HomeStation Articles Now Shown in PlayStation Home
“On the one hand, it is a statement of hope to anyone else out there who has a dream, to follow it no matter who speaks against you, no matter the odds, no matter what they say to or about you, no matter what roadblocks they throw in your way. What matters is that you remain true to your vision.
“On the other hand, for the reviewers and the pundits and the critics and the net-stalkers who have done nothing but rag on this show for five years straight, it is also a giant middle finger composed of red neon fifty stories tall, that will burn forever in the night.
“In billiards, we call that a bank-shot.”
– J. Michael Straczynski
by NorseGamer, HSM Publisher
If Home had trophy support, what would qualify as a platinum?
Personally, I think only one thing qualifies: getting user-generated content into Home.
Think about it: unlike most other comparable social MMO environments which thrive on user-generated content, Home is a walled garden which is nearly impossible to get UGC into. Keep in mind, that’s not a bad thing: having a high barrier to entry means that the content which does make it into Home, through all the layers of approval and oversight, is nearly always quite good.
And today, thanks to the Home Platform Group, HSM articles are now on display in SCEE Home itself, via the new media reader when you sign in.
Let’s rephrase that: every single user who signs into SCEE Home is now exposed to HSM.
If Home had trophy support…today would’ve been the day HomeStation scored the platinum.
It’s been a long road to get here. Three years. The concept of a literary journal for Home — committed to actual editorial standards, word counts, and at least one new long-form story per day — was laughed out of the building by a chorus of prominent community voices who never thought it would get off the ground. The idea that you could actually build a cohesive team and not just a pack of loose-cannon fanboys, producing content out of a love of creative expression, without any of the me-first egos that so often cause such projects to implode, was viewed as a lofty ideal that was doomed to be stillborn. And the notion of maintaining a rigorous pro-Sony/pro-Home/pro-developer viewpoint as a publication quickly made us the target of any number of people who nurse personal grievances and seek public solutions to their private ails.
There is no need to recount the full history of the invective HSM team members have had to endure over the years. Our response is always the same: to take the high road and wish them only the best, because we want everyone to succeed. What’s been great about such adversity is that it’s actually served as rocket fuel, motivating us to continue to grow, validating that we are on the right path.
Then the successes started to come in, for everyone on the team who stuck with it. HomeStation asks a lot of its team. I honestly believe no other Home media site has asked for so much consistent daily work from as many people as HSM does. But it is those successes which affirm that work: that let everyone involved know that their words, their art, their videos…make a difference.
And now we come to today. HomeStation has its own machinima channel in SCEA and SCEE Home, thanks to LOOT — a channel which now has more than 110 videos on display, from several excellent filmmakers and multiple Home development studios. On top of that, starting today, HSM print content is now visible to everyone who signs into SCEE Home.
Everyone.
I believe I’m correct when I state that no other Home media group has as much content in Home itself as HomeStation Magazine does. It’s taken a long time and a mountain of effort to get this far — but here we are. The victory belongs to the team, who have put in the work and the time to see this through. This latest achievement venerates them.
We are both humbled and honored by this opportunity to serve, and thrilled that our audience reach has now extended to every single user who signs into SCEE Home.
If anyone ever had any doubts that the people behind Home genuinely care about the community which has grown up around this application over the last five-plus years, this should serve as definitive testimonial to lay those fears to rest. Home is what we make of it, and the architects of Home have given us all a new feature by which we may enrich each other’s Home experience. Users entertaining fellow users, supported at a platform level.
(And for this one paragraph in parentheticals, I’m going to put on my Home developer hat for a moment: stick around with Home. There’s more cool stuff coming.)
We are very grateful for the support of HPG and all of the people at SCEE, SCEA and beyond, both within the development community and the user community, who encourage HomeStation to continue and grow. It is an intense labor of love which demands tremendous amounts of time and energy — but the results can be astonishing. We look forward to continuing to serve you for quite some time to come.
To our audience of 117,000+ unique readers: thank you. This publication has never paid for any of its web traffic, never spammed F5 to bump up the view count on a YouTube link, never did any sort of marketing beyond word of mouth. You have kept us going — and growing — over these years. And to the development studios which have supported us, taken note of us and given us astonishing creative freedom to discuss Home, its marketplace and its society: we are humbled by your continued patronage.
“What is built endures,” Joe Straczynski wrote, “and what is loved endures.”
And HSM endures.
Ladies and gentlemen…HomeStation Magazine articles are now being published inside PlayStation Home.
September 19th, 2013 by NorseGamer | 5 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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I have to take a moment not to boast, but to thank everyone that made this day possible for me as a writer. Thank you as our own Sealwyf and I are featured in the premier. I say this not to boast but out of the honor and gratitude I have for this position and ability. Thank you Norse ans Terra for the chance as well as those that got me involved in the first place…Norse,Granny,and Burbie. This is a thrill I am going to remember for a long time. Thank you to all the readers of course, without them there is no audience. I love this job!
This is a real honor for all of us who have been working so hard for so long. When I started to write for this magazine at its beginnings I did it and actually still do it for the love of Home and for the love of writing itself. Yes it is nice to get kudos now and again, to hear that people appreciate what we do, but that has never been the focus for me. I simply love what i do.
This is a work of love from everyone in HSM and that is what shows and continues to grow us as a magazine. It is work, but it is fun also, or most of us would have dropped out a long time ago.
Thanks to all who made this possible, especially you Norse and Terra for the countless hours and sleepless night you have dedicated to making this publication what it is.
Having known about this for a while and seeing the complexities of what went into this I am truly impressed with not only that it works, but how good it looks. It is a remarkable testament to not only us at HSM, but to the amazing community in Home.
-BING. I just got my platinum trophy!
That’s fantastic! I’m so happy to see this happening, I don’t think I have to say how proud you should feel right now Norse, but lap it up, because you all deserve this honour. I’ve always loved this publication and the views and ideas inside, and now it can reach out even further into the Home community with Sony’s help.
Well done people, well done.
I am getting a UK account today so I can see the awesomeness. A big THANK YOU to the Home community and to the Developers here at Home for your constant and continued support. Thank you to the Editors here who have sailed this ship on a course true and steady. This is an exciting day for the community and I await the release to SCEA #SOON