Homeling Seal of Approval: Novus Prime Officer’s Quarters
by SealWyf, HSM team writer
One month in, and I already had a problem. I had announced a monthly award for the new Home content that best matched the Homeling aesthetic. But, as February wound down, nothing really fit the bill. It’s true that the Lightning Bolt hand item awarded to Mount Olympus visitors has become a popular Homeling accessory. But it could hardly support a whole article.
Meanwhile, my colleagues were urging me to retroactively award the Homeling Seal of Approval to older Home content. It wasn’t fair, they said, that epic spaces and items should be neglected just because they had been released before I had started the program. It was, in fact, a blatant case of time discrimination.
And so, in the spirit of fourth-dimensional equality, I present the March 2012 Homeling Seal of Approval to a personal space that has been loved by the Collective since its release in late March, 2011. I speak, of course, of the Novus Prime Officer’s Quarters.
A spinoff of the popular Novus Prime game, the Officer’s Quarters is unique in Home for several reasons. Although the Ratchet and Clank “Home Sweet Home” space used a sci-fi theme, the Novus Prime space was the first that captured the look, feel and sound patterns of a working space station.
Another unique feature of this personal space is its access to the main Novus Prime game, which is a purchaseable apartment upgrade. The apartment is enjoyable without it, but for loyal Novus Prime players, the $4.99 addition opens up extra floor space with inspiring deep-space scenery, and allows the owner to host Novus Prime game parties.
A further attraction of the apartment is its zero-gravity simulator, an embedded feature that alters normal game physics. The idea that gravity is optional in Home is a powerful one. I am surprised that we have not seen more use of this. With variable gravity, we could explore undersea spaces, or the impossible geometries of an Escher print. Floating around in groups is a lot of fun, especially in large spaces.
As to why this space is Homeling, all I need to say is, “Just look at it!” We are a space-faring race, and here is space in glorious abundance. The station is nicely realized, with a gritty, Heinleinesque feel that taps into the darker side of the Homeling aesthetic.
The apartment works well with all Home’s sci-fi furniture — the Tron items, the Sodium 2 awards, the Silicon Lounge cubes, the more technological Aurora prizes, the new LOOT Space Station items and the old Saucer Pop chairs and tables. It is also an excellent backdrop for the Lockwood fireworks.
And of course there’s the anti-gravity feature. You can’t get more Homeling than that. Echochrome looks glorious if you’re floating. Especially if you float in large numbers, against a backdrop of stars.
And so I find myself edging toward one of the main reaons this space is on the “must-own” list for every dedicated Homeling. It’s not just the sci-fi look and the zero-gravity option.
It’s also the glitching.
Homelings have always been glitchers. The Collective began in Home’s closed beta, when there was not much to do. The first Home users made their own entertaiment.
While some amused themselves by trolling, others began to poke at the scenery. They found out how to get on top of benches and behind walls. They learned what lies in the places we were never supposed to see. (Sometimes what they found was a cheerful message from the programmer, who knew that someday, someone would reach the end of the pier.) They discovered what happens when you drop into “Blue Hell.”
It was Dodge City in Home, our own Wild West. People figured out what makes the place tick. They learned how to manipulate it. And they taught others.
And some of these bored, clever people also discovered the pleasure of Home-built societies. They started clubs, including the Homeling Collective. And so, we have a lot of good glitchers in the Homelings, especially those who joined during or soon after Home’s closed beta. They’re no longer bored, but they’re still curious about what makes Home tick. They still poke at things. And they value a personal space that rewards their experiments.
Have I mentioned that the Novus Prime Officer’s Quarters is easy to glitch? And that the results of glitching are spectacular?
I honestly debated whether I should mention this. Glitching has gotten a bad rep these days, and in any case the simpler exploits are being turned off one by one, as Home’s underlying code is patched and hardened. Gone are the days where it was easy to build a platform on the invisible box surrounding a space. Public benches are harder to climb. Walls are harder to breach. The simple forms of the Ghost Glitch are gone for good. Dodge City has been civilized, and the outlaws are taking up respectable professions.
Many would say this is a good thing. And, to the extent that tightening the code makes Home more stable, I agree. But, to quote Wordsworth, there hath pass’d away a glory from the earth.
These exploits were loved. They were learned with effort and taught with pride. They will be missed.
But, for whatever reason, the Novus Prime Officer’s Quarters remains easy to break out of. Without going into details, you can still move a fair amount of stuff onto the roof. And you can, with very simple manipulations, float out of the space and into the surrounding scenery. The outer parts of the space are vast and detailed, and they’re fun to explore. And they still let us do it.
I like to think that the Hellfire Games developers are gamers, too. They understand that these things are fun, and that doing them is one of Home’s attractions. Perhaps they are mending the holes that let us break things, and leaving the others. At least I hope this is what is happening. I have always been a wretched glitcher, and having a space that I can break out of is a source of profound enjoyment.
I’m sure it’s a tough decision. On one hand, you don’t want a world that can be easily broken. Things in Home should work as designed, with no room for game disruption or stealing virtual content.
On the other hand, we’re gamers. We like to take things apart, break them, and make new things. It’s one reason that many new games include creation as a feature. LittleBigPlanet lets you create new modules. Bethesda Softworks is distributing its Creation Engine toolkit for creating Skyrim mods.
And, of course, there’s Second Life, a virtual world where all content can be created, distributed and sold by the world’s users. I don’t expect that to happen in Home, but I do hope we can move in that direction. When I step outside the box and look at what lies beyond, I first think, “So that’s how it’s done.” And then, “I could do that.”
I hope, someday, they let us try.
But there’s a dark side to the human soul, the side which sees Milton’s Lucifer as a hero. I remember how disappointed we were when Hellfire Games fixed the hole that let us break out of the official zero-gravity area in Novus Prime and float around the public areas of the space station. They sold us accessories which let us do the same thing legally. But floating immediately became less popular. Was it only fun because we knew we weren’t supposed to do it?
In the same way, my Forum suggestions that furniture floats should be built into the menu system has been met with protest. It’s not that people don’t want to float furniture. They don’t want to be allowed to do it. The implication is that it’s only fun if it’s forbidden.
Is there any way to permit something, but still forbid it? To keep the dark joy of the transgression, without causing harm? These questions move beyond Home, into the roots of society itself. They’re deep questions. I don’t pretend to have an answer.
Well, not a full answer, anyway. I have part of one, which I’ve already implied.
For me, the coin has two sides. There’s the challenge of taking things apart, of moving beyond the boundaries. The joy, in short, of the forbidden. But the other side is putting things together, of using the parts to make something new, an independent creation.
I suspect that glitchers and developers are intersecting populations. We’re the ones who look behind the sky to see the clockwork. So the way to tame the glitchers, to keep them in Home, may be to give them something they take apart, but also something they can build.
I’ve drifted a long way from the focus of this article, which was the belated recognition of the Novus Prime Officer’s Quarters as a quintessential Homeling property. It attracts us for stylistic and for technical reasons, and because it is not fully tame.
Because, in short, we can still play with it. And playing with Home is what the Homeling Collective is all about. And so it is with great pleasure that I award the Novus Prime Officer’s Quarters five Bubble Machines and the Homeling Seal of Approval.
And I also offer my personal and heartfelt thanks to the Hellfire Games developers, for giving us a space where we can float to the stars.
- Gritty, immersive sci-fi styling
- Built-in zero-gravity simulator
- Purchaseable add-on game access
- Vast external spaces for exploration
- Not a space for everyone
March 23rd, 2012 by SealWyf | 9 comments
SealWyf is a museum database programmer by day, and an officer in the Homeling Collective by night. She has been active in online communities since before the Internet, and in console gaming since the PS1. In games, she prefers the beautiful and quirky, and anything with a strong storyline. She is utterly addicted to PlayStation Home.
Hellfire Games Rocks ! i took 1 of the NovusPrime developers to my glitched apartment and they loved it . they never patched it and that’s one of the reasons they are 1 of my favorite Home developers . when there was an issue with the space not working right they quickly fixed it , but didn’t patch the fun stuffz ,
It was you who got me interested in that space again, phats. And, while writing the article, I renewed my interest in the game. See that “6” in the rank gauge in the featured photo? That was taken just a few weeks ago, and it’s now a “29”.
This space may get the Homeling seal of approval, but non Homelings like me also give three thumbs up.This was in fact the first place I bought after entering Home and still have it decorated very well. In fact the other day I was entertaining somebody new to Home and she said, “I wanna fly!” Because of Novus Prime, I made a wish come true. She simply floated for minutes on end screaming “YAY”. It is a well built place and I have always loved to stand on the glass inside and simply watch the ships pass by as I chat with friends. I can see how this appeals to Homelings, but as an avid Trekkie, there is a lot of appeal to the sci-fi geek here too. Good article SealWyf
THANK YOU!!!
Glitch away!
-Jeff Posey
-President, Hellfire Games, Inc.
Thank you, sir!
*bows*
Wow, thanks so much! We’re honored to receive a perfect score for the Officer’s Quarters. Glad so many people have enjoyed it. Happy glitching!
I DON’T KNOW HOW TO GLITCH…HELP…LOL
I’ll show you how, Mael!
I really don’t understand the anger against glitching. As long as it is done in a person’s personal space, what difference could it possibly make? They spent money on the space, they can do as they please with it.
You find a glitch in a videogame and exploit it, and people sing your praises. You glitch your own personal space in Playstation Home, and you’re crucified. Crazy!
I’d love to learn how to glitch my way out of my personal spaces, but the topic is so taboo and frowned upon, people seem reluctant to share their secrets. Too bad. It’d probably just encourage me to spend more time in Home, and possibly spend money I wouldn’t have spent otherwise.