Lockwood Goes Jurassic
Information provided by Megan Egglesden, Lockwood Product Manager; commentary by NorseGamer, HSM Editor-in-Chief
So this is where I get to brag a little: I live in Jurassic Park.
No, for real. If you’re familiar with Spielberg’s film adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel, then you probably know that the majority of it was filmed on Kauai. Which, coincidentally, is where I live. Which means that a lot of the stuff you’ve seen on the big screen is stuff I can take you to in person.
The giant tree that Sam Neill hides in with the kids? Check. The spot where Wayne Knight was having lunch in Costa Rica? Check. The waterfall where the helicopter lands to take our protagonists into the park? Check. The field where the dinosaurs are first revealed and Sam Neill sinks to his knees? Check.
And, of course…the Jurassic Park gate.
Yup.
The gate itself is gone, but the posts for it are still there. And the mountain in the background is Mt. Wai’ale’ale, the rainiest spot on Earth — which also happens to be an extinct volcano. So if you’ve ever wanted to bathe inside a volcano, I’ll take you there.
(Seriously, though, if you ever get a chance, you’ve got to experience this place. Mankind has at best a tenuous foothold out here, and civilization is the exception to the rule. The vast, vast majority of this island is untouched by man, and will remain so. I don’t mean to get all esoteric, but this island exerts a strange effect on people. One day I might write more about this.)
The one thing I can’t show you, though, are dinosaurs. In the past, the only way to enjoy a dinosaur was to wait for Phil Tippett and a hundred-million dollars to animate something chasing Jeff Goldblum. And then came Lockwood.
What is it about dinosaurs that fascinates us so much? My own personal supposition on the matter is that it’s a reminder that while we are the planet’s dominant species at this moment in time, it wasn’t all that long ago that we didn’t exist, and dinosaurs more or less ruled the ecosystem for tens of millions of years. And thus we become intrigued by the notion of trying to coexist atop the food chain with these beasts. Personally, I’m quite glad we don’t; as a youth I visited Arizona’s Painted Desert, and it’s not until you step into a dinosaur’s footprint that you realize just how pwned you’d have been.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the whimsy of a Lockwood dinosaur companion.
Virtual companions in Home have been big business; what started as an odd curiosity quickly blossomed into a full-blown market segment. The best virtual pets seem to be extensions of the user’s personality; they should be viewed as a fashion accessory, not an AI simulation. In terms of interactivity, the only companion that’s shown any innovation is the Robotic Dog, which actually comes and greets you at your personal estate when you enter (which is, by the way, quite awesome). But as has been discussed here before, virtual pets are simply another method of self-expression in Home, at least until something akin to Tamagotchi arrives on the scene.
So what sort of pet accessory tends to work best?
Well, the ones I’ve seen most predominantly throughout Home are the pets that are cute but memorable in some way. Something that sets them apart and has an “awwwww” factor. If it’s generically cute, it doesn’t seem unique enough; if it’s too bizarre, you expect it to do more stuff than a companion is programmed to do, and end up disappointed. So it’s that middle ground which is the sweet spot on the tennis racquet.
In this regard, the Lockwood dinosaurs fit the bill nicely. Many of us had some sort of dinosaur toys as kids when we were growing up, and this is just a virtual version of the same thing. Kudos to Lockwood for developing it.
Yo dawg, we heard you liked fashion and games in Home, so we put Lockwood in Home so you could look good in your game while you look good while you game!
By the way, do you get the sense that Lockwood production meetings must really be a blast to be a part of? They’re like Home’s version of the Pimp My Ride crew. “Yo dawg, you came from a broken Home, so we hooked yo’ ass up with some Fool Throttle, a couple of Sodium games, Cucumber bucket seats, and your own personal VICKIE! We even rewired your PS3 so you can chill at Mercia while everyone else crashes servers at E3, and we gave it a sweet Delirious Squid hairstyle! Check that out!”
“Thanks, Lockwood, for pimping my Home!”
Where the hell am I going with this PR piece, anyway? Look, I’m gonna go take some meds, and you go buy a Lockwood dinosaur. Kthx.
July 23rd, 2012 by NorseGamer | 8 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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I was fascinated by Jurassic Park as a kid, not the idea of being so close to dinosaurs like most of my friends though, who’d caught the Dino-bug, no. I was stunned by the sheer processing power of the computers that generated these lost beasts. Then more so with the animation team that brought them to life. Y’know what I did the first time I saw that hulking (now just a little inaccurate) T-Rex? Nope, I didn’t scream of gasp like the rest of the cinema, I shed a tear. Heh, yep. The animation was so fluid, the lighting was perfect, the whole thing just skins into place within the “real” footage, and I shed a tear of joy and appreciation. Yeah, CG and animation can do that to me.
Anyway, what I’m tring to say here is; I did love that film, but for very different reasons to the rest of the world it seemed. I have to give credit to LW for a nice logical idea, but being pets they’re also rather underwhelming for dinosaurs. They should call them “Baby Dinos” or something, but I can see by the still ad (sorry -- no time for vids just now) and correct me if I get this wrong, there’s no Dino-to-avatar scale. Bit misleading, s’not a giant thing that you could crush nooks with and comically name Stompy. Just to warn any of you who’s salivating at the prospect of tearing up the Hub with massive lizard death.
And Norse, I’d take you ip on that island tour mate. Maybe after I can take you the beach Chariots of Fire did that scene on to call it even eh. ; )
Fast-forward in the video to the :50 mark — there are several shots which provide a companion-to-avatar scale.
I’m always happy to play tour guide any time someone makes it out to Kauai; the island itself is insanely beautiful, and it gives me an excuse to see all the cool sights again. Run a Google image search on “Polihale” to see one of my favorite hangouts.
Just did exactly that, it’s a beautiful place Norse, I hope you admire that every time you look outside in the mornings.
Also, my bad for not running the vid, glad they put in some size comparison, least they ain’t pulin’ an OUYA on us then eh!
yes I understand that out of place feeling all too well -as all my constituents in third grade were running about in pink ribbons and kissing boys, yours truly was enthralled that I had achieved learning how to spell Pterodactyl by memory. I brought the book I had been reading on dinosaurs to class and showed it to one of the female teachers -explaining to her in a very animated way about what I had learned -and she gave me an odd look and then they put me in a separate room with a man that asked me a bunch of questions. He said he was testing my knowledge. (IQ I assume) It went on for a few weeks. Etc. I am sure they wanted to find out if I was disturbed or intelligent (result, I am probably a little of both- and much good it has done me- heh). But, I have since lost my ability to remember how to spell dinosaur names, and now had to look pterodactyl up to spell it correctly. (Who needs intelligence when we have internet, spell check, and reality TV?) Needless to say I have always had a fascination with all things scientific. The Dinosaurs being one of the great mysteries of global evolution, of course they would not escape my curiosity. (I probably have more of this than intelligence). I don’t know if I would buy the companion but I would certainly frequent a game that embodied “Land of the Lost” -Hokey but true, I loved that show with the sleestack, and that weird time traveling thing… it was the “Ancient Aliens” of the 1970s.
Not into dinos much myself but I have a friends who is crazy about them and he hasn’t been coming into Home much at all. I told him about them and he jumped on Home immediately and bought the pack. Bringing this kind of new content may help bring people back, there are a lot of dino fans out there.
I’m hoping that the landscape in the video is a new Jurassic Apartment. How awesome would that be? We also need huge, life-sized dino models to set around in our private spaces. Preferably next to Black Stallion Props. Want. Totally want. (How old am I again?)
Hey there, just thought you would like to know that here in the California desert, there are places (don’t know if they are still open) but they were road side diners and they were in the shape of full sized dinos. It was real cool. I have a picture of myself as a yungun there, but we aren’t going to see those anytime soon…lol. Also I agree that I wish that we could get our mitts on that place where the video was shot.
Gotta admit, I only had enough to buy the brachiosaur, but I love him. This is another great example of Lockwood doing it’s magic. These are great and I do want the other two. Good job Lockwood!