Sony Home - The official thread*
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Either I spent more time than you did with it, or yes we are indeed connected to different Home servers.
If its a video like Kotaku's that is used to convince the "general gaming community" it wont work.
I think many people will try home just out of curiosity. Word of mouth will do a much better job than a video like this one.
You can
But word of mouth spreads from people like the ones commenting on there. If you look at most gaming sites (Gamespot, IGN, etc) in their forums, the vast majority of comments regarding Home are negative. The ones that are positive are positive based on "the potential", except for one guy at IGN who thinks it's the best thing ever since it's "basically a 3D chatroom!" (he's evidently missed the late 90s/early 2000s 3D chatroom craze which -- thankfully -- came and went)
They are not selected from the owner pool. These people just read the beta invitation letter and click on the forum link
Even if one clicks on the URL, most lurk. But then again, the same applies to Kotaku comments. People like me don't post there. Most people just don't post.
What does casual gamer mean in this context ? Home is only available to PS3 owners. There is no need to further splinter it into casual or hardcore. "Every" PS3 owner can use it for free.
Like I said, Home in its current form will only appeal to some people. Specifically, people who are open to making new friends on PSN. And people who don't mind spending/wasting time exploring the human side of a gaming network.
You can check the GAF thread here for another sample if you want. There are both positive and negative views on the service. Sony's job is to listen and mold the service selectively.
Sure, but Home is not an MMORPG. If you want my views on MMO, check out the "Free Realm" and "MAG" thread under "Console Games". ^_^
If you're looking for a game, I'd suggest LittleBigPlanet.
As for 30,000 user base, I believe 100,000 beta invitations went out last week. Another bulk invitation went out today. I know there are utility-minded people who don't see the value. What they saw are random people dancing and chatting in an empty shell. Truth to be told, there are quite a few complains about Home being late, useless and overhyped. These are all valid concerns.
However at the same time, I also see more and more users getting involved in Home. I saw people chatting for real in Home for minutes to hours. The topic ranged from Thanksgiving holiday, friends and family, games, console wars, flirting and even politics. The question is what Sony wants to get out of the community. Without a clear vision and purpose, it will be hard to retain users. Without a clear business direction, the user base may be too small.
I don't claim that Home will be a definite success, but I do think that Home has great potential. It will require some bold moves from Sony to change the landscape. If they simply listen to user feedback and tweak the little tactical things, it will most likely tank after a year or two.
If they think at the level of Playstation Card, "Home" School, more effective marketing, co-opetition with game developers, leveraging on non-3D Internet, etc., then they have a good chance.
EDIT:
>_< For your information, Playstation Home has multiple parallel spaces. The Central Plaza you visit is different every time. So it depends on your luck. I have seen short grunts to hours of chat (lasting through multiple sessions).
The difference is you are taking a purely utility view (You should just use XMB). Playstation Home is the only place I can chat and share with other Playstation owners (besides playstation.com). It is also the only place I can talk to Sony guys if I'm lucky enough. Most important of all, it is an open platform for developers to plug into the user community.
For now, the only important impressions are those of Playstation owners. Once they manage to rally together, then we can talk about other people.
last night I let the kids have a go first...then I found out there's a min age (not sure what it is but it wouldn't work), so anyway, I had set up my sons account as an adult so he could play warhawk - I let them mess about on his. First went my youngest (6 yo daughter) who wanted to be a female - so she set it all up and her time was spent running away from blokes chatting her up! Thankfully it was good clean stuff!
Anyway, I thought I'd mention the way it seems to be when you're a girl...I must admit when I "played" later there was less hassle as I guess all the 'kids' were up in bed and all that were left were sad folk like me! lol
So a quick pros and cons with more details to follow...
Cons:
Loading in chunks...77mb initially then each 'area' you want to get into you basically tell it to d/l and then it'll do it - each area took around 5mins...why it couldn't just background the market square first as soon as it had loaded I don't know...it could then have background d/l each 'area' off the market square.
Load city - each 'area' loads - so you have your pad, the market square, the bowling place, a shopping centre (no shops open tho) and the cinema - each takes around 30 secs :confused3: then when you're in the characters are like ghosts while they load in...
Not enough (volume) things to do - the bowling seems constantly busy as are the arcades - tho I did get to play all the games (3 - 2 of which all need loading 1st time at around 2mins) - there's checkers and chess boards to play games on also.
Pros:
Pretty cool, you have pretty unlimited user settings (face etc) and some defaults to chose from (and then tweek)
Nice to just chill when you're 'friends' are offline (or busy) just pop in and socialise, I played checkers and chatted to some guy from spain
Potential - I'm still sure this could do quite well, you can see you'll be able to buy stuff for your pad and clothes etc...or just play for free (think the LBP setup)
Any questions?
Anyway, I thought I'd mention the way it seems to be when you're a girl...I must admit when I "played" later there was less hassle as I guess all the 'kids' were up in bed and all that were left were sad folk like me! lol
So a quick pros and cons with more details to follow...
Cons:
Loading in chunks...77mb initially then each 'area' you want to get into you basically tell it to d/l and then it'll do it - each area took around 5mins...why it couldn't just background the market square first as soon as it had loaded I don't know...it could then have background d/l each 'area' off the market square.
Load city - each 'area' loads - so you have your pad, the market square, the bowling place, a shopping centre (no shops open tho) and the cinema - each takes around 30 secs :confused3: then when you're in the characters are like ghosts while they load in...
Not enough (volume) things to do - the bowling seems constantly busy as are the arcades - tho I did get to play all the games (3 - 2 of which all need loading 1st time at around 2mins) - there's checkers and chess boards to play games on also.
Pros:
Pretty cool, you have pretty unlimited user settings (face etc) and some defaults to chose from (and then tweek)
Nice to just chill when you're 'friends' are offline (or busy) just pop in and socialise, I played checkers and chatted to some guy from spain
Potential - I'm still sure this could do quite well, you can see you'll be able to buy stuff for your pad and clothes etc...or just play for free (think the LBP setup)
Any questions?
True, but they can only be ~50mb a time...so it's not a massive amount, an option would be nice.
Maybe Home will also be released on disc eventually, maybe with and without a headset packed in. Or it comes free with the headset or something like that.
As for the download bits, you could have an option like 'You haven't visited this area yet. The download is xxx MB and will take approximately xxx minutes." With an option to ask you to take them there automatically once the download is finished. And obviously an option to que all the other stuff as downloads in your regular download list.
As for the download bits, you could have an option like 'You haven't visited this area yet. The download is xxx MB and will take approximately xxx minutes." With an option to ask you to take them there automatically once the download is finished. And obviously an option to que all the other stuff as downloads in your regular download list.
That's really stupid! There are no physical limits, so why limit the number of people able to do something? Allow a bowling alley to spawn for whoever wants to play it! Or are people going to have to book in advance like for real, and basically destroy the whole spur-of-the-moment entertainment? Seriously, what's the point of virtual reality if you're going to impose real-reality limits?!
shifty, I totally agree, maybe in future we will have to pay to play so they won't be as busy - or likewise they would have a limit to each 'world' so there's always something to do...but Like you say it was really frustrating as I wanted to check out if there was a 2 min load each time for the arcade games in question (there's not BTW)
That's probably the time when you purchase a 'real' game and play online with that game launched from Home.That's really stupid! There are no physical limits, so why limit the number of people able to do something? Allow a bowling alley to spawn for whoever wants to play it! Or are people going to have to book in advance like for real, and basically destroy the whole spur-of-the-moment entertainment? Seriously, what's the point of virtual reality if you're going to impose real-reality limits?!
To be serious, they can always move to P2P for bowling, I guess it's just an implementation issue which will be solved if bowling becomes unusually popular among Home dwellers. As long as advertisement revenues power Home, it's not their intent to shut out those who want to stay in Home as long as possible. You'll see pizza ads between each bowling round, it can be very effective.
...or win virtual goods and bowling equipments sponsored by companies.
You are a brave man. I like to eavesdrop @ Home, and have listened to a few advances like this:
GIRL having good conversation with someone (actually another girl posed as a black dude).
BOY (interrupted conversation): Hey, you wanna come to my place for some group activities ?
GIRL: Wha... and I should follow you - WHY ? [patsu interjected "lol" by then]
BOY: You piece of sh*t. You don't trust anyone. [Blah blah..]
[More lol's at the BOY. BOY left]
In the actual conversation, the girl was clearly an experienced chatter because she'd pose her avatar according to what she typed (e.g, clap when she's happy, jump when excited). Even as an experienced netizen, I was very impressed and fascinated. Apparently, she borrowed her younger brother's PS3 account to go Home (She claimed she can still "take on her brother", so no worries). I ended up watching the two girls chat for the whole afternoon (while my computer does the heavy-lifting ). I hope Sony can truly create a condusive world for people to socialize while they game.
last night I let the kids have a go first...then I found out there's a min age (not sure what it is but it wouldn't work), so anyway, I had set up my sons account as an adult so he could play warhawk - I let them mess about on his. First went my youngest (6 yo daughter) who wanted to be a female - so she set it all up and her time was spent running away from blokes chatting her up! Thankfully it was good clean stuff!
...
Any questions?
You are a brave man. I like to eavesdrop @ Home, and have listened to a few advances like this:GIRL having good conversation with someone (actually another girl posed as a black dude).
BOY (interrupted conversation): Hey, you wanna come to my place for some group activities ?
GIRL: Wha... and I should follow you - WHY ? [patsu interjected "lol" by then]
BOY: You piece of sh*t. You don't trust anyone. [Blah blah..]
[More lol's at the BOY. BOY left]
In the actual conversation, the girl was clearly an experienced chatter because she'd pose her avatar according to what she typed (e.g, clap when she's happy, jump when excited). Even as an experienced netizen, I was very impressed and fascinated. Apparently, she borrowed her younger brother's PS3 account to go Home (She claimed she can still "take on her brother", so no worries
). I ended up watching the two girls chat for the whole afternoon (while my computer does the heavy-lifting ). I hope Sony can truly create a condusive world for people to socialize while they game.Was just listening to the "Gamers with Jobs" podcast, they talked about Home for a bit also. They first were raving about Left 4 Dead, then for the segway they actually said "Now that we've talked about Left 4 Dead, let's talk about something really terrible." with a chorus of laughs.
They expressed confusion about the over 3GB of reserved space, as I had. They said the graphics looked really, really nice -- "it's like what Second Life would look like if they had competent developers" was their zinger.
Guy 1: "There's absolutely nothing to do. The one thing I did was go to the area with the boombox, and some guy was doing "The Running Man", so I was all like 'Hey, let's do the running man!', and so another guy starts doing it and we had a row of about twelve people doing the running man. And that was about all Home had to offer us, that was the peak home experience. I went to the mall and you can't buy anything. There's some posters, I saw a screen with video playing so you can see what they're doing...but I still don't understand what the point is. They were supposed to make this relevant to the gamer recently, but there is just nothing here. It's good they're not launching this yet, they need to sit on this for as long as possible and come out the other side and come out with something interesting, because this is 15 minutes I will never see again."
Guy 2: "Sony just needs to bury Home and come out with a LittleBigPlanet MMO."
They expressed confusion about the over 3GB of reserved space, as I had. They said the graphics looked really, really nice -- "it's like what Second Life would look like if they had competent developers" was their zinger.
Guy 1: "There's absolutely nothing to do. The one thing I did was go to the area with the boombox, and some guy was doing "The Running Man", so I was all like 'Hey, let's do the running man!', and so another guy starts doing it and we had a row of about twelve people doing the running man. And that was about all Home had to offer us, that was the peak home experience. I went to the mall and you can't buy anything. There's some posters, I saw a screen with video playing so you can see what they're doing...but I still don't understand what the point is. They were supposed to make this relevant to the gamer recently, but there is just nothing here. It's good they're not launching this yet, they need to sit on this for as long as possible and come out the other side and come out with something interesting, because this is 15 minutes I will never see again."
Guy 2: "Sony just needs to bury Home and come out with a LittleBigPlanet MMO."
if we want to be selective we can do it for both ends. It is natural for anything not to appeal to everyone.
Here are some examples I observed from the other side .
Guy1: This place is lots of fun
Guy2: NXE just got owned
Guy3: When are they going to open the Warhawk space? I want to go there. Anyone here working for Sony?
Guy4 and Gal5 *playing chess for hours, having fun*
Guy6: Home f***** rules.
Considering how many got the invitations and the large numbers wondering in home, it must have some significant appeal. Otherwise people would have been slowly giving up and the place would have been empty.
Here are some examples I observed from the other side .
Guy1: This place is lots of fun
Guy2: NXE just got owned
Guy3: When are they going to open the Warhawk space? I want to go there. Anyone here working for Sony?
Guy4 and Gal5 *playing chess for hours, having fun*
Guy6: Home f***** rules.
Considering how many got the invitations and the large numbers wondering in home, it must have some significant appeal. Otherwise people would have been slowly giving up and the place would have been empty.
You can't really gauge how many people are on at any given time by logging in. For all we know 95% of the Home servers are completely empty, I'm sure Sony was smart enough to assign people to servers such that the "instances" always have a reasonable amount of people in them.
And while I appreciate your effort here with the random quotes from random people, I'm afraid you misinterpret my post -- I was quoting directly from the podcast which -- again -- is a popular source of gaming news. They seem to echo the general sentiment of most of the gaming public. I'm sure some people think Home is the best thing ever, and spend hours a day chatting with other people in it...but I'm thinking it's becoming increasingly clear Sony's got some major issues with the design and implementation.
And to pre-empt the "but it's beta!!" comments: Look at the version of the game. It's "close" to release, and the open beta itself is for all intents and purposes, the release. The "but it's beta" excuse doesn't count anymore when it's widely available and the version number is above 1.0.
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