Home After Dark
by ted2112, HSM Team Writer
Good morning, good evening or good whatever-time-it-happens-to-be, wherever you are.
The funny thing about time: what the number that little hand is on totally depends on where you are. Time, as George Carlin said: “It’s relative, dude.”
Okay. How’s this for time being relative: you know that expression, “It’s five o’clock somewhere?” Well, not only a great excuse for afternoon drinking, it’s also true. It really is five o’clock somewhere. For example, as I sit here writing this article, the folks over in Scotland are sitting down for some haggis and speaking of drinking — maybe a glass of Belhaven Scottish Ale or two. And you know the Mayan calendar that says the world is going to end on December 21st? Well, the Mayans didn’t use leap years like we do, so according to the Mayans we should have died many months ago. I don’t recall the Earth exploding, so — you see — time all depends on your point of view.
(Just ask Sergei Avdeyev. –Ed.)
Time really is a relative thing; my day might be your night. Check out this amazing statistic: HomeStation Magazine is read in 188 out of the roughly 196 countries in the world. That is enough to stretch continually all the way around the globe and back again. Just because you may be sleeping doesn’t mean the rest of the world comes to a standstill. The mainstream world is becoming a plugged-in, virtual 24-hour marketplace, but gamers have already known this for years. As the North America Sony region is tucking itself in for the night, the Japan region early risers are waking up and the Europe region is still in prime party time. All regions of Home are open 24 hours, but the flavor does change depending on what time of day it is.
HSM Readers are in Green
Home after dark is a much livelier place than you think. For example, many region hoppers are on the North American servers after midnight. The European early-risers are mixing it up with the American night owls and the kids returned home from school in Japan. Like the personal spaces that can change the time of day, Home doesn’t really have a Greenwich Mean Time. It’s always a sunny afternoon in the Hub, and it’s always night in Black Powder Cove.
For those who might be feeling a little bored with Home, try a little change-up with your playing time — and I bet you’d be pleasantly surprised. After dark, you can watch the speech bubbles light up like a commercial from Rosetta Stone. People from every corner of virtual space are hanging out, playing games and trying to fill their free Harbor Studio with as much free exotic region swag as possible. I know that region hopping is technically a violation of the Terms Of Service agreement, and I’m not endorsing region hopping in any way; I’m just a writer who looks at things, and can’t help but feel that anything in this world that brings people together is a good thing. Looking at time from a global perspective, I can say that if gamers were only allowed on their own regional servers, Home after dark would be a very quiet place in the wee hours.
The old stereotype of the after-hour gamers playing alone, fueled by gallons of Mountain Dew, has been replaced by the networker who is connecting with fellow gamers across not only the country, but the globe. In our age of high-speed internet connections, it is not so much a matter of if you can connect with the world, but if you want to. Gaming is a universal language, so it is only natural that it brings us together and transcends time zones. My friend list has as many people from other countries and time zones as it does from my own. See, it’s all relative.
Life has ebbs and flows, and life in Home is no exception. The typical “day” in Home has patterns. For example, the sunrise hours 
can be quiet, but things start rolling soon enough. The most likely time for a troll attack is when the kids get home from school in the afternoon. The most lag problems happen on a Wednesday. There’s the dinnertime lull, peak evening traffic, and my personal favorite: the after-hours gaming crew. Sure, not all of them are from your region, but if you’re serious about getting all you can out of Home, there are many others who feel the same way you do.
Those overnight hours are a time of some serious gaming, and the flavor can change enough to make the familiar seem more like it was when it was new to you again. So why not take a nap on your next day off and log on to Home after dark, and say g’day, good evening, good afternoon, or good whatever.
October 28th, 2012 by ted2112 | 9 comments
ted2112 is a writer and a Bass player that has been both inspired and takes to heart Kurt Vonnegut words...."we are here on planet Earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you different."
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Yay! A new TedArticle… and another great one!
Great article!!! Your points of view are always so interesting and well thought out. If you do have someone on your friends list from another region, and you really want to see and hang out with them, sometimes being on at an odd hour is the only way!! I usually only play Home in the morning, but am thinking of trying the evening/night to see a new side of Home. Great read!!!
The EU region is a wildly diverse group with respect to language and time zones. It’s comprised of a somewhat disjointed mish-mash of Europe, the Middle East, South America and Oceania.
Even without any region hopping, you’re likely to encounter everybody who’s up early, up late and in between all at once. Being a total night owl myself, I tend to meet as many Australians as Brits.
Yeah Liza, when I stuck to just the EU servers generally the only English speaking people I could find were Australians. I even started wondering at one point; was the whole of Australia in Home!? lol
But this article (Ted) is right, US Home sees some pretty big changes in clientele through a 24 hour period. EU (or should that just be The Rest of Us?) has odd, sporadic bouts of people, and it’s always an eclectic mix of languages you’ll be sifting tthrough before you find someone you can relate to. But unless you’re bilingual with, I dunno, 20 different languages then be prepaid to wait a looooong time before bumping into a new friend. Anyways, that’s going off topic a bit sooo…
Great read Ted, thanks.
I agree with the article as well. I was just mentioning my personal experience with EU. I’ve been spending the vast majority of time in EU lately for a variety of reasons.
Nice article. Try different times and different spaces as well. Some spaces tend to change alot through the day as well.
Teddy this a great observation. I get up mighty early in the mornin to see an EU avi… But I am lucky as a couple of my friends happen to be right night owls so I see those ones quite regular. And A lucky thing too… I would feel so empty inside if I missed those debates about which was better Marmite or Vegamite. Lately I have received an education on exactly what a Crumpet is… wow are we missing out here in the colonies- LOL. I hear crumpets are extra-ordinary things and I have made it my goal to search out a coffee shop that might actually serve them here in SF. (There absolutely has to be one). And did you know you can’t get a Kangaroo companion down under? What is even better is what they think about U.S. Politics and Social Mayhem. To have that outside perspective on our self-aggrandizing National behavior has really made me think about my personal behavior and how I present myself to people from different countries. I like that home has become an international experience for me. It has really expanded my world.
Great article, so true. I’m an Aussie who uses Home at any hour of the day if I have the time so I see this alot, on the EU servers especially. During the evening here it is the morning in the UK, so if I can’t sleep there are plenty of awake Brits to talk to, and if I jump on earlier in the day I find people winding down for the night and relaxing. Krazy, LOL I’m sure you know more Aussies than I do! and you’re right about the language barriers. In the US servers it’s definitely easier to find an English speakers, and the peak times are different to EU making it easier to find people to talk to at any hour if u have friends/access in both regions. Riff, I cannot stress enough how important it is that u get your hands on some crumpets ASAP.. I’ll send you some if u send me a kangaroo companion lol.
Crumpets sound far better than Marmite LOL… Really worth a Kangaroo.