Comments on: The Playing Field

By: Watersheds: 1.75 hits Home | HomeStation Magazine

Watersheds: 1.75 hits Home | HomeStation Magazine — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 03:45:18 +0000

[…] with alarm. And indeed this is a major change on Sony’s part. However, it is in keeping with the proper “freemium” philosophy, which is to sell convenience and cosmetic improvements, but keep the important parts of the […]

By: Gary160974

Gary160974 — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 07:13:05 +0000

Whatever is put in as a paid add on, will create a VIP class otherwise there wont be enough benefits to buy a paid subscription. Below is a list of actual subscribed users benefits from another social application. The cost is 9.99 a month 25 dollars for 3 months or 75 dollars a year. But there is a lot of features there that application, many we cant get on home. I suppose one feature id like to see is the ability to give another user access to my personal spaces while im not on line.

No third-party ads
A free special VIP badge
A free Name Change token after 3 months of continuous membership
VIP only avatar actions
Block unwanted avatar actions
Additional bonus credits for the first 12 months of your VIP subscription
Free 5,000 credits a month, and earn monthly bonus credits by staying a VIP
A free gift each month
5% savings off everything in the virtual goods catalog
Keep your closet organized
Prioritized Customer Support
Create up to 10 public rooms
Create up to 10 groups
Set your own custom room as default for Dress Up and Shopping
Whisper privately in your chats
Sneak Peek into the best new features

By: M Rups

M Rups — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 23:25:16 +0000

Excellent article, Sealwyf. Thank you.

I confess I miss (fluff)Friends, and would probably still be playing it — mostly for the fun of creating those pictures, and participating in the community that had coalesced around the game — if the company hadn’t shafted it.

As for the community that built up around it … you already know, although probably most of your readers don’t, about a (fluff)Friend player named Meetu Asrani. She lived in India, a cheerful young woman, by all accounts, and very popular. Her favourite colour was purple; her (fluff)Friend was a flying giraffe named Giggles. And then, one terrible, terrible night in November 2008, Meetu went out to eat. At the Leopold Cafe in her native city, Mumbai …

As news spread of her death, her friends mourned. Even for those who had not known her, she became the symbol of that tragedy and personalized it — someone from our community, had died that night. Been murdered in cold blood. The game designers issued a purple flower decoration in her honour. A special Facebook dedication page was set up. And, to this day, people still post there, still think of and remember her, still are sad to have lost a friend they never met. And they’re posting the (fluff)Friend pictures they had made and managed to save, pictures in her honour, with purple flowers and the little flying giraffe.

That is the sort of community that had been created. That is what the game designers had destroyed. It wasn’t just a “Durn, that was a fun game, I wish they hadn’t yanked it!” sort of thing. And that is why so many were so angry — and why it’s a lesson well worth learning by creators of virtual communities.

By: SealWyf_

SealWyf_ — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 15:02:33 +0000

I totally agree, Krazy. Home benefits should be part of a PSN Plus subscription. I maintain mine mostly for the increased chance of getting into betas. And I think having Home perks as part of a PSN Plus membership would encourage a lot of people to take a look at Home so they can collect their free benefits. That could be a second article.

And yes, Norse, my PlayStation is a Home-Folding-Bejeweled3-Station at present.

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 13:40:46 +0000

I hope that Home never becomes a paid subscription in and of itself, but I agree with the concept of not making people feel alienated because they can’t afford things in it. I think your ideas hold a lot of merit Seal, and Krazy is right, plus should cover those people who rarely game outside of Home as well. Perhaps there could be 2 different types of plus subscriptions? One for Home exclusively and one for gaming? I don’t know, but either way it is an interesting concept.

By: NorseGamer

NorseGamer — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 10:39:07 +0000

A funny tidbit along those lines: we’ve also observed that there are Home users for whom their PS3 consoles are used almost exclusively for Home — that these are people who do not avail themselves of other gaming experiences or PlayStation digital platforms. Their PlayStations are, to all intents and purposes, HomeStations — which is how we arrive at the inspiration for the name of this publication.

By: KrazyFace

KrazyFace — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 07:41:14 +0000

I’m sorry Seal, I haven’t read the whole of your article -- yet. It’s just, there’s a glaringly obvious thing screaming at me while reading the article; Home does not need an extra sub to Plus, it should already be a massive part of it. Plus has ( and probably still is) struggling more than it should. One of the reasons for this is that the “hard core” have already bought and finished the free games they give away with it, a serious lack of incentive there. Seems to me Plus is aimed more at the casual gamers, which is why I think Home should be a large part of it.

A lot of the people I meet exclusively inside Home, dont really play that many games. Makes perfect sense that value packs, reductions on estates or ( dare I say it) even free spaces or clothing in Home as a member of Plus would really push its sales. Here’s an example; about a month ago SCEE gave away 12 FREE personal spaces to Home users who have Plus. The forums went mad. But so did the 90-day subscription rate that month. And that’s what I’m saying; get regular Home users into Plus with extras and the rest for having a sub, and I’ll guarantee they become regular subscribers.

Who knows, they might even become gamers too! ; )