One of the most clever features I’ve seen for a Home game is Novus Prime’s salary. It gives dedicated players a reason to check back in every day, which helps keep up the residual traffic numbers. A very nifty way of hooking people to return.

In-world currencies work. If Home’s PR tagline is that it’s becoming more of a game itself, then it should have more gaming elements built into its infrastructure. I still believe the gold standard for this is Lockwood, with the Sodium Hub. *They* made Home into a game, with jobs, currency barter and interlinked spaces. I’d love to see SCEA follow that template with their own proprietary spaces. Imagine a currency — Sony credits, for lack of a better word — which could be earned through various activities, such as finishing specific quests on the Activity Board? And those credits could be redeemed for specific virtual items (probably the stuff that didn’t sell well during its initial release). What a great way to involve someone in Home and slowly coax money out of them!

I can’t really think of any game I’d want to play for perpetuity, so it’s nice when things come to a logical end. And getting a free personal space out of Aurora will give me a real sense of accomplishment. Besides, I still need to catch that Colossus in Sky Fishing.

Like the Sodium games, I continue to play Novus Prime to earn credits, even though I hit level 30 the same weekend the level cap was raised. I don’t play every day, mind you, but every now and again to kill time. I also collect my pilot’s salary daily since every update to Novus Prime usually includes a large number of new items and upgrades to purchase. This way, I can buy all the best stuff as it becomes available to me, without having to grind away to build up credits.