What Core Upgrades Might Come Next?
by Burbie52, HSM team writer
Originally this article was written prior to the update, and it discussed what core updates most people wanted: mainly, the ability to use more active items, and why a larger limit on furniture items in a personal space was a good thing. With this 1.60 update, I have to take my hat off to Sony for listening to us yet again and giving us what we have asked for for a long time. What a wonderful Christmas present they have given us!
I have been having a marvelous time redecorating my spaces — the larger ones first, of course. In doing this, I have discovered that there are more furniture pieces I will be buying to finish them the way I like. This is great byproduct of this new ability, and so Sony can probably look for increased revenue from furniture sales for that reason alone.
I love the new ability to bring my pet with me wherever I go in Home now. It makes it much more convenient and eliminates yet one more pop up from our screens; it also makes it feel more realistic. I also love a few of the other changes that weren’t mentioned in the information release, like the fact that we can look at our friends list while in Home and see what they are doing if they are not in Home with us. It shows us what game they are playing – if they are playing at all – which helps me a lot when deciding whether to ask them to join me in Home or not. Also noticed was when you placed an empty picture frame in your personal space it no longer has that blue camera with a line through it; not a bad little touch.
Core upgrades are a wide and varied subject, and they are the subject of quite a few of the common complaints we all hear from others on Home and in the Sony forum as well. Many of these are things that have been desired for a long time, so I thought I would try and compile all of this in one article, though some of the ideas may be new to you as well.
In the wake of the new 1.6 upgrade on Home and what it accomplished, I think it is time to look at what might still be done.
Not so bare anymore!
Before you read however, bear in mind that no one but Sony has all the facts as to why we haven’t seen these changes until this point in time. Perhaps they didn’t anticipate a need for them, or perhaps it’s something as simple as the system itself needs an upgrade. Home is, after all, running on technology that is almost five years old now. At the rate that technology develops and grows now, five years old is bordering on obsolete. Any of you out there who has a computer that is five years old will know exactly how frustrating older technology can be to work with.
The first core upgrade worth mentioning is the desire – and sometimes need – for a larger friends list. Many people in Home wish for a friends list of at least two hundred people. For myself, I have a wedding chapel, a large, thriving club to manage, and juggling that with the friends I have who are in neither is very hard with a one hundred person limit. I have now arrived to that dreaded point where I have no one left to delete and make room for new people who want to join my club; what am I supposed to do now? Having multiple accounts for such things can grow to be a hassle.
This kind of update is going to have to be initiated at some point. Many people have asked why there is any limit to how many friends we are allowed; it’s a good question. I’m sure there’s some technological answer for it.
Another part of the friends issue was the ability of total strangers sending private messages in Home. Thank goodness the latest 4.00 software update has nipped this one in the bud. While I’m sure the intentions on Sony’s part were good (how else was anyone going to make friends?), this ended up as just another way for the trolls in Home to get to people, sometimes without even being in the same vicinity. They can still send you a message if they are standing near you, but many times this is a newer person who doesn’t know how to use the triangle button to speak. That is easily rectified by giving them some instructions, and the new help system ought to go a long way in aiding new people too. It will be interesting to see if fewer complaints of harassment will occur now, or will people – specifically newcomers – find it harder to make friends down the road.
The next core upgrade to be discussed is the limit of visitors to our personal spaces. I know there may be a technical reason this isn’t being done already, but it would be nice to be able to have more than eleven friends at a party. Granted, clubhouses can hold a larger capacity (and we will be receiving new clubhouses soon), but aesthetically they may not be the right setting and they don’t allow for picture frames.
The Silicon Lounge is one of the best new party spaces in Home, yet if I invite eleven people there, they get swallowed up in the sheer enormity of the space. What a waste it is that it doesn’t give us the use of a club capacity of at least thirty-two; I have heard this said many times by the people who have seen this space or own it. Personally, I believe all of the spaces we own should have that capacity; the social nature of Home is enhanced greatly by this small change. It’s been rumored that this is entirely possible to do from many people. I wonder if that is true, and if it is, why hasn’t it happened already?
Never worn, trash please?
The ability to delete unwanted apparel is another thing that many would like to see in their wardrobes; I have so many unwanted reward t-shirts that I have lost count, and putting them into storage seem redundant. It could be as simple as a trash can placed in the storage area where we could place unwanted items. If Sony is worried about us crying after the fact because we accidentally deleted something this is easily rectified by having either a warning that pops up saying “this is permanent, are you sure?” Or they could make it like e-mail trash and have the articles sit there for a week or more before permanent deletion; this way no one would have a leg to stand on and no way to complain. It could also help with saving memory on the servers Sony uses to store all of the junk we don’t use.
Several friends, who own an incredible amount of clothing, have expressed the desire to have more slots available to them so that more than half of their inventory doesn’t end up in storage. I too have now reached capacity as when I add new pieces of clothing it tells me it has moved things to storage and I can’t take them out unless I remove something else from my regular inventory. If there was a trash bin would this allow us more room in our closets?
Another thing that would be ideal is the addition of a gifting ability in all of the Sony stores, like Threads and Furniture, to name a few. After the fiasco of last April and the subsequent loss of revenue that Sony endured, any new revenue stream would be welcome. The addition of the ability to gift a friend with an article from the stores we all use each week, be it for Christmas or a birthday, would create a lot of revenue for Sony. It could be accomplished by the addition of an option in the final cart area; or alternatively they could sell tokens like Lockwood does – say a hundred for one dollar – that could be given to the friend to use as they will.
Smart marketing
I have run this idea past several people and they have all agreed that they would welcome such a core change with open arms. It is something that has already been proven successful by Lockwood Publishing’s gift machine many times over. Most people are generous by nature, and they would love the ability to give something to a friend, something that falls short of a ten dollar PSN card, which is the smallest amount available right now, and even those are hard to find. With the economy in the state it is in, there are many people – myself included – who simply cannot afford to spend that much on a friend. But that being said, I would be much more ready to give them a small gift like a dress, shirt or even a piece of furniture that they admired in my space, for a dollar or two.
So what do you all think about this? Do you think these things need to be considered seriously? Are they even possible? I am not sure that they are, but I am equally unsure that they aren’t. In the two years I have been in Home, I have never heard them addressed by the powers that be with a definitive answer. If you have anything to add in your comments here about changes you would like to see, or additions to what I have already said, they are welcome.
December 14th, 2011 by Burbie52 | 13 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
As always a really nice article. I had this buzzing around for awhile now. A favorites in our storage. That way we could at least bury all our unwanted or never to be used items at the bottom. Just food for thought…
Either that, or have a “most used” sorting option (aside from the “recently used,” “oldest first,” and “newest first” already there) in both the clothing and furniture items.
I’m still hoping for the Bootee shake dance will be added to the list of emotes, one day.
There’s almost nothing I personally feel is a “Must. Have. Now.” feature I’d like to see added, what with the considerable upgrades we’ve seen just in the past year. The only thing that may be the exception is the means to visibly block he appearance of an avatar that is partaking in physically rude, harassing, and/or assaulting behaviors.
Granted, I can see the need some people have for the increased friends list (personally I doubt I’ll ever crack 100; I’m just not friendly or social enough).
I’d be more happy though if next year, instead of attempting to fulfill whatever demands the community makes for a brand new shiny thing/feature, they took the time and just went back through the program and cleaned up the hiccups in the system.
My understanding is this is their focus -- fixing the hiccups. I am finally getting some simple requests fixed that have been on the list for over two years. And at a record pace.
One request I made was for a dynamic memory system that allowed more control over what memory was allocated where. It is finally here in 1.6 in the form of the furniture/active item selectable configuration. It is also leading to some great options for developers.
Having an enumeration of the hiccups makes them more likely to get fixed. Feel free to make a wish list and I will pass it along.
Burbie: Excellent as always. I will make sure they hear you. Let’s hope they act.
Thanks Deuce, I hope you are right, the trash can option would be particularly welcome and I think would help Sony as well when it comes to saving memory space on the servers.
Also the gifting idea would be very cool.
You really can’t do a trash option. The game code or core would have to be completely rewritten. Reason being when you received an item it is saved to the cache permanently. You start deleting items that leaves a hole in your cache on Home’s reward server.
Case in point when Japan Home removed the winter wonderland rewards earlier this year. There was a 24 reward item gap. Until they were replaced the cache could not permanently save to the Home servers. Not impossible to do but it does have it’s pitfalls.
Namely we have a missing reward problem from the beginning of Home. An issue that is still with us to this day. Despite all the talk they are working on it. For over 2 years now. You change this code to do this. I will guarantee even more rewards will go MIA. Never to be seen again. Do you want to take a chance like that. I most certainly don’t. Just more food for thought…
OK then… how about a “Deep Storage” space? One where I never have to go because it’s filled with things I never wanted or shopping errors?
That would be an option or as I suggested before favorites in your storage. That way you can bury unwanted items at the bottom…
Even better a hidden category. Mark them out of your inventory until you want restore them. That way the cache still has them. There just hidden just like you can do in any OS…
LL of these are great suggestions, I don’t care how they go about it, just give me more inventory slots for the stuff I want to keep and a way to put away those I don’t and or won’t use. A special storage are sounds like a good idea or a way to favorite the ones I like that have been put there.
Still hoping that the camera can be manually panned.