by Jin Lovelace, HSM team writer & filmmaker

As the subject implies, it’s a reference to a scene in Ghostbusters where the four protagonists face off against the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and the only way to take it out was to combine their beam guns to unify one big stream to take out the monstrous treat. They all were skeptical of doing such a feat, as they constantly reminded each other that was something they shouldn’t do in the first place.

But then, lets talk metaphor a bit: remember four years ago the FEVA Arena that was set across every Home server, which allowed users from every region to come and celebrate the grandest sporting event of the year? I can, thanks to my best friend Crimson Rex’s constant reminder of how awesome that space was. In fact, I’m now haunted by his said reminders for the past two months thanks to this year’ FIFA 2014 series.

How about those E3 moments in PlayStation Home that you got to share with others from around the globe? Same deal with Gamescom, which is Europe’s own E3.

What does these Home events have in common? A hallmark feature: region free.

One of the things that led to this article are the recent rumors about finally having Home’s region lock lifted. It was announced back in Summer 2008 that Home would be only restricted to your geographical region, barring any international socialization and only limited to visits to your virtual private abodes. So it literally meant that you would have to create an account for that region if you wish to partake in the exclusive events for that server, if not visit public spaces overall.

SCEAsia Home Square

One of the events that came to mind was an exclusive Macross concert that happened in Japan back in 2010 that was promoting the new anime series, where you could receive free items just for attending the show. This was a bit of a controversy at the time due to North America not having “cool” events such as this, but I assure you it wasn’t that memorable. Not criticizing the event overall (it was a spectacle, to be exact), but it wasn’t something I was overly hyped over; I was constantly battling through latency problems rather than focusing on the event itself.

(Editor’s note: adding to this, no one’s pointed out the obvious flaw that such splashy events cost a fortune and weren’t designed to monetize. There’s a reason why SCEA/SCEE Homes are still around.)

And I think this is where the lag issue comes to mind. It’s a problem that plagues many online games we play. For example, in Ragnarok Odyssey ACE, I would join servers where the host would hail from different parts of South America (more recently, this host in question was from Brazil). As up to four could join the game, a HUD would showcase the players in the party and their connection bars. While at least myself and one other would have a full bar connection, the third player had three bars and the host sported just one.  This created issues with the rest of us as we set afoot on our quest, as the lag was absolutely atrocious, all the way to the final boss of the mission, where everyone except me disconnected. I can honestly say, that was the worst beatdown I’ve ever felt since my time at the Kikai Machine Empire event on Home.

I triple-dog-dare you to defeat this beast solo.

Back to topic; the point here is that while it’s an experience to play with other players of different regions, latency and connection issues are a factor. So what does this imply for Home as an overall experience? In fact, moving outside of Home, would this be a good thing if we desire a region-free virtual forum?

A better question: would you pay for this service?

Think about this for a moment; the only way you could initially socialize with others from different regions — in a public space — is through annual events like E3 and Gamescom. While we’re receiving announcements on the exciting news from Sony, everyone would gather to share this experience. During this time, everyone from different regions are discussing about how their Home servers would have different features and exclusive items than others. Minds are open, people are having fun.

Now this could be achieved through inviting your friends from different countries to your personal space. Granted, it’s nice and all if you’re used to this recluse lifestyle, but nine times out of ten, they would rather like to experience such spaces like the Music Unlimited Club and Serenity Plaza, just to name a couple. This wouldn’t be an issue for them, if they didn’t have to create an entirely new account just to visit these spaces, which also means losing their purchased items and having to convert their currencies to regional dollars just to buy the items already on their original accounts.

So would it make sense to pay out top-dollar for a region-free public space where everyone from all servers can congregate and have fun? I’m not implying that is something I’m all for, but lets remember this: Sony would have to pony up the dough just to create a weekly turnout that has to guarantee an audience for everyone. That also includes a certain number of interested users that would be willing to pay for these events.

Would you pay for this? Would you like to finally hop over to the SCEE Home Square and hang with your friends and join their events? Would this be a bad thing and create unwanted latency problems for everyone?

The lure of a completely region-free Home experience is strong, psychologically. Perhaps one day it might happen on a larger and more permanent scale than what we’ve seen in the past.

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2 Responses to “Crossing the Streams”

1. Gary160974 says:

   May 18, 2014 at 7:24 am

   Currently as you can make an account for any region and theres a lot of users that do. Plus these users pay for each of these accounts to have stuff and there will be loads that are trying to win the acorn park birthday apartment over multiply accounts. Users are paying to have multiply accounts and being region free already. Which distorts the user numbers on home dramatical., plus adds extra revenue. So actually Sony get better benefits now and don’t have to do anything. Most of homes competitors are region free but they do warn users that the area they are entering is speaking a certain language so you make an informed decision. Being from the EU the language barrier can be an issue as you can turn up on a server that has 4 / 5 languages none of which I understand. Some of homes competitors also use a system that if you are wearing something that would be inappropriate in another location or age group, you appear default to these users. Certainly it could of been done. But I think it’s too late now. Perhaps it’s a wish for a new version of home on the ps4.

   Reply
   • Jin Lovelace says:

     May 19, 2014 at 3:20 pm

     Perhaps.

     Thanks for your input.

     Reply