Dream It: the Necessity of Personal Estate Innovation
by phoenixstorm21, HSM guest contributor
Recently, there’s been some debate — both here at HSM and on the Sony forum — about personal estates. Specifically, have personal estates had their time in the sun? Is it enough to just release one setting after another, or do they need to offer something more innovative, even if it risks a higher price tag? Is the market too saturated now? And do new clubhouse options spell a new era in diminished personal estate sales?
The solution, I think, is to truly go wild and upscale with fantastical settings. Sony says to dream it, and to an extent, they’ve already made good on this.
Consider. Where do you live? Do you live in a house or an apartment? In a neighborhood in the suburbs, where all the houses line up in neat little rows? Where the average is the average.
Well, in Home, how about living in a towering penthouse with your own helipad, or on a cruise ship? Home calls it a Tycoon’s Penthouse and a Dream Yacht respectively, complete with three levels to explore, your own submarine, two jacuzzis and a water plane. In a personal space I own on Japanese home; there’s the gentle and soothing sounds of a bamboo flute playing .
Maybe you’d rather have a spiralling underwater home, with a party room and an underwater vista where you can watch the sea life around you. Included here is an open fire pit, indoor pond and built-in games, with an entertainment room and bar area. Yeah, they’ve got that too.
Or maybe you’ve dreamed of owning your own piece of space? LOOT’s Space Apartment, with more EOD screens then you know what to do with. Listen to RadioIO, or watch a movie for free. If you’re a Twitter personality you can watch your own feed in this multi-story apartment. And, of course, there’s that view.
I’ve been in Home for almost a year now, and fallen in love with most of the personal spaces that have been released since my time here. I love my Home real estate, even going so far as to own personal estates in other regional Homes where I “virtual vacation” — Europe and Japan. I like to consider myself a Home jet-setter. Speaking of jet-setting have you seen the Jetsetter’s Private Plane space. If you crave that style of living Home has it for you.
There are things I like about each space I have. The more elaborate but realistic, the better. Personally, I’d like to see more exotic settings in my personal spaces, and I love that Home is making the spaces more interactive too. For instance, I love the Plum Tree Pavilion; the dragonflies and trees, combined with the sound of wind chimes…oh, that was it for me. I’m crazy about the Mahjong apartment in SCEE Home, and I adore the Frozen Peak Palace in SCEA Home. It’s so much like the ice hotel that’s built every year in Swedish Lapland, that all that’s missing is a view of the aurora borealis from the balcony.
But let’s talk more about interactivity. In the Weekend Lake House, the refrigerator door opens. I’d like to be able to put something in there; otherwise, why the point of opening it? Same goes for kitchen cabinetry. Heck, why not doors that open when we want them to? We have the option to turn on some of the lamps we have in our spaces, so why not open and close doors? It’s these little touches that make a space feel more real.
(And while we’re on the subject of built-in furniture, has anyone thought about a built-in Murphy bed, which could be put away when not used?)
But the original point remains: if a personal estate is going to compete in today’s marketplace, it needs to stand out. And that means pushing the envelope in terms of settings and interactivity. Why does everything have to be a house? What about just a basic setting, like the Serengeti plains? The Costa Rican Rain forest? Or, if it must be a house, then why not something modeled after a truly unique locale, such as the Alhambra? Or one of the palm islands of Dubai?
I would even consider a house that could be used as a museum property, along the lines of the Louvre. Home has some wonderful furniture and inventory pieces. These could be come museum collector pieces, if you’ve a mind to. Has the idea of an elevator like the one in the casino being put in a home crossed any ones mind? You could go right to the next floor in your space by selecting a number. A seamless transition.
I’m not saying these spaces have to be over the top like the opulence of the mansion, with all the gold. Maybe something similar even but without the gold; or a different floor plan even. I’m simply suggesting that perhaps it’s time to redefine what a personal estate is. It can be a lot more than just four walls with a view. After all Home is more then just a game hub. Just give me different and classy. Give me some more pieces of the world in a click. Feed the jet-setter in me. Give me a home befitting of a Homeling! Make me long to be back on home every time I have to sign out. If Home is all about selling experiences, then logically the experiences worth enjoying are the ones which cannot be easily duplicated in real life.
March 24th, 2012 by Phoenix | 13 comments
Phoenix writes poetry and is a photography enthusiast, along with writing for HomeStation Magazine. She is currently studying for a BFA in Creative Writing and BA with concentration in Photography. psn ID phoenixstorm21
youtube.com/user/phoenixstorm21
Absolutly Phoenix, nice job on your first article BTW. After I bought the Loot Space Apartment, I decided after that, that I won’t ever be buying a space unless it offers some kind of extra. Some proper interactivity. The EOD is genuis (just a shame I can’t use its full potential (localisation)) and all I see when I look at older spaces are four walls and nothing more. I used to run through all the interiour possiblities when I looked at a new space, sometimes I’d even like a space so mch, I’d go shopping for furniture JUST for that one space!
Loot has opened my eyes now though, to the potential of what a personal space can be. I want the fantastic, the unreal, the mesmerising and the awesome (I mean awesome in its actual sense, not “hey man, these doughnuts are awesome dude”) I want scenery that will inspire me, like the veiw of our rotating little ball in space from my Loot app.
Bring me the fantastic, and I will pay you for it to spend my time there.
Thank You. I am over joyed to be published here.
I know too what you mean about the shopping for that perfect space and the feeling once you get it right. I love my spaces. I look for the fantastic on Home! I can get average in the real world. Home is suppose to be something else…
I am so glad the developers have been listening. When I bought the Sunset Yacht, it didn’t offer crackle or radioIO yet. I kept thinking “Man it would be awesome if I could watch movies here.” I wondered about ways to have a little jazz on my cruise. Well great minds…” lol Now I can.
I want more though, then just a mini game in my spaces. I want to interact with my surroundings.
I too will be holding out for the awesomeness that is to come!
I created the fridge and microwave doors for the Weekend Lakehouse. Originally you could put items in them. I am doing this from my memory, so I could be wrong, but I believe test rejected it because you could put items in them that stuck through the doors when they were closed. Detecting this state was beyond the complexity of what could be done with them.
The same would be true of the Murphy bed. You would have to look for items and avatars in the way when the bed opened and closed. That is not as simple as it might seem.
Now a jacuzzi that you cannot get into like the one in the private jet apt makes no sense unless it was too small for even one avatar.
EOD is something only LOOT can do. They say they are building an EOD item that can be brought into any apartment. So that may be one less advantage they have.
There will always be better and worse apts. Which are which depends on your tastes. Keep it up putting up your ideas of what you want. It is the most likely way you will get what you want.
An excellent article. I look forward to more.
duce_for2,
Thank you, both for my appliances in the weekend Lake House and you comments. I would love the opportunity to learn more about what could work and what would not.
I believe I do understand in theory,why it did not work. I,like many here however do not understand; why some advances are put in some apartments,and not in others. Especially, I mean if they are the same developers spaces.
Thanks Again.
Tell them again PHOENIXSTORM..just in case they missed what u said
Putting things in the fridge, if you haven’t tried this, then try this:
Invite a friend over and have them open the fridge and microwave and then you put something in it. I bought it right away and that’s the only way I could do it. I suggest a Ghostbuster pizza in the microwave and whatever puts you in in the fridge. I’m assuming one can still do this.
Cool I will. I’ll let you know if it works.
YES! It works. I had my sis open it and was able to put food in it. I got a kick out of this. I love my Lake House! Thank You Kid Fleetfoot.
It just confuses me, like the beds. Why are some still made where you can’t lie down, after making the new ones? Is it just to give a choice in the market? Or does it cost more and need more time to produce?
Just curious.
*lay down. Oops!
Hey Mnemonth, posted a reply to you,but hit the wrong button. Sorry bout that it there though. Thanks for the comment.
I’d love to see a kind of modular personal space, giving Homies the ability to buy the additional perks they want, and ignoring the others.
Imagine a sort of hub-like central room, that would be inexpensive to buy (say, around $1). Now, the hub would only be a large, quasi-circular space with maybe a nice seating area for conversation.
Around the room would be doors, similar to the door in the Novus Prime Officer’s Quarters. By buying the modules, you would be removing that particular door from your space, giving you access to new areas with or without interactive elements. The cost of each module would vary, depending on the contents and interactivity.
A dance room with flashing lights and music; a game room with darts, chess, poker, etc.; a video arcade; a garden; a picture gallery; a romantic area with a hottub and bar…pretty much anything is possible, and buyers would only have to spent money on the perks they want.
This sounds like a good idea. I wouldn’t know it if could work though. It would be much like the talk show set I would assume. May you should try and pitch it. It can’t hurt.