PS3 Home: I'd Rather Be Homeless
You open Home, still having to look at that sad blue icon reading "Beta" on it. Then after an annoying amount of loading you enter your character customization, which might be the only fun part of the entire experience. You create a character that most closely represents you, or is as far from the truth as possible. You start out with a very limited amount of clothes and then you are released into your little home. Your house is barren, with really nothing to get you going. You leave the house to go to the mall to maybe grab some things. After another lengthy loading process, you are in the mall, littered with random players, clearly searching for something entertaining to do. You check out some of the stores, only to find their wares limited, and costly. One could spend $100 without breaking a sweat to make your house and yourself presentable. Why not give us a few freebies? How much is a digital sofa or T-shirt really going to cost you if you give it out for free? Instead, you say forget the superfluous stuff, let me get to the real point of this...game isn't the right term...application? Go out into the main square, or the movie theater, or the bowling alley, or the few game specific rooms that are available, you are sure to be disappointed. There is simply nothing to do. There is no reward for "playing". The new Sodium Space is a step forward, but it is nowhere near enough to make Home worth even mentioning.
To me, the keys to Homes success are few, simple, but endlessly important. First, a trophy rewards system must be introduced. And second, the relationship between, game, Home, and player, must be much more pronounced. The trophies were originally intended to be just that, a way for players to transfer their in-game skill, to a central location where their efforts would be recognized. A trophy room would encourage people to spruce up their houses to make them more appealing to friends just so they can show of their accomplishments. But, more so than having their feats noticed, players want to be rewarded for the dedication they show to gaming, and Sony. A simple trophy reward system should be introduced to strengthen the tie between gaming and "Homing". It's simple, collect enough trophy points, and earn Home rewards such as credits toward buying items, or exclusive items only obtainable by reaching certain milestones. A bronze trophy can be worth one point, silver can be worth two, gold can be worth 3, and platinum will be worth five points. It's not like adding this will cost Sony much money, its going towards digital sofas and objects, and it will probably make people more inclined to buy games that support trophies.
Overall, Home has been an incredible disappointment. We hardly hear of any upcoming news for it, and what we have right now is nowhere near entertaining. The question is, will Sony ever make an effort to correct the disaster that is Home?
Published by Garbloom
I am currently in school and is interested in making some quick cash doing something I enjoy, writing View profile
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20 Comments
Post a CommentDude...are you ok?How old is this article anyways..
Im here now at Ward of Dispair in Home from the game Siren...wearing the Lab Coat,shoes and pants fron the game...
I won them here...Now I am going to my Mag Sver Barracks and wish you could come shoot some pool with me or darts at one of my cribs...or we could go and play one of those classic arcade Fair games at the Midway.
I do agree..Sony should do more for the Home App.No one will disagree on that one.I still wonder why your so jaded about Home tho...
I'm with the author on this one, Home is turrible. All these PS3 fanboys are bashing the article because it talks smack about one of their precious PS-babies.I have a PS3 but I don't hop on the tip, and you people even talking about his grammar to make a point? Ridiculous.
author is... sixteen or under
Didnt enjoy this article one bit, biased, poorly written and uneducated points. i'd say the author is
Yeah, I got my ps3 a month ago (had xbox for 3 years), went to Home right away thinking - wow this is cool idea. Walked around some time, tried to talk to some people. Tried the same next day or so... and that is it. Never opened it again. And loading time - common, it is 21st century. I do not care if it is free or not. It does not deliver - as simple as that. Kewl idea that was never done right, like if they did not have time to actually finish it up. It creates hype only for first time users (like me), then it's like - hmmm OK, whatever...:-(
Please learn to paragraph properly and use some basic grammar. It felt needlessly complicated and you went off on tangents to get stabs in.
Lame article, biased with no real allocation for discussion or debate (apart from at the journalism skills of the author).
Come on guys, this is a FREE service provided by Sony. If it wasn't there, no one would miss it. I hate it when people bash Sony for experimenting and trying new concepts. I think it's a great idea and with time could develop into something great, but as for now, no one's forcing you to use it so DON'T. Quit bitching, this is way better than that half-assed MS Gameroom. If you don't like it, just go play games, Sony does have the best exclusives so I'm sure no one would REGRET buying a PS3. I, however regret buying TWO 360's though....RROD. I'm still considering if it's worth my money to buy the third.
rawr said we payed for the console and so far we have got nothing out of it so yeah we should be given something back" What do you expect to get? Aren't the games good enough? Or the FREE online service? Blu ray player? WiFi? What extra do you get when you buy a 360?
You people don't seem to realize that the point of this article was to criticize Sony for making empty promises, not to bash Home. If Sony had promised that Home would be like what it is now, I wouldn't be so worked up about it, but because it made so many promises about how groundbreaking it was supposed to be, I had to express my disappointment is how short it falls. I still love my PS3, but Home is a disappointment.
Home is not a game, so the writer is wrong to expect a reward similar to games. There are games in Home, but do we get a reward in real life if we sit down to play someone in a game of chess? Yes, trophies would give Home depth, but we should not demand a reward like points or trophies for everything Playstation-related we do.
Also, new content is released every week. The writer must not pay too much attention if he is not aware of this.
Home is only as social as the people in Home make it. I've never woken up to find a group of people outside my front door asking me to go bowling with them.
Criticize what you pay for, be it personal spaces or costumes. But don't be mad at a free thing for not being all that you want and more.
guys relax! xbox is only like 199 now!