Dolphy Racing: No Crowd Here!
by Phoenix, HSM team writer
When was the last time you were at the Dolphy races?
You can’t recall. Was it just the other day? How long did you stay?
Where have all the cheering crowds gone? Why are the lines so short when entering the racing portal? The race center is a ghost town. Dolphy are still in the stalls waiting to race and do race, but they seem to be AI dolphy more often than not. What’s happened to the dolphy racing game of chance? The dolphy races used to be one of the most populated spaces in Home. What’s happened?
The way it was: In the beginning, when you landed in the Hudson Gate space, you were eager to place that bet and win a dolphy trophy. Dressed in your best race spectator attire, you had to navigate the space. The crowds were thick. Swarms of avatars milling about. You could barely see where you wanted to go. Pressing your way through the throngs of avatars, you could just reach that portal with the R on the point. Avatar bodies pressing mindlessly in on you as you tried to run, the clock ticking; seconds left before the race began.
Then, there it was right in front of you. The dolphy gate. You stepped up to the portal and — oh my god! Missed it!
Yep, the race had started. You and a sea of other unlucky avatars had to now wait twenty minutes for the next race. You stand there for a second, dismayed at your luck. You go to your emotes menu. Your avatar kicks the ground. Ah, well…it’s only twenty minutes, then on to victory!
That’s how it was.
I visited the Hudson Gate dolphy races in both Home SCEA and Home SCEE recently. It was the same story: empty. Unlike the forgotten spaces of recent articles, I don’t think this space has been forgotten. It’s too recent for that. It would seem, from my point of view, that there’s just a lack of interest in the races.
Could it be…that because there is nothing new to acquire, the game’s not worth playing any more? If you are lucky enough to pick the winner, but unlucky enough to have all the rewards…then you get nothing. Could it be that Home’s population needs some “material” tchotchke to participate in a game of chance?
Well, yes. How often would you be willing to play the lottery if you won and there was no reward? After you’ve won the dolphy statues, striped, dotted, metal, starred, and the two sets of horns, what’s the point? Yes, those little dolphy are precious, swimming their little tails off for our amusement. But my guess is many of Home’s gamers feel the same way: right or wrong, give us rewards or we give you a monument to emptiness.
Darwin play?
And what about the owners of those high-performance fastback dolphy (myself included)? What do we get after the weeks of training and nurturing our little reward makers? We get the same trophy (once). I had to just pull it out every time my baby won. Oh, and yes, there’s the certificate we see on the screen showing which place we came in. Nice. But we can’t display it. Boo.
I am not complaining, mind you…well maybe I am, a little. I am just asking and perhaps suggesting that it might be time to beef up the rewards down at the track. Make it fun again to pick a winner. Make it difficult to reach the gateway. Give me a reason to put my dolphy in the races again. There are too many other attractions — some of which receiving periodic upgrades, such as Novus Prime and Aurora — for a developer to “fire and forget” at the Home audience.
I understand the time and work that goes into even the smallest item in our inventory. I know that developers work tirelessly to come up with and create a quality item for our avatars to display or tuck away as they see fit. I really do. I’m not asking for it yesterday or anything like that. But for better or worse, consistent audience numbers rely upon updates and tchotchke. Something to strive for. Who cares what it is? Announce a seahorse companion, and dolphy racers will duel to the death for it, just because it’s something to win.
Think of a sandbox video game, like Grand Theft Auto. Once you’ve completed the main storyline and beaten all the missions, simply driving around the sandbox gets kinda old. The catch with Home games is that they have to remain appealing for years after they’re deployed. This requires a different type of game design. Look at Cutthroats, for instance: there were people who maxed out the levels and experience bar within twenty-four hours of the game going live. Now, how do you keep them coming back long term? Cutthroats may prove more resilient to audience loss thanks to its cooperative multiplayer element and direct player control, but you and I can both think of a lot of Home games that sit abandoned and unused.
New items could be introduced gradually to the dolphy races, if Hudson wants to bring people back. No need to pop them all out at once. Feed them to the dolphy racing populace one new reward at a time. Pique our interest again in an old favorite, and maybe I’ll see you at the races.
April 6th, 2012 by Phoenix | 28 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
Excellent article! I agree 100%. I used to go and compete with a great friend of mine. We would stand on the outer rings and dance as we chose our dolfy and waited for the race. That was a blast, but the truth is in your article. After all was won, the races became ho-hum. I enjoy them, and they were great for my times with my friend, but the place, like a lot of places that have not been updated has turned…well sorry to say, stale. If they had some sort of upgrade, it would be worth a second look. Hopefully somebody associated with the dolfy races is reading. Great place, needs a make over.
Thanks,I did the same. It was so much fun cheering on your dolphy. I still visit my dolphy. I don’t go every day anymore. I hope some steps up and does something with that space. It could be fun again.
My Dolphys disappeared one day after an update so i never bothered to raise them again since I already had the rewards. I think if they introduced new rewards i would certainly race again.
I would love a seahorse companion. I know i have too many of them now at 30 and counting, but seriously a sea horse, that would be awesome. So would a mini dolphy that follows you. It would be sweet if you could buy special fish to feed your dolphy that would give them a boost now and then. Maybe 20 for their standard .99 cent price they love to use so much. Not a permanent power up but one you use sparingly. Like the boosters in Sodium 2. Upping your chances of winning.
Thanks Bonzo,
I would buy it for my dolphy if they did. And btw, my companion list is growing too,but can you ever have too many…nope! lol
LOl good point.
I too am a dolphy owner and spent hours upon hours training my girls to kick fluke. It was insane how much time i spent with them. However after winning everything possible, including that hideous bomber hat, I am lucky to visit them often enough to keep them from throwing a black fuming cloud of ugly at me for abandonment.
What I would like to see is the same.. more things to strive for. A reason to keep racing. I would love to see things like maybe a killer whale or shark mask we could put on our dolphies. Maybe even wings? LOL, I don’t know.. anything, SOMETHING!
I think the decline began when the freezes were constant and relentless. I just didn’t see any point in racing if some idiot was just going to freeze the server and I would miss the race results and lose all my votes anyway.
I know another issue is the horrible skip problem. With 3 dolphys to race, being skipped once or twice isn’t a big deal. But when you multiply that by 3 dolphins and experiencing up to 5 or 6 skips in a row per dolphy (while you watch a default take the gate you should have inhabited).. well the hours go wasted in total frustration.
I love the friends I have made racing dolphins. Comparing training techniques, debating ring test results and which stats are better for what type of race.. that is just fun stuff.
One other thing I would love to see is Hudson adding a place for us to hold Match Races! How much more fun would that be? Get a bunch of friends together and race against each other on purpose, not because of the random selection process. We could have sprinters, long distance swimmer, and of course the current star and challenge courses to choose from. It would give us an option on how to train, as well as a way to get some serious bragging rights amongst our peers.
Say what? Bomber hat what? How did you win this?
Bonzo: you turn in 50 super fish at the Hudon theater reception desk. Once you get all 50 turned in, you receive the bomber hat with mic to use on your dolphy
Oh i was just feeding the super fish to the dolphys lol.
Yes, you’re right that skipping thing was an absolute nightmare!
But WOW!, that idea of yours, now that’s what I’m talking about. Racing for the sport and bragging rights! That could be so much fun. Here’s to hoping the powers that, be see and agree.
The nail is still reeling from the hit to the head it just took.
This was, at one time, one of the best games in Home, but even the best games lose their replay value if there’s nothing left to accomplish. It is a truly rare game, like Blaster’s Paradise, that is simply so much fun to play that it’s worth banging away at for hours on end, knowing that you’ll get nothing but the thrill of blowing some stuff up and a higher spot on the weekly leaderboard.
Part of the problem with this game is the way it works. There’s an awful lot of standing around and waiting, and if there’s a reward to be won or some friends to chat with, it’s time well spent. Take those things away, and it’s 20 minutes that could be spent mastering a track at Sodium 2.
I do hope that Hudson revisits this game at some point, because it has excellent mechanics. The recent trend in Home toward spaces that offer regular updates has shown that unless you’ve got a really compelling play experience, the way to keep users coming back is to keep delivering new stuff.
I agree with the general consensus here. Rewards or upgrades are what keep people coming back consistently. I like the idea of a new space to have races against friends directly, that would be a big hit I think with new rewards attached. My dolphys hate me by now I haven’t been back to see them in weeks! They are probably fuming as they swim about their enclosure. If they could give us a reason to go back I would go. I think it would be funny if lack of attention to them would have you find them floating belly up when you returned and having to start over. LOL. Even that would be an incentive to at least take care of them.
I can see that. lol Little stars for their eyes. Your bad burbie. lol
Wow that picture of the Dolfy races is just so sad.
Here’s an idea; why not make the dolphys ‘Controllable’ while in the
race? use the six axis to til your dolphy left & right, up & down.
This could be another replay feature.
Why not add new creatures like cute looking dragons, Unicorns with wings that even your AVATAR can sit on and ride them all?
Why not do one off incentives for the winner to receive a $20 SEN Card for getting 1st place in a race. I think Hudson should raise the stakes for ppl? say a ‘major’ event annually?)
Yes that is one thing i wished from the beginning. The ability to control the dolphy, the six axis tilt would be a great way of doing that.
I’d be happy if they would just lose that pan-flute music!
I love the pan flute music…so peaceful. Leave the pan flute out of this…lol
Since Konami took over and closed Hudson Entertainment I really don’t expect any updates to our Hudson spaces -- public or private. When you search for Hudson on the Konami website you receive the message “No matches found.”
Yes, that is one reason I wrote this. Konami is still a contributor here in Home. I think if they can continue to put out new items here for us to purchase; why not do something the dolphy race. The race was an important part of Home. It was a favorite for many. It should not be neglected.
I think the key is updating spaces. If you don’t, they get boring and repetitive. That is why games outside of Home have expansions and sequels.
If Cutthroats teaches developers nothing else, I hope it is that players want to work with and against real people. Shooting bots is fun, but not nearly as satisfying as sinking real players.
That is what is unique about Home. You can know the people you are playing with and against. My hope is that by tapping into that, the game has a longer life. We will see.
LOVE CUTTHROATS!
You’re absolutely right Duce that is a great thing about Home and it’s games. One of my other favorite things, is the message taunts and challenges from sodium 2. Whenever a friend beats you at the track you could get a taunt from them. It’s good fun to go back and try and beat them, to send them a taunt. That would be cool added to the dolphy race.
Phoenix, my experience at the dolphy races has been a bit different from yours. I have been racing since Hudson opened and you had to wait 30 minutes between races. I still race. I am on my third set of dolphies, having lost them twice due to Home crashes. I have heard from others that this is a common occurrence and is one that discourages one from starting all over again; although there are some like me who do stick it out and start all over again.
I rarely see Hudson empty and when I do happen upon an empty server I try to have an anchor so I can get back to that server, otherwise I always get back to the crowded server. During my time racing, there are some long time racers that still race or just hang out with friends in Hudson. I have seen some leave it for many months and then come back after six months of not racing to race once again. Of course, there are others who have completed everything or have tired of racing or waiting around, who do not come back to the races. There are new racers that replace the old ones.
Although my experience has differed from yours, I do agree with the main point of your article and that is that developers have to constantly keep updating their space to keep people coming back. This is certainly true for those who don’t own dolphies and come there to win prizes for voting on dolphies. Once the horns are won, many do not return.
Even though the race time has been shortened to 20 minutes from 30 minutes, I would like to it to be shortened even more. If you miss a race or get skipped then it because a time sinkhole that many cannot invest the time into just to get your three dolphies to race. If there was a race every 10 minutes then getting skipped would not be such a big time waster and would get more dolphies raced, thus reducing being skipped.
Some have suggested “Versus” races where you can race against friends.
I do agree that “launch and leave it alone” is not good that that regular updates is what is need to keep space fresh and new to keep people coming back.
Hey Orion,
thanks for sharing.I may have to tag along with you to get a good race day. lol. I had no idea, wow 30 minutes. ..
That must have been a drag. I use to hate being bumped.
I think everyone that has respond really enjoyed the dolphy races. Its a shame it hasn’t seen some update by now.
Well, adding the “star” races to the “challenge” races was an update. And they changed the race times from 30 minutes to 20 minutes, concurrently. But, I would love to see other updates, also. Konami is over-looking a good (maybe great) thing here. I know people would buy new “skins” for their dolphies and race again for new items. Konami should have spent their money improving Hudson, not making that horrid jet. KONAMI KONAMI KONAMI
Yes Kassadee,
you’re right those are updates of a fashion. Thank you Konami!
Now if they would have done oh, say a few more. I wouldn’t mind seeing my dolphy go into a loading stall when I select one for a race;even that would be cool. Its obvious people still love the space.I just hope it’s not over, really over for the dolphy races.
You are welcome to join me at the races anytime Phoenix.
I do enjoy racing and seeing what people name their dolphies. I really would love it more if they would update it. Thank you again for a fine article.