Through the Looking Glass: Home’s Refractive Reflections
by Danger_Dad, HSM guest contributor
Of course, every reader recalls the classic tale by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, written under his pen name of Lewis Carroll. Little Alice, the heroine, finds herself transported to a fantasy world that at first, seems so bizarre as to leave her disoriented – as well as the reader along with her. But upon reflection, the reader is able to discern our own world there, however distorted by Carroll’s mirrors of social commentary and parody.
I’ve noticed that Home is a bit like that too, without even trying to be.
For the most part, Home’s 3-D virtual world tries to emulate the world around us as convincingly as possible. The movements of our avatars are carefully worked out ahead of time. We have believable dance moves, of course, but the more subtle things are there, too. Our avatars move in an accurate approximation of walking and jogging. They gesture with their hands automatically as we type our speech. Even when we’re away from the controls briefly, our avatars will cycle through their default animations, shifting their weight from one foot to another, and even automatically glancing at passersby, instead of standing like immobile mannequins.
Also, the 3-D rendering is well thought out. Objects in Home will be brighter or dimmer, shaded according to the lights around them. The shadows cast by our avatars will move as we do, and in real time. Textures such as cloth, wood, concrete, glass, steel, leather and rubber are all convincing. Water ripples and reflects believably. Birds fly overhead; their shadows on the ground sometimes being our first clue to their presence. Even mirrors will reflect our actions.
These subtle details all dovetail together to make the simulation of the real world satisfying. However, there are aspects of reality that cannot be emulated mathematically by Home’s engines.
Poverty vs. Wealth
Consider the pictures below. In the one on the left, my Harbor Studio’s conversation area has six matching white leather chairs, with chrome trim. In the real world, such a display would be costly. Matching furniture would be bought new, of course, and six pieces would cost six times as much. In the picture to the right, we see six seats similarly arranged, except that they are mismatched, with different shapes and colors. A poorer family would live this way, with their furniture bought second hand, one or two pieces at a time.
However, in the virtual world of Home, the truth is just the opposite. Matching furniture is as easy as placing the same 3D model into place six times – or twenty – while the simulation of poverty requires six different models, each of which must be obtained separately. Thus, the illusion of wealth is cheap, and the illusion of poverty is expensive. We see that Home’s reflection of the real world reverses some things that we would not have expected it to.
Also of interest, the “expensive” chair was actually free – from the Assassin’s Creed area. Looks can be so deceiving.
Messiness vs. Neatness
In the images below, we see that my Playstation Mansion’s first floor recreation area and Infinity Pool are a bit… untidy. I’ll joke to visitors, “Please excuse the mess; I haven’t had time to clean.”
Or I’ll point to the patio furniture scattered in the pool and explain, “That was some party last weekend. Too bad you missed it.”
In truth, this is another inversion, or area where the real world is reflected in the virtual world distortedly. In reality, such messes are the result of negligence, and straightening them out takes an effort. In Home, such messes must be painstakingly crafted to a well thought-out plan, and it takes an effort – sometimes even lots of repetition – to accomplish it. Home’s furniture moving tool wants to orient everything the right way up, for example, so getting stuff on its side or upside down can take a bit of cleverness and a lot of patience. Cleaning up in Home, on the other hand, takes only seconds, unlike in reality. Would that reality could borrow a page from Home here!
Individuality vs. Congruency
In reality, being unique is commonplace, and multiple births are rare. Indeed, the more matching infants are involved in the birth, the rarer such an occasion is. In Home, it is just the opposite. Millions of avatars have been created from each of the beginning templates, and individuality is something we must strive for. It takes thought and effort to distinguish ourselves from Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, and the Tweedle Dozens of Tweedle Denizens just like them. This is why Home’s character creation tools have so many variables to tweak, and why one of the most popular requests users make every month is an increase of the number of hair colors, eye shapes, and a myriad other details to choose from.
Public Behavior
In the physical world, we treat the random strangers we meet in public with courtesy and respect. Mostly this is because this is how we would like to be treated in turn, and because we understand that this is the established consensus view regarding what behavior is appropriate or inappropriate. To some degree, however, it’s also because we know that if we were to get into enough people’s faces, a few of them would likely give us a good thumping for our troubles – and rightly so.
In Home, by contrast, this same deterrent is absent. Physical interaction is impossible. Most users realize that there is a certain security in this, because cyber bullies are reduced to their words alone. Others view their intangibility as an opportunity to misbehave with impunity, and without censure. Of course, whole theses have been written on that topic alone, so I’ll leave it, except to point out that it is yet another example of the myriad manners in which Home both imperfectly reflects our real world, and perfectly reflects our imperfect real world.
For me, these dualities are part of Home’s appeal. Certainly there are others that I haven’t noticed yet, and I look forward to discovering them. As Alice did.
July 6th, 2011 by Danger_Dad | 10 comments
*Nods along*
Man, my neck and head are tired.
Wow that was a great new perspective on Home. I have to say I never really thought about it that way. Those who don’t come to Home a lot or only once then trounce it in forums have no idea how deep this social world truly is. I have found many friends here, and though some of my real life friends and family would say they aren’t “real” friends I would beg to differ. Many seem to forget that there are people behind those avatars when dealing with each other, that and the anonymity are what cause misbehavior. But it needs to be said that though they feel they can get away with this there are consequences even in Home, banning and the like. Loved the comparisons to Alice, they are quite apt, well done.
I never thought of these inversions before in the virtual world of PS Home, but they are all indeed very true. And yes Burbie, we even tho those cyber bullies think they can get away with more without physical consequences, we do hope that through being reported or even if a mod is present & actually witnesses the behavior, their actions could suffer consequences like having their PSN account suspended or even banned.
What a fascinating perspective, DangerDad! I am looking at the space decorating concept from a completely different angle now.
A nice read, DD. More than a few “Huh!” moments sprinkled in.
If you ever give a tour, I’d like to see your well planned mess :>
So now I must think? OK, I will think. If I think after reading your article it is a successful effort at writing. Congratulations.
I have a gun. Go ask Alice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_bNZa2qMik
I don’t have gun however I will think. It hurts to think. Why can’t I just be? But that should not be to just be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOyasacx9vQ
Very nice! In Home it costs more to be Fred Sanford than Donald Trump. And that’s the way it should be. Fred Sanford is much more interesting.
;^) Thanks for the replies, everyone. I’m glad that you enjoyed it.
Very good read; kudos, Danger Dad! ;^)
My apartments remain empty. I occasionally try to shove something through a wall/floor seam or something but other than that… they are empty. I like the view of Home as wonderland. This seems like an apt comparison for Aurora.