Why x7 Fails for Me
by BONZO, HSM team writer
Authors Note: Before you proceed understand that this is solely my own opinion based on what I have experienced in x7 in the last week. You may feel differently as this is the kind of content that is purely subjective and not everyone will agree on it.
There is no shortage of hostility for the new club, no shortage of advocates who love the feeling of exclusivity and scoff at the people who don’t have access, and certainly no shortage of people who find it to be in very poor taste. I happen to be one of the latter, and not because I don’t have access. I have a Plus subscription, and I’ve gotten my money’s worth from it, but it also grants me access to all but the VIP room within the exclusive X7 club. So what is my flipping problem?
It strikes me as odd that there is no consensus on how to react to it. Not whether you like it or not, we won’t all agree there, but how we are supposed to take the club as a whole. Are we taking it too serious, or are we not taking it serious enough? Is it all just a big joke? Who is the joke on? Is the joke on the perceived Hollywood celebrity persona we get from the tabloids and shows like TMZ and Extra? Or is the joke on us as a consumer base from a developer that seems to think that is what we want.
Take a quick trip to the lobby of x7. Where do you appear? On a red carpet presumably after stepping off a gold stretched Hummer. Step to the left to the backdrop of the PlayStation Home logo and the “paparazzi” standing there taking pictures, and take a quick glance at the comments that pop up on the chat log.
“Oh My GOSH!! It’s (insert gamer tag here)!”
“How do you feel after the court mandated rehab?
“Do you have a comment on your latest indiscretion?!”
“Rumor has it that you have a new role lined up, can you confirm that?”
“Look here, (insert game tag here)!”
Is this supposed to be a joke? As a target demographic – whomever that may be – am I supposed to feel like I am a celebrity arriving at an exclusive Hollywood nightclub? Am I somehow in on the joke, making fun of the celebrities that immediately pop into our minds when considering the kind of Hollywood dregs this represents? Am I the joke, if I were someone whom idolized those celebrities whom seek fame through notoriety rather than any real skill or talent? Is this somehow supposed to make me feel like I am living that fantasy in this virtual setting? If the image this is representing supposed to be serious, why is it being encouraged? If it’s all just a joke, who is the joke on? Am I contributing to the mockery of those celebrities that have become famous by association to someone who was already famous, or for being such epic screw-ups that they just became famous for it? Or is it a joke on me as a consumer for paying to be a part of this club?
I’ve thought about it and when I take it serious it comes off as a joke on us. When I take it lightly it still comes off as a mockery of us. Whether you take it serious or take is a joke, it never seems to feel like we are part of the gag, but rather as if the users are the punch line.
So fine, let us get past that. You walk away and go up the stairs where you are met by huge hulking goons one with gold (of course) brass knuckles and the other with a gold plated gun in his hand. What is this supposed to represent? I am entering a club of gangsters, is that it? I am somehow a bad-ass and a thug and a “baller?” Is that what I am supposed to be feeling or thinking of myself? Step inside and you are immediately in the lobby of a building with a desk, behind which stands a scantily clad receptionist that has an anorexic thin waistline (honestly, is it even possible to modify a female avatar to have a waistline that thin?), a rear that sticks out so far I could set my drink on it, and it would have to be, to balance the chest that looks like its going to tip the poor thing over. I have to give it to them though – I have seen avatar costumes that are a lot more revealing. One of the UFC prices for instance was a very small red brief bottom with the UFC logo on the crotch (yeah, no sexvertising there). Not to mention the Street Fighter Cammy outfit leaves little to the imagination.
Playboy mansion?
What the **** is that?
Once you go up the elevator to the main club, you again encounter these anorexic thin courtesans that have top and bottom endowments that defy physics. I don’t understand the trays full of money, gold bars, and whatever the silver puke stack is, or maybe silver is too cheap maybe its platinum. I fail to see how this translates to luxury or high class in any way, but the garish overuse of gold fails to translate that for me as well. These waitresses, hostesses, whatever are the means to playing the FLIRT game though, which for a section of Home that is supposed to keep trolls away – if that is the purpose – I don’t understand the concept of making a game out of trolling.
I honestly would have done a spit take the first time I went in, if I had been drinking anything at the time when I saw the VIP room within a VIP club. Now the restrictions for this is again to have the 1st floor, 2nd floor, or infinity pool area of the mansion (garage doesn’t count); the diamond suit, gold suit and only the ultimate diamond collection. No mention of the purchased weekly or monthly pass or the other Gem suits. Now if you aren’t already nursing a concussion from being beaten over the head with the marketing for these commodities, let’s just do a little math.
Sex sells, but who are you selling to?
Acceptable Content for Home
Any rational human being with any common sense will notice that $4.99 a week to get in the club will not balance the expense with the discounts and freebie for that week when a less than five dollar a month subscription to PlayStation Plus will do if you purchase an annual subscription for fifty dollars. If PlayStation Plus isn’t your thing, that’s cool; there’s a $14.99 dollar a month pass for x7.
So let us rationalize $14.99 a month, or a one-time expense of $9.99 for any level of the mansion (which is what it would cost if you received the garage after the PSN outage last year), or $14.99 for either Gold or Diamond suit, or a $34.99 expense for the Ultimate Diamond collection bundle that would let you in for the life of the club. If you don’t feel like you are being led by the nose by now then they’ve done a good job. Now they are obviously counting on you to notice this and not buy the weekly or monthly pass, but purchase the suits or the mansion. I feel so assaulted by the promotion of the mansion and the suits that it just turns me off even more to them.
Norse brought up the possible motivation being to try to force these products to work. There is only so far you can take a promotional campaign, and we have all been witnesses to failed ad campaigns in the past. Trying to force a campaign to work by overwhelming us with it doesn’t really help. Anyone remember the “where’s Herb?” Burger King ad campaign?
So this club isn’t targeting me personally. Fine I accept that; so let’s analyze that. Who is it targeting? Certainly not adults. What is it offering and to whom? It is offering an ostentatious lifestyle role-play with juvenile concepts of what fame and fortune are supposed to represent, particularly to a male adolescent mentality. The sexploitation is ridiculous, and yes sex sells. We know that and as a culture we have accepted it, but is it appropriate if it is something that isn’t targeting adults, particularly in a forum like Home where the age range is thirteen and up.
DJ soundboard, headphones, and a Hidden Camel. Real hip!
There are plenty of campaigns that have advertised adult content discreetly to minors. Joe Camel was banned as a brand mascot because the cartoon character was subtly advertising to kids (allegedly) the concept of being cool if you smoke. Not to mention the sexual innuendo behind his nose. After changing their ads, Camel was again scrutinized for targeting teens with their subtle find the camel logo game in their advertisements. Calvin Klein in the 90s was notorious for explicitly using sex as a means of advertising with scantily clad teens in provocative positions. It was the brand that flooded us with underwear ads when I was teen.
When I think of x7 and the subtle and not-so-subtle ways it uses adult themes in a setting that is not really marketed to adults, I am very disturbed by it. I find it inappropriate that the shop is at the Bar, and you go to the bartender to see what the deal of the week is. The dancers on platforms in the dance floor are essentially go-go girls. The themes in the club target specifically males, but they throw in a couple of guys in board shorts with ripped abs and huge pecs to pacify the accusation that there is nothing for the females. When you step back though you see that guns, sex, “bling” and alcohol are used in the theme to appeal to male teens.
Seriously, the store couldn't have been a kiosk?
We have seen this before. EA introduced a whole game, Sims 3 Nightlife, exploiting sex, booze and the club scene to appeal to a younger audience. Madonna has recently been accused of desperately trying to appeal to a younger crowd with her latest album MDNA one letter away from MDMA, if you don’t know MDMA is the acronym for methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, the chemical name for Ecstasy. As well as recently during a performance she asks the crowd, “how many people in this crowd have seen Molly?” Molly being slang for the same drug.
I can understand a business trying to make money. We can’t fault a corporation trying to make its profit. Where x7 fails for me is its methods of exploitation. It exploits the need to be exclusive, the elitism, and the role-play of being a rap gangster – with more money than common sense or an ounce of taste – to push products that are juvenile concepts of luxury. This latest ploy just reeks of desperation, and to quote Jay Christian Emerte, “In lieu of creativity there is an undue emphasis on sexuality.”
By default, I was granted access to the club for my Plus account, but if I didn’t have that, there is nothing I have seen that would convince me to purchase any of the items necessary to gain access. Why would anyone? There are several human motivations whether we admit them to ourselves or not. There is the need to belong, the need to be exclusive, the need to be accepted, and be part of the “in crowd,” and feel like we are in the spotlight and to do as our friends do. This club and the marketing behind it really play on those human frailties. Though I haven’t really been too surprised since the release of the gold suit as to how gaudy tacky can get, I am however surprised that x7 appears to be the joke that no one seems to get. At this point I am waiting for “The Real Housewives of Home” to start airing episodes in the Community Theater.
Normal is what everyone else is and you are not..
So maybe it’s me and perhaps I just don’t get it. I can accept that as well; I have never been known to really go with the flow or be “normal.” Perhaps there is a motivation in that as well – the need to be normal, and follow the crowd. To quote a line from Star Trek like the geek I am, “Normal is what everyone is and you are not.” – Soran.
I however have a more personal reason to feel offended by what this club represents. On more than one occasion when bringing up the issue of having gay content in home, such as an HRC, NOH8 or rainbow t-shirt, it was met with unnecessary hostility. This is not an argument that we need to have such items in Home, but a perspective of the response to such a suggestion. The main argument against it being that Home is a family friendly environment. Yet content like x7 would speak to the contrary.
Unacceptable Content for Home
There is a societal acceptance of sex and violence, but ardent opposition to the nontraditional lifestyles that are heavily opposed by the mainstream. The fact that same sex flirting, and since the induction of the marriage game in the Granzella Southern Island Hideaway allows same sex marriages, there has also been an outspoken disdain for this practice. It makes a very clear statement when, as a whole, the community accepts violence and sexism over tolerance for nontraditional lifestyles. How quickly we mask and justify our prejudices to rationalize what we personally find unacceptable, and to throw another quote at you: “Why is it that, as a culture we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?” – Ernest Gaines.
April 21st, 2012 by BONZO | 14 comments
BONZO is an editor and artist for HomeStation Magazine.
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As a woman oh home I have noticing a lot of this… Pick up this situation I was in the last 2 weeks. I got a suspension of 48 hours without any warning duo to text abuse. The thing I remember that would cause that was a fight I had with a “noob” a default avi keep dancing and fallowing me whatever I went. I don’t think it’s right I have to leave the space cause of a Idiot so I tried to ignore him and report… In less than 2 minutes he bring 3 more defaults to piss me off and I lost my temper… Cool huh? They were working for a fam… Doing virtual bullying on females…
So times passed I got my account back and so X7 came up, I was oh amazing a place without noobs will be nice! And so when I arrive I see what you just write on this article.
But even so I relax and enjoy to be with my friends there, and since I’m a very open mind person, and very sexual I made a sexual joke with 2 friends of mine. One of the common friends around called my attention saying to me I shouldn’t say such things cause if a Moderator or anyone report me I would be screwed.
And I was: Wtf? I can’t make a sexual joke, being a woman of 28 years old In a place like this that everything is about sex? Are you f****** kidding with me?
So this is the point. They make clothes and places that is about sex but if you say “penis” or “vagina” you can get a warning or a suspension… Bunch of Hypocrites don’t you think?
Anyway I liked and agree with everything you posted here
Hmmm, never thought of it that way Excellent point
i get the feeling you went into x7 looking for problems not looking for fun and you found em.i get what your saying but this is a playground of sorts and not everyone likes the monkeybars.are the waitresses over the top? yes…is the music repetative? yes…marketing strategy debatable? yes….did me and some friends have a blast there for 2 hrs? yes….
No i went in there to see what the discounts were, the first week was ok, 6 active items for .99 not bad. Considering it was the animals, some of the oldies but i didn’t have any of them and i like them, mostly. The thing is that there is a lot that goes into the making of a space, or level design. There are things you have to consider to set the mood and get a reaction from people because we all respond mentally and emotionally to them. Not just to spaces in home this goes for all design elements, clothes, cars, even presentation of food in restaurants. We just had two reviews of the Island bungalow, because when you look at the space itself there isn’t much to it in structure, but in texture it is gorgeous. There are a lot of spaces in home like that, they all make us react differently to them. When i went into x7 it got a reaction out of me. It left a really bad taste in my mouth. My sister uses Home, i am 16 years older than her, so i have a more paternal connection to her than fraternal. The first thing that popped into my mind was “great she is going to want to get in here because I’m sure her friends are” So after i left it stuck with me. That unpalatable feeling. So i had to think to myself, why? So i went back several times and really analyzed what i found distasteful about it. You don’t have to look for something wrong to find it. If you enjoy yourself, kudos. That’s great. But as the title states these were the reasons why x7 failed for me specifically. My sis. has already asked me about it and she wants to get in there. There is obviously something there that has appealed to her. It’s by no means being prudish, I am not an idiot, i was her age once, and I got around the rules and raised all kinds of hell, specifically why i am so overprotective of her, because i don’t want her doing the things i was doing or learning the lessons i learned the hard way. I’m sure the bulk of my mothers gray hairs are due to me. I know my sister knows about sex already, its not the kind of discussions she would have around me because she doesn’t see me as a peer, but hell i knew what sex was by the time i was 6. My parents are pretty clueless about technology but I’m not. I know how easy it is to get around parental restrictions if you know what you’re doing, and maybe its just familial pride but my sister is pretty damn smart. Point is there already enough exposure that parents or pseudo parents can’t control, peers being the main problem, but unless you plan to keep your younger loved ones in a bubble for life you tend to be cautious of whats out there that they have access to. They don’t need a cheap marketing ploy like this to add to the problem, just because they weren’t happy with the sales of certain items. Its not porn obviously, but seriously the suggestive lewdness is in really bad taste. Its just not a space that appealed to me and certainly not a space i would want my teenage sister hanging out in. I can accept that i may be over-thinking it, but sometimes you have to look beyond the surface and see what message it sends specifically to the impressionable.
I agree with your statements Bonzo. I have never even been to the lobby area of this place and even if I owned any of the things necessary to get in I wouldn’t go, it isn’t anything that interests me at all. I have spoken to several people who feel the same way about it, I think that though Sony may make a bit off of the Hip Hop or gangster wannabes and those who relish that life style, they won’t get more money from people who are older through this type of promotion, and they are where the real money is. Nice article.
I’ve seen much worse behavior in places other than x7.
As for the atmosphere, whether it’s realistic or not, I don’t know as I’ve never been in such a place. Is it like the Playboy Mansion? I wonder how the latter would go over on home. I never been there.
Gimme’ a hole in the wall bar any ole day. The ones I’ve been in have had pretty nice people in them. I wonder how a hole in the wall bar would go over over in HOME.
I don’t care for the paparazzi rehab remark.
Great article Bonzo! First let me say I have 0% desire to set foot in this place. Being a pretend gangster does nothing for me. I feel Sony really took a chance with this one because it will change people’s opinion of them and it’s not really taking the high road for sure.
I’m going to chalk this one up to a difference in values. I think it’s lame, but many might not and that’s ok. What I really, really dislike about x7 is the division thing. Sony has in Home created an amazing experience that is for everybody, So many people have worked so hard making this a place for all of us. Places like this cheapens that.In the end, spaces come and spaces go. x7 down the road will be empty and HSM will be doing a forgotten space article about it and we’ll all have a good laugh! Fantastic article Bonzo.
Forgotten Spaces: x7 I’d love to write that article and the sooner, the better.
EXCELLENT ARTICLE! i fully agree with alot of it. so i go there with my bulging account with over sixty apartments and three quarters of the stores contents…and cant get in. to lazy to read the requirements, i go on a lesser account…odd, she gets in. walk threw the lobby and stand in the elevator waiting forever for it to load. get upstairs and am greeted by a scantly clad waitress holding a plate of twinkies! HOW SWEET IS THAT! …oh wait, its gold. enough to break arnolds arm. weird. find the dance floor and am assaulted with flirt request. turn that puppy off. i look up to see gyrating women doing a dance that makes my hips go out just watching them. the cabana lay down is a perfect touch, want one at my apartment! hey, an actual hunky guy in the pool! kind of looks like a ken doll though. wander over to the VIP section and am shocked i can go up. and what to find up in this exclusive to all exclusives? seats and three hot tubs. two with supposedly or possibly naked women and one with another ken doll. and your right. again, whats with all this and still pushing the ‘family entertainment’angle? why isnt there male dancers up there, even a mens and womens side. segregating? then why just female dancers? kind of segregating right there! and the VIP? whats the point. theres no insentive to get up there. why didnt they have the free items only for the VIP area. i mean the regular bar STILL has exclusive deals for people that can get in. but no insentive to make it to the top! a free item a week THERE would be insentive. over all, besides being a tad degrading to us women, it was a sham. just another example of catering to the teens or pre teens…who shouldnt be on here, as far as i think. but it IS family entertainment. ….hang on, got to pack my shoulder holster for another night out.
Well said dude. Well said indeed
You can tell the people who designed x7 watch TMZ and MTV and figure that’s how young people roll these days. The whole vibe of the place is 100% gangsta rap video, with a bit of the LA nightclub scene thrown in for good measure.
I have full access to the space, but haven’t spent more than 5 minutes total. I go in, snag my freebie, check out the discount deal, then get out. Rinse and repeat once per week. Do it fast enough, and the rest of the patrons’ avatars aren’t even be loaded up by the time you leave.
That said, I don’t begrudge Sony for doing this; they are in business to make money. They don’t need to make a special space to cater to older gamers like myself; I already spend hundreds of dollars annually on Home. But if this is what it takes to get the younger gamers spending, then I hope it’s a success. The more money Home brings in, the more resources Sony will spend on improving the service.
Course it’s a joke! I dunno, I’m British and so VERY used to poking fun at myself I have a natural desire to make myself look stupid sometimes. But I think you’re also right about them doing it on the sly. I’m 100% sure there are people in there that wouldn’t even understand the joke with an explanation, and really, what does it matter? The ones that figure it out either leave in disgust or keep going with their tongue in their cheek and a smirk on their face. Whatever happens it’s another net off the bow of Sony’s boat.
As for Bonzos point, I completely understand your sentiment completely, which I why I think Home should be for 18 + only. Without x7 existing I wouldn’t let a child of mine anywhere near it. They can do it behind my back, where I’m happy and ignorant!
Well written piece by the way.
PS Home, the most hypocritical place on the internet. Your article is bang on, and I can say that without even having ever set foot in X7.
I’ve been on Home since the closed public beta and I’ve witnessed the slow degradation of it’s content with the addition of each new skanky large breasted outfit, adult diaper and soother wearing fettish freak, and muscle bound meat head outfit available for purchase. Hey, if those things are your bag and you aren’t hurting anyone then let your freak flag fly… but for Sony to allow this kind of garbage on a social platform that is supposed to be family friendly is simply irresponsible, at the very least.
I find it laughable that you can get reported for telling some noob or perv-troll who’s waving his junk in someones face to “fk off”, and get suspended or possibly banned for it. I find it more laughable that their word censor is so easily avoided by removing letters etc., and that it censors legitimate words like Fukushima, which completely interferes with anyone having an actual conversation about real world events and other normal conversations on a site that’s supposedly a social platform.
Sony is the ultimate troll -- X7
All one needs to do is sit in any space on Home (preferably a crappy meat market dance club where 14 year olds pretend to be adults hitting on each other), and listen to the conversations of people who talk about X7. Their mentality and immaturity stands out like a pile of warm dog crap neatly curled atop a fresh blanket of snow. Angry little urban gangsta wannabe’s and 16 year old ho’s with tramp stamps partially covered by their g-strings riding proudly outside their yoga pants is all that comes to mind when I listen to X7 fan’s converse with each other. You can also often spot them by their illegible “tags” they throw out in the middle of their inane conversations, or in their club names and PSN ID comments.
I’m all for companies making money to generate income to put back into their content, but X7 seems to be yet another irresponsible way for Sony to go about it. Perpetuating trolling, exclusion, degradation of women, thug life, and pop star trash clubs where I’d expect to see Miley Cyrus letting Justin Beiber pee on her while she licks the stripper pole are what X7 is basically about.
I almost decided to go in one day because I wanted something a week in advance and didn’t want to wait, and then I remembered the people I see on a daily bases who frequent and hang out there. Thank goodness I can see other peoples conversations on Home. Though, I’d usually rather not.