Reflecting on two years of Home
By NorseGamer, HSM Editor-in-Chief
What does PlayStation Home mean to you?
When you think of Home, what emotions or experiences come to mind?
Amazing to realize that Home just celebrated its two-year anniversary. Even more astonishing to think of just how much Home has evolved in the last year alone. Remember the egregiously long loading times? The old navigator format? Heck, just pause for a moment and consider how much new content was introduced into Home in the last twelve months. Both in terms of infrastructure and entertainment, Home is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was twelve months ago.
But this is all window dressing. Home is not, as some contend, “just a game.” Home is a living, breathing virtual reality. It’s the human element, not the gaming element, which is at the core of Home’s addictive nature.
Any fan-journalism project devoted to Home can commentate on what Sony announces on its blog. All the shiny bells and whistles. And yes, that’s fine. But HSM has a different approach:
We don’t care about the shiny new toys and features. We care about how they make you feel.
So: what does Home mean to you?
I think, perhaps, it’s time for a more personal article.
Here’s what Home means to me:
I was never the popular kid at school. I’m not blessed with a lantern jaw or innate athletic ability. My fashion sense is in no way trendy. I was a bookworm with mousy brown hair and a taste for science-fiction. I’m not much good at making small talk, and I’d prefer the company of nature and books to the capricious and specious harshness of other people. Over the decades, I’ve done what I could to compensate — learned (and taught) martial arts, played a ton of sports, and generally tried to “fit in.”
Except I don’t. And that’s painfully obvious.
I’m now a grown adult in my thirties with two college degrees and a successful career. But to a large extent I still feel like a geeky suburban beta-male kid watching my favorite cartoons while waiting for dinner. With chocolate milk.
A friend of mine commented that you have to be slightly damaged in some way to find Home so addictive. Who knows. Maybe he’s right. But here’s why Home is special to me:
In real life, I’m very uncomfortable trying to make casual conversation. I’m not great on my feet. I’m not particularly suave, witty or at ease. If it’s business, I’m in my element. If it’s chit-chat, you might as well talk to my cat. Yet on Home, everything’s inverted: he who is the most interesting to read is the winner. And in a world of text bubbles with acronym salad (for the love of god, STOP TYPING “lol” AT THE END OF EVERY SENTENCE!), absolutely horrific grammar, casual rudeness and a general lack of enculturation, I suddenly have the advantage.
On Home, you are actually rewarded socially for being able to communicate with the written word in a literate, intelligent, properly-punctuated manner. People seek you out and want to hang out with you. Girls find you interesting. People compliment you for not dressing like a thug who just got out of prison.
And here’s the best part: when some doorknob in a tank top, baggy trousers and a bandanna comes up to me and tries to tear me down, accusing me of being gay, insulting my method of communicating…I get to mute him.
Oh. Hell. Yes. I’ll take “The Penis Mightier” for $500, Alex.
Home is special to me because it lets me have a social life.
My ex-wife was a social butterfly. She loved to go party, have fun, and mingle. To her, Home was a minor amusement. It was, to her, “just a game.”
Not to me.
I have a successful business career, but I have no life. Home gives me confidence to be social. No anxiety. No awkwardness. Home is my comfort zone. On Home, I can go to a discotheque and dance like John Travolta. I can surround myself with people and not be uncomfortable. Home hits dopamine pleasure centers of my brain that have long been dormant.
Home lets me be the popular kid on the playground. On Home, I get to have the last laugh at the bullies and jocks. Frankly, Home lets me put to rest a lot of the demons I’ve carried since I was a child.
That’s why Home is special to me. And why I’ve invested a considerable sum of money into it. Some of you reading this perhaps might think that this is rather sad: that I should go get a life. I would counter that we all geek out over something. Picture someone who follows a particular group, buys their merchandise, dresses up like them, and attends regular gatherings all over the country to support them.
Did I just describe your typical anime/video game geek? Or did I describe an NFL football fan? Or a rock band fan?
See what I mean? We all geek out over something. For me, it’s Home. Home lets me have a life.
…Wow. That was all quite hard to write, actually.
So, we now come full-circle, back to the original question: what does Home mean to you? I’d genuinely like to know. Because that, to me, is interesting. Not the gee-whiz new features, items and spaces. Not the incessant procession of new mini-games. The community. This is a community that interests me, because it’s a community I can be a part of, and hopefully give back to with this magazine.
What does Home mean to you?
December 13th, 2010 by NorseGamer | 9 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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Am right there with you on many points, sir. For Nos, a community embedded within Home’s virtual community has developed. And in fact, has been evolving since before Home opened its beta to the general public. Indeed, the Homeling Collective (which total members joined is likely well past 1000) is like nothing Nos has ever experienced. Our Collective is made up of many talented, intelligent, and genuinely interesting individuals, and our collective drive to continue building upon the Homleing glory is what keeps us growing and evolving. Our website alone has close to 400 registered at present -- only a fraction of actual beings assimilated into the Collective.
Home has offered us a place not only of origin and evolution, but of much more. We extend beyond Home. Beyond PlayStation and into the interwebs; but it’s always Home we go to gather and enjoy our Collective awesomeness that is Homelings
When I read this article. it felt like I had told you exactly what to write based on my own experience! Very well said! I too am a member of the Homeling Collective, and Home has made me a better person. I’m the kind of person in real life who makes a living out of talking to people, but don’t invest too much on building in realtionships. Home has taught me to do both more effectively, and has revealed a social side of me that I never knew existed.
If you had asked me what I thought the future held for Home two years ago, I would have told you a bunch of psychiatry bills and a high divorce rate. But over the past year I have seen Home mature into not only a social platform but a community. Since the closed beta, people have been coming together to create social groups such as the Homelings and the Frosty’s; as well as gaming and Bible study groups. Fan based sites and publishing’s as well as videos are helping to bring the HOME community together. Working all the time, as well as being a Social Invert I never take the time in the real world to build basic relationships either. After having many different circle of friends, I have developed some friendships that have the potential to outlast Home.
Wanting more out of my Home experience, I joined HSM Magazine and began to write, a task that I had not undertaken since High School. Not only do I enjoy writing for the Magazine, but I regained my love for writing. Home not only helped me to discover what it is I want to do with my life, but it helps me to develop the skills to do so. Now I find myself trying to immerse myself in the social aspects of Home more rather then the gaming.
For some time now I’ve been convinced that Home means the most to the damaged and the loners, the social misfits who don’t have what the noobs in Central Plaza call “a life”. People, in other words, like me.
However, I take exception to the accusation. I have a life, and it is here. And yes, I have a real-world life too; but more often than not these days I entertain (or bore, or alarm) my real-world friends with tales of my virtual existence: the latest public spaces, my latest avatar-acquaintance, the endlessly-fascinating (or just plain endless) soap-opera politics of the Homelings. My more savvy friends are now taking the initiative, and asking “So what’s new with the Collective?” In many ways it feels like I am living two lives at once, and the virtual one is more interesting.
But there is a third life developing between the two: my ever-expanding involvement with user-created content, which can manifest on Home or in other venues. Joining the PlayStation.com Forums was the first step in that transition. On the Forums, I could step back from the virtual world and post micro-essays on my experience. This spilled back into Home, as total strangers approached me to compliment my latest post.
My move into the third life took a major step when I joined the Homelings. The Collective is nothing if not a major work of user-created content. Soon, I was organizing in-world art shows and poetry readings. These were reported in the web of user-created media that surrounds Home. And, once again, Home users approached me in-world to comment on these events. Some have become a permanent part of my friend list.
My most recent foray into the third life came when I joined the writing staff of HomeStation Magazine. I love what NorseGamer and the other staff are doing here — reporting on Home as the serious experiment it is, in a way that engages educated, thinking adults.
So, for me, Home is an expanding set of ripples — not only the application itself, but all the things that the Home users have made of it. I love the world that we are building together. And I’m so very delighted to be a part of it.
To me, it means friends. Real friends. People who have taken the time to know the real me, to share experiences, to discuss common interests, to be accepted without any hidden agendas, to just hang out and have fun.
I guess my story is just the opposite of Norse’s: I was the popular pretty girl, the one ‘most likely to succeed’, the elected leader in the clubs, etc. Then -- the business world and a career that took off like the proverbial rocket. Incredible success and an almost fairytale existence. But in all of that, I never had any real friends. Oh, sure, in school, everyone wanted to be seen with me, but there was no real sharing of experiences. I was the angel on top of the tree -- beautiful and very alone. In the business world, thousands of business acquaintances, colleagues, clients -- everyone wanting something -- a promotion, a title, a better deal, an edge over their competition. But no one to really trust. No one to confide in. Having to maintain that facade. A wonderful husband and two children -- and I was never there. Always off on another ‘project’ half-way around the world. Then I retired -- early -- and stumbled into Home by accident.
Miracles: nobody recognized me. Nobody wanted anything from me. Nobody was trying to get something or to use me for anything. People actually took me at (avatar) face value -- I could be anything/anyone and it didn’t matter. For the first time in my life, I could be on a level playing field -- listening to someone without having to wonder what they wanted. Revealing inner thoughts I would never have told to a business colleague. Trusting people to just be themselves and to let me just be someone they liked to spend time with.
Then I got in a conversation (in the Singstar Disco) with this intelligent young man (Norse) who listened to some of my ideas about Home and suggested I talk to NJRamal and MsCooco about writing for the HomeStyles magazine. Then Norse edited, polished, and pruned my ideas into publishable form -- and I was ecstatic. To be able to write down those observations and share them -- and get feedback from others -- and to be treated just like everyone else! Next, a group of writers from HomeStyles spun off Home Station Magazine and invited me to come with them. The ability to add new ideas in text online in the magazine whenever I wake up at 3 am shrieking Eureka! and not have to wait months to see it in print was an overwhelming attraction.
So now, I spend about 8 hours a day in Home -- hanging out with YOU, my friends, in the Forum, writing for the magazine online, losing money rapidly in Midway, decorating each new personal space that grabs my fancy, doing fashion shoots for Joanna’s marvelous Fashion Runway, training and racing my dolphies, going to parties with the Homelings and Grey Gamers, moseying around on the beach, in CP, in the disco, and all the other great public spaces ‘people watching’ and looking for interesting conversations. Then another great 8 hours with my husband, family members, and neighbors ( I won’t bore you with all those activities because there are hundreds of them). And, finally, 8 hours of sleep -- where I should be right now. See ya!
P.S. you will also find my articles online at http://www.hsmagazine.net in my “investigative reporter” persona: DarthGranny
Wow — some absolutely *fascinating* responses so far, many of them deeply personal. Thank you, all of you, for sharing what you did.
Home is more than just a gaming network. It was never “just a game.” That phrase alone makes me bristle. Home is a living, breathing virtual world, with real people and surprisingly interesting lives behind the avatars.
it does rankle when i hear some1 say home is “just a game”,if u approach home like that u r certain 2 miss out on alot.There is something 2 the observation that home means more 2 loners and the damaged,being 1 of those i think i can say that its because those groups need home more than the average user and treat it with more respect.Home means freedom,more than any other 1 word,to me.4 a small price i can b something id never b in real life,also when meeting ppl it allows me the freedom 2 b judged by whats in my head and how i express it,instead of by how i look,unless its a true juvenile that thinks an avatar should look exactly like its user.There r ppl on home that know the real me better than my real life friends.And while theres small chance we will ever meet in real life thats ok,it doesnt diminish the experience 4 me.As long as there r interesting ppl on home 2 meet and im allowed the current level of freedom of expression ill remain hooked.Im a firm believer that only boring ppl get bored,so if your on home feeling bored just go 2 the beach,central plaza,or singstar and listen 2 the conversations going on,those alone can provide hours of entertainment,i still remember 1 keara had with a fat guy in a santa suit,sorry forgot his name,in central plaza at 3 30am my time,i wont describe it as it was a bit saucy on santas part,but it was 1 of the funniest things ive ever seen,on home or anywhere else,which brings me 2 something else.Home can b a very funny place,sometimes i wonder if stand up comics r testing their new material on home b 4 they hit the stage.Sure there r warts,there always will b when ppl interact,even more so when interacting anonymously,but as far as im concerned it beats anything else going on.4 the 1st 6 months i was on home it felt like i was hooked on the internets version of narcotics,ive now cut down on my useage a bit but am way more involved in the social interactions on home than real lifes,and as far as im concerned thats not necessarily a bad thing.Escapism on this scale and this degree of realism has never been experienced by man in the known history of mankind,as some1 thats been a gamer since the meglomania days of the atari 2600,all i can say is its a great time 2 b a gamer.
That was AngrySanta. I made the mistake of asking him why he was angry. And the conversation went straight downhill from there…. And, yes, I was laughing myself silly while typing frantically.
I have been in Home since December of 2009, when I bought my PS3 as a Christmas present to myself. Having been a gamer since they were invented, this virtual world I discovered was a revelation to me. I have never been into the Sims type of game,(RPG’s are more my thing), but I soon learned to love the social aspects of this wonderful place we call Home.
I have met some truly funny, intelligent and loving people in here and been lucky to be able to call them friend. In real life I have a few close friends who I can really talk to about pretty much anything, so I am not an introvert or socially challenged as some seem to be. But none of that has lessened my experience in Home an iota. This place that we all come to is to me the most fun and interesting place I have ever been or probably ever will be in.
Where else in this world can you connect with such a diverse group of people from all over the world and call them friend? I have friends from so many different places, as far away as El Salvador, Bahrain, England, and Nova Scotia. This would have never happened to me if I had never discovered Home.