“Home is the Weirdest Place I Know”
by Phoenix, HSM team writer
Being a Home user myself, I am surprised at all the negative comments about Home and it’s users. You would think we are all ax-wielding psychopaths running around the Hub all day. Well we are – but only on Halloween. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
But really – why are there so many people with hate-boners for something like Home? Home to me is the Haight Ashbury community of the virtual world. Yes, there were some in the Haight that gave it a bad name. Yeah, there are some here that give Home a bad vibe, like trolls and some others I won’t mention. For the most part, Home is benign. It’s full of great people and things. Creativity – and creative people – flourish and thrive in Home.
“Hardcore” gamers do play and live in Home. I have a friend named Timeless, who is one of the most involved gamers I know. He plays and reviews games on YouTube and Justintv/twitchtv, so no – it’s not full of weirdos.
Oh, but wait – some people think gamers are weird too, don’t they? No I’m not trying to justify being a Home user. I only give examples of the different kinds of people you will meet on Home. They come in all ages, creeds and differences. Why? Because Home is a world, just like real life. There are the same people here as there. Home has it’s own “hardcore” community of gamers. Most of my friends are gamers, everything from WWE, and Tekken to Uncharted and Dragons Dogma. I discovered this link sometime ago, but it’s taken me awhile to write this. Firstly because I wanted to venture out more and try to understand what it is that bothers and disturbs so many non Home users.
I wasn’t able to get it. I thought perhaps it’s that people don’t know how to allow themselves to be free anymore. By free I mean to be open and enjoy being open to new things, to find that Mime inside and give it a voice – or not – or to be able to dress in a giant dog or cat costume without it being Halloween and be accepted. It’s nothing to ride a demon horse with a rucksack on your back, or be a ninja riding around on a hoverboard. All are quite possible in Home.
Maybe these people that don’t get Home have never seen a person wearing a panda outfit posing on a dance floor. Maybe they can’t or never believed in the tooth fairy, or rainbows and leprechauns. Perhaps they just don’t think it’s okay to release your cares and communicate with other people doing the same. Maybe they can’t imagine fun that doesn’t take physical excursions to make it fun. Maybe Star Trek wasn’t on their Sunday line-up, or the Outer Limits, or Dracula. Perhaps the many wonderful things Home has to offer by way of stepping out of your self and playing for a few hours, is just too mind-boggling. Perhaps they’re too worried about what other people think of them if they were to simply let go of their inhibitions and – heaven forbid – experience imaginative play.
Maybe they’ve never experienced the joy of meeting someone from another country with just a few flicks of the controller buttons, and actually have a conversation that isn’t full of smack talk about a game.
I don’t get why we are considered weird or strange simply because we can embrace a way of being that allows us to be more ourselves then some can understand. No, as that article says I don’t think Home is what the creators imagined when they created it. it isn’t because, the people using Home have been allowed to imagine Home the way we create it for ourselves. This is the beauty for me in Home. Each of the developers listens to our imaginations and in time , in turn helps shape home to it’s inhabitants imagination.
So maybe it is weird for someone that has not imagined what I or you have in Home. Maybe it is a strange and foreign scene, but just like the Haight in it’s time, some people just don’t get it – and they never will. They were never open to freedom or different thinking, and that’s essential to in order to get Home in the first place. For these people, there is nothing that can be done to help them see Home or its users in any other way but weird.
So here’s to being weird!
I am a Home user, I wear angel wings and a crustacean mask sometimes. I live in an underwater house when I choose to, and though I have never been to Europe, I have a home in the Alps, too. I can change my clothing and hair color with a click of my controller. So maybe I am weird. I finally understood it doesn’t matter how hard I or anyone else champions Home and it’s users, there will always be someone that doesn’t get it, and that’s okay.
Their opinion is theirs and they can have it, they don’t use Home so they say, but who’s to truly know. Many people have other accounts, and secrets. Home could be a guilty little secret for some outspoken hater. After all, they did come to see the weirdos, and once is never enough in Home.
July 12th, 2013 by Phoenix | 8 comments
Phoenix writes poetry and is a photography enthusiast, along with writing for HomeStation Magazine. She is currently studying for a BFA in Creative Writing and BA with concentration in Photography. psn ID phoenixstorm21
youtube.com/user/phoenixstorm21
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I loved this.
Home is a beautifully strange and twisted place; just on its face. I sat in a park bench yesterday with a friend and felt weird. I felt weird coz I was wearing beige khaki trousers and a blue, open shirt; my friend had on a short skirt with fishnets and a figure hugging top.
Why would that make me feel “weird”?
Well, a space-worm riding a lion was asking a dead Norse warrior clutching glowing shamrocks where the candy floss stall was. Sorry, that was AFTER the death angel from hell had finished its picnic with Blanka from Street Fighter and they’d both agreed it was worth the time, and got on the tiny train and rode off waving at the polar bear talking to the Deer…
Yeahp, I stood out a mile that day; LOOK! LOOK! It’s a guy! Wearing a SHIRT! What a strange man…
Fun read Phoenix and so true. Many people will never get the allure of Home, but those that do have embraced it because it does have that freedom to be whatever you like or want. Sometimes it is a good thing and other times it can be bad (trolls).
I love Home for just this reason. People can express themselves any way they like and it is accepted. You won’t find that in real life anywhere. I have a friend who wears the weirdest costumes he can create from others all the time. In fact I have a few friends who do, just for the fun of it once in awhile, I even do it for special occasions.
Home is not for the faint of heart or those who are too set in their ways. You have to come in with an open mind because you can never be sure what you will find here. But it is also the place I have laughed so hard I cried many times just because of the crazy costumes and personalities I have encountered.
i like your attitude, kid. i like yours too phoenix.
it’s a good article as was the link(s). keep up the good work. yeah
I spot a Panda Gang pictures
I’m the one in the middle in the picture of that panda gang
Home weird tip: Nobody is really on fire!
Nice article PHX!
Thanks Guys!
Depends of the definition of normal. If your world involves men dressed as woman trying to get intimate with other men or people running saying hello to every member of the opposite sex and then when they don’t reciprocate they sexual orientation gets questioned, home has got its share of pathetic users. But so has every game out there ypu just have to look on u tube you see loads of videos showing the pathetic users they have