214: Home Alone

[j0z]

Wow... my experiences with Home have never been that bad. The only time I played it for any length of time was when I powered through the entire Xi game like the day before it stopped.
I have logged on periodically to see if they have added anymore (free) content. No luck this far.
BTW, you press "triangle" to talk.

 

[JPLC]

Not responding to other people nets a cold reception. Gee, I bet nobody could have seen that coming.

Exactly what I was thinking.

Home, like chat rooms and the like, are about what you put into it. Sure, people can be dicks, but that's not the entirety of the situation.

 

[MorkFromOrk]

Just like any online social atmosphere, in Playstation Home you are going to have a lot of douchebags dragging their knuckles whilst sprouting hate and general immaturity. Not to mention the sexual harassment of female avatars. however I have made a few Bowling buddies. If only they'd allow for bowling teams and leagues...

 

[Therumancer]

Yes, well. That's pretty much what I expected. I had high expectations of Home when I first heard about it, but I lost interest. I haven't even logged in except to see if I got my inFamous costume from beating the demo.

I'd imagine that to use Home properly you'd have to get one of those micro-keyboard attachments to talk to people properly. Then, really if I just want to chatter I can just do it through an MMO or message boards like this one with the same amount of effort. Over a period of time they might expand it into something worthwhile, but I don't think Sony really had the guts to do it.

Originally I believe Home was supposed to be a lot like Second Life with user generated content, but they decided to scrap that idea. I remember hearing it described as "like second life but without the naked people in the sky" but to do that would require a level of active regulation and content review that they probably didn't want to go through. Besides, how do you sell content if people can make it themselves?

Also ironically, while I never did Second Life, it was the sex dungeons and such that actually gave it personality. Free expression at it's finest (and most disturbing) when you get down to it. While there was plenty for sites like Something Awful to mock, I also saw some things posted here and there that were truely inspiring, I also thought the whole "Destroy TV" concept was pretty original and see some potential for that technology to be used in MMORPGs and such to an extent. Truthfully if I ever hit a lottery jackpot and try and fund my own MMORPG I'd definatly be interested in trying to get ahold of these people and perhaps buy their code. Of course a MMORPG would be second on my list after the "Horror Movie Sandbox Game" I have mentioned wanting to make before.

As far as homophobia, misogynism, and other things all I can say is that at least they have free speech. Mixed opinions on the subject matter aside, it does seem like it hasn't been forcibly morphed into another sterile, politically correct enviroment.

 

[sneakysnake128]

Home was a mistake that never should have been conceived in the first place.

 

[Obimat]

as somewhat of a recluse, i thought what a great idea of having somewhere to go and chat to people from around the world without leaving the comfort of your own home..... shows how much i know.

during my annoying not quite a walk and not quite a run travels in home i've been verbally abused, threatened, teased and have recieved personal messages from people i don't even know abusing, threatening and teasing me. now i'm not crying or whinging about it, i just took it on the chin (probably not as big as john tesh's chin), put them on my block list and got on with the task at hand, wandering aimlessly around a virtual world that was becoming less and less enjoyable.

the only shining glorious moment of playstation home was the extremely rare occasion someone was decent enough to enter into a civil conversation and this person is now a friend i communicate with regularly. i think this is really the only reason i haven't deleted all traces of home from my ps3 is maybe, just maybe, one day someone else will have the vocabulary to say more that f**k off, f**k you or any other abusive term under the sun.

granted, everyone has different opinions on this subject, some people love it, some people hate it and others just don't really give a damn either way. but one thing is certain, my extremely low expectations of some people have served me well as when they are true to form and behave like total a**holes, i'm rarely surprised.

 

[whaleswiththumbs]

*claps*

I got twp feelings from this article

One is really deep, talking about society and stuff, but I had that feeling before this just reinforced it alittle.

My second is that most, if not all Playstation/Sony Boys/girls(You know who I'm talking about, a Playstation paraphernalia, TV and maybe a laptop/computer are all they have in their "game room", they are all assholes. I also had this feeling before, but I'm always willing to spread my opinipns on wretched Sony.

 

[FROGGEman2]

wow, tht suks... i always had the impression the the Home crowd was mature!

EDIT

Argh, right! I'm on The Escapist!

*Turns grammar and spelling on*

Wow... that's really crap... gee, I was always under the impression that the Home crowd was mature!

Sorry about the grammar and spelling... one has to talk shit to impress the VT forums.

 

[ThisNewGuy]

Home would be infinitely better if every game can launch in it, but since it can't, it's just a virtual e-harmony with all guys and kids.

 

[HentMas]

*SQUIRT*

hahahahAHAHAHHAHAHA

okok, you have to admit that "looked" soooo funny

i had never found anyone having Cyber in any place on the internet (althought once i recieved a PM in a chat from a dude describing how he was going to pull my pantyes with his mouth and saying "woops, wrong user, sorry")

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

DELETED

 

[JackiJinx]

Really? You let a few people get to you like that and just give up? You are not a true gamer, my friend. Never let adversary stand in the way of the game. Dominate it...kinda like that guy was to that girl. Except less sexy.

 

[ratchet573]

That's the problem with games that allow you to hide behind a pixelated avatar; they are full of idiots. Because you are not speaking to a person face to face, because you are talking avatar to avatar, because there are no repercussions to speaking to the ugly avatar over there.

I find this happening in online role playing games a lot. People think that they can act like a "Homie" or a "G" because they are hiding and not showing their face. But little do they understand that not many "G's" could be found playing Runescape.

I was really disgusted when you talked about the sex going on behind you. I have seen people do this all over, whether it be World of Warcraft, Runescape, or even XboxLive. It doesn't matter if that "sexy" girl could be a fat fourty year old man who, as you pointed out, can't get a picture of "herself". Most fourteen year old boys, I have found, would rather let their penis's think for them. Which, being a fifteen year old boy, makes me wonder if I am growing up in the wrong generation.

I do wish you the best of luck with Home. I laughed throughout the article because I was talking about the idiots on Xbox Live on Gamespot and people were telling me that's the difference between the PS3 and the Xbox was the fact that people were better. I will post a link to this article for those people who actually think that.

Cheerio,
Ratchet

 

[poleboy]

I'm sorry if that was not the intention, but your article made me laugh my ass off. It was so sad and disturbing, but infinitely funny as well. Thanks for making my day.

 

[Franklin86]

Lol, your article is hilarious.

I've always hated these online social networking things, isn't it just a way of avoiding the awkwardness that could arise with real socialising, but then I guess you could say the same thing about MSN and Facebook ... meh

 

[nametakentwice]

I have looked at Home a bit. I imagine it could be neat to meet previously met friends in there to start a game, but I'm not one to easily start talking to random avatars in a not-directly-game-based setting (as opposed to WoW where you can form guilds and work together).

However, I agree with the point 'civver' made. Netiquette would indicate that if someone in Home starts talking to you, and blunt_killa7329 seemed friendly enough at the start, a response would be appropriate. Or at least moving on quickly as opposed to just standing there, which the author seems to have done repeatedly to various people for an hour, despite a stated intention to play a specific arcade game. And, looking back over the article, I wonder how going into an online service to play a single player game and avoid interaction with people would help the loneliness the author notes he is suffering at the start of the article significantly more than playing a single player game outside of Home. It would seem like a more appropriate solution, for example, would be to play Warhawk, wherein you have teammates and enemies and can find some sort of interaction even if you do not use voice communication.

With regards to Home, it should be noted that the PS3 lets you hook up a USB keyboard, so that you can properly type to people if you desire. There are also settings in Home, if I recall correctly, to turn off chat broadcast to the room from other users so that you don't have to see it all, thus preventing interruption of the arcade game (though the couple should have been private messaging).

I would like to see the single player content in Home have an option to become your avatar's only focus. It would be great if the theatre would let you launch a screen that let you choose trailers to watch (and bandwidth to watch them at), and let you focus solely on the trailer, rather than watching from within the room where there are avatars walking around randomly. The author probably would have been happy if the arcade had functioned in such a fashion, filling the screen and automatically blocking talk from the room.

 

[Hiroshi Mishima]

I can say without a doubt that this meets me entire expectation of what Home would end up being like. I'd used Second Life for a couple years when they announced Home and as Jon mentioned in the beginning, it's pretty much just Second Life minus a lot of the user-made content. However, it's also apparently without some of the rules and freedoms. If someone is pestering you in Second Life, you can mute them, report them, yell at them as easilly as pushing the enter key, I think...

Sounds like Home is pretty... well, limited in allowing you any real freedom. Home, indeed.

 

[zahr]

Your story, paired with the character's picture in the background, made me rather sad >_>

Anyways, I tend to play most multiplayer games singleplayer these days.

In Guild Wars, for example, I play with AI teammates, instead of a human group. In towns I just stand around, use whatever service NPCs I need, and then leave. Of course, I play a Ritualist, and no one wants a Ritualist on their team, so I treated it as a singleplayer game very early on. Play a Ritualist (or a Mesmer) and you're down for a lot of rejection. (Admittedly the spirit update changed this for us somewhat, but it's still largely the case.)

In Age of Conan, I played in a PvP server, didn't chat with people, just found lone players and ganked them (ah, the good old days of Reanimation Necromancers).

I tried Second Life and couldn't even stand it.

For me, the problem with multiplayer is the other players.

 

[Blackadder51]

This sounds exactly like Home

I hate it.