I felt compelled to write this article out of sheer laziness. Laziness and my own inability to let ignorance of others pass by me without stepping in to correct it. So instead of retyping many parts of this article over and over in direct response to various forum posts, I can now simply link them to this article and tell them to read (which they won’t, I know; but I’ll feel better for having tried.)
I actually went so far as to write out an outline for this article in the hopes of not missing anything and frankly, I liked the way it looked, so I’m keeping it in outline form (not to mention it makes it rather easy to go back and update if I miss something.) This is sure to strike up a lot of controversy between various groups. The two biggest groups are the Second-Life/Sims accusers and the Believers/Wait-and-Seers. Let’s get on with it, shall we?
What Home isn’t:
Home isn’t Second Life- People comparing Playstation Home to Second Life are clearly ignorant of the goals of each product. Second Life enables virtually anybody to go in and create virtually anything, and has strong ties to big money sales of virtual real estate. Second Life also has an established history of griefers and sexual content. PS Home is a closed system where not just anybody can create an area and populate it with brothels and engage in cyber sex. Sales in Home have been described as focusing on “premium content” which will range from enhanced apartments (as close of a tie to Second Life’s virtual realty market as you get) to game-themed objects, designer objects, and actual traditional DLC.
Home isn’t The Sims - While the avatars in PS Home allow a decent degree of customization and there are interactive environments, everyone in PS Home is “real”. There’s a real person controlling them and there is no “simulation” going on other than viewing a simulated environment. You’re not “directing” your characters to trend to one behavior or another, you are your character. PS Home is not a game at all, you cannot die… there is no game over, etc.
Home isn’t MySpace- Some people love to generalize the “personalizing your apartment” aspect of PS Home as a 3D MySpace and at least from what’s been shown so far, it couldn’t be further from the case. If the Home Beta included multiple layers of gaudy animated GIFs, javascript effects, mp3s, flashing text, etc. then I would agree. If you really think PS Home deserves a comparison to MySpace, you might as well call the local bar a MySpace clone.
Home isn’t an answer to Xbox Live- This one just dumbfounds me. What exactly is it that PS Home is supposedly bringing to the table that Xbox Live has? Is it in the Achievements/Accomplishments aspect? I only ask because I never equated Achievements to an Xbox Live feature. Either way, just like Xbox Live doesn’t need a 3D virtual world for Achievements, Home isn’t necessary for Sony’s upcoming equivalent either. They’ve actually said on multiple occasions that PS Home will sit on top of of the Playstation Network and it will not be required for any implementation of Accomplishments/Entitlements (depending on the “in” term at the time). Of course you’ll need to enter PS Home if you want to view your Trophy Room but that’s entirely because the Trophy Room is… (wait for it)… a part Playstation Home! The Trophy Room isn’t the Accomplishments implementation, think of it as an enhanced way to view your accomplishments. You will also be able to track them without going into PS Home.
Home isn’t “Achievements”- Much like I mentioned above, PS Home is not synonymous with “Achievements” but an additional application layer that can be run on top of the Playstation Network that will be able to leverage your Accomplishments in a virtual 3D world. How do you view your Achievements on the 360 right now? You look at your profile and pull up a list of your games, then you can tunnel down into a specific game to see which Achievements you’ve earned and (possibly) which ones you haven’t. That same process could easily be handled from the XMB by going to your profile, pressing Triangle, choosing “View Accomplishments”, being presented with a list of games you have Accomplishments in, choosing a game, and see which Accomplishments you’ve earned. Bingo. You’ve just looked at Accomplishments on the PS3 without entering Home. I’m sure it will be implemented at least as slickly as that if not more-so.
Home isn’t online multiplayer- This is another sticky point for a lot of folks. Thinking that you’ll have to use PS Home for multiplayer gaming. You don’t, and you won’t have to… but I’d be willing to bet a lot of us will want to. Take Sarcastic Gamer’s Gaming night for example. We arrange it in the Sarcastic Gamer forums and arrange to show up at a certain time to play a certain game. If you don’t have that game, then you don’t play. There’s usually no “backup plan” in place. Occasionally there is, but not always. So when the time comes, you all meet and play the game as planned, joining the game as you log on. Now look at how it can be different with PS Home. Instead of only drawing in the folks that have that game and want to play at that time, you can simply say Sarcastic Gamer Game Night, Friday 8:00 at Rothbart’s place. Ten or fifteen minutes early, I make sure I’m there to host the event so people can show up. As they show up, we can chat about our day, discuss the latest podcast or gaming news, etc. Dark Sora can then “create a game” which allows him to define a multiplayer gaming instance. Say he sets up say Warhawk as a 32-player match and reserves 16 slots for friends. As people arrive and want to play, they “join” his game (but he hasn’t launched it yet). When the time comes, he launches the game and everyone wanting to play goes off onto the game, to return when the session is over. The folks that weren’t playing are all still present. They can opt to launch into a different game, chat, view media I have playing on a virtual stereo or TV, and generally just socialize. After a while has passed, all the Warhawk guys show up again and we’ve got a crowd of folks. Someone can suggest another game and it all starts again.How this isn’t seen as a more robust way of gaming is beyond me. You can still manually launch Warhawk and search for a server just like you always could, but for a bunch of guys like us, boasting how much we like the “community atmosphere” of something like SarcasticGamer.com, this is the logical next step for taking our community online and directly into the games we play. I predict that after this is out, gets the kinks ironed out and gets enhanced some that it’s going to be huge. For the record, the only part of the above scenario that’s “imagined” (other than Dark Sora being able to host a 32-player match, because he can’t) is the audio/video sharing which we’ve seen in videos and have been told is coming. The game instance creation and launching is in the beta, right now.
Home isn’t required - This one’s cut and dry. Unless you’re looking for a feature directly tied to the 3D virtual world, you can likely skip PS Home completely. I imagine it will start (especially in the open beta) as an XMB application but it will be stubbed out just like Folding@home to be an actual entry on the XMB. But just like Folding@home, participation is optional.
Home isn’t something to be mocked - If you try it and genuinely don’t like it, great.. ignore it. But if you’re otherwise ignorant as to what it is, it’s probably best (for you and your reputation) to stop, wait, and see. The world wide web sounded like a pretty goofy idea at first and now many can’t go a day without it. PS Home has every potential to redefine where and how a large chunk of gamers get their gaming news, media, and content.
I actually went so far as to write out an outline for this article in the hopes of not missing anything and frankly, I liked the way it looked, so I’m keeping it in outline form (not to mention it makes it rather easy to go back and update if I miss something.) This is sure to strike up a lot of controversy between various groups. The two biggest groups are the Second-Life/Sims accusers and the Believers/Wait-and-Seers. Let’s get on with it, shall we?
What Home isn’t:
Home isn’t Second Life- People comparing Playstation Home to Second Life are clearly ignorant of the goals of each product. Second Life enables virtually anybody to go in and create virtually anything, and has strong ties to big money sales of virtual real estate. Second Life also has an established history of griefers and sexual content. PS Home is a closed system where not just anybody can create an area and populate it with brothels and engage in cyber sex. Sales in Home have been described as focusing on “premium content” which will range from enhanced apartments (as close of a tie to Second Life’s virtual realty market as you get) to game-themed objects, designer objects, and actual traditional DLC.
Home isn’t The Sims - While the avatars in PS Home allow a decent degree of customization and there are interactive environments, everyone in PS Home is “real”. There’s a real person controlling them and there is no “simulation” going on other than viewing a simulated environment. You’re not “directing” your characters to trend to one behavior or another, you are your character. PS Home is not a game at all, you cannot die… there is no game over, etc.
Home isn’t MySpace- Some people love to generalize the “personalizing your apartment” aspect of PS Home as a 3D MySpace and at least from what’s been shown so far, it couldn’t be further from the case. If the Home Beta included multiple layers of gaudy animated GIFs, javascript effects, mp3s, flashing text, etc. then I would agree. If you really think PS Home deserves a comparison to MySpace, you might as well call the local bar a MySpace clone.
Home isn’t an answer to Xbox Live- This one just dumbfounds me. What exactly is it that PS Home is supposedly bringing to the table that Xbox Live has? Is it in the Achievements/Accomplishments aspect? I only ask because I never equated Achievements to an Xbox Live feature. Either way, just like Xbox Live doesn’t need a 3D virtual world for Achievements, Home isn’t necessary for Sony’s upcoming equivalent either. They’ve actually said on multiple occasions that PS Home will sit on top of of the Playstation Network and it will not be required for any implementation of Accomplishments/Entitlements (depending on the “in” term at the time). Of course you’ll need to enter PS Home if you want to view your Trophy Room but that’s entirely because the Trophy Room is… (wait for it)… a part Playstation Home! The Trophy Room isn’t the Accomplishments implementation, think of it as an enhanced way to view your accomplishments. You will also be able to track them without going into PS Home.
Home isn’t “Achievements”- Much like I mentioned above, PS Home is not synonymous with “Achievements” but an additional application layer that can be run on top of the Playstation Network that will be able to leverage your Accomplishments in a virtual 3D world. How do you view your Achievements on the 360 right now? You look at your profile and pull up a list of your games, then you can tunnel down into a specific game to see which Achievements you’ve earned and (possibly) which ones you haven’t. That same process could easily be handled from the XMB by going to your profile, pressing Triangle, choosing “View Accomplishments”, being presented with a list of games you have Accomplishments in, choosing a game, and see which Accomplishments you’ve earned. Bingo. You’ve just looked at Accomplishments on the PS3 without entering Home. I’m sure it will be implemented at least as slickly as that if not more-so.
Home isn’t online multiplayer- This is another sticky point for a lot of folks. Thinking that you’ll have to use PS Home for multiplayer gaming. You don’t, and you won’t have to… but I’d be willing to bet a lot of us will want to. Take Sarcastic Gamer’s Gaming night for example. We arrange it in the Sarcastic Gamer forums and arrange to show up at a certain time to play a certain game. If you don’t have that game, then you don’t play. There’s usually no “backup plan” in place. Occasionally there is, but not always. So when the time comes, you all meet and play the game as planned, joining the game as you log on. Now look at how it can be different with PS Home. Instead of only drawing in the folks that have that game and want to play at that time, you can simply say Sarcastic Gamer Game Night, Friday 8:00 at Rothbart’s place. Ten or fifteen minutes early, I make sure I’m there to host the event so people can show up. As they show up, we can chat about our day, discuss the latest podcast or gaming news, etc. Dark Sora can then “create a game” which allows him to define a multiplayer gaming instance. Say he sets up say Warhawk as a 32-player match and reserves 16 slots for friends. As people arrive and want to play, they “join” his game (but he hasn’t launched it yet). When the time comes, he launches the game and everyone wanting to play goes off onto the game, to return when the session is over. The folks that weren’t playing are all still present. They can opt to launch into a different game, chat, view media I have playing on a virtual stereo or TV, and generally just socialize. After a while has passed, all the Warhawk guys show up again and we’ve got a crowd of folks. Someone can suggest another game and it all starts again.How this isn’t seen as a more robust way of gaming is beyond me. You can still manually launch Warhawk and search for a server just like you always could, but for a bunch of guys like us, boasting how much we like the “community atmosphere” of something like SarcasticGamer.com, this is the logical next step for taking our community online and directly into the games we play. I predict that after this is out, gets the kinks ironed out and gets enhanced some that it’s going to be huge. For the record, the only part of the above scenario that’s “imagined” (other than Dark Sora being able to host a 32-player match, because he can’t) is the audio/video sharing which we’ve seen in videos and have been told is coming. The game instance creation and launching is in the beta, right now.
Home isn’t required - This one’s cut and dry. Unless you’re looking for a feature directly tied to the 3D virtual world, you can likely skip PS Home completely. I imagine it will start (especially in the open beta) as an XMB application but it will be stubbed out just like Folding@home to be an actual entry on the XMB. But just like Folding@home, participation is optional.
Home isn’t something to be mocked - If you try it and genuinely don’t like it, great.. ignore it. But if you’re otherwise ignorant as to what it is, it’s probably best (for you and your reputation) to stop, wait, and see. The world wide web sounded like a pretty goofy idea at first and now many can’t go a day without it. PS Home has every potential to redefine where and how a large chunk of gamers get their gaming news, media, and content.
Home is free- While people are quick to point out that PSN online multiplayer is free (and will reportedly stay free), they seem to directly associate the previously mentioned “premium content” as being an indicator of the downfall of PS Home from nickel and diming. I wonder if these same people are aware of the 100 MS point GamerPics that are sold all the time on Xbox Live Marketplace. Core features will be free in PS Home, if you care enough to want to customize your apartment or avatar with premium content, then frankly, you are the target audience of said premium content. Maybe it’s a semantics thing, I don’t know. Either happily ignore it or happily partake. I don’t see how Home is proof positive of anything being a money pit because frankly I don’t spend money on stuff I don’t think is worthy.
Home is an area that fosters socialization BEFORE and AFTER the game- Plain and simple, no other gaming platform (including PC I would argue; although I’m sure some Steam fans would argue otherwise) gives gamers with common interests the ability to socialize with each other before, during, and after the game than Playstation Home will once it’s launched. Sure, the Playstation Network itself should have launched with almost all of these features back in November ‘06, but it didn’t. We can’t change that… but it doesn’t mean Sony can’t. It also doesn’t mean that in the process of fixing the glaring feature omissions that they can’t actually innovate a little along the way.
Home is a destination for like-minded folks to “hang out” - If all the planets align perfectly upon Home’s launch, it could potentially be a destination for gamers in and of itself, much like web forums or chat rooms are now.
Home is a component that can help take other communities online together - Being able to meet together in a media rich environment that isn’t “the Gears lobby” is a big boon. The barrier being ownership of a PS3, but that barrier is lowering over time. The fact that you can chat and interact outside the boundaries of a specific game is what I think will make the difference.
Home is a new “virtual” layer that can be seen as the next step beyond chat, web, forums, etc. - This bullet point just reiterates how very, very easily all existing forms of media can be integrated into PS Home. The PS3 already supports downloading images, video, and audio to the PS3’s hard drive or USB connected storage, it can already stream video, view web pages, and download games/applications. As smart companies concentrate their efforts and funnel all their “shotgun” media into a more “sniper-like” deliver system, they may find it worth their while to target their customers directly on the very platform itself versus taking risks on print and web ads trying to get folks to come to their web site.
Home is something you can personalize with your own media to share with other folks- Short of MySpace, there really isn’t an easily customizable “environment” that you can make your own. A subset of Home’s users will really run with this. I expect the unexpected. When I look at a virtual apartment and the furniture available, I automatically think of furnishing it in a rather realistic way. I expect to see some hilarious interior decorating skills at work, be it homages to gaming classics, exercises in absurdity, or Lono’s Love Lair. It will be interesting.
Home is a way to view your “Accomplishments” as trophies if that’s your preference - The trophy room will be big with some folks. Face it, Achievements and Gamerscore proved that people want to show off what they’ve done. If the PS3 developers do this right, having unique 3D trophies to show off (especially rare or hard to earn ones) will fuel an entire subculture of measuring contests.
Home is a new way for companies to present their products, services, and brands to you - This is one of the areas I’m the most excited about that many of you may actually be fearing. In March 2007, when Phil Harrison showed the Home presentation at GDC, their idea of corporate themed areas or hubs is going to be one of the biggest draws of the entire Home experience I’m betting. Take all the people that aren’t interested in personalizing apartments or avatars in 3D and give them specific-game themed areas with “only available there” media and information and you’ve got an insta-draw for gaming enthusiasts. Kotaku has already covered rumored Home implementations for Warhawk, Uncharted, and Resistance. People are going to sh*t bricks if they get teased with little snippets of upcoming games from within Home. Imagine going to the Resistance area of Home which is rumored to be like a city block from the game and you are able to go through a door and get a sneak peek (be it video, a web page, an actual level or model from the game) of Resistance 2. Tell me people wouldn’t flock to something like that.Working on the Resistance example, Insomniac Games has one of the best gaming company produced podcasts out in the Full Moon Show. Instead of going to their web site, and listening to the podcast and occasionally going back to check out the supplementary links they always provide (images, videos, URLs, etc). Imagine going into their media room and as you’re listening to the podcast you can view the images and/or models in realtime in 3D in a game-themed area. That would be the equivalent of digital crack to a lot of folks. The corporate offerings will offer some really cool things, I’m quite sure of it. I’m also equally sure we’ll get the occasional Horse Armor offer or two from some companies as well, if you know what I mean.
Home can be a replacement for the web as we know it for gaming info and media (brand specific of course)- I think I’ve made this point pretty clear in earlier sections, but it has the potential to not only match, but surpass traditional methods of delivery for some content. The biggest “real” barrier is the fact that multiplatform developers are likely to embrace this less (at least at first) than the first party and/or PS3 exclusive developers.
Home can be the first real implementation of “themed brand destinations”. A place to visit everything related to a brand in rich multimedia via a closed and controllable environment - We really have nothing to compare this to other than web sites which are diluted with so much garbage it’s pathetic. I liken the possibility to a kid in a candy store. If you can make a Home destination that’s about something I like, that looks like something I like, and is only focused on something I like… chances are, I’m going to like it.
Home can be one of those things that sounds a little silly at first (cameras in cell phones, rumble in controllers, etc.) that we end up accepting and expecting in the long run- Time will tell. There are clearly legions of folks (mainly 360 proponents) already exercising their pointing (and mocking) fingers. Honestly, I predict the actual launch of Home to be ho-hum or even disappointing. What I don’t predict is that Sony’s prepared to let this fail. They’ve pushed it back multiple times to make sure it’s “right” when it launches and they’ve experienced a huge win recently by not giving up on Blu-ray. If the departure of Phil Harrison doesn’t affect Home’s chances at all, I think it’s almost an assured success, the real question is actually when it will be considered a success.
Home can be one of the biggest areas Sony will actually innovate this generation- Remember, Xbox Live wasn’t that impressive when it first got started and you have to start somewhere. Nobody has anything remotely comparable in the works. There are a few PC offerings, but PCs have so many other barriers to widespread adoption that it’s not even worth of comparing it to the closed, like-hardware system Sony’s trying to set up with Home. For the folks growing tired of accusing Sony of copying this from Microsoft and that from Nintendo, this is your time to… frankly… shut up. This is genuine innovation in progress. The least we can do is give them the benefit of the doubt and let the thing actually be completed and launch before we nay-say it to death. I laughed at Guitar Hero before I actually played it. I laughed at Singstar and Rock Band before I played them. I made fun of people that hang out in web forums, until I actually got to know how these communities can be valuable, fun, and addictive. Do you see where I’m going with this?
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