Selling Home’s “Soul”
by KLCgame, HSM team writer
It recently came to my attention that over in the EU servers of Home they are selling their old Home Square as a personal space.
I’ll give you time to soak that in.
Okay back to the article.
Now instantly, plenty of people will say something along the lines of, “Aw, that’s not fair. Europe gets everything we want. Sony is being unfair to North America.”
However, when I heard this news I reacted somewhat differently. I saw instantly that this was going to be a wait and see if this will blow up in their faces type of thing. As much as we all loved the nostalgia of the old spaces, and as much as resurrecting dead spaces could be a great idea, Home Square/Central Plaza needs to be allowed to rest in peace.
But to be fair, let’s humor the idea that SCEA would bring back the Central Plaza, the same as SCEE brought back the Home Square (Please note, I am aware that SCEA has stated that Central Plaza is gone for good, but this article is a wishlist idea mostly). Back when Central Plaza was a public space, it was our central information hub; it was where all of the coming soon ads were, it was one of the places we would see PlayStation Talent videos, and it was where 65% of the population of Home would go every time they logged in. Seemed pretty clear cut, but unfortunately, with Central Plaza being a personal space, it really would not be the beating heart or “soul” of Home that a lot of us knew it as.
As a personal space, there would be none of the interesting characters we would meet, which is a bit of a bittersweet thing in my eyes. On one hand, there’d be no trolls and/or people hassling you (can I get a hallelujah there). However, on the other hand, all the good friends you would stand on the bench with and talk to – or in my case, ask for months how they got up there and fail time and time again trying – they also would not be there.
Also, some of my personal favorite things about the Plaza would not be there: the ads, the videos and the always cool, featured space teleporters. Well congrats, you now have an empty, lifeless Central Plaza. But of course everyone wants Central Plaza the public space because we still have the same atmosphere in the new Hub as well as in Pier Park, trolls included. It wouldn’t be the same anyway, because with the new ignore features in place the trolls couldn’t sit with their faces in your nether regions.
However, just because Central Plaza would not be a good choice for a personal space does not mean that resurrecting dead spaces is bad, because quite frankly it’s not.
There are a few public spaces I would love to see make a comeback as a personal space; places like Sullys Bar comes to mind, as does the Gamers’ Lounge. These two spaces were often described as off the grid Central Plazas and they do not have most of the issues that a personal space like Central Plaza would encounter. They are smaller, so would in turn feel a bit less empty/creepy. They never really had all the videos and ads that Central Plaza had so that is not an issue. Also, they really would feel cozy and most of the furniture is baked in.
Sullys Bar had a lot of what was popular in a personal space when it first came out: it had a nice little outdoors section and a overall nice two story layout. I believe the only thing I would alter about the Sullys Bar space would be that I would make the Sullys Bar and the Uncharted Game Room a single space. As for the Gamers’ Lounge, I wouldn’t change anything – it is perfect the way it always was.
Now how would spaces from “old Home” do in today’s Home, when bigger is better and more is more? Well, I believe that in the Home world – just like the real world – that occasionally, simple can be charming and a nice change of pace. In a day and age where Home is dominated by third-party developers, this really could be a chance for Sony Computer Entertainment to show that they can still stand on their own two feet and bring the community nice things, and I think they can do this by returning to their roots.
All I am saying is this, could 2013 be the year Home moves forward by looking back? I personally hope so.
January 26th, 2013 by KLC_KILLER | 9 comments
KLC is a long time user of PSN and Home. She has also been a long time gamer, she has enjoyed various gaming systems and she still has a working Atari, NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, and 90% of variations of all PlayStation generations. When she is not gaming, she is training to join the US Army. She also is interested in joining the WWE as a female wrestler. She currently resides in sunny Southern California.
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I Miss Central Plaza and alot of the old spaces!! I cant even remember the chinese square space .. that was my favorite going to the vendors and going up top to see the sunset above an awesome town.. Sullys Bar, Gamers Lounge.. All Of Em!!! even if they were Personal Spaces i would buy them all.. reminds me of the some of the best times i had in home!
Irem Square was Japanese, but I agree; I miss it too and Seaside of Memories, as well.
I would only want CP back as a public space; as you are saying there’s no soul there without the people.
I would love to see Sully’s Bar sold as a personal space, especially with the Uncharted Game Room accessible through one of the upstairs hall doors. Great idea! As for being pre-furnished, these items could be included in the package as movable furniture items, the way Digital Leisure does with its spaces and Loot did with the Space Station and Lockwood did with the Dream Yacht. (In other words, there is a lot of precedence.) It would also be outstanding as a clubhouse skin, imo.
Well… Being a dirty, weird sounding foreigner my self (lol) I’ve been and seen the old HS without the public and to be honest, I kinda liked it. Nostalgia was the main draw of course, and probably because it’s my friend that owns it and not me, there was a bit of “when will I get to see thsee place again” running through my head. But all in all, I did enjoy my trip literally down memory lane. I’d have to agree that given enough time spent there alone however, it might begin to feel very empty and, as you said, soulless.
Sully’s Bar however, BRING IT ON!!! I’d honestly be likely to do a dance if Sully’s came up as a personal estate. Sayin’ that, Sully’s as a personal place would probably suffer the same fate as the EU Home Square and without the public, just becomes another space. Thing is, RL is very much the same to me (definitely where pubs are concerned) whereby it’s not so much the decor you go for, but it’s the people in there that make it. Hell, the bar I used to drink in had holes in nearly every seat and even the wallpaper ITSELF was trying to go home at closing time! But the people in there, those will always be some of the best friends (and lovers) that I’ll never forget for the rest of my days.
My point is, while it’d be nice to see Sony perform a bit of necrophilia with some old spaces the fact is that without the right people, they’ll only ever just be a memory in monument.
Great read KLC, cheers!
I suggested Sully’s as clubhouse skin, because I think a club meeting there would remove the empty feeling entirely. The Uncharted Game Room could be the actually meeting room, while the downstairs and patio area could be the “hang out” area, before and after club meetings. Just add games and friends!
The clubhouse idea is great, wish I had thought of that.
But as for the empty feeling, I just don’t know if that would be an issue because quite frankly Scully’s Bar often was empty depending on what sever you got, also it is the size of a personal space and its not a wide open as HS or CP.
I think Sully’s would be good as a club as well Kass. As for gamers lounge and the plaza, I never went there much anyway once I got into buying personal spaces and decorating. The plaza was always a place you could find either drama or fun depending on who you bumped into and gamers seemed rather boring to me as I never really launch games from Home at all. Nice article KLC and welcome back to HSM.
Im with KrazyFace ive bought the old home square space and the first thing everyone does is go and listen to the music outside the bowling alley as its about nostalgia.
Bringing back loads of old spaces im unsure about as we have so many dead spaces now, some not so old either, D20 is already a deserted space, sodium hub which has probably been one of my favorite spaces is deserted now , I think we need a way of showing newer users some of the spaces that still are available. As for making nostalgic personal spaces. They can make as many as they want.
All I can say from this: though the Hub has took CP’s place, it’s time to let go and move on.
I miss CP as well and I can create diagrams on how they could just expand upon the space, people desired change. All felt that the change would’ve brought some sense of a social change; to make a big impact.
What we got was something that’s been a declination for some time now: social structure.
I remember when me and the Author of this article would hang at the Old Mall. It was our signature hang out alongside areas like the Singstar VIP (which I miss the most).
To offer these old spaces as personal or even clubhouses would be great in my opinion. At least it would bring back some great nostalgia.
This is an interesting article, indeed.