The fact that people got used to this behavior is too bad. The behavior is not in the long term interest of creating a virtual world. It cannot be explained by anything other than it was a bug. The bug has now been fixed.

While no one wants Home to be less fun, especially those working on the engine, some things need to be fixed to move forward. Some things need to be stopped so other things are possible.

In this case, the flaw in the targeting system made it very hard to design complex spaces with seats in them. Conspiracy for instance, with all its corridors, could have easily been broken by the misplacement of a chair such that you could use it as a temporary escape while you heal or reload. Hidden rooms with seats were almost impossible to make. Mazes and puzzle spaces were very difficult to design since they could so easily be broken.

While the user base is complaining about what they lost, imagine going to a developer and trying to convince them to develop things for Home and they experienced the teleporting chairs. Their reaction would be that Home is broken and not ready for primetime. This bug just reaked of amateur hour. If this worked this flawed way, what more is broken that the prospective developer had not discovered? It would make it hard to commit to the platform.

While some people won’t be able to live with this and leave, that is the nature of change. People were up in arms about the invention of the car and airplanes. They said cars will be running over people and planes will be falling out of the sky. While they were right, it is at a level where we can all live with.

As a person creating spaces, I have been impressed by the skill of the glitchers to get to places I personally cannot. That is with me having the original source files and massive debug tools to help me find the best places to take advantage.

Is glitching dead? Not by a long shot. One tool has been removed from the arsenal. But I expect that soon this will be forgotten when something else comes along.

We have entered a new stage in the evoltion of glitching. Who will find the biggest and best exploits? That is to be seen. I am looking forward to it.

BTW, this is all my personal opinion. I have no exposure to the motivations or expections of why the Home Core Team made this change. I have talked with them about this in the past, but not recently. I do know that they are Home users and want Home to be fun not only for the world, but for them and their friends also. I am sure their friends are giving them flack as we speak. Balancing that with the concerns brought to them by potential developers, I imagine this was on their must fix list. Again, I don’t know, I am just guessing.

As for the rules about glitching…
The first rule of glitching on Home is you don’t talk about glitching on Home. hehe

For me, one of the main questions is: what consequences might result from glitching in a personal space? I don’t know! Of course, I am dealing with consequences for me, my system, as well as for the other users. I started to use Home in February and I am addicted to it! And in one of my personal spaces I put the Aurora bar (with milkshakes on it and stools) on the roof. Why? Because I thought it was pretty cool to have a kind of extra space on the roof. Maybe also because it reminded me of a time of my life when I was living in Southern Europe and when I used to go on the roof of my building to chill out with friends and enjoy the landscape… Okay, let’s return to our issue! If tomorrow, Sony states that glitching in personal spaces can damage in any way my system and/or other users’ system, I would be ready to say goodbye to all my glitches. Of course, I don’t represent anybody but myself.

I know you are going to tell me that glitching is not a normal use of Home, and I agree with that. But on the other hand, I might be mistaken but, so far, I never heard about Sony official position about this issue. I apologize if there is a clear statement regarding glitching in personal spaces, and if someone could send me a link I would be glad to read it. This is actually another main question: what are the rules regarding glitching? Is it forbidden? If so, can I get banned for limited time or forever? Is it allowed if I don’t affect other users? I am not saying that Sony must answer these questions. I just think that stating clearly the rules -- or reminding the existing ones -- could help a lot to avoid extreme reactions and frustration.
In French they use the phrase “flou artistique” to describe a kind of intentional vagueness regarding an issue, in politics for example. For me, this phrase fits perfectly to describe this situation, even though I can imagine that Sony has good reasons to do so.

Let’s imagine some possible answers. If Sony states that glitching in a personal space does damage your system (freeze, crash, rewards lost, etc.) and affects the other users as well, I am sure that lots of glitchers will stop, including me. I haven’t spent much money in Home, but I won lots of rewards that I won’t be able to earn again if I had to restart my hunt on a new account! One step further now. If Sony states that glitching is forbidden and that people who do so can be banned (for limited time or forever), everything leads me to believe that most people will stop. Sony is definitely making everything to put an end to glitching. I accepted that fact and I will keep on using Home. However, I would accept it even more easily if I knew the reasons, not all the technical details but at least an official statement. Once again, I know that Sony isn’t a public company so they can do whatever they want. But I think it’s really too bad that after the amazing update we had this week, most of the attention seems to be focused on glitching.

Peace!

The idea of glitching is the thrill of doing something outside of the rules. Adding rules to allow “floating” furniture wouldn’t sate the urge glitchers feel.

I think the whole reason glitches get patched is because Sony doesn’t want Home to seem “flawed”… so they remove the glitches so that everyone plays by the rules. Also, its possible that Sony is afraid that glitching may allow people to gain free access to items and spaces so that its EA Poker and midway all over again. If they allow these little glitches to exist they may synergise to produce new, and financially costly, results.

Also, consider this. Home is a Beta program. By definition, a beta program is accessible to the masses so that bugs can be fixed. If glitching isn’t the exploitation of Home bugs… I don’t know what is.

Lastly, those who are arguing about glitching need to just embrace the true tenants of glitching and spend their time trying to find what can still be done, what glitches are still out there instead of spending their time whining about Sony just “improving” their program.

Meanwhile for over 6 months they ignored WT. They have ignored the shrinking problems with items. The missed sized items as in the Paris classical and modern furniture. As well as the Santorini and tropical getaway furniture items amongst other things.

More importantly they seem to be ignoring the space freezers. These people who are damaging our systems. They clearly don’t consider that a priority. Sometimes I wonder if they even care…

I’m not the kind that loads up the roofs with disco themed items. In every space I have. No a little more sophisticated then that. Touches I wish we would have an option for. Add a cherry tree here and there as well as the teepee etc etc. A rug to a very interesting places for my friends and I to enjoy. Nice looking add on’s. I’m not going to say everything that I’ve have done. But there all nice to me and my friends.

I’m not going to leave Home I have way too much invested here. I’ve been here since the closed beta. I will not scream then cut and run.

But if there is an issue then they should let us know. Instead of treating us like kids. Like is there an issue with the servers and code when people do this. Then fine just explain yourselves.

They would be surprised how the community might react. Or even if they said you can have one or the other. Meaning glitching vs item increase. I would take the item increase for sure.

I didn’t buy all the items I have over the years just for glitching. Maybe they could give us a glitching personal space who knows.

Remember what Novus Prime did when they saw people liked floating outside the area provided. They were smart they sold us boots and made it legal to float outside. That is smart thinking on there part. When someone gives you lemons you make lemonade…