Brit to Brit: An Interview With AlphaZone4’s Cubehouse
by CheekyGuy, HSM team writer
There are any number of Home community projects out there today, all of which diligently going about trying to offer their own flavor of input on this vast virtual society. Some, like this one, are journalistic endeavors. Others function as forums or social networking sites. But there’s one that stands out as the unquestionable go-to resource when you need to know what’s what about PlayStation Home.
AlphaZone4.
That website is the encyclopaedia of all things Home. And the man who created it, Cubehouse, is someone whom NorseGamer consistently refers to simply as Morpheus — because when it comes to computers, he’s the man. I mean, come on: he’s been known to hook up a PS3 to a laptop just for fun when he’s bored.
Not only is Cubehouse HomeStation’s techno-whiz behind the scenes of the publication that you know and love , but he is a regular podcast co-host and guest contributor to HomeStation Magazine. This, on top of his duties as the creator and administrator of AZ4, which is the most heavily-visited Home fansite in the world.
Oh, and if he has any time left on his hands, he might just teach you a thing or two about card magic.
Cubes and I are both Brits. And we both graduated in the same year — in 2011 he received a Masters of Engineering (Computer Science) at Bristol University, and I hold an MA in Film & TV Screenwriting from Liverpool’s John Moores University. So, needless to say, not only was I excited but more than a little intimidated (and surprised too) that Cube agreed to be interviewed by yours truly. Sure, he’s the behind-the-scenes wizard with HSM, but the man does have quite the full plate — and one does not simply telnet into Mordor, after all.
Since this interview, and even before it, I’ve always admired his work, both at HSM and outside of it.
CHEEKY: For the benefit of those that don’t know, Tell us a little about ‘AlphaZone 4′ and where did you come into the picture?
CUBEHOUSE: I’ll indulge myself in a little history on AlphaZone4. Before Xi, I had very little interest in PlayStation Home. But after reading about Xi on a news website, something clicked. Through Xi I really understood what Home could do as a game platform, very much in a similar way how Facebook only vaguely interested me until it became a social gaming platform.
Since I was hooked, and I had a tendency for building websites around things I am obsessed with, I knocked up a speedy WordPress blog for Xi that was tentatively called “Cubehouse’s Xi Blog” (catchy, I know). But I had recently made some friends in Home through the official forum’s pre-Xi hype topic. We were hanging out in the Xi Hub (which had been open for about 2 hours) and it turned out the other guys were interested in building a site. Since I had literally just made one, we formed together and collectively decided to run this Xi blog. We saw that there were these three mysterious “Alpha Zones” in the space, so the name “AlphaZone4″ popped up as a suggestion, which immediately stuck as the perfect name. We were rather worried the big square door might actually lead to AlphaZone4! But (thankfully?) it didn’t lead to AlphaZone4 and instead the end of Xi. However, at one point there were actually plans to release an AlphaZone4 space in Xi, but it was only ever planned on paper as an “abandoned amusement park”. So, if that had ever came to light, we most likely would have been AlphaZone5.com!
After Xi, there was no obvious “Xi-2″ in sight and we had this rather large fan base forming around us. At the time, there were really no other Home sites that were at all active, so we decided to expand the site gradually into a dedicated Home site that could collect and archive information on Home.
There are only a few of us who work on the site. I spend most of my time looking after the server, publishing the new content updates/news and working on new site features.
CHEEKY: Just to get a picture of the scope and scale of your website, how many guests have you had visit your site over the last month?
CUBEHOUSE : We don’t often discuss our statistics, but I believe a regular month is something over 30,000 unique visitors, with around 25% of them checking back every week. Thursdays in particular are our busy days, where we see will usually see close to 4,000 unique users check out our weekly updates.
CHEEKY: You are currently celebrating three years as a major gaming and social centre dedicated to Playstation Home; what does the AlphaZone party mean to you?
Many thanks to VEEMEE for creating the awesome AZ4 hoodies
CUBEHOUSE: We always host parties for our anniversaries; this year we decided quite some time ago to do something particularly special. As we usually just have a small gathering in our clubhouse, we thought we would go over the top and really take the opportunity to celebrate PlayStation Home, which brought us all together. It means a lot to us that we were able to get so many developers together to join in with the events, as they are obviously the people who create all the awesome content in Home, so it was a really great opportunity to do something with them but also bring some of the community closer to Home developers with our live in-Home Q&As.
CHEEKY: What are your thoughts on virtual worlds? What’s the attraction of PlayStation Home?
Second Life, eat your heart out.
CUBEHOUSE: I like the concept of virtual environments, as it provides an extra dimension to socialising online. PlayStation Home in particular has always interested me solely because of its potential as a gaming platform that allows this brilliant way of gaming socially. I’m not a fan of other services like Second Life, as there is no focus or direction for the service other than just “hanging out”. The reason I enjoy Home so much is because of the ability to play and enjoy a game with other people. It’s similar to the satisfaction from playing an MMO, but instead of having this typical endless grinding you get in a lot of online worlds, with Home you get these weekly updates that brings an insane variety of games and experiences to enjoy with other people.
CHEEKY: There are many new gaming developers now designing and creating their games exclusively for PlayStation Home; to some developers that are just getting their foot in the door, would you think that PlayStation home is the perfect showcase for new game developers tapping into the casual market?
CUBEHOUSE: I think Home is a great platform for smaller developers who are looking for a well supported platform where social gaming thrives. I imagine that there comes a stage where the audience simply isn’t there, and for larger studios Home just won’t cut it. But in terms of development support, guaranteed audience and the promotional support developers get for creating content for Home, I can’t imagine a better place to start. I have known many of the Home developers over the years and have seen how great Home has been for them. I also know some developers who haven’t even released a single thing in Home yet, so it’s been really great to talk to these people and get a feel for what it’s like to begin developing for such a platform. From what I can tell, it seems that starting development for Home content can’t go wrong as long as you correctly tap the social gaming market that Home provides.
CHEEKY: Personally, I’d like to have the ability to region hop without restriction — i.e., I would like to visit EU home as a NA account, Japan, et cetera. Could you see this becoming a possibility, or would this create more complications from a user / server standpoint?
CUBEHOUSE: I don’t think this will ever happen on a large scale. In the same way that I can’t watch Hulu from the UK, Home is full of licensed content that is required to be controlled to specific regions.
CHEEKY: Is there a game or private space that you would like to see in PlayStation Home?
CUBEHOUSE: I would really like to see a Harvest Moon style of game inside of Home. I imagine, what with public/private spaces, that kind of experience could be emulated so easily. I’m stunned no developers have created such a product yet.
I’d like to thank Cubes for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat with us; although this may be a somewhat redundant statement given the size of AZ4’s audience, make sure to follow AlphaZone4 online to stay up to date on the latest and greatest goings-on in PlayStation Home.
HSM filmmaker Godzprototype filmed the HomeStation party which was the closing act for the AlphaZone4 Expo, and we now present it to you here for the first time. Many thanks to Cubehouse for allowing HSM to participate in his website’s public events, and we hope to see AlphaZone4 continue strong for years to come!
April 6th, 2012 by CheekyGuy | 2 comments
CheekyGuy is a loveable, mischievous Brit who first entered virtual reality via Second Life, and now frequents Home as a Grey Gamer to keep in touch with friends. In real life, Cheeky is a video editor who has just completed a Master's degree in screenwriting from Liverpool John Moores University.
Nice interview Cheeks! Good to hear from Cubes and see Home from his perspective. Good job on the video too Godz. The HSM parties were a blast to put together, there is a lot of behind the scenes stuff that goes on to get all of this together, but the end result is worth it, a good time was had by all.
Nice work Cheeky,
a very informative read.I amde it to a coulpe of the parties. I had a great time. Thanks Alphazone4.