by ted2112, HSM team writer

Remember the first 3D game you ever saw?

For me, it was Doom. I loved the way you could move through the world. Sure, things were jumping out and trying to kill you, but I loved the scenery and the fact that I was free to move any way I wanted. I felt compelled to explore every nook and cranny. There was something about the power of movement in 3D games: a sense of freedom, if you will.

I had always loved video games, but for most of them you are on a track, and the game space is more an artificial boundary. To step into a game and go where you wanted just felt much more natural. For me, the 3D game changed gaming from something that resembled a movie that allowed single-direction controls to an open sphere of movement and choice. In Home, we have not only three dimensions, but open lines of communication and multiple social and cultural influences mixed together in a universe of the familiar and the fantastic.

To be in Home even for a minute means being surrounded by an interactive landscape that not only can you move though any way you want, but is also populated by avatars from around the world doing the same.  Everyone you see is a real person, and every choice you make could take you anywhere.

Home, however, is more than 3D; Home is a collection of open worlds. Each world is woven into a common web that connects to the next piece, and at the same time is part of every other scene in a vast mosaic. The past, present and future coexist side-by-side with fictional worlds from our collective pallet of pop culture and literary imagination; this is the major difference between Home and just about every other game.

Home is not a single-channel experience — it’s like having cable TV with the super-deluxe multi-platinum package of every channel known to man. Instead of channel surfing, we jump from 3D game space to 3D game space and truly get to write our own script in the process.

There are many other 3D games and MMO experiences, but almost all of them focus on one narrow storyline or universe setting that binds the player to that game’s vision alone. In Home it is common to jump through time and space and create your own narrative in a way never before possible.

While working on my Grand Explorer trophy — you know, the one that requires you to visit twenty unique spaces for a bronze — I found myself going through space stations, medieval fortresses, alien planets and movies I love.  Each space a genre unto itself, yet somehow “Home-like.”  This diversity is Home’s greatest strength.

Home in this way will never get boring because it is changing every moment and can’t be pinned down to a single concept other than total freedom of moment. This freedom of expression, genres and gaming diversity is reflected in its equally diverse and passionate players.

If Home is a 3D game, and these elements make it a multi-world metaverse, what do we call it,? “Evolving 4D,” maybe, or how about an MMO system? Whatever we choose to call it,  I simply call it Home.

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One Response to “Open Worlds”

1. Gary160974 says:

   March 29, 2014 at 2:13 pm

   I’m a great believer in the playstation world. Not just home but all the other games etc that go with a psn account. Take riding horses in home was a big thing when that lmo came out. Well me and my friends had been riding horses on RDR ages before home. Cars we have been socially hanging out in our user designed cars on midnight club on the beach for ages. Home crould release a much worse version of that and get applauded. DCUO I can hang socially as a hero or villain or do missions. GTA I can meet up with friends and do missions. Home can’t compete with this but it can be a part of it.

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