100 Free Items and Seal
by SealWyf, HSM team writer
Life never lives up to our fantasies. If there’s any lesson we should have learned in childhood, it is this. Opening a new, clean notebook on the first day of class will not make you brilliant. The toy you’ve been pleading for is a lot flimsier than it looked in the advertisement. And the box under the Christmas tree will almost never contain a pony.
But, somehow, we never learn. Even when the Christmas box contains underwear, we keep on hoping. After all, the pony might be in the next box. And your birthday is just a few months away. Surely, there will be a pony then.
So, when Sony announced that part of its “Welcome Home” package, the reward for our loyalty and patience during the PSN outage, would include one hundred free virtual items, I was thrilled. Admit it — so were you. So were we all. We joked about receiving a hundred free tee-shirts, but none of us believed it. A hundred items was bound to include a pony or two. Perhaps a whole stable of them!
The Male Pirate top, the Superhero legs and the Harry hairstyle create a distinctive look
This was the first step of my personal trajectory through the Hundred Free Items Experience: Anticipation. Your milage may have varied. But I’m willing to bet we shared some emotions. And the first one was that “Oh my God, it’s Christmas morning!” feeling, as we poured back into Home and hurried to the kiosk to claim our… female Bike Messenger costume?
As I scanned through the choices, I felt myself descending into the second stage of the process. The “Where’s my pony?” stage. Acute Disappointment.
True, it wasn’t all bad. I had scored a free Mansion Garage, something I probably would not have purchased. But… did I really want one? The Mummy Suit was something I had considered buying. Now, I had two of them, male and female, free. That was sort of like a pony. Some of the Paris Modern furniture was pretty cool, and I didn’t own all of it. I probably would have gotten around to buying the Novus Prime Escalation pack eventually.
I made a printout of the full list of 100 items and color-coded them with highlighter pens. Yellow for “Male clothing, which I do not want.” Green for “Female clothing that I don’t want.” Pink for “Stuff I already own.” And so on, until I got to the orange highlighter for the remaining, “Not bad — I might have bought this eventually.” Then I counted up the lines.
The King Tut skirt, and very little else.
As a female who rarely uses male avatars, I found myself once again sabotaged by the male-heavy demographics of Home. Of the hundred items, 49 were male clothing. In other words, half of the offerings were pretty much useless to me. The second-largest category was 28 items of female clothing that were not to my taste, including a Fighter Pilot outfit, a Bangkok Hat, a Shark Mask, and two Storage-bound tee shirts.
Add the five non-clothing items that I did not want, and the four items I already owned, and the residual “pony” total was down to thirteen. Some of these were furniture collections that included items I already had. But there were also the attractive Amaterasu speakers and umbrella, the Cherrylicous Tee with Necklace, the Animated Flower Dress and the delighfully creepy Mummy Suit!
So, as a free haul, it wasn’t all that bad. I decided to download the stuff I wanted, and leave the rest alone. I didn’t need more junk filling up my inventory. Excess inventory items had apparently caused the Reward Freeze bug. No need to risk more problems by being greedy.
And so I entered the third stage of my journey: Rejection. I would keep the good stuff, and reject the rest. I still felt disappointment. But I also felt some smug satisfaction at not being like the rest of the Home users, who were running around in Sailor Suits and King Tut costumes and Captain Inflame-o regalia. They weren’t fooling anyone. We all knew where they had gotten them — they might as well be wearing blue Home logo tee shirts. We knew they were noobs.
Shark mask, Flowering Dress, Astronaut Boots, Cowgirl Rope. Who said fun had to make sense?
Which made me realize something about the illusion of value in Home. We value things that are hard to get — things that cost you either time or money. For most of us, time is worth more. We look up to those who actually earned the full glowing sleeve on the Salt Shooter jacket, or the diamond Poker bracelet. We value purchased items somewhat less. But we still value them more than items we know are free, and took no skill to acquire. If someone is wearing free clothes in home, they had better have a sense of style in combining them, or they will be ignored, unless and until they can show they have a brain.
So making something free changes its value. As I watched Central Plaza fill up with Mummies, I realized how cheated those who had purchased the outfit at full price must feel. Being a Mummy had taken a bit of cash, and there never all that many of them in circulation. Now they were everywhere. I was glad so few of the Hundred Free Items duplicated my own possessions.
A mummy flash mob. Mouldering bandages were never quite so fun.
But, darn it — those Mummies and Sailors and Fighter Pilots and Superheroes were all having so much fun. They were everywhere. And I was still dressed in tasteful little combinations, outfits that had been built with cash and game-mastery and careful experimentation.
They were gorgeous. But they weren’t silly. Not like what I was seeing in Central Plaza. Where the message “I got this for free!” was part of the silliness, but also part of the fun and pride.
And so I entered the last stage of my quest: Acceptance, combined with playful experimentation. I returned to the kiosk, and downloaded every free item. I brought out my long-unused male avatar, and made him some kickass silly outfits. I did the same with my female avatar. Who knew that Shark Masks worked so well with Animated Flowered Dresses? I gathered some friends, and we wandered around Home as a gang of Mummies, snapping pictures.
It was… fun. I’ll be keeping some of those experimental avatars. And I have plans for larger and sillier Mummy Flash Mobs, if I can lure more friends into the joke.
Hey, relax. These things are free. They might not be what we asked for, but we might as well enjoy them.
In Home, we make our own ponies.
June 20th, 2011 by SealWyf_ | 26 comments
SealWyf is a museum database programmer, who has been active in online communities since before the Internet, and in console gaming since the PS1. In games, she prefers the beautiful and quirky, and anything with a strong storyline. She is obsessed with creating new aesthetic experiences in PlayStation Home.
Actually, I took the free Mansion garage which, without cars in it, could be turned into something similar to the loft I had in Greenwich Village decades ago. Using the free furniture items, plus a few other freebies I had collected over the past year, it became a showplace.
Now if only I could throw a saddle on it……
I did wonders with very little in my empty garage as well granny. It was fun trying to figure out what to do with that huge space and I may change it up as time goes on.
I turned my Garage into a game room. The Chess and Checkers tables were already burned in. I added some arcade cabinets, plus a Pool Table and Poker Table. Outside, I have picnic tables and a barbeque. I just wish we could shoehorn in some more active items, so I could add a dance floor and music!
I am very satisfied that Sony gave us anything at all. Many people act as though they owed us the world for 24 days of inconvenience. They didn’t. But I took all of the free stuff male or female except those silly city hats and a few odds and ends like the shark head.
I feel as though they actually did a fairly good job at this especially combined with the free games they gave us, Infamous is a gas to play. Great article Seal and I think you hit the nail on the head with your stages, because basically the little kid comes out in us all when we get something for free in Home, even if it is a t-shirt.
I’d love to join your mummy parade Seal! I have four mummy outfits…oh wait, no, I bought one, the female one, but she didn’t dance right, so then I bought the male one the following day. Then, they wanted to give me two more. I wonder if the freebie one dances correctly? Hmm…
It seems to, Eli. I’ll have to post an event on FS. I’m just trying to decide whether it’s “The Mummies Go Bowling”, “The Mummies Go to the Mall”, or some other venue. Suggestions are welcome!
We could have a mummy-fest like the zombie-fest we had back in October lol! I will join that parade! You should film it and that way we can all get really goofy. And Terra is right Zombies want brains, so liver doesn’t sound too bad, I love a good liver and onions!
Count me in! Grand-Mummy
Mummies at the beach. Yes.
Random avatar at beach: Hello. Do you want to join my fam?
Mummy: Brainnnzzzz!
I thought only zombies went after brains? Maybe the mummies should go after another organ, in order not to confuse things. I suggest the liver.
Excellent stuff! Understanding the “Why” of disappointment for getting free things is interesting. Logically there can be no downside. Emotionally it is huge. This dichotomy of reason and feelings is what keeps the storytellers and pharmaceutical companies in business. This is a great breakdown of what is happening on the wide scale.
BTW, there is a pony you can buy, you just can’t ride it. Make sure in the suggestions that you specify “rideable” when referring to ponies.
Another note, when the free item window is over, all the items will have a new look. This article begs for a follow up in two months.
Excellent idea, deuce_for2! How many people will be lamenting that they didn’t pick up the Bangkok Hat while they had the chance?
Items definitely lose value in the eyes of the players when they are free. As you say, what will be the reaction when they are not free anymore? Non-takers remorse? Will the items gain some luster back?
Six months from now, how will people perceive the Mansion Garage when you have to buy it to get it? I bet there will be complaints. People complained it was too expensive and people complained it is free. The constant here: complaining.
Yes there seems to be a certain % of ppl that will complain about anything.Nothing will make these ppl happy and if you go to great lengths to try to stop their complaints you will only receive more complaints.This type of person is also the type of person that in 2or3 months will be the most likely to complain that there’s nothing fun to do in Home.They have few if any ideas about how to stop their complaining but expect someone else to come up with new idea’s to keep them occupied/interested,and then will start complaining about the new ideas offered.It’s probably best to pay them little if any attention at all as the thing they excel at the best is distracting constructive progress.I think at heart,at least in this situation,they are complaining about some things being free because they had already bought some of those items and are silently kicking themselves because they feel had they not purchased these things earlier they would be getting them free now.Well that’s the way things go sometimes,we can’t all win the lottery,but how they conduct themselves in these kinds of situations says more about their character than a million words out of their mouths ever could.
Thank you for the article. It was great fun! I cried a little at the end, because well written concepts do that to me and because I’m glad to know that people feel about Home like I do.
Another wonderful article,Seal!
Hooraaaay mummy suit! Lulz I was pretty happy about that one too, hehe.
i like the free stuff… some of it i had but alot i didnt..!
I found alot of useful stuff but I’m not clear about how someone could be disappointed by getting something for nothing.
deuce has a good point -- I think maybe Sony didn’t really think this thing through. It was a terrific gesture -- and really not necessary -- but I can understand the motivation. Problem is, they said ‘new items will be included’ and a lot of people construed this to mean “100 NEW items for free”.
I say never look a gift horse (or pony) in the mouth. These items were free! I for one didn’t have many of them and even though I dont use my femvatar often, I made sure to get everything I didn’t have. I say it’s better to have them and not want them to want them later and not have them.
I didn’t have great expectations originally because I thought I had bought so much already that there would be a lot of duplicates. I haven’t quantified it but it seems far less so than I thought it would be. On the downside, getting a garage didn’t exactly excite me, and realizing so many would now have the mummy outfit I had previously bought and so loved was somewhat disappointing, but having more drooling, arm-drooping mummies around is kinda cool too. So I guess the only boo coming from me is the one I make when wearing that outfit.
i did feel like they owed us and what we have received is inadequate . i use credit cards on all my accounts and just the possibility of someone having the power to ruin me financialy is a huge deal.For them to give us used items is a slap in the face.we should be disatisfied and cautious and scared.i have since removed my cc and have the protection but the hackers know when the 1 year is up
A well-written article with acute observations and yet….FUN!
Awesome article, and fantastic outlook!
It really ticks me off, this virtual slamming of noobs in Home for wearing what they are given for free. >:(
We were all once noobs ourselves (I’m still a noob by comparison to others), and it is only by coming to Home repeatedly to find out if one likes it that they can decide whether to spend real money on clothing or items. If the vet’s of Home keep making fun of and ignoring the noobs, how are they ever to feel welcome at all? If they don’t feel welcome, they won’t buy new clothing, and will simply leave… resulting in one big snobbish Home clique of vet’s.
Attitudes and perceptions need to remain open minded if Home is to grow to it’s full potential. Embmrace the noobs and their free gear, for we once stood in their shoes looking up in awe and bewilderment as they do now to the vet’s of Home.