Comments on: The Up-Sell

By: LostRainbow

LostRainbow — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:50:24 +0000

Great article. What you said is so true. Many times I have been burned by spaces I thought I would like, and then am disappointed. I am glad they have a preview. I am also glad that you could use furniture over and over and don’t have to buy multiples. I wish the stuff was much cheaper. 99 cents seems cheap until you have to spend it like 50 times to get what you want. I like the bundle packs, that makes some of the stuff worthwhile. I also like coming up with creative use of things.

As regard to dining out, I always opt for the guacamole!!! Love the stuff. I so get what u mean!!!

Great article!

By: Kassadee Marie

Kassadee Marie — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:13:36 +0000

LOL @ “free cheese”. No, I mean I really did! By the way, I too have the penthouse. I made the upstairs into a fifties diner and the downstairs is a “disco” and lounge. I love making something out of nothing in my spaces -- which is why I hate built-in furniture.

By: Nehemiah_1314

Nehemiah_1314 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:04:57 +0000

Thank you for your balanced perspective Ted. I really enjoyed your article and your view regarding how to approach the advertising in HOME issue; that we have now read about in several articles. Like you I have the City Penthouse, but I have spent a fair amount of money and time to make it just right for me. In this respect HOME draws a parallel to real life, sometimes you have to be willing to invest the time and money to make a house look just the way you want it to look. I have not taken much notice of the advertising that Sony does in HOME. It’s there, but I simply don’t pay much attention. I think I’m pretty detuned to a lot of advertising, due to what we face in everyday (real) life. I simply ignore the advertising until I feel I have a need for something. Then I go shopping. The previews of the new personal spaces are a great idea. I wish that Sony would consider doing this with some to the older spaces as a well. I also like what Lockwood has done, by creating what is essentially a showroom for many of their HOME offerings. Perhaps this is the type of advertising that simply works for someone like me.

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:54:36 +0000

Great take on this subject Ted, very entertaining as well as true. And Aeter, I agree. I really wish that Sony would think about implementing a gifting system in their stores similar to the gift machine. At checkout you could have a choice to give it to someone or keep it for yourself, similar to the Dead Island game option when you were creating items. Or possibly there could be a token system similar to the gifting machine Lockwood has created where you can give tokens you have bought to your friends as a gift and let them use them in the store to buy what they like.
Either of these options would be a very welcome addition to the stores in Home I am sure.
Good job Ted.

By: AkumaPrince

AkumaPrince — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:46:06 +0000

I know what you mean. There’s marketing everywhere in home advertising virtual items trying to lure people into buying them. It used to just mainly be in the mall and that made sense but now that there are kiosks and store access points in almost all spaces, even personal spaces, advertisements are everywhere. Hell they even make Home avatar based commercials showcasing a lot of the newer items as they come out. Its all good tho, being that home is technically free it has to be paid for somehow and I won’t lie I buy stuff on there now and again. Not as often as I used to though. Hell in the past I could easily drop like 50 bucks in home after an update. I don’t find home as fun as it used to be but that’s just because as most things, its become mundane to me. I spend most of my money now on games in the PSN store or renting movies. They do entice you into buying games and add-ons as of late, like with the October deal where you spend $60 bucks or more and you get $10 bucks in credit in November. At least they were prompt on that, I got my $10 yesterday morning when I logged on lol.

By: Aeternitas33

Aeternitas33 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:42:19 +0000

Nice article. I always laugh when someone says that Home is “free.” It’s free in the same way that a mousetrap has “free” cheese.

I understand what you mean about the City Penthouse. When I first bought it I hated it, but after putting some serious work into it, and spending more than a few dollars on furniture, it’s now one of my best looking spaces. But if someone doesn’t want to go to that much trouble, it sure would be nice if we could gift items to our friends.

By: cthulu93

cthulu93 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 09:54:59 +0000

Yeah I can see the potential for endless sales pitching of things I neither want nor in some cases even see but I don’t think this sales model has “jumped the shark” yet.Sales are what’s in this thing for Sony and users are on Home to get entertained,among other things.As long as Home keeps things fresh and interesting I can tolerate quite alot of sales pitching.IF Home were a boring place to me I’d tolerate much less,same with anything being sold to me.As casino’s know,ppl that are having a good time spend more cash which is 1 reason they book lots of top entertainment acts.Of course you can spend next to nothing in Home and still have alot of fun but buying things on Home make for a more robust experience with friends I find.