Arabian Nights: A Tale of (Virtual) Travel and Friendship
by LiLBlueEyes, HSM guest contributor
Some of you might remember when Home open beta first went live. The first notable added lounge was the Red Bull races — a fun game with odd diffused lighting and ambient sound. I was a girl of fifteen, pushing my way through the crowd, trying to find that magic “X” to fly one of the planes through the hoops.
I guess I must have been cute as a button back then, because someone was willing to help me. One guy told me to put down a bubble machine, lock on it, scroll around with the D-pad and thus I could land on an “X” every time. It worked, and after playing a few games, I found that man to thank him. We started to talk, and I began to notice that the way he wrote certain words was different then everyone else’s. Through discussion, I learned he was from the United Kingdom; at first, I thought he was living in the United States, but no — he said he was sitting in his flat in London.
“How can this be, mister?” I asked.
He sent me a private message explaining how he accomplished it. I thought he was lying, but it nagged at me for days; what if there were other PlayStation Homes like he claimed?
So I set up another account and put in my country of origin as the UK. And then I was off to jolly old England. When I arrived on the other side of the virtual Atlantic, I was disappointed. Why was I sent back to my studio apartment in the USA? I didn’t realize yet that everyone in Home starts out in the same space.
It's like deja vu all over again
After going through the orientation process, I decided to see if I had just made another account for the USA or if I was actually in a new place. Stepping to the door leading out to the plaza, I noticed it said Home Square - that was different.
I got scared as I waited to arrive there; I didn’t know what to expect. The British are proper and cordial, and I was a wild child from across the pond.
The first thing I remember was the layout of the square; to me it was quite beautiful, like something from a more innocent time. I ran around taking in everything, grabbing the occasional stranger to tell them, “Look, there’s fish in that stream!”
The people who could understand English would say, “We know, we know, we’ve seen them a million times.”
It soon became apparent from my high energy and zeal for all things new, that I wasn’t from around these parts. I’ll never forget the first time someone asked where I was from. When I said the USA, they were confused like me.
I can’t claim I was the first person to ever cross the Sony Atlantic. I am sure there were others before me, but I suspect they came in, did reconnaissance, studied the locals and snuck out; they didn’t run around the square screaming like a village idiot, as I did.
Most of the reactions from the locals I got were, “Aaaaah Yank!” And they would bolt in the other direction. You’d have thought I had virtual B.O. by the way they’d turn tail and run. Over time I learned to calm down. Subsequently, I started visiting UK Home more frequently.
And that’s when the specific subject of this article took place.
One time, I noticed a disturbance in the square, near the arched wooden bridge. A mob was picking on a boy; apparently because of his name, he wasn’t well received. His name was Majjoodi, and they were calling him “suicide bomber”, “camel humper” and even worse. I had never seen an avatar so trampled; there Majjoodi sat with his head down, begging people to stop cursing him.
I knew had to get him out of there before the hooligans did more damage. I invited him bowling and struck up a friendship with him. I found out his name was Majed, and he was from Saudi Arabia. When I first met Majjoodi, he was even lower then a noob; he was older than I, at sixteen, but he knew absolutely nothing about Home or how to interact in a virtual world. However, that worked out fine, because I had nothing in the UK, so together we won our matching Ice Breaker clothes. I then taught him how to glitch. Slowly, I could see his self esteem building with each new hurdle he conquered. I then taught him how to “travel” to the different regions of Home — even to Japan, which was at the time very hard.
Then, like all good things, our friendship cooled. It wasn’t something that either of us intended, and it wasn’t due to some drama. People and friendships come and go on Home, just like in real life, and that’s that. I started building a name for myself in my native Home. Majjoodi started gaming more, and is currently in the second spot on the PSN trophy leader boards in total trophies in all of Saudi Arabia; he will be first someday. I am sure of this.
And yet, even though we’ve taken different paths, I always get a tear in my eye when I think of that beaten-down boy and where he is now, and how far he has come.
Thank you, Home, for bringing people of all cultures together.
(The Editor would like to extend a special thank-you to Darkan12 with providing an image of the old EU Home Square.)
July 1st, 2011 by LiLBlueEyes | 5 comments
LilBlueEyes is a Home citizen and high-school student in the United States.
Good story Lil Blue. I too have made many friends for all over the world here in Home. One of the first people I met here is from El Salvador, and we are still friends to this day. I have friends from South America, England, Netherlands, Bahrain even. It has always amazed me how many different cultures and wonderful people have merged together here in our Home.
Thank you Burbie,
I think its wonderful that Home allows us to sit and chat and play games with people from all over the world… in a way Home is one big classroom, you can read in a book or magazine about how people from all over the world live, or you can get on Home and talk to people from all over the world and learn first hand. I have also learned how to cuss people out in 5 different languages, maybe not the greatest accomplishment but they were the easiest words to learn for some reason LoL..
A well written engaging article about an adventure in the virtual world of Sony’s make.believe world, our world if we choose it to be. Thank you
I still think you’re cute as a button
Thank you Fleetwood and Eli