by FEMAELSTROM, HSM team writer

As I write this, I’m standing on the highest point of the bridge that arcs over the water at the Acorn Meadows Park. It’s a Sunday night, and the time is 11:30 PM. I’m tired. And tomorrow is filled with more of the same: look for employment after 27 years at the same place came to an end.

I’ve just finished building more things in the recently released Minecraft for the PS3 — and, truth be told, I’m pretty bleary, but I thought to tell a story. This is the true tale of how one man that once loved Home so passionately has let that love fade, and now must find that path out of a cold and dark forest of doubt and the feeling of leaving it before it leaves me.

I came to Home right after the “Big Hack”, and fast made friends, and some good ones at that. As time passed at its expected pace, I made more and more friends. With the synchronized marching steps of time that drone on as they do, I came to find myself in ever deeper and more profound places, like here in the magazine. I have played the games, collected the freebies, sent and received the friend requests. I have danced and posed and LMO’d my way through the countless lands that are still and once were. I have gained items and given items. I have trolled (in my early days) and been trolled, hit on and threatened. In my short stay in this virtual realm, I have done so very much that today I stand on this bridge and wonder, with such uncertainty from Home’s future to my real world situations, if I truly want to be here, and what is Sony doing to entice me.

First, let us look at Sony. What are they doing to keep my interest piqued? The Hub’s denizens would  lament that Sony is doing nothing but reaching further into our pockets, which is an absolute wrong impression to even start stirring into one’s cauldron of thought. For Sony, aside from an impending need to address Home’s future, it’s business as usual. Sony and the developers are staying a good and steady course. I in fact applaud them for their consistency. Where my feelings have wavered, they are the same.

There is a thought that people are not using Home as much, and though I have seen my list diminish in terms of who is using Home, my list only represents some seventy five or so people, and many of those were not Home users to begin with. The ones that were still come in, just less for now. So in simple numbers, my list is not the one to make a grand statement of Home’s future from, and on any given night there is still a brisk and healthy population in many of the open spaces.

There is one simple set of items that do affect my enjoyment here, though. The bad parts. There are still places that largely hold people of ill will that are all too ready to freeze a place. Just the other night, I was frozen twice. This is in and of itself a very big deterrent, because as some sources claim, it can affect your hardware, not just your software.

Home currently has a lot of lag and connection issues; I’ve largely been backed out of using my headset and gone back to typing because I can hear so little. I am not the only one so afflicted, and to be very frank, as I do play Minecraft a lot in multiplayer, the audio there is great. Many people have told me that it may be my connection, and I am ready to believe that, except for the fact that in my roaming around Home, I have seen many open and vocal lamentations about the bad audio. But in the end, we make do. The audio, then, is not the reason; and anyone you call ‘friend’ would certainly endure as a friend would, to type if necessary. It is simply part of our communications here.

So far, it is not the people, nor the sound, or Sony. Maybe, just maybe, there is an intangible element here. After all, my friends are still my friends, and though I have not seen some lately, they still crack a smile when I show up. At least I hope they do. As for the typing every sentence out to simply chat with those I hold close, they are worth typing until my fingers are bloody little stumps. Sony and the developers are still putting out good and fun stuff, and at the same price point — so I will still buy, because it is fun. I own many private estates, so I can and do have fun there, and will continue to do so.

This is where the intangible comes in, as I have gone to every corner and peeked behind every wall: I hope to find again that passion that made it a hard choice between a game and Home.

Will I find it in the Hub or using an LMO? Probably not. I hope to find it again where I first found it: right in front of me. The bad part about the unknown is simply the part of something being unknown, but that is also the draw, and what made men like Marco Polo travel.

I once thought to retire from Home. Give it up and turn away. But I think I will hold off on pulling that trigger. I will find a reason to enjoy Home and find that passion again, because deep down, it truly is there.

This story, though, is a comedy in the classic sense, not a tragedy. I have basically been away from keyboard in regards to this magazine because I felt I had run dry. But something has changed.

Thanks to the people that make and develop for Home, a lot has changed.

First, there are the trophies. Granted I loaded into Home and got all but around four of them; the remaining ones are in progress. It is still worth coming in to get, and it has made it worth coming back  in to Home to do.

Then the next item is that Lockwood has put a points leveling system in place for its estates. I own most of the Lockwood estates, so this is a task worth logging in to do.

Then we come back to the intangible. Something just turned.

Something just moved, and I feel like strolling into Home and saying ‘hey’ to friends, and having the fun that I do at the Digital Leisure Casino, and decorating, as well as all the fun that though for a little bit felt repetitive, is fun again, of just being here, doing what just feels right.

I guess I’m back, and I want to always love Home, and I guess I do. I guess I needed to be absent and dispassionate for a little while to see what I lost.

Now then: what to buy, what to buy?

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2 Responses to “More Than This”

1. Burbie52 says:

   March 28, 2014 at 9:43 am

   Agreed, as the Homelings would say. Nice article as always Strom.

   Reply
2. ted2112 says:

   March 28, 2014 at 11:12 pm

   Strom,
   I love the intangible bit and agree with that concept wholeheartedly and feel it’s an important one.

   This was a great read!

   Reply