Will We Ever Be Satisfied With Home?

by Burbie52, HSM team writer

We humans are funny creatures. We have a lot of odd habits and some very strange ways of looking at life. We can love with a passion that defies all reasoning and hate the same way. We can be very inconstant at times, then very loyal and fiercely defensive. We can be truly happy one minute and sad the next. We are a myriad pile of contradictions and anomalies that defy logic because we are all emotional when it comes down to the things we attach ourselves to. Home is no different than any of those we might find in real life.

It seems that everyone is a born critic. I am not saying that being critical of some things isn’t merited at times — because it is — but there is a way to be critical that is helpful and a way that isn’t helpful at all. I find that listening to people complain all the time without any ideas for solutions being added to the mix is rather boring. Everyone has an opinion about everything, each one no more important than the next, unless you have a way to fix what the problem is.

complaint 1

What Sony must feel like sometimes

When it comes to Home it sometimes seems that the complaints are never-ending. No matter what is done to elevate the experiences we have, there are always people who find fault with what is being offered. We ask for particular things to be done for us, things like more functional personal spaces and more furniture slots. There was a time when Home was only a few spaces for sale and a few public ones to hang out in. Now there are well over a hundred personal spaces and more public ones than I can find the time to visit.

Yet still people complain, even though both Sony and the developers have bent over backwards at times to give us what we ask for. We asked for more furniture slots and it doubled to a hundred and now we complain it isn’t enough. We asked for more to do and games to play and the “Year of the Game” emerged in 2012. We asked for more functionality in our personal spaces and we got things like Blueprint, Home Tycoon, City of Flowers, the Dream series and now SeaClyff Retreat, but still people aren’t satisfied.

I am beginning to think that what the developers and Sony do for us — at great cost to them, I might add, as they don’t always recoup their expenditures — is never going to be enough for some people. Maybe being happy isn’t in their makeup. I know that I am happy and still looking forward to what is to come. We have been given a glimpse into the future of Home recently with a list of things that the developers and Sony are cooking up for us, and I must say that list is very impressive. Here is a sampling:

VEEMEE

  • 3rd Party Brands: Morphsuits™ – clothing & Element – clothing & skateboards.
  • Acorn Meadows Park Public Space updates, including seasonal updates
  • 3D Printer content updates.
  • New personal spaces.
  • New locomotion, clothing and active items.

Lockwood

  • Mechsuit Pilots Clothing Items.
  • Dinosaur Apartment.
  • Post-Apocalyptic Clothing Items.
  • Country Cottage Apartment and virtual items.
  • Drey Wardrobe.
  • Dream Treehouse.
  • Solitude Apartment.
  • Masquerade Ball Clothing Items.
  • Winter Cottage Apartment & Virtual Items.Complain 3

nDreams

  • Laser Turret LMO – Defend the skies with the Laser Turret pop up locomotion.
  • Halloween Outfits – The Werewolf and Mummy are coming, along with their own creepy walk locomotions.
  • The Complex 2 Modular Apartment – A brand new Complex apartment will be given away for free later on this year with additional elements available.

Digital Leisure

  • Western Frontier public space – the American Old West comes to PlayStation Home. Defend your honour in head-to-head Showdowns, Stagecoach race your way through treacherous canyons, Mine for gold and Trade for hundreds of reward items with friends.

Atom Republic

  • The Atom Republic Park: a new chilled out public space set in a
    beautiful art-déco setting, containing a free go-kart racing game!
  • Stackmania: a series of apartments containing innovative puzzle games.
  • Racing track apartments: apartment containing racing games, including a
    “build-your-own” race track!
     

Hellfire

  • Home Tycoon: New Heights – Home Tycoon’s biggest update ever, including gameplay improvements and two new expansion packs loaded with content: Flying High and Thrill Ride!
  • Home Tycoon: Flying High – Take to the skies in your own personal helicopter to save the city from an unscrupulous pharmaceutical corporation!
  • Home Tycoon: Thrill Ride – Bring the thrills of a fully-interactive amusement park to your city, complete with rollercoaster, Ferris wheel, and free-fall.
  • Giftinator 9000 – The ultimate gifting machine, sent from the future to fill your existence with exclusive items and rewards!

satisfied 2And much much more from Granzella, Game Mechanics, Codeglue, Madmunki, Flashman Studios, LOOT, JAM games, Bigyama, Juggernaut and the rest of the PlayStation Home development community!

So I for one won’t be walking away from Home like many say they will be doing. Fear is the mind killer; you can’t live your real life or your virtual one in fear of the future, or you won’t be truly living at all. We need to embrace the future but not live in it. What does worrying do for you? Does it add one minute to your life? Live for today and let tomorrow take care of itself. That is a statement that I have lived by for a long time.

It’s one thing to provide feedback with potential solutions, and yes, a consumer’s voice should be heard. But we have a responsibility — to ourselves — to act appropriately with that voice and use it to help, not abuse. Simply complaining because Home doesn’t adhere to your personal vision of How Things Should Be is a waste; it doesn’t get you anything either, except unwanted stress. So be happy, please, and let those who know more than we do about Home’s future lead the way to more fun.

October 12th, 2013 by | 4 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.

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4 Responses to “Will We Ever Be Satisfied With Home?”

  1. ted2112 says:

    In my part of the country the more we complain about stuff, shows how much we love it. I feel sorry for our sports teams because their ears must be burning 24/7.

    I think it’s build into our DNA to complain about stuff, but I hear what you are saying. Home is a free game! many people have spent untold time and resources to create this wonderful place, yet some complain.

    I try very hard to tune it out and it all sounds like Charlie Browns teacher after a while!

  2. Susan says:

    As long as the developers are making more knick knacks to add to our space, even 100 items adds up fast. Put together a Christmas feast and you have used up a quarter of the available slots-just in food alone.
    I am constantly amazed at people who say they are bored on here. Home is what you make of it-if its boring it’s because that individual is making the experience boring-another reason to bring back the HCV’s you never see no more.

  3. Gary160974 says:

    I also think theres too many people that think home can do no wrong and that they look for people that have an complaint just to try and push they views onto another user. Usually see them on the update day one saying woop woop the other saying home is boring. Home is an over the top place theres those that seem to have a negative opinion on everything but seem to be always on home buying stuff. Theres those that seem to be positive about everything and home can do no wrong, yet you talk to them and they seem to have worse negative opinions than someoone that complains all the time. A lot of it is for show not because they love or hate home. Theres things im looking forward to in the list of whats coming out like the home tycoon updates. But most of it if you use your playstation fully is hardly ground breaking.

  4. KrazyFace says:

    I think it’s general human nature to want more. Because we can adjust so easily, I think we find it easy to slip into a thought process of expectation. Because of that, regardless if how much stuff the Home devs throw at us, there will always be those who expected more.

    Personally, as a from-the-start Home user, I’ve been amazed at the progress made. Sure there are some obviously over-priced items, but that’s simple business trial and error pricing; what works, what won’t, how far can we push it?

    They spent over $150 MILLION developing GTA5 and there are STILL people complaining! What will it take to make every single user in Home actually satisfied? Who knows. I’d imagine you could pull the moon from the sky for some of these people and still just get a “meh”.

    Some people are just either spoiled, or simply NEVER happy.

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