?Home? is a real-time 3D, networked community that serves as a meeting place for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3?) users from around the world, where they can interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share content and even build and show off their own personal spaces. Home will be available as a free download from the PLAYSTATION®Store and will launch directly from the PS3 XMB? (Xross Media Bar).? This is an official statement from a Sony Third Party Relations Q&A. Here is what gamers have been waiting for since it was announce March 7, 2007 at the General Developers Conference (G.D.C). But the service continued to be a mystery as it entered into a closed beta phase. No knew information was released about the service until it was launch in December 2008. Potential tends to be the word video game journalists use to describe it. However to comprehend it one must experience the service. A person can not compare this service to a game; it is more comparably a third-dimensional rendition of a Face Book or Live Journal. Home is unique; it is a place for people to meet each other on the console. Other then playing a game or knowing the person in the real world there was not a place on console that let people meet and know the people that game however Home is that place. The purpose of the service is on a whole lost to video game critics. The average individual dose not have twenty close people that like to game and of the those people that are close it is a rare accordance that they have the same like in games. So the need to make online friend exist for this reason and so dose the service. Home is an application with a history rooted in the ideals of social networking that can potentially lead to innovation, however at the present stat any experience is determined by the individual.
In resent years a phenomenon occurred to the internet, as more people went online they began to socialize threw the network. This movement gained steam in the late 90?s early 00?s with the launch of Face Book and Live Journal. At the same time console also began to go online. Each of the pervious generation of console had a modem and a primitive online service. The original X-box online service saw the most use due to its killer app Halo 2, thousands flooded to the console for a chance to beat random strangers. We see an evolution with this service as its latest incarnation X-box LIVE. The need to socialize online can be consider the main reason why the X-box incarnation the X-box 360 was accepted by gamers during and from its launch. The Playstation 2 had more of a ?hardcore? fallowing online with its killer app the S.O.C.O.M series. As a result the Playstation Network came about. In the public eye the Playstation brand and its services became ?hardcore? meant only for ?core? gamers. For this reason the Playstation 3 was not as well accepted as its rival. Mid-way of the Playstation 2 life Sony began work on a more casual online service known as HUB. The service was not completed in time before the Playstation 3 was launched; Phil Harrison the then leader of Sony Computer Entertainment knew of the service and began to port the project for the Playstation 3. The project was kept under wraps with a new name Home.
When it was finally announced at the G.D.C by Phil Harrison there was a bit of an uproar. Many thought this service to be the Sony response to the success of LIVE. It was new, no one knew what to make of it, and more importantly it looked fun. The entire Sony presentation at G.D.C was base around user generated content; LittleBigPlanet and Warhawk were announced along with Home. What sold people on the idea of having a network base around user generated content was Phil Harrisons? Keynote speech. He indulged with the potential of the Playstation 3, the games and Home. "We expect it will be not just about Sony content, not just about game content, but a much wider network," Harrison said. "Over time we expect it to expand to non-game brands as well, so you could imagine going to visit a space that might be provided by a famous beverage company or a cool clothing company or a record company, or even a retailer, or a magazine or a website. So we think this is a very powerful way to bring community not just to games, but to other forms of lifestyle and entertainment - all built around PlayStation 3." The Home he showed allowed users to play music, videos and show people pictures in ones own virtual apartment, it also had a trophy room with animated figures in glass cases it was something to show friends how much of a gaming nerd one was. Since he left Sony, Home went through some changes many restricting users on what they could do with their virtual space. This became a bit of a disappointment when the service launched. The changes to Home was to be expected as giving people so much freedom tends to lead to tomfoolery. At launch the service is basic but it grows, any changes are direct responses to the community wants. Soon maybe the Home Phil Harrison promised will come true.
The potential of the service is that which can lead to innovation. To attach face to a name is a powerful thing; it gives the name and the person behind it, a sense of present that validates their existence. Home and its avatars can be compared to the NXE and its avatars. Both provide a new means of interaction with the online, now the friends list became more then just names on the list. However Home transcends to a plane beyond the Nintendo mii clone. By giving people the means of socializing using the avatars it has made the friends list to a list of people that are friends. The Home avatars can play games but are not used in games. Just as important as the avatars are the virtual apartments. By giving a person ownership of a space, virtual or not, that person becomes invested in that space. It becomes another means of expressing oneself. To truly know a person one must see the place that person occupies. Now the gaming cultural is important to gamers but the typical gamer dose not have the means of attending a major event like E3 or PAX. With the ability to create and occupy a virtual space, Home can be used to provide a means for the typical gamer to attend a PAX be it a virtual one. In this the service is potentially innovative; it can bring people close and bring the community closer.
In an apparent trend of online services, Home had a rocky start with problems raging from connection issues to random logouts. This is to be expected with any online service, from games of the likes of Little Big Planet to Teamfortes 2, even service providers are and were unrecognizable at lunch such as Values Steam to Microsoft LIVE. However after several attempts accesses to Home was finally granted the day fallowing the service public launch. In the warm glow radiating from the monitor as the service connects to a server the old feeling of starting a new adventure game set in only to be shattered by the lifeless visuals of a human as it comes in to focus. This in fact is the beginning of a truly deep character editor, shaping the character can be difficult at first due to the fact that there are so many options and possibly. Not just choosing a face but in fact creating one. It can be compared with molding clay. When sculpting a face in clay it is easily to create the key and basic features such as the brow or shape of a chin and like clay it is in the minute details that the face begins to resemble a person. Once satisfied it is time to venture forth into the virtual apartment. The place is occupied with a fairly stander living room set; one long sofa a short sofa and an arm chair arranged around an empty table. The walls are bare, the hard wood floor is polished by many steps and a sky line lets the mid day sun bleed though giving everything a bleached clean look. There is a porch with the view of the docks and due to the apartment elevation the curve of the horizon is clearly visible. Not a sole can be found on the streets below the only the sound of the ocean waves as they sleepily crash with the shore is heard. The tutorial takes place hare but is optional. The option of customizing the apartment is also available; this process is quite easy and enjoyable. The main focus of home is socializing, which most of it takes place in the central plaza.
Now this is enjoyable to the extent that it is allowed by the user. If one has no need for making online friends the service leads to boredom but when interactions and conversations take place it quickly becomes enjoyable. There are more places other than the apartment or the plaza, there are movie theaters, bowling allies, malls, game spaces, the plane race tracks, with more soon becoming available. Each place is riddled with easter eggs as well as mini-games and tend to reward the gamer. The service is still in infancy but a standard is being set as to what having online friends mean. It is a travesty that the serves is restricted to only one console. People tend to assign a value to their console of choice and will try to reprimand anything that is remotely different. So the services found on one console are ridiculed by people who own the other no matter how grate or innovative it is. It is a travesty that peoples are jade to it for this fact. This type of service needs to be demanded by every gamer.
http://www.scedev.net/home/Third%20Party%20Relations%20Q%26A.pdf
http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2008/12/15/playstation-home-first-impressions/
www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88070-Microsoft-Calls-PlayStation-Home-Outdated-Tech
In resent years a phenomenon occurred to the internet, as more people went online they began to socialize threw the network. This movement gained steam in the late 90?s early 00?s with the launch of Face Book and Live Journal. At the same time console also began to go online. Each of the pervious generation of console had a modem and a primitive online service. The original X-box online service saw the most use due to its killer app Halo 2, thousands flooded to the console for a chance to beat random strangers. We see an evolution with this service as its latest incarnation X-box LIVE. The need to socialize online can be consider the main reason why the X-box incarnation the X-box 360 was accepted by gamers during and from its launch. The Playstation 2 had more of a ?hardcore? fallowing online with its killer app the S.O.C.O.M series. As a result the Playstation Network came about. In the public eye the Playstation brand and its services became ?hardcore? meant only for ?core? gamers. For this reason the Playstation 3 was not as well accepted as its rival. Mid-way of the Playstation 2 life Sony began work on a more casual online service known as HUB. The service was not completed in time before the Playstation 3 was launched; Phil Harrison the then leader of Sony Computer Entertainment knew of the service and began to port the project for the Playstation 3. The project was kept under wraps with a new name Home.
When it was finally announced at the G.D.C by Phil Harrison there was a bit of an uproar. Many thought this service to be the Sony response to the success of LIVE. It was new, no one knew what to make of it, and more importantly it looked fun. The entire Sony presentation at G.D.C was base around user generated content; LittleBigPlanet and Warhawk were announced along with Home. What sold people on the idea of having a network base around user generated content was Phil Harrisons? Keynote speech. He indulged with the potential of the Playstation 3, the games and Home. "We expect it will be not just about Sony content, not just about game content, but a much wider network," Harrison said. "Over time we expect it to expand to non-game brands as well, so you could imagine going to visit a space that might be provided by a famous beverage company or a cool clothing company or a record company, or even a retailer, or a magazine or a website. So we think this is a very powerful way to bring community not just to games, but to other forms of lifestyle and entertainment - all built around PlayStation 3." The Home he showed allowed users to play music, videos and show people pictures in ones own virtual apartment, it also had a trophy room with animated figures in glass cases it was something to show friends how much of a gaming nerd one was. Since he left Sony, Home went through some changes many restricting users on what they could do with their virtual space. This became a bit of a disappointment when the service launched. The changes to Home was to be expected as giving people so much freedom tends to lead to tomfoolery. At launch the service is basic but it grows, any changes are direct responses to the community wants. Soon maybe the Home Phil Harrison promised will come true.
The potential of the service is that which can lead to innovation. To attach face to a name is a powerful thing; it gives the name and the person behind it, a sense of present that validates their existence. Home and its avatars can be compared to the NXE and its avatars. Both provide a new means of interaction with the online, now the friends list became more then just names on the list. However Home transcends to a plane beyond the Nintendo mii clone. By giving people the means of socializing using the avatars it has made the friends list to a list of people that are friends. The Home avatars can play games but are not used in games. Just as important as the avatars are the virtual apartments. By giving a person ownership of a space, virtual or not, that person becomes invested in that space. It becomes another means of expressing oneself. To truly know a person one must see the place that person occupies. Now the gaming cultural is important to gamers but the typical gamer dose not have the means of attending a major event like E3 or PAX. With the ability to create and occupy a virtual space, Home can be used to provide a means for the typical gamer to attend a PAX be it a virtual one. In this the service is potentially innovative; it can bring people close and bring the community closer.
In an apparent trend of online services, Home had a rocky start with problems raging from connection issues to random logouts. This is to be expected with any online service, from games of the likes of Little Big Planet to Teamfortes 2, even service providers are and were unrecognizable at lunch such as Values Steam to Microsoft LIVE. However after several attempts accesses to Home was finally granted the day fallowing the service public launch. In the warm glow radiating from the monitor as the service connects to a server the old feeling of starting a new adventure game set in only to be shattered by the lifeless visuals of a human as it comes in to focus. This in fact is the beginning of a truly deep character editor, shaping the character can be difficult at first due to the fact that there are so many options and possibly. Not just choosing a face but in fact creating one. It can be compared with molding clay. When sculpting a face in clay it is easily to create the key and basic features such as the brow or shape of a chin and like clay it is in the minute details that the face begins to resemble a person. Once satisfied it is time to venture forth into the virtual apartment. The place is occupied with a fairly stander living room set; one long sofa a short sofa and an arm chair arranged around an empty table. The walls are bare, the hard wood floor is polished by many steps and a sky line lets the mid day sun bleed though giving everything a bleached clean look. There is a porch with the view of the docks and due to the apartment elevation the curve of the horizon is clearly visible. Not a sole can be found on the streets below the only the sound of the ocean waves as they sleepily crash with the shore is heard. The tutorial takes place hare but is optional. The option of customizing the apartment is also available; this process is quite easy and enjoyable. The main focus of home is socializing, which most of it takes place in the central plaza.
Now this is enjoyable to the extent that it is allowed by the user. If one has no need for making online friends the service leads to boredom but when interactions and conversations take place it quickly becomes enjoyable. There are more places other than the apartment or the plaza, there are movie theaters, bowling allies, malls, game spaces, the plane race tracks, with more soon becoming available. Each place is riddled with easter eggs as well as mini-games and tend to reward the gamer. The service is still in infancy but a standard is being set as to what having online friends mean. It is a travesty that the serves is restricted to only one console. People tend to assign a value to their console of choice and will try to reprimand anything that is remotely different. So the services found on one console are ridiculed by people who own the other no matter how grate or innovative it is. It is a travesty that peoples are jade to it for this fact. This type of service needs to be demanded by every gamer.
http://www.scedev.net/home/Third%20Party%20Relations%20Q%26A.pdf
http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2008/12/15/playstation-home-first-impressions/
www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88070-Microsoft-Calls-PlayStation-Home-Outdated-Tech
