Starry, Starry Night
When I have a terrible need of — shall I say the word — religion, then I go out and paint the stars.
- Vincent van Gogh
Don McLean’s song, Vincent, opens: “Starry, starry night, paint your palette blue and gray.” The starry sky at night is akin to a huge, wonderful painted canvas, and I stand at awe of its grandeur on a daily basis. I am partial to van Gogh’s paintings of the starry night, such as “Starry Night Over the Rhone” and — of course — “The Starry Night.” When van Gogh contemplated the awe of the existence of man, I can certainly understand why he painted the stars.
Since a young child, I have been fascinated by the starry sky and the wonders and mysteries that it holds: black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, quasars, etc. Staring at the night sky is staring into the face of creation. The farther one peers in the outer reaches of the universe, the farther one is looking back into time. New stars are born out of the catastrophic death of old stars. Black holes cannibalize stars, by stripping material from a nearby star. What is life on other worlds like? What triggered the big bang? Will there be a big crunch? Is our universe the only universe in existence or are there other universes in existence like air bubbles in a loaf of bread? The wonders of the universe never cease to amaze me.
In the last couple of months, developers of PlayStation Home personal estates have released some exciting spaces that showcase wonderful nighttime skies.
Midnight Glade: Camping Under the Stars
First: the Midnight Glade. Creative as always, Lockwood decided to use a different tactic to market the glade, by offering the glade for free when purchasing the fireworks package.
Having received the free Supernova firework which you receive from visiting a friend’s Midnight Glade, and the two fireworks from the Lockwood Gift machine, I didn’t need any more fireworks. Therefore, there really wasn’t be any need for me to buy the fireworks package. Right?
Well, yes and no. I wanted the glade and not the fireworks package. Some may wonder why anyone would want the glade, saying that it is a boring dark place, with no games to play and is only a plain field with a fence around it. It is not so much what is in the space as the atmosphere that the space projects and what it has to offer with the sky above. Many of my friends felt the same way about the atmosphere of the glade. They wanted it too for the glade.
Upon entering the space for the first time, I was completely captivated by the unrealistically large moon and was immediately teleported back to my youth, when I camped and hiked under the stars, with the moon as my only source of light.
Loot Space Apartment: Sun and Earth
Then LOOT released the Space apartment and when I saw it for the first time, I knew that I had to have it. It wasn’t for Crackle or RadioIO, which I already thoroughly enjoyed in my LOOT Sunset Yacht. It was because the space was in orbit above the earth. The roof of the apartment retracted to reveal this in all its magnificent glory. Not only were there the stunning stars, as one would expect, but there was also the rotating earth in great detail with a brilliant sun shining upon it. I was flabbergasted. LOOT has really raised the bar with this space, by not only giving you a multilevel apartment with pools at the bottom, jellyfish tank in the middle and multiple multimedia features, but it has created a very visually stunning space as well.
Again, I was teleported back to the days when I was first excited about astronomy, reading science fiction novels, and desiring, as many children do, to one day travel into space. LOOT is virtually fulfilling that dream.
The Ratchet and Clank apartment also is in space with some spectacular views, but has the feel of separation from space. This detached feeling has been entirely removed with the LOOT Space apartment’s retractable roof.
Granzella in the Japan region did something really special to their spaces for the holidays that did not make it to the North America region; they draped their spaces with spectacular nightscapes, with a full moon, shooting stars, and a dazzling Milky Way that stretched across the sky.
At the Southern Island Hideaway, Granzella placed red and green searchlights that streamed color into the dark sky. Torches were also ablaze, giving the island a warm feeling. If one looked closely into the sky one could see Santa in his sleigh flying across the sky. It was truly a magical place to be and I wanted to stay there forever.
Southern Island Hideaway: Milky Way
Meanwhile, with the Edo Village, the Japanese architecture and what appeared to be Mt. Fuji made an excellent foreground to the star-studded sky, with shooting stars.
The North America Home region received its own treatment of nighttime holiday flair, with the Winter Holiday Hullabaloo and the Pier Park. Both of these spaces had the same snowy nighttime landscapes, with snow flurries falling to the ground. Although, these were both nighttime spaces, it was the wintery snow that was the showcase and the starry sky.
Game Informer magazine published an article that raised the question of whether games are works of art. As I witness the beauty of the scenes within games and the wonderful spaces created in PS Home, my answer to the question is a resounding yes.
January 23rd, 2012 by Orion_NGC1976 | 6 comments
Father, husband, dolphy racer and sometimes Home world traveler.
Great article Orion with an interesting point of view. I always love your work.
This is a great article Orion, I couldn’t agree more with you! We seem to be reaching for that brass ring of realism and mood with spaces. It is my hope that there will be an “arms race” between the developers to keep moving that bar upward. I may be getting a little deep/corny here but when I look up at the night sky it reminds me that we are just a small part of a very big whole, and for some reason that is a great and comforting feeling. To have these publishers on board with that awesome!
Great article!
The (sky box) has a totally different feel these days doesn’t it? Atmosphere speaks to the heart! When you stand in front of the ocean and get that feeling you describe, standing in the loft looking at the earth just makes you smile doesn’t it? These works of art have continued to make us part of that equation. I can see the developers of these environments getting even better at their crafts. I imagine if they begin to make seamless transitions from sky to ground, that bar will be raised. I think Hellfire Games is working on that. It would be cool if they turned the gravity off in one of these beautiful open environments. Great article Orion!
Great companion piece to Ted’s article Orion! I have yet to actually SEE the loot space so Im looking forward to when I do. *nudge nudge*
I would like Home to come out with an observatory. where we look at an actual representation of the night sky… learn about the constellations, maybe learn something about the stars themselves.
I think that an observatory would be fantastic. I would get it. I would be great to have a space that was informative too.
You can come by to see the space apt anytime, just drop me a message.
I, too, got the glade for the moon & sky, & the LOOT space for the earth view. Add the LOOT telescope & … ahhh … bliss. I still thrill remembering the time I saw a large hurricane hit the US east coast & move inland … light patches that represent cities … or snow patches.
I wish Lockwood would give as add-ons (free would be great, but I’d buy them)rising & setting moon, and eclipses. I could give moon-watching parties.