Two-Player Animations in Home
by Jin Lovelace, HSM team writer & filmmaker
For years, the Home consumers desired a new method of immersion: ways to interact with fellow users.
Lets be real about this — in Home, we’re going to meet friends, associates, acquaintances, even the best friend that may possibly become your lover. With a broad imagination, you can meta-game your connections with one another, but this is something that we’ve been used to for quite some time. Home constantly walks the identity-crisis tightrope of whether or not it’s a game or a social MMO, and 2014 seems to be the year when — finally — Home has stopped trying to court people who aren’t interested and is focused instead on catering to those who are.
Wouldn’t it be cool to finally hold the hand of your loved one and stroll down the greenest grassy fields at the Acorn Park to show how much you care for them? Or instead of typing “*pound it*” to express excitement with your buddy, you could actually perform the action?
Well, in the upcoming weeks, all of this and more will come to fruition, thanks to new features as part of Home’s core client and the rapid development atop those features from studios such as nDreams and Atom Republic. Make no mistake — interactive multiplayer animations in Home are the hot new market segment for 2014.
“Pound~ It!”
Coming soon, nDreams will be releasing basic two-player animation packs, with intricate, more complex poses and dances to follow — using their signature professional motion-capturing, of course. How this works is relatively simple: the player dons the item like a normal LMO from their Inventory menu. Once equipped, they choose which two-player animation to be active. From there, any user can approach the active avatar and sift through the interact menu based on the animation chosen.
Approach the user with the active LMO to interact with them…
To merely state that it’s cool we’re finally receiving these LMOs in Home would be an understatement.
There have been times when I’d be working on a shoot with some of the Twilight Touch models, and upon completing a project, we wished to high-five each other. Many of my buddies who are in a relationships would desire to express their affection to their loves and wish they could share a heart-warming kiss with them. Laugh at it or decry it if you feel the need to seem too cool for school, but the fact remains: they’re going to sell really well.
Users that yearned for more human connectivity in the virtual world will likely delight at this. Many others will pass this off as something silly, and certainly one can view how the items will be abused. In fact, the skeptic side of me honestly says this is a treasure trove for trolls on Home, mostly due to the kissing options available. In fact, how would you feel if you have the LMO active and an unwanted guest approaches you to randomly locks lips with you? To some, it may be just a game, but consent is consent and harassment is harassment. This doubles for those that will invest in these items; use them with careful discretion.
As an aside: how is it that nDreams is once again the first in line to release virtual goods in a new market segment, particularly so soon after the functionality has been deployed? It’s inevitable that by Q1 2015 we’ll be up to our ears in two-player animations — just as we are right now with the supersaturated LMO market, which in turn killed off the companion market — so whomever gets to monetize a new feature first usually ends up making the most amount of money. That nDreams should be there, right up front and ready to pounce again, is…interesting.
A beautiful moment for two consenting users, but discomforting for those who would randomly do this to you
I’ll admit to being excited for the possibilities this new market segment introduces. While gesticulations and poignant romantic embraces can be viewed as the low-hanging fruit, there are lots of other areas to explore. Personally, I’m a big martial arts fan — I grew up during the era when Chuck Norris was being bitten by snakes and the snake died of Norris’ poison — so I’m curious as to what other (PEGI-12/PG-13) aspects of human interactivity could be explored.
Seriously, could you imagine martial art interactions? Think about it: who wouldn’t desire to reenact a scene from their favorite kung-fu movie? One that sticks out among them all: Neo vs Agent Smith! We all want at times to open up a player vs player environment to bash “noobs” in, or to settle turf differences, a la “The Outsiders”. Home’s lack of a PvP environment, coupled with the usual issues of latency, collision detection and so forth, are a big blow to what Home can offer. But we can at least get there partially with this new feature.
I will say, though, that when it comes to dance LMOs, nDreams does them perfectly! Give some love to the Kick-Step interaction by the Hip-Hop duo that created: Kid ‘n Play!
Here’s to nDreams making THIS happen for Home!
And don’t make me go there on duo fashion poses. The fashionista in me will run this article down with picture and video examples on how this can heighten quality photoshoots to new levels of fun and entertainment for me. In fact, I’ll end this sentence right here before I’m tempted to do so.
As you can see, the wishlist can be rather long here, but I’m sure you get the gist of my hype.
Overall, I’m excited for this release and what the developers are doing to bringing a deep connection to the virtual world. Here’s to PDA and possible karate-chopping and kick-stepping antics, courtesy of nDreams and everyone else.
March 22nd, 2014 by Jin Lovelace | 9 comments
Jin Lovelace is a machinimist and team writer for HomeStation Magazine, as well as the founder of Twilight Touch Inc. -- http://twilighttouchinc.com and http://youtube.com/twilighttouchinc. When not found in PlayStation Home, Jin studies graphic design and illustration (character design and fashion), gaming, and the culinary arts.
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;^) I agree that martial arts locomotions are appealing. Personally, though, I’m waiting for three-people LMO’s that will allow Three Stooge reenactments….
Dibbs on Moe.
Hahaaa~!! I thought about that as well! xD
And that anyone can now just attack anyone else with these lmos. You have to walk away to stop them being used on you. How irritating are they going to be
:^/ Gary, I don’t believe that these can be imposed on others any more than with the Acorn Meadows Park bicycles. There, people can ask to join you, but cannot simply jump on without permission.
These should be the same. People can ask, but permission must be given.
Atom republic have already stated that if you dont want to be part of they two player lmos as soon as interaction starts you have to walk away so seems there’s no prompt with those ones. So don’t leave your avatar for too long you might come back with lipstick on your collar lol
Perhaps this might be different with nDreams’ LMOs?
And if there were a martial arts LMO from nDreams, one has to activate the interaction for bot to perform the animations. If you have them equipped, the person can simply choose which actions they desire. There should be a prompt from the owner to consent.
Player just have to use discretion, really.
It only takes one set to be without prompts to cause issues. Perhaps the n dreams ones will need prompt. Just means anyone who wants to cause drama will buy atom republic versions.
The prompts could be amusing at least…
Gary160974: “I challenge you to mortal combat”
Jin Lovelac:e “I accept your challenge, foolish one. Prepare to battle.”
*** FIGHT! ***
Of course, it all must be done with out-of-sync, dubbed vocals.
l’d like to have those LMO’s to interact with certain players i’ve known . Unfortunately after spending 1000.00 on an account and being stalked an virtually sexually assaulted/harassed by a player that can’t be blocked FROM crouching on my avatar or banned due to his Plus Player status, well I just think i’d rather have an improved block for public spaces. Too many 12yr olds and under, noobs with nothing to lose can disrupt a public gathering. And that’s those players intention game disrupting/ harassment. I mean, if a player can harass constantly with multiple accounts and it’s takes 2 years to rid of them if at all then what i’d really rather have is REAL MEN as moderators that see these troublesome players and ban them so good players can enjoy public spaces free of being stalked and virtually sexually assaulted.