On the other hand, developers might be better off releasing fully imagined personal apartments with more options for customisation built-in. More spaces are including diurnal controls now. Even Harbour Studio has various wallpaper options and working light switches. How about some weather controls, sound effects, windows that open and close, etc?

I totally agree with your statements about the recent slew of big-box hack jobs. What a dreadful bore the SCEA releases have become.

And I loved your gallery story. I can surely imagine myself in your situation, trying to suppress an incredulous facial expression.

Granzella does this better than anyone, because their personal spaces are extensions of their public spaces that add value to the public space experience, or replicate the elements of it that people enjoy. Given the past success of My Private Hideaway, I expect the Fossil Museum and Another Beach spaces to be huge hits when they get here.

Even the brilliant Cutteridge Estate adds value to the Minibots game, with those little mouse holes that the player’s bot can run through.

Ultimately, I think developers that create a single, unified presence that expands across multiple content types can do better than developers who simply create a property and move on. Aurora has its loyal followers, as do Lockwood and Granzella. All three have developed very large, intricate projects within Home that offer updates and multiple opportunities for monetization.

It’s a bit like taking a disc-based game, breaking it down into is core elements, and then figuring out how to release them all. Some get sold, some are free, all of them combine to create a larger experience.

This sort of content, combined with user tools like Blueprint that offer a high level of interactivity, can provide both the deep experiences and the self expression that Home users seem to crave.

Seal is correct in that marketing Blueprint as a more of a game and less of a personal space would be a brilliant move on nDreams’ part. One of the biggest and oldest meta-games in Home is interior design and redesign of personal spaces, and this just takes that to a whole new level. Marketing Blueprint as a game may also soften the psychological blow when it comes to the purchasable add-ons later on.

I’ve no doubt there will still be people who will buy a ready-made space over Blueprint, or in conjunction with it. However -- and this may just be a personal quirk -- I’ve a hard time reconciling the phrase “the real thing” in the virtual world, especially when comparing one virtual item to another. To dismiss the quality of the textures just may be a bit too shortsighted. Yes, the exterior landscapes that I’ve seen from Blueprint are a bit simplistic, but I suspect that has to do with memory limitations, and the fact that it is still incomplete. As for the wall textures and the ability of free-thinking individuals to create anything professional looking… I’m just going to withhold comment.

This will be the biggest problem that the remaining professional apartment designers will face. People unrestricted by rules or company policy with free reign to create as they please, given the boundaries of Blueprint, will most likely storm ahead of the traditional design curve and produce fantastical ideas.

As for the pricing, that remains to be seen. I’ll be watching with intent as to how these “extra” packs are priced. You can be assured, it’s unlikely that I’ll be paying anything more than $10-15 for the ability to design my own dream home. Given the current texture quality I’m finding it hard to see that we as lowly consumers will be able to re-create anything as professional looking. This will lead to SealWyf’s comment becoming fact; that there will always be a market for the “real” thing.

What I would like to see in pre-designed personal spaces is more… ephemeral. A step beyond the “known structures” as it were. Forget ships, or castles, or space stations, or any other easily recognizable structure, be it on land, air or under the sea. Why not create a structure that resembles living in a large soap bubble? Or colorful toadstool, and unlike the treehouse, have the ability to step outside the inner confines, so you can see it.

Everything -- be it Blueprint or prefab -- has the same basic elements of a space, with few notable exceptions like the Midnight Glade. In order to compete with a space a consumer can design themselves, a developer will have to look almost quite literally outside the box. Although, as mentioned, I doubt the market for private spaces in the $5 range will ever dry up completely. It’s the handful of consumers that drive 95% of all sales in Home to whom a pretty box will seem underwhelming.

I’m hoping that nDreams will sponsor contests for the most innovative Blueprint spaces, and will issue new upgrade packs on the basis of what people come up with or suggest. And I’m also hoping that Blueprint will be available as a clubhouse skin. In that role it would be truly awesome — you could redesign your club depending on what was planned for a particular meeting — as a lecture all, discussion circle, movie theater (once portable EOD is available), game room, maze, or whatever you like.

Blueprint: Home is incredibly exciting. But it won’t drive personal space developers out of business. Not the good ones, anyhow. It’s like posters vs. fine art. There will always be a market for “the real thing.”