The Game of Home
by Orion_NGC1976, HSM team writer
Among Home users it has been argued whether Home is a game or not, and there are a large number of people who passionately profess that it is not a game.
Whether people want to admit it or not, Home is an MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game). I can hear the “Home is not a game” crowd getting up to object, but before you do, hear me out. When I say that Home is an MMORPG, I am not, even in the slightest, implying that the people on Home should be treated like virtual characters in a game and that people cannot grow from their experiences on Home and have genuine friendships. Of course these are real people on Home and should be treated with the respect that they deserve, as opposed to just some mindless things to be played with. To toy or play with others on Home with disregard to their feelings is not what I mean about Home being a game.
Zombie Feast: Role-playing with Friends
I think that this is at the heart of the issue of why people are reluctant to call Home a game. They feel that by calling Home a game, it diminishes the importance of Home and the people on Home. This is not the case and is not what I want to convey by calling Home a game.
There are many stories of people on Home that have used it as a means to improve their lives. I acknowledge that, as I am one of those people too. People make friends on Home, they become involved in each others lives, listen to their problems and miss them when they are not online. This is very true and does not reduce in one iota that Home is a DIY MMO. I do not play online games, but isn’t this exactly what people who play online games do. They create bonds and friendships that may carry beyond the game. I tried out DC Universe Online and the lobby reminded me of Home.
Home has all the aspects of a role-playing game, and I think that Sony purposely intended it to be that way. Rightly so, because the PS3 is a gaming platform and what better way to create a social environment for gamers than to have an gaming/RPG world in which they can interact. Sony and all the Home developers have given us some of the tools we need for role-playing: props, costumes and settings.
You can be just about anything you want to be on Home. My wife and I often comment that it’s like Halloween every day on Home, because many avatars are dressed in different costumes all year round.
Casual and Impromptu
Mad Scientist in Search of Spare Parts
When you are dressed in costume something overcomes you and you start thinking in character. It may start with casual interactions and comments based on the persona of that character in which you are dressed. I put together a mad scientist outfit and went to Hudson dressed in this outfit. Among my friends, I made like I was looking for spare parts to construct a super dolphy that would be the ultimate racer. When I have my Ezio costume on, random people will approach me and address me in character to which I would play along.
I speculate that most people on Home have engaged in such casual role-playing at one time or another. The interaction of this sort of role-playing is quite enjoyable and transports me outside of myself, which allows me to overcome my social anxiety that would otherwise inhibit me from conversation. We can see that role-playing on Home is not necessarily a negative thing, but can be quite beneficial, as well as enjoyable.
At other times I have participated in all-out impromptu role-playing in a specific space with costumes that fit the setting and a story that unfolds on its own accord. The creative talents of PSTalent have taken this a step further by scripting and filming their role-playing for all to see. Creating shows such as PSTalent has done is a very natural extension of the role-playing environment that is available for all in Home.
People also participate in longer term forms of role-playing. To begin with, your avatar is not not you and its likeness does not need to match yours in slightest. An overweight person can have a thin avatar. An elderly person can have a young avatar. You can choose any skin color for their avatar. I know of a few people who have adjusted their skin color because of the way they were being treated. One doesn’t even need to play as their true gender, which brings me to one of the most common forms of role-playing on Home.
Assassin's Creed
Everyone talks about all the guys that are pretending to be women, but I know of several women who have either a male avatar or have created IDs that they use to play as a male. This can be a devastating role to play if one is not careful. I would like to make it very clear that there is responsibility in role-playing and not “anything goes,” rationalizing that it is just make believe. Again, the avatars on Home are not virtual characters but people with real emotions. I know of quite a few people who will not be friends with people who role-play as the opposite gender because they have been burned by heartless people. Still some prefer to role-play as the opposite gender for one reason or another. Some let people know their real gender, some tell only their closest friends and others never tell anyone.
Relationships
The next common type of role-playing I see on Home is the “relationship” role-playing. People are boyfriend and girlfriend on Home, even if they are in another relationship in their real life. People even get married on Home to people they are not married to in real life. They may even already be married to other people in real life. In the Japan and Asian regions, there were wedding chapels in the Irem spaces Seaside of Memories and Irem Square, and there is one in the new Granzella space Southern Island Hideaway. After the ceremony, both people are gifted with wedding rings that can be worn on their left hands like real wedding rings. In the North America region, Burbie52 has turned a clubhouse into a wedding chapel where people can get married as role-playing or to show their friends how deep their online relationship has become.
I know of several women who have adopted children on Home. They call them their “son” or “daughter” while the children call her “mom.” Still others engender stronger friendship bonds by calling each other “brother” or “sister.”
These are all real and genuine friendships, but a form of role-playing as well.
Wedding at Southern Island Hideaway
Then there are clubs or groups of people that role-play. The most prominent groups of this type that I can think of are the Homelings. Homelings have their own backstory of who they are and why they look the way they do. Most Homelings wear all white, mainly the Echochrome suit that can be won in Home.
Although adding games to Home is fantastic, I feel that focusing on the game of Home will enhance the experience of Home users and keep people coming back.
Unlike other games that have a beginning and an end and become stale once completed, Home is open-ended and never ends. Enhancing the role-playing and community aspects of Home, by adding more meaningful avatar actions would be a great start; the ability wield and swing a sword (there was a space in the Japan region where you could fight with a sword a climb the castle walls), the ability to hug or to walk together, holding hands. Perhaps have avatars gain experience and abilities over time from being on Home or from participating in certain activities, just like RPG games.
Costume Received During Christmas Event
I would like to see the North American Home foster community activities. In the Japan region they have community events that last over a period of time. I experienced this for the first time last Christmas where they had hourly events that you could participate with friends and with the Home community at large. With Central Plaza now gone, the North American Home is in dire need of a community events area.
You take away the role-playing and the activities from Home and you are left with a chat room, but with these elements Home is so much more. Home is one of the greatest games around. It is unpredictable. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. The re-playability value of Home is extremely high.
Home is a marvelous place where one can be a millionaire with a mansion, a captain of a ghost pirate ship, an evil villain in their lair, or a zombie, or an angel, or any one of the myriad of other characters that can be created on Home. You are only limited by your imagination. Let it take flight and see where it takes you.
November 30th, 2011 by Orion_NGC1976 | 7 comments
Father, husband, dolphy racer and sometimes Home world traveler.
I always love your articles, Orion, and this is now my favorite. You have such insight into people and Home. Thank you!
Thank you, Kass, for your kind words.
Wonderful take on Home Orion. I agree that Home can be anything to anyone, your only limitation is your imagination. For me Home is not a game at all, but that is how I have chosen to use it. I don’t really role play much here, that’s not to say I don’t like to play dress up when we have a specific event, like the turkey flash mob we recently did, but as a general rule, I don’t role play. Being older might have something to do with that, it is just foreign to me.
Your article has great insight, I created a male for my freebie article and the one we did together with Gideon. I am still going about and collecting the free stuff with him, so I guess doing that constitutes role play, even though I don’t really talk with anyone when I am there much.
Home is a lot of fun, if you want it to be. As long as people keep an honest face on their role play and don’t use it for harm, I think it is a wonderful tool they can use to increase the fun factor. Good read as always.
Home *needs* to become more like a traditional MMO. The questing system that the Hub introduced, as part of the Activity Board, is a step in the right direction. If this sort of thing was coupled with a rewards program (which, to a limited extent, Lockwood already introduced with the Sodium Hub), it could truly make Home into a must-play experience.
You bring up a great point, too, about how Home’s ability to let us explore different guises and identities is an amazing opportunity for role-play, and an even greater opportunity for sociological observation thereof. To use a very morbid (and extreme) example, consider Zimbardo’s infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, in which ordinary people suddenly displayed very different behavior when placed in roles (and a setting) which encouraged it.
One thing that’s fascinated me about Home role-play is the proliferation of “mafia fams” throughout the community. I wasn’t able to really put my finger on what drew some of these people to spend so much time on it, until one person finally said, “It’s the best political simulator out there.” And that made more sense to me. It’s role-play.
(Keep in mind that that’s not an endorsement of fams, by the way. Most of them I tend to take a rather dim view towards. But it’s certainly a notable example of how people can behave very differently under certain circumstances.)
The more I look at Home, the more I realize that the goal of it being a social network for gamers is a goal best achieved indirectly. Just as the search for happiness is usually fruitless (you don’t go looking for happiness — you look for something you enjoy, which in turn makes you happy), Jack Buser hit it on the head when he pointed out that if you put a bunch of gamers in a room and ask them to talk to each other, it doesn’t work. But if you go at that goal indirectly — by building an MMO with social virtual-reality components — it could be very successful.
This was a great read.
This may be semantics, but I disagree that Home has “all the aspects of a role-playing game”… All RPG’s have stats and leves. While some games within Home have levels, Home itself does not. Home is, however, game in which we can role-play.
There are two activities that I have always related Home to. Cosplay and LARPing (Live Action Role Play). The ideas in these activites are the ones point out that Home has. I think more people need to realize that Home can be a game of their making and it doesn’t need to be a reflection of their IRL self.
As always Orion, well done. Wonderful read.
Oh.. and I love the LIFE logo with HOME in it. classic.
Thank you, Gideon, for clarifying terms. I was incorrect in using RPG in such a broad way and you are absolutely correct that it more like LARPing. I hope that Sony continues to add more RPG-like compents to Home. I agree that any enhancement to role-playing in Home will also be an enhancement to the social aspect of Home as well. People have commented frequently that they want to game-play alongside of their friends and to be able to socialize at the same time.