Sony Home - The official thread*
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HOME WILL NOT replace the XMB as it will be a separate application available in the network section of the XMB. A couple of posts up I reflected about hearing a 2d XMB equivalent being created for those that don't want to access Home but I have not heard of anything since.
And that was just SCEE right? Hope to be in this week or the next then, would be great.
No, I think that includes the US as well. SCEE are running the trail completely now and all home beta discussion is held on the European Playstation forum now.
There is certainly many people from the US pissing and moaning (as well as other countries) about not getting in over there anyway
I didn't get in either, anyway it will be open beta soon so I don't think it will really matter that much.
There is certainly many people from the US pissing and moaning (as well as other countries) about not getting in over there anyway
I didn't get in either, anyway it will be open beta soon so I don't think it will really matter that much.
Finally got an invite...
Edit: Initial impressions are somewhat what I expected during the announcement. I haven't been able to do anything like join a game from inside Home yet. I didn't see anything that showed me how and I didn't spend too much time on it, it shouldn't take too much effort to find out how to do it... So, to me, this looks like a better looking version of Second Life, which I loathed.
The initial install was 70MB to download, which surprised me. Then it told me it needed to reserve 3.7GB of space, which SHOCKED me. Why would it need so much? What is this? Then I discovered every single zone needed to be downloaded one by one, which simply annoyed me.
It took way too long to load individual character sprites. It'd enter a room and it'd take a full minute before everyone was de-ghostified. It was annoying to hear people randomly blurt out things (which may have been part a conversation, but I wouldn't know it just walking around). It wasn't really mixed right so it was really loud out of nowhere, some guy with a really low quality bluetooth set saying something I couldn't even make out.
I went to the movie theatre. Downloaded the ~30MB movie theatre zone, then waited a minute or so for the "movie" to load while it was loading all of the other sprites in the room also. Then I found I couldn't even reliably see the screen since people had chat bubbles above their heads which interfered with the screen. Additionally, people were randomly chatting (again, loudly) in the room so I couldn't even hear the movie (the SOCOM trailer).
The selection of clothes was really pathetic, even for a beta. I'm really hoping they don't think they'll supply just four t-shirts then hope everyone will pay $1.99 for a t-shirt in the game...
There appears to be no "run" button. It felt rather painful most of the time to move from one building to another by walking, so I ended up using the world map. And at this point, why am I even using the Home client? It's not an immersive 3D world at this point, Home became a long-loading point of abstraction that only served to complicated my interaction with the system (using the Playstation store through the Mall is ridiculously stupid, watching movies in the public theatre is as well).
I can't see the point to this at all, so obviously I'm not in their target audience. But I have to wonder, who is? Is it sizable? This thing has "miss" written all over it to me.
I admittedly didn't spend too much time on it, but most people won't.
Edit: Initial impressions are somewhat what I expected during the announcement. I haven't been able to do anything like join a game from inside Home yet. I didn't see anything that showed me how and I didn't spend too much time on it, it shouldn't take too much effort to find out how to do it... So, to me, this looks like a better looking version of Second Life, which I loathed.
The initial install was 70MB to download, which surprised me. Then it told me it needed to reserve 3.7GB of space, which SHOCKED me. Why would it need so much? What is this? Then I discovered every single zone needed to be downloaded one by one, which simply annoyed me.
It took way too long to load individual character sprites. It'd enter a room and it'd take a full minute before everyone was de-ghostified. It was annoying to hear people randomly blurt out things (which may have been part a conversation, but I wouldn't know it just walking around). It wasn't really mixed right so it was really loud out of nowhere, some guy with a really low quality bluetooth set saying something I couldn't even make out.
I went to the movie theatre. Downloaded the ~30MB movie theatre zone, then waited a minute or so for the "movie" to load while it was loading all of the other sprites in the room also. Then I found I couldn't even reliably see the screen since people had chat bubbles above their heads which interfered with the screen. Additionally, people were randomly chatting (again, loudly) in the room so I couldn't even hear the movie (the SOCOM trailer).
The selection of clothes was really pathetic, even for a beta. I'm really hoping they don't think they'll supply just four t-shirts then hope everyone will pay $1.99 for a t-shirt in the game...
There appears to be no "run" button. It felt rather painful most of the time to move from one building to another by walking, so I ended up using the world map. And at this point, why am I even using the Home client? It's not an immersive 3D world at this point, Home became a long-loading point of abstraction that only served to complicated my interaction with the system (using the Playstation store through the Mall is ridiculously stupid, watching movies in the public theatre is as well).
I can't see the point to this at all, so obviously I'm not in their target audience. But I have to wonder, who is? Is it sizable? This thing has "miss" written all over it to me.
I admittedly didn't spend too much time on it, but most people won't.
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Through text chat or headset.
I hope they add back the Uncharted and Far Cry spaces as well as the game list for game launching.
Got an invite. Currently the rooms are limited and some of the features as well. For example the clothes were too few. Of course I excused it since this is like a demo. The first time you load things in the character creation may seem a bit slow depending on your internet speed. But everything you view is downloaded to the HD space that is reserved for Home. So everything is immediately fast later on
Generally I liked what I saw!
There is the option in the menu to make game invites but no games seem to be supported perhaps in the beta. But I was happy that I saw this. Matchmaking could be there with Home.
I think once it is ready people will be spending much more time in there than they do currently from the XMB to meet people and arrange game parties. The XMB is an alternative solution for faster access to the basic features.
I can see huge potential in this one.
Some people were making noises and there were too many chat bubbles but I saw the option to disable voice and text communication in the settings which is good if you dont want to listen to the gibberish some people say.
Going to other areas demanded that I download some MB's. Once they are downloaded they dont have to be downloaded again. The loading from one area to the next took me about 10 seconds at the most.
When you get there it takes some seconds to load all the people in the area, but it is no problem. You see some "ghosts" before they are loaded completely.
I went to the bowling room and it had some arcade games. There its like a real place. Meaning you have to wait for others to finish before you can try the bowling and the arcade games. One thing that makes me wonder is what will happen if people play for too much time and you wait too long. I managed to play a game that is similar to tetris and echocrome. Very nice!
There are monitors and posters in areas, some not showing content yet. Seeing some showing videos though tells me about the world they are aiming for. A virtual PS community and a commercial place.
I liked the theater and Mall concepts a lot. Although limited I can imagine myself watching video content and discuss with other users about it. Until now watching content with others was impossible. But with this it can materialize. For example imagine that you wait for an awesome game trailer eagerly and you get excited with what you saw. Instead of watching it alone, you can talk about it there with your friends. I am not sure what they will be having in the mall when finished. It was empty. The stores in the mall are like placeholders for the time being. You dont exactly know what they will be having in each. I think it would be awesome if they make sections/stores for each company lets say Capcom, Konami, PD etc. Or if they make virtual areas for other companies to get informed about tangible products or services (nike? ebay? sony? who knows).
Generally I liked what I saw!
There is the option in the menu to make game invites but no games seem to be supported perhaps in the beta. But I was happy that I saw this. Matchmaking could be there with Home.
I think once it is ready people will be spending much more time in there than they do currently from the XMB to meet people and arrange game parties. The XMB is an alternative solution for faster access to the basic features.
I can see huge potential in this one.
Some people were making noises and there were too many chat bubbles but I saw the option to disable voice and text communication in the settings which is good if you dont want to listen to the gibberish some people say.
Going to other areas demanded that I download some MB's. Once they are downloaded they dont have to be downloaded again. The loading from one area to the next took me about 10 seconds at the most.
When you get there it takes some seconds to load all the people in the area, but it is no problem. You see some "ghosts" before they are loaded completely.
I went to the bowling room and it had some arcade games. There its like a real place. Meaning you have to wait for others to finish before you can try the bowling and the arcade games. One thing that makes me wonder is what will happen if people play for too much time and you wait too long. I managed to play a game that is similar to tetris and echocrome. Very nice!
There are monitors and posters in areas, some not showing content yet. Seeing some showing videos though tells me about the world they are aiming for. A virtual PS community and a commercial place.
I liked the theater and Mall concepts a lot. Although limited I can imagine myself watching video content and discuss with other users about it. Until now watching content with others was impossible. But with this it can materialize. For example imagine that you wait for an awesome game trailer eagerly and you get excited with what you saw. Instead of watching it alone, you can talk about it there with your friends. I am not sure what they will be having in the mall when finished. It was empty. The stores in the mall are like placeholders for the time being. You dont exactly know what they will be having in each. I think it would be awesome if they make sections/stores for each company lets say Capcom, Konami, PD etc. Or if they make virtual areas for other companies to get informed about tangible products or services (nike? ebay? sony? who knows).
From what I saw, the video was not synchronized in the theatre. I do not see the point to it at all.
I am genuinely perplexed how you can see so much potential -- did you ever play Second Life?
The mall was the most pointless thing I have ever seen. You waste a long time loading the zone, then you waste a lot of time running from store to store, and then when you get there it does nothing but load the Playstation Store screen like what you access from the XMB? There is no point to that, at all. Zero.
I am genuinely perplexed how you can see so much potential -- did you ever play Second Life?
The mall was the most pointless thing I have ever seen. You waste a long time loading the zone, then you waste a lot of time running from store to store, and then when you get there it does nothing but load the Playstation Store screen like what you access from the XMB? There is no point to that, at all. Zero.
I dont care about second life because it is trying to be simply a replacement of my real life. I have a life. And I am not attracted into talking and wondering in a virtual world that tries to replace reality and hung with people that are there because they failed to develop a social life outside.
The only commonality between this and Second Life is the style. I view this mostly as a PS gaming community.
I dont feel like disputing with you right now for the following reasons: Many things are not implemented or are semi-functional so I dont understand criticizing them for that when it is expected considering this is a beta. And since I feel that there is some kind of rant and anger involved from you trying to impose that negative idea no matter what, well I prefer to abandon this discussion completely because it wont end up well.
These are my impressions about Home. If you have a different impression fine. But here you seem to be annoyed with my personal impression because it is different than yours and its positive. Well, take it as it is. I liked what I saw assuming that the limitations are only a result of being a beta and that the final will be a better experience. I wasnt blown. But I liked it and love the potential.
The beta is to get feedback. If there are issues you find then pass them to the right people instead of criticizing those that liked it so they will fix them.
The only commonality between this and Second Life is the style. I view this mostly as a PS gaming community.
I dont feel like disputing with you right now for the following reasons: Many things are not implemented or are semi-functional so I dont understand criticizing them for that when it is expected considering this is a beta. And since I feel that there is some kind of rant and anger involved from you trying to impose that negative idea no matter what, well I prefer to abandon this discussion completely because it wont end up well.
These are my impressions about Home. If you have a different impression fine. But here you seem to be annoyed with my personal impression because it is different than yours and its positive. Well, take it as it is. I liked what I saw assuming that the limitations are only a result of being a beta and that the final will be a better experience. I wasnt blown. But I liked it and love the potential.
The beta is to get feedback. If there are issues you find then pass them to the right people instead of criticizing those that liked it so they will fix them.
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So far I'm with Asher. I really so no advantage to a mass audience to this. Much like he said, I am more then willing to hold of for any real conclusion.
Right now, the current implementation is missing the most important part of Home, and that is content. These silly avatars in this game are just as silly as the ones in the new NXE.
I dont see myself spending nothing but bored exploratory time in Home, but I will be looking forward to seeing this end the close beta, move to open, and add some content. At this point, they need to to do what ever it takes to get as much content in any format on the interface, as soon as it goes public. If not it's going to be another much touted, short to deliver experience.
Right now, the current implementation is missing the most important part of Home, and that is content. These silly avatars in this game are just as silly as the ones in the new NXE.
I dont see myself spending nothing but bored exploratory time in Home, but I will be looking forward to seeing this end the close beta, move to open, and add some content. At this point, they need to to do what ever it takes to get as much content in any format on the interface, as soon as it goes public. If not it's going to be another much touted, short to deliver experience.
I've not been able to try Home yet, but from what I've read about the latest update, there's a few points ...
Assuming that the 3.7GB is actually well used, isn't it better that you can get in after 70MB downloaded rather than 3.7GB? The rest can be downloaded in the background now, if I read that correctly.
There's a full screen option, which in the latest build should allow you to have all the other people invisible so you can properly watch the video.
But you can definitely run, I think? I've seen that and it was put in months ago if I remember correctly.
Hopefully eventually you'll be able to at least browse things in 3d and add them to your shopping cart, and then only do the checkout through PSN. But I can imagine that they would put PSN integration in there first simply to have something functional straight up, and it will probably stay there always as a shortcut.
Content is what it is all about. And I've got a feeling that there will be enough content once there are significant crowds in there. It needs an audience, and publishers are getting up to speed right now, and then there's Sony's support team helping out building Home content for publishers that are too small or otherwise not equipped to develop home spaces themselves. To me, the Far Cry 2 content is a good symbol for how it could work.
The 3.7 GB are simply reserved and the sections can indeed be downloaded in the background while you do other stuff. You dont download 3.7GB. This portion is reserved for "safety" purposes for when you start visiting more areas and more content becomes available. So one time you might indeed need space to store into your PS3 for Home.
You download the portions you want to access once and after that you go from one downloaded section to the other faster since its stored into your HDD.
I noticed the full screen option for the panels here and there. I didnt know how how to activate it in the theater though. I dont know if it exists in that room
your character can indeed run. Not very fast though.
The mall doesnt work yet from my playthrough so it is impossible to comment about its use and funtionality
One thing people have been asking in the Beta was when the game rooms will be ready and if they were ready. They were looking for things to try in there. The Beta unfortunately doesnt have much. It only has the basics and placeholders.
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