I agree that interconnectedness is one huge area where Home needs some thought and development. Some standalone content is great, and I get the concept that not everything is meant for everyone to own, but that lack of cohesiveness bugs me. Perhaps it’s the feeling that nothing in Home ever advances, or moves toward any sort of a goal, that causes this feeling. The idea of filling my Granzella Museum, when it arrives, is what keeps me going with that game, but what then? Hopefully something else cool gets launched before I’m done with it.

What would it take to get me back? Enhanced blocking features, games that didn’t require me to push fifty different buttons simultaneously, and a more up-front pricing structure which didn’t nickel-and-dime me. And, preferably, a Home that felt like a functional and cohesive universe closer to The Sims. I want Home itself to be a game, not just a loose collection of games.

Who knows, maybe I’m just not a freemium gamer. Maybe the sort of experience Home offers is something which, like anything else, grows old after a while. It’s not something that’s designed for everyone, as much as it tries to appeal to everyone.

The purpose of my article was not to sell anyone else on leaving Home (particularly not the HSM team, which thoroughly embarrasses most other game “journalism” outlets in terms of quality), but to provide insights to SCEA which might help them with the next iteration of Home, assuming it comes to pass. Home as it presently exists is a known formula which really isn’t going to change much, and that’s fine; it suits a lot of people quite nicely.

I just hope that Sony, with its next version of Home, creates something which doesn’t make me feel like I have to pay such a high penalty to enjoy it. There’s far too much *content* for me as a consumer to enjoy, particularly within the greater PlayStation sphere, that has nothing to do with Home — and, truth be told, I’ve been having a lot of fun with it.

I’m certainly wistful for the days when Home was the centerpiece of my gaming world, and I’m pulling for Sony to keep on succeeding. They’ve got something remarkable with Home, but the architecture underneath it just doesn’t cut it for me, nor has it been harnessed as well as it could have been. Here’s hoping the next version of Home is better.

And cheers to HSM. You guys are a good group and you do a remarkable job of keeping Home interesting.

What you’ve expressed can be said about a great many products and services, offline as well as off. Poor communication from a company? Endemic in a lot of industries, and particularly troublesome in the gaming industry. Harassment? Rampant online. Nickel and diming? Hello, Zynga!

We could probably argue the merits of Second Life vs. Sims Online vs. WoW vs. Free Realms vs. DC Universe in terms of communication, engagement and purpose. Second Life is really the only comparison that comes close, but the significant user-generated IP community over there makes even that comparison difficult.

From its inception, Home has suffered from a lack of purpose. Sony deserves every bit of credit for creating something that speaks to gamers’ desire to connect with one another in a method beyond basic text chat, but neither Sony nor gamers themselves seem to have any real idea of what they want to do with that capability.

The blame falls on us as much as it does Sony; some of Home’s community was perfectly happy to have a place to hang out, while others wanted more games. Nothing within the Home experience, apart from the TGI events, has been relevant outside of the Home experience, other than the personal connections that some users have been able to make.

This reality ultimately leads to the question of, “Why am I here?” and allows the frustrations to mount. Unless there’s some purpose to your time in Home, or some incredibly compelling piece of content to keep you coming back, the frustrations are inevitably going to drive you to look for some other method of occupying your time.

The broader truth is that consumers will put up with a lot of aggravation if they feel that the product is worth the pain, but there is that point where customers break off, either because they don’t see any benefits or someone else has come along and done it better. Of course, we don’t know what “better” means…it could be a purely social program with avatars and endless user customization, it could be a game-centric platform, it could be both on two different consoles.

For me personally, it’s fossil digging, because I love archaeology and enjoy the rewards. Someone else might think No Man’s Land is worth the frustrations, while someone else might be satisfied with hanging out with friends in a new personal space.

Assuming that none of your issues get addressed, and that the question of what Home “is” or “should be” needs to be tabled, what would it take to get you back?

1. I cant agree with this -but I came on not to game but because the social aspect appealed to me. So, I think that in-Home money would have really intimidated me and turned me off. I think that Sony has been trying to remedy the schism between gamers and people that come merely for the social aspect by creating different districts… this tells me that they are at least aware that there are people that come into home for different reasons.

I wasnt around for Xi but it seems like it was a lot of fun, from everything I have read and heard there are more of these types of things being orchestrated but I am not really in the know.

Certainly any and all boundaries will most likely be pursued but I am sure that with legal systems and other current issues within the existing format that need to be debugged there is a need for time to develop these thing.

2. The problems that are set out in this segment seem a real reason for being frustrated and I agree with you wholeheartedly on the marketing devices used verses the Nav and the convenience of the patron. It took me quite a while to find this little community with Alaphazone and Homestation and HomeCast -and others… to obtain information about new releases and breakdowns on what actually the product was like before laying down my well-earned dollar and facing disappointment.

2. I just totally disagree with the whole pay everything up front thing. I am sorry but I think things are better off pieced out… for several different reasons but mainly because I don’t want to drop a wad in one month. This is good for the developers too because people will continue to return and pay accordingly.

I do not belong to playstation plus at this time so I have not point of comparison here.

3. I like your ideas about ghosting a troll -but you know I largely do not have problems with trolls- I mean they are there but I don’t waste my time on them. I figure, not matter what you do if you put a female av in a sexually provocative outfit and stick it out there in public its going to attract some leg-humping 16 year old. Its not right but its reality. How responsible can a corporation be for the activity of its patrons. I am sure the leg-humpers are spending money too. How do we deter socially unacceptable behavior in real life as well? Everything from the guy in the grocery line that yells at the clerk because they don’t have what he wants in stock to the guy that pulls into the parking space that you have been waiting for. I mean that stuff just happens. And you know its up to us to make sure people get that it is not okay. When someone actually freezes another person then there should be repercussions. I mean then it seems like the line is being crossed.

Home is simply a place, and that place is inhabited by people. The reality of people is we are flawed, and those flaws translate in all aspects, right into Home.

While I agree with you on many of your points for sure, I feel Home is what it is, an imperfect place that struggles with it’s problems and try to make things better and hopefully entertain and bring enjoyment to us. Home is just like real life. imperfect.

It is precisely because HomeStation is known as a pro-Sony/pro-Home publication that it has an amplification effect any time we publish something that’s directly critical. I could simply slap a disclaimer on every single article that it’s the viewpoint of the author and not necessarily endorsed by HSM, but that to me is a Janus-faced cop out. When something is run in HSM, it’s because the editorial team looked at it, evaluated it, and decided that yes, it would be a good addition to the publication, with the weight of the brand behind it. And it is precisely because of this stance that more than once I’ve encountered contributors who wanted to use this platform as a loudspeaker for anti-developer agendas, and HSM simply isn’t the place for that.

HomeStation has a hard editorial rule: bring a problem, bring a solution. Particularly if you’re taking on a developer, instead of the community at large. It demonstrates that we are genuinely interested in trying to help solve the problem, rather than just exacerbating it. Siren’s article, to an extent, violates that rule. That may not seem like a big deal, but considering we’ve rejected articles and lost contributors over that rule, it is from my perspective as HSM’s publisher a very big deal.

Not everyone will agree with my decisions. That’s fine. An article like this runs the risk of honking off the audience we’ve built up *and* drawing fire from those who feel we didn’t go far enough. But just as it is ultimately my call to edit for tone or add editor notes as needed, it’s also my call to run an article which flirts with the penumbra of what this publication editorially allows in the first place. The fact that the copy itself went in practically untouched is a testament to how well we think Siren handled, in a logical and rational fashion, an emotionally charged subject with a lot of background noise. Whether it makes any sort of impact or not, it’s certainly a very deft examination of a topic that does merit discussion, which is why we ultimately ran it.

The piece stands up and demands attention because of HSM’s ingrained pro-Sony atmosphere. The apologist-toned foreword dulls the edge somewhat by presenting the article as a talking point instead of direct criticism.

If that was your intent, so be it. You’re the editor. Lacking evangelical interests myself, I would have left it out. Still, kudos for publishing it. Hopefully, somebody of significance will take notice.

As a pro-Sony/pro-developer/pro-Home publication, this sort of op-ed is quite a *tonal* departure from what we normally publish. Granted, HSM has fired off far stronger criticism than this (a fact which our detractors conveniently forget when trying to paint us as nothing but Sony fanboys), but it always comes from a place of wanting to see things improve, and trying to offer feedback that might help that process.

Siren’s article, conversely, comes from an assumption that Home will *not* improve. And the problem with that is that when HSM publishes something, particularly if it’s overly critical…it resonates. There’s no shortage of sources (including the Sony forum and other satellite media projects) telling SCEA what they’re doing wrong. And while we don’t shy away from (constructively) doing that either, we also make an effort to evangelize Sony, Home and its related developers. The major purpose of the foreword was to make it clear that we’re not advocating people leave Home; we’re simply looking at the reasons why some might choose to.

The topic itself, like most social issues HSM covers, is a bit of a powder keg: if someone leaves Home, chances are they have some pretty specific reasons for it. Some will be perception, and some will be reality. And this article does an outstanding job of examining this topic while keeping personal emotions more or less out of it. But art does not exist in a vacuum, and given the frequent negative ranting about Sony and Home on the forum — and, occasionally, in satellite media projects — we felt it necessary to point out that we are in fact attempting to serve Sony by providing the insights in this article, rather than simply tearing them down to make ourselves feel better about the personal grievances we may carry. Perhaps, to the readership, this foreword is unnecessary; HomeStation has a mature and literate audience, and they don’t need any handholding. But as HSM’s publisher I felt it personally necessary and important to include it.

Where’s the bloody edit button anyway?

Were you afraid that your readership could not handle an article that held Sony’s feet to the for for a change? Are the powers-that-be at Sony too fragile to receive such well-deserved criticism from your site? You sound like you’re apologising for publishing a fair and coherently written editorial.

The foreword reminds me of those disclaimers before cable-TV movies warning the audience that “The programme might contain mature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.” HSM seems to have a mature and educated following. We could have made it through all the negative sentiment without suffering emotional breakdowns.

I haven’t completely left Home but my interest is currently at an all time low. At one time, I couldn’t wait to check new spaces, play with my personal apartments and look for new virtual merchandise to buy. These days, I might go a week without logging on and not feel like I’ve missed it a bit.

The whole Elite/Exclusive/Mansion nonsense made a bad impression on me from day one and I still can’t quite get past it. What a poor marketing strategy and disrespectful message to send to Home consumers who don’t shop at the Exclusive store! The heavy-handed tactics effectively told many big spenders on Home that their loyalty does not count and their business is not appreciated. To this date, I’ve refused to buy the Mansion or any personal space with Mansion-related perks. It’s become a moot point lately because the SCEA personal spaces have just been repetitive, big-box rubbish anyway. I can’t even see the point in including a Mansion-owner bonus in a space like the new Crystal Seashores. The space is basically a bare-bones, low-rent version of the Mansion/Infinity Pool complex. Why would an owner of the Mansion even want it?

Your criticism of the communication from the Home team is also spot on. If Sony is not invested in Home, why should I be? The Forum moderation swings between overbearing censorship and total neglect with very little official information shared in between.

Perhaps surprisingly, harassment is low on my list of complaints. Maybe I don’t hang around enough public spaces to be affected by it anymore. Even when I’ve been subjected to it, I’m pretty satisfied by telling the imbecile to piss off and just ignore him.

I’ll continue keeping up with Home to some extent. There are aspects that I still enjoy and friends to visit. However, my big spending days and daily involvement are done. Mall items have to be awfully fresh and original for me to even bother looking at them anymore, let alone consider a purchase.

Quality third party developers such as Lockwood, Granzella, Digital Leisure and Juggernaut seem to be working to keep Home interesting. I have to wonder how they honestly feel about the support they’ve been getting from the head office.