What A Year It Has Been!
by ted2112, HSM Team Writer
I’ve been lucky enough to have been in Home since the first day of open beta. I tried to get into the closed beta every day, to no avail. So, needless to say, Home is a place I tried to be in from the first moment I could, and today it’s a place I try to be on whenever I can. It’s an amazing community of gamers, a world unto itself. For four years it has provided me with endless hours of entertainment, and this last year has been all that and more!
2012 will go down in the Home history books as the year of… everything. To paraphrase a technical sociological expression, it’s been the year Home blew up, down, sideways and every which way to Sunday, scattering its heavy pieces of red hot perfection all over the place, landing in fertile beds of loving gaming soil, and sprouting up a crop of mega-awesomeness. Yes, it has been a very good year for Home!
During the last few days of the year, this time of the end of old things and the beginning of new things, we often look back and forward at the same time. I have been looking back at 2012, and I find myself looking ahead to 2013 — and I can’t wait! The Home family has been turning out spaces and games that just keep evolving. You can actually see Home improving and growing from week to week, as content release day brings new and amazing items and experiences. We often label points of time for communities with names like “salad years” or “the golden age”. I feel Home is in a virtual Renaissance, ending one era and evolving into a new one. We have found our creative momentum, and are building upon an already solid foundation.
Look at Blueprint:Home. The lines between developer and consumer were blurred a bit in that release, allowing us to create our own space. The Paradise Springs Casino made a huge impact, widening our entertainment options. Games like Cutthroats and the three Midway spaces were tweaked and expanded based on our feedback and desire for more and better gameplay. And, sadly we also lost a few spaces, such as the Red Bull Air Races space, one of my personal favorites from the very early days of Home.
Like the modern world itself, Home has gotten smaller and more closely knit as spaces from the various Home communities spread and multiply. We are now a truly global community. Great Edo of Nippon, Peakvox Ninja and the Glittering Sands Beach headed East, and now enjoy a much wider population in North America Home. Now if we can just talk the powers that be in Europe to let the Original Home Square apartment loose in the NA and JP regions, there would be dancing in the streets! It is my hope we will see a lot more of this cooperation happening in 2013.
E3 was a huge boost for Home this year. Not only was it a great experience that we all got to share on Home, but the major games that were introduced in E3 — Home Tycoon, Mercia and No Man’s Land — are still being enjoyed today. As 2012 neared its end, Home experienced a huge burst of energy with releases such as Avalon Keep, Dream Island and Men in Black.
The year’s carryover has to be Xi:Continuum. The new Xi tips its hat to Home’s past and creates a wonderful new experience. I really feel this is the best example of the past and future of Home coming together. All I can say is… Wow!
I am amazed at the personal space revolution that has taken place over these past twelve months. Back in the day, the personal space choices were like opening the lunch your mom packed for school, only to find that same old peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Today it’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet! The choices are diverse and exciting. No matter what you like, there is something that’s right up your alley. Apartments in Home have evolved from simple backgrounds for virtual furniture to interactive games in themselves. To all the developers I say, Bravo!
These are just a few examples of what an amazing year it has been for us on Home. We now have more and better virtual goods than ever before. But mostly, Home is us. We are the moving cogs that make Home work, and it is you and I that make Home what it is.
So. kudos to the family of companies that keep Home a lively and exciting place to visit, and continue to prove their desire to delight us and keep us entertained. But, the biggest thank you is to all of us, for taking these things and running with them, and making Home so much more than the sum of its official parts.
Happy New Year, and here’s to a great 2013 in Home!
December 31st, 2012 by ted2112 | 3 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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Nice article Ted. I too think that this year has been a big step forward for Home. I hope they concentrate a bit more on social aspects this year. It can only strengthen Home if they do.
This is a wonderful article, ted. So true on many levels on how fun Home has become this year. E3 was a great turnout and an unexpected surprise on how updated it was. Little to no technical problems at all.
I’m surprisingly looking forward to 2013 for Playstation Home. this article, naturally, really gave me some hype a bit on it.
Cheers!
Great read. I wasnt on Home since the beginning but since I have been on there have been so many great changes. I am looking forward to what 2013 brings to Home in public and personal spaces. My wish is that some of the prices for spaces comes down because i always want it all but cant afford to spend that much. My ther wish is t be able to change in a friend’s personal space. Lets hope 2013 is a great year on Home!