Home Operating System Version 1.75 – The “Elephant”
by ted2112 HSM team writer
Home version 1.75 has been a lightning rod for people voicing their feelings of support, commendation and just about everything else in between. What is it about this update has drove this eclectic community we call Home to so passionately raise their voices? I have a few ideas – they’re just mine, mind you – but I can help shake this feeling that we are all missing the elephant in the kitchen.
Meet the elephant. His name is version 1.75. He’s a lovable creature being sent our way by our friends over at Sony to help. Elephants for years have carried large and heavy burdens, and this one is no different. This update changes quite a bit, and not only that it changes things, it does so at a very fundamental level.
Let’s jump right to the biggie: Sony will now store all our save info for Home on its servers. The shock from some parts on this has been hard to understand. They have always done this in one way or another, and if we look at this with squinty eyes and wave our fingers on the sides of our heads while making “going into the future” noises, al la Wayne and Garth, it’s clear this is setting up Home for whatever is next. Some might say this is just what they have been hoping for. With this update, Home potentially can migrate to the PS4, and maybe even play nice with folks on an old fashioned PS3. Got compatibility problems? No problem, call in the elephant. He will stomp these problems into a happy circus peanut-sized solution.
Now, let’s talk a little bit more about that elephant that is showing up. The whole world -technologically speaking – is moving to a cloud-based storage system. It’s just a normal evolution in our networked world. Our music, files, pictures and books are all floating out there in what William Gibson described as a, “consensual hallucination shared daily by billions.”
There isn’t a hard drive big enough to store everything we have in our imagination, so it only makes sense that we prepare for the future and not rely on a spinning piece of aluminum alloy. I know there are drawbacks to this, but if we look at the big picture, it’s just reality. Do we want the future Home to suck, just because we have to live by the limitations of our technical yesterday?
As much as we don’t want to look at it, there has been a lot of stealing going on in Home. If we saw someone stealing something in a store, I bet we would feel that this isn’t cool. Just because we can’t see our less than scrupulous fellow users steal, it still hurts us by making already high prices rise, and I have a problem with that. I am the first in line to bitch about the cost of stuff, but I vote with my wallet and not use a program to steal it.
Think about that. People are stealing the very things they have a problem with.
Now if you want to knock over a bank as an act of desperation because you don’t have any money, that’s one thing. Stealing something just because you feel entitled to it, that I can’t get my head around. It’s a virtual item; it’s not real. You are committing a real crime by stealing something that’s not real.
Can you see it now? Yes your Honor, I stole a fake chair for my fake avatar to sit in, but in reality he’s not really sitting.
I think even the Dalai Lama would have a problem finding the moral ground here.
Home is an important place to all of us, and we all want to see it succeed and prosper. So it’s okay to be passionate about this. We live in a skeptical world and many times we have been led down the primrose path, so it’s hard to see through the smokescreen that many companies put up before doing things, and the information we have from Sony is no different. It’s all +1 good, thumbs up, click like press releases. The reality is most likely much different, but not necessarily a bad thing. The more I think about version 1.75, the more I see a company looking to the future, and that’s not a bad thing.
Sony also says 1.75 will improve performance. Well, we have to give them that one; there really is no way to prove this right or wrong, but think about this for a millisecond. There are millions of Home users, and this is going to be a monumental undertaking. Companies rarely take on such a huge project with so many risks without a very good reason. Sure, most of these accounts are from users who use Home once in a blue moon (or maybe not in ages), some are multiple accounts utilized by one person, but Sony is going to pack up all the Home junkies and expatriates just the same. All that info; my god, I can feel the servers giving off heat all they way from my house.
Elephants can sure carry a heavy load, and version 1.75 is a big one, maybe the biggest we have ever seen, but I find it comforting that four years into Home, we haven’t been forgotten. And like an elephant I hope they never forget, that would be good. I finally got my Hollywood House just the way I want it.
January 25th, 2013 by ted2112 | 10 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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Theres a healthy number of users that I think would like to see home fail because they can say I told you so. After core update Wednesday there wont be millions of users logging to do update, as I mentioned in other article it took Aurora a year to get 1 million unique visitors and Lockwood gift machine even longer to get 1 million unique customers, so dont think all of a sudden Homes going to have a million users uploading saves. This update actually brings home inline with imvu which has 64 million unique accounts the last time they released a figure they had loads more accounts than any of the social networks, but as a point only has 100,000 users on there regularly .it has unique feature for VIP users, new home update has unique features for psn plus users, imvu is saved to its own servers so you can access it where ever you are, new home update does same. Some would say home is more complex and they would be right but the sheer large numbers of imvu dwarf homes numbers. user accounts just to use imvu 64 million, unlike psn where theres more users but not just for home, 1.5 million articles for men, 5.5 million articles for women, 500,000 private spaces, 350,000 public spaces, 2 million furniture articles, 25000 different types of avatar, 65000 poses, 25000 companions, unlimited wardrobe outfit saves. Them sorts of numbers can create a slower load time depending how complex public space is, how many users are there and what they are wearing. But if anyone thinks it cant be done, look outside home, it can be, dont expect the worst just wait and see.
Unfortunately Ted, there’s a very easy work-around to the new saving system that hasn’t even been implemented yet -- I mean for those who use the ISE hack. The migration of the data won’t really give us much back in way of HDD space either; MB’s at best. Home files really dont use much space.
The idea of readying our Home experience for PS4 is great and I welcome that, but I don’t understand why Sony feels that taking more control from the user is an okay thing to do here. It’s very possible for them to change the way the servers read the data from our HDDs that they could detect stolen and un-paid-for content without taking away the user’s ability to safeguard their own data.
The whole wait-and-see thing just doesn’t sit well with me.
“Daddy, Daddy! Is that a tidal wave headed for us!?”
“I’m not sure son, let’s just sit here and wait n’ see; Kay Saraa Saraa…”
Sometimes unfortunately you just cant get out the way of the tidal wave. its going to hit whatever happens and if you only have an umbrella to stop it, your going to get wet
If I have a tidal wave warning I will seek higher ground. You can wait with your umbrella.
If this update means having home on the ps4 this is a good thing.
The ISE thing is becoming like a trophy. You get items from Japan and wear them on your US account. It’s like look at me!
I don’t understand all the technology with clouds and servers and how it all works, but I think what Sony is doing is a positive thing. If they are putting all our info on their servers than I think it could mean that Home will continue on for a long time and be available on the PS4 when it comes out. I agree, wait and see -- until the 1.75 update happens, we don’t know what to expect. People can speculate and not be happy with what is going on but in my opinion I think it will be a good thing.
I also have no clue what an ISE Hack is and honestly don’t want to know. But come on everyone knows stealing isn’t good. What’s the point? Sure the stuff on Home can get costly after a while, but what’s the purpose of stealing something virtual? If you get caught, can’t you get in trouble?
Just remember, Home is a virtual game. A place you can escape from every day life and stress. I am sure whatever Sony is doing will be a positive change. Let’s “wait and see”! Good article Ted!
You might laugh at this Rainbow but the ISE hack (or cheat) only gives you access to all the free, winnable items and rewards in Home. So rather than put in any effort to win stuff, ISE just puts all rewards from nearly every region into your inventories.
Some may argue that because the items cost nothing, they’re not actually “stealing”.
The hack can give you rewards from paid games like sodium 1, so from another point it is like stealing a free gift from a magazine.
Hmm, I guess that’d tie in with the rewards the ISE takes then. I didnt think of that stuff, good point Gary. My knowledge of what the ISE gives is pretty sketchy at best coz, well, I’ve never used it!
But when it involves rewards from paid-for games I suppose thats a lot more like theft.
I use the Loot camera and I hope this doesn’t effect saving stuff on the cross bar. That’s my only concern. I’m sure it will work just fine. In the end we have no control over changes Sony makes, but I doubt they will try to make us angry on purpose. Great Article Ted!