Deprived of Home – Tales From A Pro
by Terra_Cide, HSM copy editor
So, recently you’ve been deprived of a major source of personal fun and enjoyment in your life. Indeed, it may even be the very reason you get out of bed in the morning, besides the need to pay bills.
What I’m referring to of course is our much beloved Home.
How many of you out there have been wringing your hands uncontrollably, bemoaning, either mentally or aloud, ‘Oh what to do? What. To. Dooo!!!eleven!!”
It’s okay to raise your hand; your secret’s safe with me.
Oh people, people, people. Welcome to my world.
To your left is the buffet, and to the right is the beverage table. Do help yourself. There will be cake for dessert, and it won’t even be a lie.
I currently lack a PS3 as well as the sufficient means to obtain one. I also haven’t seen the inside of Home since October 2010. Do I miss it? Well, given the outlet it provided me, yeah, I guess you can say that yes, I did.
Note the word “did.”
Because you see – and as Gideon so aptly pointed out in his article – the friends in Home who truly matter to me – and without some form of regular contact with I would go much, much more crazy than I already am – have many other ways of contacting me. They have my personal email address, they have my phone number, they’re on my Facebook and/or PlayStation Home Today friends list. And more and more are finding me through mutual friends. It’s actually quite moving to realize that these people haven’t forgotten me. I know I haven’t forgotten any of them.
Want to hear something else pretty damn amazing? Not a single one of them has deleted me from their friends list on the PSN.
Now, I could very easily turn this into a rant about how, as it’s been the mantra of HomeStation since it’s day of genesis, that what truly makes Home is its social connections and community, not its gaming aspects; that people move products, products don’t move people, and so on and so forth. But then I’d be completely going off topic.
Really what it is I want to talk about is this: yes, it is a pain, an inconvenience and an annoyance that Home is down. But Home isn’t the end-all and be-all to life.
Yeah, I said it.
Don’t misunderstand me – I’m not trying to say that my offline life is all that much better without Home, or that it’s all that wonderful, period. Because believe me, it really isn’t. As a single parent trying to start my life all over again, my day-to-day life is quite stressful, on many levels. Some of the things I’ve had to endure in recent months would have driven most people to alcoholism or drug addiction – or both. As an example – about three weeks ago, I had to take my son to the ER with pneumonia, and ended up having to be sent via ambulance to stay overnight under observation at the children’s hospital in Portland. While I am eternally grateful that the doctors in the ER took their job seriously enough to realize that my son’s condition needed a level of expertise that far exceeded their hospital’s, I just got the bill for that visit. Thank goodness he’s still on his father’s insurance, otherwise I would have had to sell my car to cover it.
And that’s just the edge of the tip of the iceberg.
You know what they call that? It’s isn’t tough luck, or hard times, or anything like that. It’s called Life. And Life is what you choose to make it.
I choose not to let these challenges (and hoo boy, are they challenges) define who I am. I don’t allow myself to be under my circumstances. Nor do I let what I am incapable of doing limit the amount of involvement I have here at HSM.
Ob la di, ob la da, and all that.
So I’m sorry if I come across as a bit unsympathetic to everyone’s lament of the lack of Home this weekend. I know it sucks. I know you miss your friends, your groups, your gatherings, your events, and your games. I know I miss the regular contact I used to enjoy with my friends too, and the fun we’d have together. Yet if these bonds that you’ve created with the people you’ve met on Home are friendships that are comparable to real life, you’re going to maintain that connection, regardless of the media you utilize. And for you who are reading this, you’re going to get the enjoyment of Home back much sooner than I. Do I feel slightly envious of that fact? Maybe, but really, what I do hope is this: that out of this event, you learn to truly appreciate what you have.
It’s an unfortunate fact that we live in an increasing culture of instant gratification. The nanosecond something goes awry, we demand that it’s fixed this very instant, and if it isn’t, there will be much stamping of feet and rabble-rousing. We’re downright indignant when our needs – which are actually misaligned wants – are not instantly met. It’s as if we’ve all collectively forgotten that it wasn’t very long ago when even the opportunity to have these desires met so swiftly was nonexistent, and that we’re also, well, adults.
My three-year-old gets very little slack cut when it comes to throwing tantrums. I give absolutely no quarter whatsoever to adults who adopt similar behaviors. And I lack the adequate amount of conscious to feel guilty about that.
I also found something far more significant in my time away. Something that no one can take away from me.
I can’t really tell you what that is, though. It will be different for each and every one of you, should you choose to search for it. It may enrich your Home experience when it returns, or it may give you a perspective you lacked prior to all of this. Perhaps it is a realignment of priorities, perhaps it’s reacquainting yourself with a past passion. Maybe it’s even getting to know friends from Home a little better, in an environment outside of Home.
So as you log on in the future and resume life as normal – and your mileage may vary with that phrase – think about how your life was before Home. Think about how your life was when Home was taken from you. And appreciate the service that is yours to use perhaps a little more than you did this past Wednesday. And also appreciate the people who work silently behind the scenes to provide such a fantastic virtual playground for you to enjoy. They deserve respect, too.
April 26th, 2011 by Terra_Cide | 3 comments
Terra _Cide is the former Community Manager for Lockwood Publishing and Editor Emeritus for HomeStation Magazine.
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I agree 100% with that assessment Terra. The people at Sony deserve our patience and respect for what I am sure is an extremely upsetting and stressful time for them. The developers who are losing thousands of dollars a day do as well. People seem to forget that they didn’t ask for any of this. The people responsible are the ones we should be angry with, whomever they are.
And I for one have tried to use my down time from this in a constructive way, because being negative and whiny gets you nowhere, and is detrimental not helpful to anyone including yourself.
Great perspective and article as always. And I for one hope you get a PS3 back ASAP.
Indeed. Real life is full (really full) for this particular Home user. And, although it is missed greatly, the majority of friendship interactions that originated on Home are still quite happening -- whether on Fluidic Space, here, Facebook, Twitter… the list goes on, but thus far, interactions of said friendships in the real world are yet to take place. Being Canadian, and dwelling on the west coast does not help to facilitate this
But that’s where Home really comes into play. To escape the daily challenges and pitfalls -- even if only for a few moments -- and to spend time with friends that (for the most part) are not even aware of any of it.
When in Home, Home IS home. And the friends there (some which are never communicated with outside of that realm) are family.
If Home were to cease altogether, it would be a ver VERY difficult time for many.
Here’s the missing y from the above reply.