by Susan, HSM team writer

Shutdown.

It’s impossible to avoid speculation and debate on this subject. What is the long-term plan for Home? Will it ever exist beyond the PlayStation 3? If not, how much time does it have left?

My advice: live life in PlayStation Home as though it’s your last day to enjoy the service.  But to enjoy Home, I think that advice should be applied daily. With so much to do in Home, it can easily wear someone out. I know: I’ve spent more than sixteen hours in Home at a stretch, for reasons I can’t remember.

What is it about the virtual environment of PlayStation Home that continually beckons to us like a plate of bacon? Why, as a community of avatars, after witnessing Sony’s perceived lack of interest in Home (despite the recent feature deployments such as the News Reader, trophy support and challenges) do we continue to monetize and evangelize Home?

If a boat you use continues pissing you off due to engine failure, a slow leak or who knows what the hell happened, why do you still use the boat even after repeated fixes?  Because it’s your boat. You put time and love into that boat. You take some type of ownership psychologically.

We complain how broken Home is, yet we return. Indeed, it seems some voices exist solely to complain about Home, yet are conspicuously silent when it’s time for praise.

This is not that dilapidated boat!

I can only speak for myself, but I return because I see it as our Home. My Home. We put just as much love and time into that place as the owner of that metaphorically dilapidated boat. I take pride in being a part of this user community. I take ownership of my role, if you will.

Is it the time in Home’s lifespan that the leaking boat is slowly sinking under the water, and the pumps can no longer sustain its buoyancy? If that is the case, then why am I still purchasing a new apartment or new clothes in Home each week? (Shopaholic tendencies aside, of course.)

It’s entertainment to me. I classify Home as a game and have done so long before trophies ever became involved in the mix. That position has involved me in many lengthy discussions about what Home actually is with some very bright and insightful individuals. I choose to accept the possibility that the definition of a game as we know it is perhaps more malleable than we as console gamers are used to.

Some say that there must be a stated objective for Home in order to be classified as a game. I say that the objective of Home is to get along with the fellow avatars that make up the community. Be social. If you are finding you’re isolated or without friends, and not by your own design, then maybe a different strategy is called for in order enjoy the game more. The game, as such, is the game of us. Home sells us to each other, and its myriad products simply facilitate that user-to-user experience.

Home is a mirror held up to us. The more you interact with the community and get involved in the positive aspects of it, the more positive experiences you get back in return — and the better you get at playing the game. I’ve been told Home is a social environment; I say Home is a social game, but that could be said about real life, right down to the tchotchke we acquire over the years and point to as proof of accomplishments.

It’s been said there is no score in Home and no way of winning. I respond with the idea that how you are doing socially in Home could be seen as the score. I will stipulate that there is no number that reflects your position in Home, but there doesn’t have to be a winner or a scoreboard per se.

Having one of these in Home makes it a game?

People will continue to agree to disagree with my notion that Home is a game. That’s fine. Since I consider Home a game I then see all the things I have purchased as add-ons. The personal spaces I purchase are new maps for the game. That is why I continue to use my disposable income in Home: I am buying things that continue to allow me to enjoy the game.

With Home being a game, it is easy to turn it off and walk away. If they were to shut down the servers tomorrow, I would go and find something to replace it if the need was there.  And when those servers do shut down: should we expect some type of compensation for all of our purchases?

For that I have another analogy. Let’s say that at least twice a week you go to the same movie theater. You buy snacks, sodas, maybe play a few of the arcade games there, and watch a couple of movies. Then, one day, that movie theater shuts its doors for good. Do you email the company, demanding some type of compensation for all the money you spent there, or do you move on to somewhere else?

What if the movie theater offered you access to their loyalty program — and if you went to another one of their theaters, you would receive some type of perk or discount on selected items inside?  What if some of the Home developers did the same thing, if and when PlayStation Home shuts down? If they took one of their games and put it out as a standalone game, and an extension of the one they had in Home, would you pay to play it? And at what price?

Take my favorite game as an example: Sodium2. What would it take for me to purchase this game as a standalone experience and continue on?

Would you pay to visit the Sodium Universe if it was available after Home closes?

In the case of Sodium2 (and yes, I’m aware that Lockwood has no further development planned for the Sodium universe): more maps, more options for the racecraft and more rewards would be a starting point. Maybe they could create an actual Sodium Universe video game based on Home’s version. You would buy a Sodium Universe network card and you would have access to all it has to offer.

(How hard is it to translate Lua and Maya script into Unity, anyway…?)

And, of course, it would need an avatar. For me, what makes the Sodium Universe concept work in Home is the ability to socialize. It isn’t the same talking to an individual on the microphone as it is watching a person’s avatar, checking out your surroundings, all the while having a conversation and meeting new people. Without the ability to socialize with an avatar, the Sodium Universe idea would be just another common game, and I doubt it would work very well. It’s interesting to realize that, even today, Home’s avatar customization tools are some of the most robust in the history of video gaming, and it is a differentiating experience for Home versus other games.

What about the other games we play in Home? Could any of them go beyond Home and be as much fun to play? Without the use of avatars I find it difficult to grasp the notion that any of them would be successful — but I have been mistaken on several occasions. Hellfire’s Novus Prime, for instance, was originally designed as a standalone game and subsequently imported into Home. Juggernaut’s MiniBots may be native to Home, but certainly their non-Home game, StarCrawlers, is a spiritual successor to the MiniBots. Lockwood’s Avakin is Home-lite. And whereas LOOT’s EOD can’t technically be considered a game, it’s well-known that their EOD system helped pave the way for their healthy business in PlayStation app projects.

Since I see Home as a game and as a form of entertainment, I am going to continue to keep spending money on it until I am no longer having fun or it shuts down.

Here’s a last what-if question. What if PlayStation Home became a cloud-based PlayStation Now option for you? Would you be willing to pay to access it? If such were the case, would you expect to be able to carry over your inventory from the closed beta version, or would you be content starting all over?

(That’s probably a rhetorical question. If you’re one of the 100,000+ people who reads this site on a regular basis, chances are good you’re part of Home’s hardcore userbase.)

Whatever the future of Home — whether it lasts another decade, another year or only another day — it will continue to receive my support morally and financially.

Share

One Response to “Home: Why Do We Keep Coming Back?”

1. Gary160974 says:

   May 3, 2014 at 1:03 pm

   There would have to be major changes to home for me to pay to use it. All MMO’s have issues but ones that just have one provider of content get they issues sorted far quicker so the issue goes away quickly and unnoticed even. Home is the opposite there are issues on paid items that are over a year old, never going to be fixed. Homes the only place thats current, has a large user base and still updating that gets away with it. I’m with you Susan though if I enjoy it id still use it but if it was paid for id have to look at what else was available at the same price and decide whether id continue on home or migrate to something else.

   Reply