Sorry, everyone. Truth be told, I haven't had much time to spend in Home during the last week. A combination of birthday-related festivities, planning for DICE and some secret activities I hope to share with everyone soon means I've been limited to thinking about Home, rather than being in it.
But as I mulled over what that meant for the column this week, I started combing through the comments avid Home users have left for me. They love Home. But what do they want from it?
Google left the "beta" tag on Gmail for the longest time. When the word "beta" finally came off Gmail, it didn't feel significant. Gmail felt like a complete service for some time, but the "beta" tag let Gmail off the hook for incomplete features. That appears to be the case with Home. Home definitely feels like a work-in-progress, a notion that Sony's own executives recently admitted in an interview about Home.
"Home is a three-dimensional community and environment that isn't possible on the other platforms and wasn't imagined by anyone other than the folks at Sony," said Sony VP of marketing and head of PlayStation Network Petter Dille to IGN when asked about where PlayStation Network's going. "It's grown up in the last couple years, but quite frankly it's still in beta. And we'll take that beta moniker off of it when we think all the functionality that we imagined when we launched the service is there and to the point where we want it to be. But it's still very much something that's evolving as we go."
What does Sony have in mind for what's missing? I decided to look back at Home's origins, digging up the original pitch video for Home that debuted at the Game Developers Conference back in 2007.
"If you've got photos, movies or music stored on your PS3 hard drive, you can share them on virtual screens and virtual stereos."
In concept, Sony announced Netflix viewing parties long before they were possible on Xbox 360 via the "New Xbox Experience." Media sharing has not come to Home, however. When Home was originally announced and Second Life was a bonafied mainstream media circus, the concept of media sharing quickly got myself and others excited. Maybe our Home avatars would look a little goofy, but if we could all get together and re-watch an episode of Lost together through Home, that's pretty attractive.
Unfortunately, the feature seems all but dropped. Wired reported in 2008 that media sharing had been dropped from Home's open beta, but was "looking into" dropping it in someday. Something tells me no, thanks to copyright issues. It's possible it could happen via media downloaded through PSN.
"Even cooler is the ability to meet people in Home and go with them into other PS3 multiplayer games. With this system, Home becomes a huge, 3D worldwide PlayStation 3 matchmaking system, infinitely more exciting than anything on other consoles."
It took some time, but launching into PlayStation 3 games did come to Home. It's the one major features of Home that I haven't had a chance to try yet, but there's a good reason for that: most of my friends play multiplayer games on Xbox 360 simply out of habit. Not much I can do about that one. For avid Home users, however, the feature seems valuable enough that I'm glad Sony followed up on it.
And while I understand Sony's idea behind Home "matchmaking" (theory: hey, you've met someone, that's better than any "data"!), just because you've met and talked with someone about a game in Home doesn't mean you're ready to take them on. Dedicated matchmaking seems more effective.
Home director Jack Buser hinted to HipHopGamer in December about some important announcements to change Home that we could be hearing from Sony throughout 2010. Perhaps these are the features that could end up pushing Home out of open beta. For one, Home will have a new focus on user-generated-content. So far, the content in Home is generated by outside sources or whatever users can do to break the in-game rules of Home. Complaints about shops selling overpriced wares (which still bothers me for a service in "beta") could be avoided if users could start creating their own clothes and furniture, and selling them to other users.
Buser also hinted at what could be the most significant change coming to Home in 2010: the ability for users to interact with Home outside of the service itself. While Buser wouldn't delve into specifics, the implication is Home could start working with external applications. If there was a way for Home to be manipulated through Facebook or something while I'm away from my PlayStation 3, it opens the door to a number of possibilities. Or what if users who entered into Home could enter Facebook and Twitter "spaces"? Hmm.
The biggest reason people won't give Home a second chance is because it requires them to actually boot up Home and find out what's changed. Home left a poor impression on many people (myself included) when it first went into open beta, but if Sony can implement some of these potentially interesting features into Home over the next year and make a big deal about removing the "beta" tag, my guess is most people would be willing to give it another shot. People like a comeback story.
- My Life In Home, Vol. 1 -- Coming Back After A Year Away From Home
- My Life In Home, Vol. 2 -- The Chat Room Theory
- My Life In Home, Vol. 3 -- The Online Magazine Completely Dedicated To Home
Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.
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Comments
Displaying 1–16 of 16
kinghunter64
All I want to know is WHEN THE HELL ARE THEY ADDING THE TROPHY ROOMS?!?
mannychilling
there is still work to be done on home that y its a bata
Conrad_Max
It would be nice if this blog would highlight where it is finding the "profanity" so that I can make changes...
The gist of what I am tring to post is, do participate in some of the games in Home such as poker, bowling and the games of the Uncharted 2 space. Let me be your Guide to Home if you can find the time. Don't think of Home as a game. Think of it as a place to relax after having a hard gaming session. We can launch something together if we have the same PS3 games. Just spend more than a few minutes in Home get to really know it. Ignore those who are being a nuisance and chat with those who are there to have fun and hang out. Home is a place where some of us come to "be" with Family and friends who live in other states. I will certainly make use of it to be with my Wife if I should get deployed overseas. Instead of just limiting myself to just chatting with her, I will be able to "be" with her. Does that make any sense?
Do give Home another try. As posted above, look at it as a place to come down after gaming. Ciao!
Conrad_Max
Wow. I am trying to post a friendly and inviting reply, but the profanity filter won't let me post even though I have no cursing in my message. This post is a test to see if I can get through...
Conrad_Max
Mr. Klepek,
I see that you like to play around. The point I was trying to make was that you did not take the time, nor make the effort, to experience Home. Rather, you just reported what you saw without fully understanding what was going on and the reasons behind it. Look, why don't you write to me and I will give you a full tour of Home? You have access to my email address, don't you? If we share the same game, I will launch with you. Let me be your Guide to Home.
meh_siah
Vol.4??? Why are you doing this to yourself?
Wildcard273
@Oddreighn - I completely agree with you regarding the game queue. How frustrating is it when you wait for a game. If they could just get rid of that, I would enjoy it a lot more. What usually happens is that I get bored and frustrated waiting to try out a game and I turn Home off.
Oddreign
I hope that Sony considers adding a feature to share media via PSN Home as well as to play music stored on your HDD within the confines of your own virtual apartment would be nice.
Fortunately, there are a lot of free stuff (if you know where to look for them?) However, waiting in a queue just to play a mini game is ridiculous! The Siren space is a perfect example of that. I was fortunate enough to be able to enter the Siren mini game twice! Other players in Home weren't very lucky and they've been trying for months on end. I hope that Sony removes the queue because that alone is enough to put off a lot of players using the Home service.
Another issue that Sony has to address are some of the bland and desolate spaces in Home. The fun and interactive elements of Home is extremely lopsided. The first few places you explore the moment you step into the world of Home does its job at evoking a sense of fun and curiosity but other spaces are completely dull and devoid of anything interactive.
I look forward to the improvements on Home this 2010.
vinny87
Home isn't very good but it is a success for Sony. A lot of people love the service and sware by it. When they do improve it watch out.
remgoss
Home without Beta? Sony would not Dare.. How else would they explain the many service errors and bugs with in their program?
Conrad_Max
Mr. Klepek certainly left an impression for Matt731 above. Matt says that he will check out Home the same way Mr. Klepek did. I suppose he will not immerse himself the same way, not become part of the community.
It's been four weeks, and Mr. Klepek still approached Home as an outsider. He didn't at least pretend to be a part of the community. Mr. Klepek had four weeks to actually appear to fit in. An opportunity arose to join in game launching and he let it slip by. A true (undercover) reporter tries to fit in so that he or she looks to be a part of the group. Even if it will be temporary, and people may be manipulated, the reporter will create psuedo friendships and partake in the activities of the group that he or she is investigating.
Mr. Klepek only succeeded in confirming his original beliefs that Home isn't worth it at this time. He has influenced another person to do the samething he did. Hopefully, Matt won't be as fearful to take the step into Home with the hope of becoming a part of the community.
I do hope that through this series of artcles that more people will try to take a better look at Home. To give it a better chance than the reporter. Do understand that there will be long downloading times when initially setting it up and after any of the spaces receive an update or maintenance. But once those are out of the way, the load times will be reduced to a few seconds. Then, pull out your PDA and go and explore all Home spaces. Do so as the explorers of America did it hundreds of years ago. Take chances and learn about the culture. Become a part of it. Don't dismiss it as some of those exporers did with the natives. Remember, those who accepted and learned about the newly discovered cultures brought a whole new world to the rest of us and themselves.
Anyway, thanks for "trying", Mr. Klepek. I doubt that you could have done any better. Be seeing you. Ciao!
Matt731
im saving up for a PS3 right now, and once i get ill probably check it out the same way you are. i probably wont be very interested, but ill give it a shot
Gamelife1
It's really strange you began talking about the beta tag this week. That has been a popular discussion on the Home forums recently.
JustTheBeginning
#1 The load times must improve dramatically
#2 Add TV's and youtube support, or at least us access videos from our HDD.
#3 Speakers to pump some music from our HDD's in our apartments.
Add those and Home could be pretty nice, til then I only pop on once a month to check out all the new stuff on there.
RickAstin
Indeed one of my biggest stumbling blocks with home is all the downloading and waiting to make the transition and such....takes so long to get into it...and once there...there's not much to do aside from doing the robot dance....of course there are some other things to do...but usually those games are full up...or require paying to access the rest of said activity.....
naturally that's not the case for everything in home....but still....
it'd be nice if the home theater would actually stream real movies too...
my biggest issue with home however....I decorated my first two spaces early on...got it how I liked....then when I came back to it...it had all been deleted...and I didn't bother to put it back together again....
I seem to remember them saying we'd actually like hanging out in our apartment spaces....we could get mini-games like the pool table....have tv's to stream our HDD content within said space...and other fun stuff...some of that content is there....but not in our own space....as it is I don't see that many reasons to stick around one of your own spaces aside from enjoying the decorations you've put or looking at that glass case with the batsuit that ye can't wear in said home space...
our trophies were supposed to get counterparts in the home world too if I remember correctly...
-shrugs-
I like home...I think there's a lot of potential...but I think it's not quite there yet...I'd say they should have held off on letting us use it....but they announced it so darned long before that they kind of had no choice but to just put it out there in it's beta form....which while not necessarily the worst thing ever....is fairly frustrating at this point in time....
shmaron
I don't think allowing user-generated content is a good idea until sony starts making money on their consoles. Right now they are solely relying on online purchases and peripherals for profit. I would assume, based on the rediculous prices for digital content on Home, that the "Mall" in Home is a major chash cow for sony at this time. As for the beta tag, I never really payed attention to it, and wouldn't care if they left it on or not. I am upset about not being able to share media through Home. That was a major factor in my interest and when it came out without that feature it broke my heart... *Tear*
Displaying 1–16 of 16