by Burbie52, HSM team writer

High fantasy is defined as fantasy fiction set in an alternative, entirely fictional world, rather than the real world.

J.R.R Tolkien is considered a master of the fantasy genre. He almost single handed created the genre with his books The Hobbit and his Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s considered to be the classic in this particular field of fiction, the one by which all others are measured; often imitated, but never duplicated. It’s doubtful he ever thought it would be as wildly popular as it became. Along with his contemporary and close friend, C.S. Lewis, he helped to form an entire new realm of fictional books for their generation and for many generations to follow.

Lockwood Publishing’s Whimsy Hollow is a rare commodity in Home. It’s something that was put together with a great deal of user input. Lockwood asked people to vote on a particular type or genre of personal space they would like to see in Home, and from all the categories they offered, high fantasy was a clear winner. The popularity of high fantasy is world wide; it is my personal favorite form of literature and has been since I was just a child. When I saw that it had won in the survey by a wide margin, I was very happy and have looked forward to the creation and release of this space for months.

Then Lockwood asked for people to put forth names for the new space they were going to create. Many very interesting ideas came from this request and Whimsy Hollow was finally voted on and won. Then Lockwood showed us several proposed creatures that they had decided to add to the space and asked for the community’s input yet again to decide what we wanted to see there. The result was the many tailed Whimsy that you will learn to find – and be rewarded by – in the built-in mini game within the space.

A grassy roof

The reason J.R.R. Tolkien was mentioned earlier was the first thing you will think when arriving in the space is that you have been dropped into Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ home. It has all of the look of a Hobbit house, with its rounded doors and slightly warped window glass. It is obviously an underground home as well, as though set in the side of a hill, like the Baggins’ house was. You will even see a bit of grass overhead when you go into the central chamber.

There are several rooms all connected by long halls, there’s three fireplaces are in the home, and the windows have that old look of thick glass that looks out onto scenery that could have been taken from anywhere in The Shire of Hobbit fame. They really put a lot of love into this, I think whomever did the art has a real affinity for fantasy as well.

What’s probably this space’s most intriguing feature is a room with several mushroom-like growths coming out of what appears to be tree stumps. These serve as perches for the Whimsy creatures you discover in the game. It’s a simple game and well thought out.

It seems that Whimsy Hollow has a secret. The story goes that your uncle has left the place to you, and it is up to you to discover what that secret is. Sound familiar?

You will find a shining, gem-like object above the fireplace, and when you activate it, your journey to discovery begins. There is a large rune on the wall in the room with the mushrooms, and each time you find a new whimsy, one of them lights up. This also gives you your reward as you complete each task. So far, I have a very nice table and bookcase. Each Whimsy will speak to you or your friends if prompted. They each say a few different sentences.

Unlike the Dream Hideaway, there doesn’t seem to be any rewards here for friends, unless that’s what will appear after you have completed the rune on the wall. There appears to be ten different runes, so it can be assumed there will be ten or perhaps eleven rewards in total once the one that is hinted at is accomplished.

First rewards

This space is very well done, although it may not be as functional as many spaces in Home are becoming. However, it is a space that was created based largely upon popular vote by the community, so it will be interesting to see if the community will back their own creation. For those of us who love the fantasy genre, it is sure to become a beloved space to inhabit. What is also very interesting is that they decided to make it a Gift Machine offering instead of an outright purchase. It’s possible that Lockwood did this to add to the community involvement that has been evident since the start of the project. The price is the same as the other gifted apartments at 768 coins, or about $9.00.

I hope this trend of community involvement increases as Home goes into its next year, and hopefully, onto the next generation console. Only time will tell us if that will happen, but for now lets enjoy our little piece of The Shire here in PlayStation Home.

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One Response to “Whimsy Hollow – More Than a Whimsy”

1. Queen_Eli says:

   August 23, 2013 at 3:19 pm

   Nice article Burbie! Looks like my wallet will be losing some more cash this weekend as it was quite a good update this week. I was wondering about this space, thank you for the background info on it.

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