The Lockwood Dream Yacht: Arctic Voyage
by NorseGamer, HSM Editor-in-Chief
This is a remarkably clever move.
The original Lockwood Dream Yacht estate is, to me, the ultimate “pretty box” property: it’s absolutely gorgeous to look at, but it honestly doesn’t do all that much. Aside from the diurnal controls — which are quite welcome and very dramatically animated and lit — and the mini-game of hunting for free items, the estate just sort of sits there and looks impressive.
Now, granted, damn near every estate just sits there and doesn’t do anything. But an interesting paradox emerges: the more lavish and expansive an estate gets, the more interactivity we seem to instinctively want from it.
Look at the Luxury Lake House estate, for instance. Remember that thing? Here’s a massive property that does even less than the Dream Yacht, but a party piece as minor as being able to open up the refrigerator door (a very nice touch by John Ardussi) brought rave reviews. Because it made the space feel more interactive.
Points of interactivity are like complications in a watch: the more of them you can shoehorn in, the easier it is to justify a higher price tag.
Which brings us to the Lockwood Dream Yacht’s Arctic Voyage.
It’s the same dream yacht. The nighttime sky has an aurora borealis effect added, which is a lovely touch, but aside from that, not much has overtly changed. It’s 768 Lockwood tokens for the estate — and, in a complication Lockwood is becoming known for — twenty onboard rewards.
Except there’s one very important complication:
You can now, by intentional design, explore beyond the yacht itself.
Actual luxury cruise under similar conditions
The original Dream Yacht’s surroundings could be explored via glitching, allowing a handful of users to explore the beach on the island itself and gain a whole new perspective on their environment. The problem with this is twofold: as each successive core update has reduced the ability to glitch, fewer and fewer people are still involved in that activity (particularly as a percentage of the overall user base, which has grown over time), and since the beach wasn’t accessible to the general public, it couldn’t be used as a selling point.
(It’s entirely possible that the beach may have been accessible in earlier designs of the estate, but that functionality may have been curtailed due to memory issues. LOOT’s Amaterasu Yacht, for instance, was originally user-controlled — you could navigate the ship, land at some of the islands and go ashore, et cetera, but that functionality had to be removed due to the memory it chewed up, which would’ve meant no sea life to enjoy.)
So Lockwood, with this reskinned Dream Yacht, put in a complication: you can now explore outside the yacht.
Smart.
How many times have you looked at some landmark in one of your personal estates — or, worse, run up against an invisible collision barrier — and thought, “Dammit, I want to be over there!” It’s amazing how fast these things can not only take you out of the immersive experience, but make you feel like you got less value for your money.
Naturally, of course, there are limits as to how far you’ll be able to go beyond the yacht itself. But the more space you have to explore, the less you feel those boundaries (and hence the trend towards larger estates, which is itself a complication designed to drive sales). Except when it comes to furniture decoration limits, of course. But that’s a separate topic.
Would it have been fun to have a Granzella-esque mini-game in which there’s a health gauge on a timer that limits how long you can stay on the ice before freezing, and transports you back to the yacht’s hot tub when time runs out? Sure. Then Lockwood could sell you warmer clothes for the estate to increase your exploration radius, and neatly sidestep the issue of people wanting to put furniture out there (and thus whining even further about not having enough memory to do so). But that’s a budget for another time.
Here’s where the Arctic Voyage is very clever, though: it’s only available through the Gift Machine.
Oh, that’s smart.
Leaving aside the well-studied benefits of driving consumers to your proprietary commerce point, so they don’t even see other retailers: by making this estate only available through the Gift Machine, Lockwood has removed any possibility of someone whining about being sold the same car with a different paintjob. Remember, only once before has a personal estate been repackaged and resold — the Summer House, redone as Party At Jess’ Apartment. Had Lockwood gone through conventional channels with selling the Arctic Voyage, you can just imagine the reaction: “I don’t get a discount for owning the original?” “Why should I buy the same space in a different setting?” “Lockwood’s getting greedy!”
Instead, by offering it via the Gift Machine, it now becomes a fabulous gift to give to someone else. To show your friends how much you truly care about them by giving them such a lavish gift during the holiday season. And if you decide to go onto an alternate account and gift it to yourself…well, then you don’t really have much room to complain, do you?
Please understand: I’m a business guy. I look at Home as a business. Because that’s what it is. It’s a business that provides a lot of really fun experiences to people. And in this business called Home, Lockwood is one of the most adroit players out there. The Gift Machine, which has been a perennial sales leader since it was first introduced, is more or less a license to print money in Home — and thanks to this new giftable estate, it’s not slowing down.
Aesthetically, is the Arctic Voyage something worth experiencing?
Well, if you want to feel like you’re on an Abercrombie & Kent luxury cruise excursion to the Svalbard Islands, then yes. But if you’re a communist who thinks prices for virtual experiences are too high…then no, probably not. You’ll have to go back to your Harbour Studio. You can instead look at the yacht moored in the marina. It’s very pretty, isn’t it?
I’ll write to you from Spitsbergen. In my hot tub. On my yacht. The aurora is really quite amazing tonight.
December 17th, 2012 by NorseGamer | 5 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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The Dream Yacht is beautiful. I would gladly pay 768 token to enjoy this. And exploring outside the yacht? Absolutely beautiful indeed. I definitely appreciate Lockwood for making this.
LOL! Well I am kinda communist and right now, today, with blizzard condition here. Artic don’t seem much appealing
I tought too the original dreamyatch was not much than a pretty box. But I loved the pegasus and the huge fish tank. Thats why when it went on sale at $8.00 I bought it. It still empty.
I’m not one to who thinks buying expensive gift to a friend show anything about how much you care about them, and I have my personal “reserved” with the gift machine.
That said… I think I know the perfect person to offer this one. Someone who truly deserve it and no it’s not my girlfrind
. I already have the Amaterasu for that.
…. But where are my whales?
We’ll see. I may be funded out. This is certainly appealing, that’s for sure.
Like the the good Dr asked, where’s my whales?
Some nice history of what could have been except for memory restraints in the article.
As to the aurora borealis reference, some have claimed to hear them. I am one of those claiming to have heard them.
I wonder if furniture items can be added to the ice or if you have to transport out there via a “Play” function. It would be fun to set up a little skating rink beside the yacht.
Hmm, skating next to the ship! Nice idea, I like that. I have a friend asking me to do a swap for it. Honestly, I already have the other one (which I only got for the fishtank n’ stuff) and really dont feel the need to own a re-skinned version of a space so big I cant decorate it properly. But I dont think he has many other options, so I might end up with this for his sake -- coz I’m nice like that!
Northern Lights look cool though, and the floaty snow too! Is that controllable as well as the day/night cycles?