Escape to Dream Island
by NorseGamer, HSM Editor-in-Chief
A friend of mine recently returned from a volunteer stint on Tern Island, and I found myself rather envious.
Google the French Frigate Shoals if you’re not familiar with Tern. It’s part of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, about as remote as you can get from anything. And that’s what appeals to me so much about it: the absolute peace and solitude. The isolation. Life becomes very simple out there.
This is a near-universal human desire. We live in such a frenetic digital age, with information bombardment at levels no society has ever had to endure previously, and half of our species lives encased in concrete. The image, then, of a lush tropical escape with nothing but the sound of nature to keep you company is a very powerful lure.
We all know that such escapism comes with a price tag. We’ve grown so accustomed to the convenient luxuries of modern life that the idea of doing without them is completely foreign — and indeed frightening — to us. And the catch with living in one of these beautiful, remote places is that you usually have to be resourceful and give up a lot of the luxuries you’re used to.
Thing is, though, places like Lockwood’s Dream Island do in fact exist.
The scenery and setting Lockwood chose for the Dream Island and Dream Yacht is almost certainly inspired by Ko Phi Phi, Phang Nga Bay and Koh Samui, in Thailand, with perhaps just a pinch of New Caledonia and Cheju Island thrown in. There are some truly wild sights in these areas, and manmade structures often coexist with the ocean in much closer proximity than anything most of the United States is used to.
This is a real place.
Let’s use the Maldives as an example. How’d you like to live in Malé?
This image isn’t made up. I know it looks like something straight out of SimCity, but it’s quite real. Over one-hundred-thousand people live there.
The point I’m trying to establish is that Lockwood’s Dream Island, while being an absolutely jaw-dropping estate, isn’t nearly so otherworldly as the average American might think it is. And this is what makes it so enticing: because it’s just the right blend of hyper-reality fused with what you can actually experience in real life, if you so choose.
Could you actually build something like the Dream Island estate? Possibly, but in practical terms it wouldn’t last long. The maintenance on just a conventional oceanfront property is absolutely hideous, to say nothing of the threat of any sort of storm surge from building on an atoll. And let’s not forget there’s a cascading waterfall right outside, which creates even more problems. So you could build something similar to it, sure, but it’d be practically uninsurable.
This, then, is where the fantasy kicks in. What Lockwood manages to do so well — and SCEA has struggled with — is creating virtual experiences which feel luxurious. Someone who can afford to have their own private estate on their own private island in the Andaman Sea is the same sort of person who can afford to have that completely over-the-top Dream Yacht — which, by the way, has its own analogues in the real world. Just look up what Roman Abramovich putters around in.
Can you duplicate that sort of experience without owning an English Premier League football team? To an extent, yes. It’s possible to visit these places in Thailand, and it’s possible to stay in some really nice resorts that are built adjacent to — or atop — the ocean. And then you’re surrounded with other people, whom you do your best to ignore. Conversely, you can live in an exotic locale and enjoy the nature — here on Kauai, if you’ve never camped at Kalalau, you simply haven’t lived — but then you don’t have all the luxury amenities. And you still end up surrounded, only by filthy hippies. Who can’t spell depilation.
What you and I can’t duplicate — and this is what Lockwood’s actually selling you — is that feeling of absolute seclusion and privacy, coupled with luxury amenities all around you. The sort of private luxury that only Carlos Slim Helú can buy. And that’s what makes it so brilliant.
Life is largely a matter of emotional perception. Listen to Limp Bizkit, and you’re ready to start a fight; put on Enya, conversely, and your blood pressure drops. So when you sign into PlayStation Home and guide your avatar around the Dream Island, you can’t help but feel that sense of luxuriant privacy.
This is enhanced by the fact that Lockwood got damn near everything right with the Dream Island. Granted, there are some details you might dislike. HearItWow observed that the architectural style of the estate looks like something a Bond villain would enjoy, and he’s right; this may or may not aesthetically appeal to you. Further, you can’t actually climb up onto the sailboat moored just offshore, which is a bummer. And while the lack of diurnal controls means that Lockwood could get the lighting scheme just right, its absence is rather conspicuous, particularly given that the Dream Yacht offers it.
Okay, fair enough. But let’s also examine what Dream Island gets right.
For starters, the sound design here is fantastic. We’ve written in HSM before about the lack of proper sound design in Home, and how it can often feel like running through a silent movie. The Dream Island, however, has some absolutely fantastic sound design. You’re constantly aware of the sound of the ocean or the waterfall.
Another wonderful detail is that this space has plenty of nooks. Yes, it’s quite large, but it’s not blank. Nooks are important because they’re unique settings and experiences within the space; in the case of the Dream Island, you’ve got the path to the fire pit, the pier, the infinity pool, the cave, the beach, the ocean, the telescope deck, and two levels of residence. That’s a lot of different and discrete experiences all packed into the same setting, and you have to explore all of them to discover the various hidden rewards the space offers to its owner.
Relaxation.
The big selling point to this estate, of course, is the ocean. Specifically, the ability to swim. Oh, hallelujah for this! How many times in Home have you gone up to the water’s edge in a space and shouted at your TV screen because you couldn’t enter the water? And, even if you could enter the water, simply walking around really damaged the illusion. The closest to a proper “swim” emote we’ve had is Hellfire’s antigravity simulation, which would lend itself extremely well to simulated swimming in an ocean, but this is the first estate SCEA Home has offered which allows for swimming.
Is Lockwood’s swimming somewhat limited? Sure. The biggest drawback is that you can’t change your depth at all, so it’s surface swimming only. And I understand it; introducing depth requires a hell of a lot of extra programming to create a seamless transition to an underwater environment, to say nothing of making such an environment feel realistic. So I get why the swimming is somewhat rudimentary. But let’s not ignore the obvious: you can finally swim. That’s a big, big deal.
The one marketing touch that I really appreciate is the addition of the Dream Island to the Figment line. Never mind the fact that the gentleman’s suit sold so well because there are too many chavs running around playing “gangsta” in Home; a gorilla can wear Brioni, but it is the gorilla that looks silly, the label remaining unblemished. I know everyone on the Sony forum is going bugnuts over beach content from Granzella that offers swimming as well, but honestly, there’s no comparison. Granzella’s beach environment feels like Disney’s Castaway Cay, whereas Lockwood is serving up Mustique. We’re talking about two completely different aesthetic presentations for two different levels of socioeconomic strata. They will both be successful in their own right, but they really are two different experiences.
Lockwood’s Figment line is a statement of elegance and refinery; by expanding that collection to virtual real estate as well as clothing, it becomes more of a lifestyle declaration. To invest in Lockwood’s Figment line is to say to the world that you understand the importance of shopping on Jermyn Street. That, given the choice, you would naturally only drive a Ferrari 275 GTS. And that your last holiday was to the Seychelles. It is thus very appropriate to add Dream Island to the Figment collection, and it’s one of only a handful of personal estates which I think I’ll still be enjoying a year from now.
September 5th, 2012 by NorseGamer | 3 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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There is something to quality it seems a lot of people dont get, or should I say, ‘see’. When I was a kid my gran was often heard saying the same thing to me as I flicked through paper catalogs delivered to our door, “Ah son, yi’v git the een o’ a king ahn the pookets o’ a pauper”. Or in other (less Scottish words) I had taste but no money to do anything about it lol. Those who cant see the detail and work that’s gone into creating this beautiful space won’t miss it, which is fine; but those who can see quality already know it’s worth the money in pure aesthetics.
I have Granzella’s beach space now too, and although it’s not quite as stunning to just walk around in, it has its redeeming features, little places to explore, a gorgeous night sky, a functioning towel-on-off system next to its baked in sizeable hot-tub, a few beachy huts to tailor and of course swimming. I will say this about it though; I’m very disappointed that the ‘relax’ chairs and weather controls are sold seperatly. Bit of an underhanded money-grab tactic by Granzella I’d say. But then, we cant expect every Home dev to be as amazing as Lockwood, can we? ; )
Awesome video, awesome read. Awesome.
One thing you cant do is bend the laws of physics in real life, im no sailor but the sail boat that you can swim up to, in front of dream island, has its sails up and no anchor, shouldnt it be moving? does this mean in the near future it will move perhaps being a way to the dream yacht or is it a mistake, wait to find out I suppose