators of the other 500,000 or so LittleBigPlanet levels! It also means that eventually the pages start to look a little static, with very little variation from day to day (or even week to week!).

We wanted to try a new system; one that would ensure that the default community selection, was fresh, of a high quality and constantly changing. In brief, the new system ensures that the default selection of levels are those with the highest rating, published within the last 7 days. Once 7 days have passed since a level was first published, it will make room for a new level to gain some exposure (republishing the level over the same slot won’t make it count as a new level).

The important part to remember is that it’s never been so easy for a level to hit the front page searches. Previously, a level would require 100’s of thousands of plays and hearts to even come close the front page. Now, if a creator publishes a good quality NEW level today and tries out some of our publishing hints in our article publishing 101, it’s far more likely their level will hit the top.

Don’t forget, we listen to our community very closely, and if it becomes clear that the system needs tweaking in the coming weeks, we’ll get right on it.

For now though, enjoy the fresh new community pages and see what amazing new ideas you can find!!

It’s great to see brand new levels and creators and have to say that we are constantly impressed by the amazingness of the LittleBigPlanet community! We are looking forward to highlighting some creators that have been hidden until now :)

Danny.