Your Own Personal Time Machine
by CheekyGuy, HSM team writer
Playstation Home has seen some dramatic changes to its private-estate concept within the three years in which it became Open Beta.
The original PlayStation console in itself, back in 1995, was able to handle impressive effects, complex lighting and texturing. Fast-forward to the PS3, and that has only improved. If anything, there is a general sense that the PS3 has massive capabilities which only now are being explored.
As an example of this attention to detail in today’s console, the Amaterasu Yacht has now been re-named in order to highlight a unique new feature: the ability to change time of day.
And the results are breathtaking to say the least!
Walk your avatar to the stern of the yacht, toward a sundial imprinted onto the wooden floorboard. Select the controls. Clicking the D-pad in any given direction will change the skyline to a different color and hue within a matter of seconds. This diurnal feature can change quickly in a cycle ranging from sunrise to sunset, but there is an option to allow you to pause it, in order to give you the mood and setting that you want.
Imagine having friends over for a party, and some of them complain that it’s too bright? Flick the D-pad for sunset and they can put away their sunglasses. Because, if we’re honest, the new lighting scheme is a bit harsh.
Or to have that romantic, star-filled evening outside with that special somebody? Flick the D-pad to night setting and let the mood take care of the rest.
Along with live video feeds from NASA, featured on an impossibly large screen, it does say a lot into the direction Home could be facing. Will third parties be streaming their video content in the future? Can it be possible to rent movies and watch them from the comfort of your Yacht or other EOD-equipped space with your friends?
While these are new innovations for Home, I do want to point out that they’re not new to virtual worlds in general. As a Second Life user, trust me: these features aren’t new. Second Life has always had time-change settings, which is available to use both in your private ‘sim’ and in open-world public areas, since it doesn’t affect anybody else. As Second Life, however, is a PC-based experience, everybody else has their own settings; it’s just a simple drag of a mouse to the ‘Enviroment’ settings and choosing the desired ambience. So you might be talking with a friend at night, and they have daytime selected.
Live video and audio streaming from a variety of networks has always been around in Second Life, too; radio channels can be heard wherever you teleport, at home, shopping, or at a nightclub, but this can be just as easily be switched off in the same manner as a light switch. When we bought our own sim, we added media content and got the radio station we wanted. The new TV sets that we have can hold a variety of channels, from freeware movies, independent and recognised cartoons (classic Warner Bros. comes to mind) and music videos of your favorite artists. Even down to how we watch movies: Second Life has a variety of independent video rental stores in which to buy or rent movies, the latter being the more expensive option, but I prefer to take the kids to the movie theatre to watch fully streamed movies surrounded by a dozen text bubbles. The feature of time change is more or less to accompany and perhaps enchance your experience.
This is not to say that Second Life is superior to Home; anyone with decent eyesight can see that the graphical superiority of Home is obvious, and there are many elements of Home which are superior to Second Life and other virtual worlds out there. Rather, I’m pointing out that I’m encouraged Home is choosing to implement more social features as well as gaming features. Yes, the new core client update which has just been announced by Sony focuses heavily on gaming elements, but it is good to see that the social elements of Home have not been forgotten.
Games come and go, but it’s the connections between people that keep us coming back. Deepen that experience, and you deepen the attraction to Home for a lot of people with a lot of discretionary income to spend.
Could this be the shape of things to come? I certainly hope so.
Take the Summer House as an example: the Party At Jess’ House is the same thing, only at night and with music. How many more Summer Houses could be sold, I wonder, if it was upgraded in a similar fashion to the Sunset Yacht? I’d love to, with a flip of a switch, turn my Summer House into a nighttime party pad.
Come to think of it, how would the sales of all private estates go up if they all had such a diurnal-cycle upgrade implemented?
LOOT’s Sunset Yacht just may be the way forward with what is to become the next big, must-have feature on Home.
February 26th, 2011 by CheekyGuy | 1 comment
CheekyGuy is a loveable, mischievous Brit who first entered virtual reality via Second Life, and now frequents Home as a Grey Gamer to keep in touch with friends. In real life, Cheeky is a video editor who has just completed a Master's degree in screenwriting from Liverpool John Moores University.
OPTIONS OPTIONS OPTIONS,this can not be said enough gamers love options.The more options to explore the better,makes it seem like your getting more than u really are and allows you to fine tune your experience just the way u like.OPTIONS OPTIONS OPTIONS,lol.