How Military Gamers Feel About Home
by cajun4life, HSM team writer
Military life, from time to time, really isn’t easy. Even though there are a lot of great things about the military, there are also some cons. But a person can always overcome those cons and just look toward the future, like I do.
Let’s talk about military life real quick – at least what I can talk about – and in particular, the military life in the U.S. Navy. Now, granted, a lot of things are the same between each branch of the service, but there’s a lot that’s different as well. So instead of going through each detail about that, I am just going to talk about the U.S. Navy’s version.
After boot camp, which usually takes about seven to nine weeks – as long as you pass along the way – you got an ‘A’ school to go through. ‘A’ school is pretty much where you learn your rate that you have selected to be. Each school is different, so we will say, on average, that school takes about two months.
After that we finally get to see the real Navy, which — unless you are very, very lucky — you get stationed on your first command, which is a sea-going command. First order of business is to get trained while on the ship; this usually takes about eight to twelve months to get qualified in the things you really need in order to help the command be able to do its job. So this means a lot of learning, studying, test taking and late days, while still all the while doing the job for your division that no one else wants to do – like paint out a space.
Also, you’ve got your duty days. Duty days are pretty much where you have to stay on the ship for a night. So while all of this is going on, you still got the timeframe for the ship. To make it short, it’s kind of like this; maintance period, training period, qualifying period, final phase, and then deployment. Each one of those periods times last about a month, with the final phase lasting about two months, depending on if your command passes. Then, finally we get the deployment. Deployments are usually six months, but every now and then, they could be longer.
With all that in mind, I know there are some people out there thinking that technology is more advanced these days, so just bring your PS3 with you. As most of us know, military folks are able to talk to their families a little more often, thanks to technology. And I used to bring my PS3 with me on duty days and deployments. Even though I can bring mine with me, it doesn’t mean I’m able to connect it to the internet, especially once we are underway.
Connecting a device to the command internet is a very bad thing to do, and is not openly available on every ship for security reasons that I really am not going to get into. Just know they are there.
So: now that everyone has a little more understanding about life in the Navy, lets go back to the title of the article.
First, let’s talk about the military gamers that don’t even know about Home. Between their jobs and wanting to play their favorite games, they just don’t have time to be able to play Home — and really don’t even know about it, because there’s no area of Home that really advertises the military. Yes, Home had that small showing in the theater with The Army Ranger, but since then, nothing.
You have some military gamers who have tried Home, but due to the military, they just can’t keep up with Home, and thus would rather play video games. These people gave Home a try, but then had to go on deployment. When they came back, they just stuck with games, because they notice others have these cool items that the military gamer will never be able to get.
Next you have the military gamers like me. The ones who know about Home, have fun in Home, but feel to a degree that Home is not made with military gamers in mind. What I mean by that is we can enjoy Home at night when off work, but still have to leave for deployments, and stay on the ship for duty days. We come back from deployments, underways, and duty days, and just can’t wait to get into Home to see what has changed.
But at the same time, we feel disappointed when we find out that a cool item came out while we were gone, but you can’t get it any more. It was only for that one day or that month-long event. Personally, I’m dissappointed that I will never be able to get those items from last year’s E3 event for the PlayStation Home. You know the items: the cool rug and couch with the Home insignia on them.
So, let’s talk about ways that a lot of other military gamers and I came up with to try to fix some of these problems and make Home a little more military gamer-friendly.
First of all, those items and events that we miss; we really don’t miss the events too much because we can read about the on the forums and different PlayStation Home websites. But the items – that disappoints a lot of us.
A way to fix that would be to open a store in the mall, which has these items, and charge twenty-five cents for them. The amount doesn’t have to be a lot; they were free in the first place, and a lot of the military gamers agree – they would pay twenty-five cents each for last year’s E3 rug, and for the couch. The are a lot of pros of doing it this way; here are just a few of the big pros:
- Everyone would get a chance to get the items, not just military gamers.
- PlayStation Home would be able to earn a little more income on an item that never earned them the money back it took to create it in the first place.
Are there any cons? Sure – there are always pros and cons of everything. Really, the only big con we could come up with was that some of the Home users might say that they were there right when the space opened, so why should others have a chance to get it? Our answer to that: “You got it for free. We are paying for ours.”
Now Home has come up with some items for us military gamers that a lot of military gamers don’t even know about. For example, the officer outifts from the movie ‘Top Gun’ or the old sailor outfit in Costumes. But how about maybe working with the military, and making a space? Like some of the websites that are out there for information about joining the military, except interactive. In such a space, you’d have mini games, with medals for rewards. Mini-games for the Navy’s version of such a space could be like another version of Battleship (note: if you heard an enthusiastic-sounding squeal when you got to the word ‘Battleship,’ it’s because that is the Editor’s most favorite board game – ever. No, seriously. She really likes it). This topic of new space ideas can go on and on.
The main thing is this: Home is, as of right now, forever going to grow and grow. And a lot of military folks just don’t have the time to be able to come up with ideas or voice our opinion. Sony has put up a forum for us to be able to post our complaints, and trust me, there are enough of those, but – going back to the security thing on the ship – many ships do not allow that while we are underway. Besides, there are already enough of posts about complaints – I know I used to be one of them – but maybe next time you go to complain about something, try to think of a way to fix it, just like I did in this article. The more ideas that are put on paper (or computer), the bigger and better Home can be. Remember Home users – think community.
July 21st, 2011 by cajun4life | 7 comments
Been a gamer for a while, but a quiet gamer. In other words I am selective on the games I play. I also love computers. But, due to my military life, I usually have to put those last. But I still enjoy it as much as I can.
Absolutely right Cajun! I love your idea of a military style space for Home. It makes sense in so many way, not only for the people in the military, but also those gamers who play FPS and love war games. I think it should have an area in the space that represents each branch and has corresponding games for each one too. This type of space would not only be popular with the young men who make up a big chunk of Home it would also be a way for us as a community to give back to those who allow us to keep this way of life. Thanks for your service to our country. And the part about selling the items from the E3 is a great one. Sony should do that every year after a few months have passed it would be a good way for them to be compensated for all they do for us. Good job on the article, glad yuo came to the team.
And congrats to Olivia Allin for that incredible pic on the pier with the ship in the background!
Indeed, she did a great job on that.
It looks much like one taken of my father -- albeit with a battleship in the background (his had an aircraft carrier).
Really liked your article on military life, I have a family member that serves with Royal Navy, so he leads similar life to yours, very difficult communicating with him via social network sites, due to security issues surrounding internet. (But we get there in the end)
I like your idea of a military space, be it a carrier craft, or an Army Barracks with mini game thrown in. I personally always wanted to see a remake of ’80s arcade game ‘Combat School’ that could possibly work on Playstation Home.
Great article and welcome to the team
Interesting article to be sure.
The idea of a store charging for item rewards given for free has merits and I have no objections although I can understand why some would object because rewards are to be earned.
There are military spaces like Raven, Sver and Valor (which has an aviation feel with a helicopter). I don’t like boats but I already have Home’s yachts so maybe I’d go for a Navy boat, an Air Force space (hangar, bomber), and the list goes on.
Just don’t make a basic training video game, once is enough (the 60s, U.S. Army). Then again, why not? And follow up with AIT which would vary from infantry, armor, mechanic in vehicles or aviation, or cooks. Ha ha ha! A military cooking game? What’s so funny? How you like the cooking cajun4life? Should there be a military cooking space?
One thing I remember about basic training was when a DI told us the reason they were rough on us was because we’re trying to save your bleeping lives.
I hate it when html doesn’t work because of a mistake and messed up the post. Wish there was an edit option.
I forgot to mention btw that there is a movie coming out based on the Battleship game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_%28film%29
(Let’s see how bad I misfired on this html.) LOL
Maybe Sony and the Military could strike a deal. There are Military discounts at certain places. Maybe Sony could give you folks vouchers that are made just for Military Personnel. You shouldn’t have to pay for the items after putting your lives on the line for this country. Since they were for free, its a fair deal.