At Journey’s End
by ted2112 HSM team writer
One of my favorite parts of the video game Journey is the final climb up the mountain — the music, the wonderful environment and that warm and fuzzy feeling that celebrates completing an epic journey. Many times when I play a particularly good game with a companion, there is a hesitation at the top of the mountain. It’s as if we are saying, I just want to soak in a few more moments here, before the game ends and I return to real world. In fact, in Journey the credits roll over a wonderful song called “I Was Born for This,” which is designed to work with the graphics to bring us down and back to earth from the highs of the experience.
Games can be a wonderful experience, and good games can be a transcendent experience. For many, when a game ends a kind of mourning process starts. On one hand, we are gamers and want to reach the goal of game completion. Yet when it’s over, we will miss it. It took me about nine months to finish Final Fantasy XIII. I know I’m slow, but I savored each moment and was in no hurry to finish the game. When I couldn’t put it off any longer, I reluctantly beat the final boss and was sad the journey was over. Yes, we gamers are funny like that.
Here in Home, we have had quite a journey ourselves. And like all journeys, we will have our time on the mountain top looking to soak in as much as we can before the end. Because even if Home is ported to the PS4, it will be different, and a new journey will start for us.
Several years ago, I was lucky enough to participate in an Alpha test for a major MMO. I can’t tell you what game it was, because believe it or not, I’m still bound by the confidentiality agreement. I can say, however, it was a major title by a major developer that had massive funding and ran for three years. When the developer closed the game, it was done suddenly, with only a month’s notice. The experiences the players had in this MMO were deep, and losing the game felt like a virtual death sentence to many of its players. In fact, even here on Home there is a club dedicated to the game after all these years.
It is my hope that our journey here on Home will transition better than the game I could not mention. When a developer invites us into a game, there must be trust on both sides. The developers put up money, software and resources, and we gamers put up our money, time and effort. Only when we work together can a game succeed.
We have seen many games and MMOs fall by the wayside because the balance of cooperation wasn’t quite right. Here in Home, we seemed to find that sweet spot of balance that has made it a success for both sides of the partnership equation. I don’t know whether the new equation of the PS4 will find that balance, but I do know it’s being debated right now, not only in Home and in the gaming media, but in Sony conference rooms as well.
If Home is not to make the leap over to the PS4, it won’t change much for us in Home. We will still be able to access this wonderful place on the PS3 and enjoy all it has to offer for some time to come. Yet, like the epic trek up the mountain in Journey, our experience here will be tinged with a little sadness that Home will have an eventual end. Sony is still hiring environmental designers for Home as we speak. If Home does port over to the PS4, as many feel it will, it might feel more like playing a game’s sequel. Ether way, endings can be a bittersweet time to reflect on what we have done and what’s ahead of us.
Enjoy the journey!
All journeys must come to an end. But in the gaming world, there is always another journey to take, another mountain to climb, another game to play, another console that evolves, another friend to make. I feel it is good to stop and soak it in as long as we can and feel that warm fuzzy glow of appreciation and respect for the journey. And, like our footprints in the snow that lead through the door of light at the end of our game, we will start anew and take the first steps into our new journey.
August 4th, 2013 by ted2112 | 8 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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I think I know what game your talking about.
I played that game as well and it came as a total shock to read the message of the day and find out the game was closing in a month. The game had over a million accounts and seemed so successful and when it closed so suddenly it raised all kinds of ethical questions about how to treat players.
I have thought about this game often when I hear all the Home ps4 talk but I am one of those who think that Home will be on the ps4.
Ether way you are right, we should enjoy the ride while we are on it!
A bitter-sweet read and a truth. Well done John! You touched on one undeniable truth, we must always live for the moment, the future of anything is not a given.
Change is a part of life though many people don’t like it much. Everything changes, people, places, Home is no different. Sometimes change brings good things, sometimes it brings an end to things.The PS4 is a changing of the guard so to speak, it represents the future of Sony’s gaming and perhaps there is a place in that future for Home, perhaps not.
Learning to live for today, for the moment isn’t an easy lesson. Worrying about anything you have no control over is a waste of energy and time. Live for today, enjoy the day, and you will be a happier person.
Nice read as always Ted.
Hopefully home will evolve and not recreated or removed like a game would be. Gamers expect an end it’s what they aim for. Social MMO users expect evolution. Sadly currently all im seeing and reading about is people saying how many of they friends are now no longer using home regularly. Every time I used to log on to find at least a third of my friends list on home now id be lucky to find 2 or 3 is a quote I’m seeing a lot more of around social media networks. But live for now what will be will be.
I also played that game and was shocked when they announced the closing of it. I have since learned not to get attached to these type of games. U never know what will happen. I cant speculate about if Home will go to the ps4 or not. There have been so many thoughts and opinions, i guess we just have to wait and see. Anyway i agree that when i am playing a non MMO type game and it takes a long time, i get sad when its over and always want more!!
Ahh Journey, how I loved my first play through. That Sandy bit at the end, at the peak of the mountain; I knew I had died as had my mysterious partner. I had become swept up in it all and instinctively headed to the light, by the time I’d reached the top I realized I’d left them behind, I thought I’d lost them right at the very end. So I waited. And called. And called…
Just as I was about to give up and head into the light, I heard that faint, unique note of their call. When they got to me, they made a heart in the sand for me and we slowly finished the journey we’d accidentally begun together. Best. Ending. Ever!
One of the more profound messages of Journey is that the end of something (while sad and hard to accept) also can mean a new beginning, a start of something new that’s even better than what came before; and each time we accept an end, we become stronger for the future.
If Home were to end on the PS3 I would always, ALWAYS, look back on it with good thoughts. Sure, there’s been some unpleasant and bitter moments in there, but the laughs I’ve had, and the friends I’ve made; the quirky, honest and amazing people I’ve met from all over the world… you just put a price tag on that.
NOT ENOUGH COFFEE TYPO!
*you just CAN’T put a price tag on that.
I like to think Journey and Home to an extent remind us that even as we reach the end, we are never truly alone, and there are those closest to us willing to take that next step into the unknown…