Sitting atop a pile of massive fall releases this year, among a glut of shooters, rhythm games, and casual family-friendly titles; ultra-polished or not, is Sony and Media Molecule’s quirky platformer/game editor LittleBigPlanet. Despite a seemingly draconian copyright protection policy, and more than a few hiccups with servers, critics and random gamers alike have praised the game to high heaven.

It seems that everywhere I go these days (well, online, anyway) I hear about how amazing LittleBigPlanet is. It’s apparently one of the greatest, most revolutionary games/communities every to grace the medium of gaming. It’s a grand experiment in creativity and exploration and expression. It’s a fantastic, fun, beautiful, and infinitely customizable experience.

All the adjectives make me very, very jealous, because this is probably about the best game ever made that I will never play (or, more accurately, I will never fully experience). The reason is very simple – I have not the time to actually delve into this little sack boy-filled bundle of joy.

The purpose of this column is not to lament or complain – no, that’s why the Internet invented liveblogs. Instead, I want to explore – as best as I can without actually having had the pleasure of playing it – the phenomenon of LittleBigPlanet and how it’s been received as such a truly amazing and well-implemented experiment in community interaction and creativity.

When I first heard of this game, it was back when I had a bit more free time on my hands, and I was dead set on buying it on day one. I’m a creative person – in fact, I’m an art student studying new media. This game practically has my name written on it – it’s all about web (or community) 2.0 and genuine creativity. Players can create their own levels and share with the larger community of users – so gamers are free to dabble in the creative side, or simply sample from the plethora of levels/game styles/experiments that other gamers have created. Even this early in the game’s life (it’s only been out a few weeks now) there have been some fantastic creations that go far beyond the platformer genre (music videos, murder mystery novels, you name it).

It intrigues me on so many levels – first, as an artsy, creative person – what could I do with these kinds of tools? What sort of fun or wacky, or even serious expression could I create? I imagined making levels or presentations based on dreams I’ve had, and even some mild political commentary – I pictured myself making levels based on the minds of world leaders, poking fun at some of their policies. The whole “endless possibilities” things seriously intrigued me, and it still does.

Secondly, the ability to explore – almost literally - the minds and creativity of thousands of people across the globe sounds like a particularly gleeful experience. It’s pseudo-academic (there are so many implications for the study of online communities, cultural comparisons, etc.), but mostly, it just sounds like a ton of fun. Sure, there’s a lot of crap out there, but there’re also plenty of seriously amazing gems. Again, the jealousy tingles.

What’s so amazing about the community interaction is the depth of possibility. I think this is the first medium since YouTube that such a widespread, democratizing tool has been made available to the public. It’s actually very analogous to YouTube or the entire phenomena of cheap, accessible home video – this is a media that was once relegated entirely to professionals (like TV and film and broadcast media) that’s now been opened up to anyone with creative drive and curiosity. Of course, the price of a PS3 and the game is prohibitive to lower-income people, but the same can be said of a video camera and computer – it’s still a very low barrier compared to the previous model.