Spotlight On: The Home Community
![web-community[1]](../../../../img.hsmagazine.net/2011/02/web-community1.jpg)
by Jersquall, HSM podcast commentator
Have you ever seen those guys who go bugnuts spending money on golf?
Golf attire, golf cleats, golf publications, golf drivers that cost more than used car, golf clubs made out of alloys hitherto only seen on the Concorde, the Space Shuttle and the Starship Enterprise, golf balls from a particular brand, and a premium-cable subscription to the Golf Channel. A channel SO exciting that golf hooligans have been known to cause riots and bar fights on many, many occasions.
All of these people buying tons of golf “stuff” — and they know they’re never going to be able to have the cathartic, howling drive of a Jack Hamm. But that’s not the point. The point is to have fun.
It’s much the same with car tuners. For the same amount of money that you’ve put into garnishing your Honda Civic with spoilers, splitters, rims and the RS Akimoto…you could have just bought a better car. But that’s not the point. The point is to have fun.
I think it’s wonderful.
I mean, seriously, what’s the point of life if not to find something you love and then go absolutely crazy enjoying every moment of it that you can?
And, for a (perhaps surprising) number of people, Home is the object of that affection.
Forget the developers for a moment. They get paid to create these wonderful works of digital art. What about the users who populate it?
Cha ching! Is that the sound of money being spent in PlayStation Home?
Home is still a free experience. Home has always been a free experience. You can go on Home and have an absolute blast without spending a dime. So why are there Home users who not only willingly spend money to enhance the Home experience, but even go so far as to spend money outside of Home to enhance the experience for themselves and others?
Home users spend real money on real things outside of Home to support a virtual community. Jane Goodall would go nuts with this.
Example: if you’ve been in Home for a while and seen a well-organized group of users, then most likely that group has a website, podcast or videography devoted to Home. Consider for a moment what goes into a user-generated Home podcast: you have to have a computer, a microphone and recording software. Just the microphone headset can cost anywhere from $30 to $200. Recording software varies depending on what features you want.
And videography? Prepare to melt some more plastic off your credit card. Recording video can be even more costly. Capture cards can range from as little as $35 to as high as $200 when you start searching the likes of Dazzle or Hauppauge HDPVR, but then you might want to look at video editing software as well. And when you do, cancel that vacation to Disneyland. Some editing suites can be had for as little as $80, while it’s not uncommon to cross $1000 for the best of the best.
There are some very cool user-created websites out there, some with forums attached, which are devoted to Home. Web hosting and bandwidth costs a pretty penny nowadays, too. Sure, there are ways to keep the costs down, but it depends on how many bells and whistles you want, and just how big the thing gets.
Let’s use GamerIndepth as an example. Yes, I was one of the primary architects of GI, but I’m using them as a benchmark because GI is a user group that’s actually been featured in Home. Look at their Alexa ranking. You don’t think that costs money?
How about HomeStation Magazine, which came out of nowhere and now has its own remarkable Alexa ranking? How much is it costing to keep it up and running?
How about AlphaZone4? AZ4 is the Battlestar Galactica of user-created Home projects; you know that’s got to have a price tag attached to running it.
And what of the Homeling Collective, PlayStation Home Today, RHO, Lair or any of the other various Home user groups which actually create entertainment products for consumption and enjoyment? These Home users put countless hours into recording, editing, writing, drawing, maintaining websites and helping to make your Home experience even better. You can’t put a price tag on that.
The point here is this: our community members have a passion for this platform called Home. And it shows. To some, Home is just a quaint gaming experience. To others, it is much, much deeper. Some people put a lot of their own time and money into doing what they love, and not just inside of Home.
Is someone’s love of Home something which can be quantified and measured financially? No. There are people who love Home and don’t spend much money (if any) on it. Some see no need to spend real money on virtual items, yet they enjoy Home’s many amusements. There are, in fact, people who have beaten and mastered every game at the Midway without having spent any money at all. Others simply lack the money to spend.
And Home’s most ardent detractors? They, too, love Home — for, as Eric Hoffer points out, “The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not.”
So no, one can love Home and not spend money on it. But there is no question that there are a number of users who do, and a surprising number of users who truly do outlay a tremendous amount of money and time to not just fulfill their own creative energies, but in fact give back to the Home community. I think, perhaps, these people ought to be applauded.
And it does bring up a question that I want to leave you with: how much time and money do you spend when it comes to Home — not just in consumption, but perhaps also in creation?
February 23rd, 2011 by Jersquall | 10 comments
Jersquall is a retired Home Community Volunteer, co-founder of Club HOMEinformer, and podcast commentator for HomeStation Magazine. His views expressed in HSM are his own.
This may sound a bit odd, but, I am a “collector”. I love to buy new things each Thursday morning and then use them to rearrange the furniture in all my personal spaces, redo all my saved avatars into new outfits, play with new items and ‘companions’ and take pics of ALL of it to post in the various Forums and publications. My rationale: what you see in the stores in those tiny little thumbnail pics in the HOme Mall is frustrating and, in some cases, downright misleading. That model train set is considerably smaller than I envisioned and Singe, the dragon is a heck of a lot larger. The Butterfly costume can be broken into a bunch of new outfits not even hinted at in the store display. The Treehouse is a lot more fun than the one pic and the raft of negative comments had led me to believe. So, if pre-viewing something will help you decide if you want to buy something or not, My complete set of pics will be appearing in the Gazette pshomegazette.wordpress.com each Thursday night and some of the fashion pics will be in the HSM Forum and others in the Home Forum. It’s a hobby that costs me about $150 per month average. Which is a LOT less than I would be spending in real life in mall crawls if Home did not exist.
Oh noes! Jersquall beat me to the punch! Lol
Funny, I’d been planning to write an article similar to this one, and perhaps I still might. I’d just like to chime in by saying that you know you have a successful project on your hands (Home) when a community grows up around that project and begins to create its own content for it.
Star Trek anyone?
You know it, Jers!
It’s awesome how much we enjoy ome so much and we want to share it with others. We do what we really love with the talents that each of us have. We are fortunate to even be able to spend money on things we enjoy. Some just can’t. I honestly look at the websites, Podcast and video’s in a way that most do not. The time and money that it takes to do such things.. You just really have to appreciate these things!
Thanks for reading and special thanks to Norse for all the help.
Jers
One of the many benefits of being in a Collective such as Homelings, is that one need spend zero dollars to be a part of it. And because there are so many individuals, one has the opportunity to experience practically all of the private spaces without having to put forth much effort. Likewise, if one wishes to view a certain virtual item or what have you, Homelings that have it are happy to display. Likely, a simple post on our website would do it. Then again, because of Home’s awesome community members like Jersquall and many others, it’s still not too difficult (if one has the means) to be able to view stuff. That said, the preview feature on Home could be much better.
To follow up on what Granny stated, I am also a collector. Games, comics, Strategy Guides, Systems, if it is in eye-sight, chances are I will own it. Home was something that I’ve been waiting for since the announcement and while it was a rough start, what application or game didn’t have such a feat? I mean, Home has brought me so much joy and helped with my creations beyond anything that I can imagine. The thought of consolidation on items that I’ve purchased in the past month isn’t only uncanny but baffling.
Home gives you the options to be whatever, however you want to be within reasonable limits. To be honest, I was one of the people that stated “I’m never going to spend money on this…EVER!”
Glad I took the risk to buy an outfit to enhance my look.
VERY good article, Jersquall.
I was one of those ppl that wasn’t going to spend any money on home as well.Around the time i had made a few friends and we turned into a close-knit group this changed.I started buying apts. to have a change of scenery when we hung out,things took off from there and now that i have all the apts. i care to own i spend on furnishings and clothes.Like keara this is cash i’d be spending at the mall or somewhere else but i gladly spend it to enhance the total home experience for myself and friends.This is one of many,many examples of the social aspects of home turning into profits for sony.
I was also one of those people that said I would never spend any money in Home when I first discovered it. But of course that has changed, a lot! I am not one of those that has money to burn either since I currently am not working, but I still will throw $5 in my account when I see a new space or (especially) clothing that I like. I see my avatar as a 3D paper doll that I can dress up in combos that no one else has, it is my form of creativity in here. I also own several spaces which I love to decorate and redecorate until I get them just right, then do it again when a new piece of exceptional furniture comes out. I also have found a creative opening in writing for this magazine, something I would have never found if it weren’t for Home, though I have been a writer for many years of different kinds of material. Thank you Sony for creating this marvelous place that we all love, and keep up the good work!
PS Jer, great article!! And I love the idea you came up with about the HCV as well, great thinking, and another sign that this community we call Home is just that, a social community the likes of which has never been seen in the gaming world. It is much more than a game!