Sportswalk: Unrealized Potential?
by Burbie52, HSM team writer
When we got the “new” look in Home, with all of the bells and whistles that came with it, I was like everyone else: excited about the changes coming to make Home a better place for us all.
I’ll admit I’m not much of a sports fan. I don’t keep track of any of the teams and I don’t go to games much, though I have in the past seen some baseball, hockey and basketball games. The idea for the Sportswalk seemed like an interesting choice when they created all of the new spaces in Home. There are a lot of sports-based games available for the PS3, so it seemed like a natural progression to have this place built here.
But there is truly something missing at the Sportswalk.
Beautiful and empty
I went to the Sportswalk with a lot of my friends the other night for a Grey Gamers meeting. I always go early to invite the members in, and as I waited with a few of the early birds, I started to think about this core space and the unrealized potential it represented. Here was a space that was introduced into Home as a waypoint on the way to somewhere else (the poker room?) — much as the Hub is — yet why do we need two of those? I feel as though this space was never really finished; like there was supposed to be more to it.
There is a stadium at the far end with noises coming from it, a seating area nearby with some music that fades away if you step too far out, an open bar area inside with a sports trivia game and a running live feed of current sports scores, and only two poker tables on the far side to use for playing on.
I think they either missed the boat here or it isn’t finished as a space yet. At least, that is the way it feels to me. It is almost always empty when I go there. The only reason anyone might go there is to see the sports scores as far as I can tell. Poker is accessible from the space, but it is also easily reached directly through the navigator, so I doubt many people go there to gain access to play. Why should they? It would simply make it more complicated to do so.
The bar gives you the ability to go either behind it or sit on a stool in front. But to what purpose? There is nothing to do on either side that warrants spending any time there at all, and the stand up tables out in the service area there are nice to look at, but serve no 
purpose at all that I can see.
There are, of course, the mandatory screens showing advertisements and the like there, but no one I know will sit there to watch that, or the running sports scores that are easily obtainable elsewhere through different media.
It just seems to me like a wasted space. Though it is aesthetically well-rendered and the scenery outside is beautiful, it sits mostly empty, like Atrus had built a sports bar on Myst Island.
Right now another teleport for Wardrobe Wars sits there in the middle of the plaza area, but I have not seen anyone use it to go there. If they want to do that they can use the navigator to go to the mall, so it just seems more like a way to advertise it; but that isn’t going to work well when few people come to the space in the first place.
There is also a car sitting near the stadium area to teleport you to the X7 entrance, a new items kiosk, activity board and the other gate which takes you to Pier Park near the other teleport to the core spaces. While all of this is nice, it is fairly redundant and it seems to me they have thrown them in there to just have some content and advertisement, not to really change the space to attract people to use it.
Music to dance among the chairs?
There are a few things they could have done — or can still do, if they choose — that would bring a lot of traffic to this area. If they intended this to just be another waypoint that people go to and then leave immediately, then they have accomplished their goal. If not here are a few suggestions to make this a place people will stay and actually use.
The first thing to do is make this space more sports related than it already is. While the sports trivia game and the decor and changing sports scores add to it, there could be more. How about doing something with those empty stand-up tables near the bar? Perhaps instead of the trivia game being on the wall they could have little kiosks at the tables to use? Or perhaps a new game could be developed to sit on those tables and give them some reason for being there except to look pretty.
More gaming elements in the bar area would be good; perhaps a dart game or two? A sports-related pinball game? Or one of those ones where you shoot hoops like arcades have? The bar itself definitely needs some sort of drinking game similar to Sodium; it is begging for it like a hungry dog for a bone. They could use this to monetize with credit winnings similar to Sodium and those credits could buy sports-related things or be used as tokens to play the other games like the darts or pinball and basket shooting. This alone would fill this space with new people and old users.
(Editor’s note: Sportswalk really would benefit from a bartending minigame — similar to Scorpio’s — that allowed people to earn poker chips. Otherwise, Digital Leisure’s Casino, with its chip machines, will continue to siphon audience numbers away from this space.)
Add a couple more poker tables and make the music extend out further into the outside seating area and you have a place people will come to regularly and use.
Room for more games?
As for the stadium, I can only hope they intend it as a portal to a real stadium for the World Cup like the Feva was, or some other game they create for Home. That would be a great boon to this space, and make the continuity feel real. They had to have a reason for creating this sports-related area, and it seems a shame to see it stand mostly empty and forlorn a great deal of the time. It has been proven time and again that upgrades bring in new activity and people, and the Sportswalk is begging for it.
Since there are advertisements everywhere here I think we can assume they are one of the primary reasons for the space. That is all well and good, but it won’t work unless they do something to bring in people to see them, and using the space already created to build not only customer loyalty but feed their need for rewards to work for and it will become the go-to place in Home for a long time to come.
May 15th, 2012 by Burbie52 | 4 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
Darn good one Burbie. I agree. I saw a NASCAR video there back in November but aside from our Gray Gamers meeting on friday, I havent been there in a long time. I’m not into that place because it rarely has anything to really draw me as I’m not a poker player and yes it’s generally empty. It would be nice to see something done there to draw in the masses. Good read.
SuperBowl Experience live in home complete with the works. Getter done!
GJ burbs
The Sportswalk seems like a “Field of Dreams” situation -- “If you make it, they will come.” So far, no one is coming. Although, I think they could turn the Zombie game into a sport.
I love that space. I think they nailed it as far as design goes, and I totally agree it seems weird being so empty. The one and only reason you are there is for the poker game. You touched on some great points about what could go there. When are they going to open those gates, with them shut the space seems closed. Great read as always Burbie!