Welcome to Castle DullBrownWold
by Kassadee Marie, HSM team writer
I want my money back.
I really, really need to quit these impulse buys on Home. Yesterday, just before I hit the purchase button for Castle Greywold, I thought, “Do I really need another castle? I already have Avalon Keep (though it’s severely broken).”
I should have lingered over that thought a bit longer, as I love Heavy Water’s bright, colorful, and happy version of a fairytale castle. Now that I’ve bought nDreams’ version of a somewhat more realistic castle, Avalon Keep looks even better to me, broken or not.
Brown… really? I know there must be stone that’s brown-colored in existence. (Why else are there all those buildings called brownstones in New York City?) But I really did not expect a brown castle. Aren’t they traditionally (and really) gray? Wouldn’t you think a place named Greywold would be gray? I looked up “wold” to see if that would answer the question. According to Dictionary.com, it just means “an elevated track of open country”. That sounds green to me, actually. The scenery all around this castle is mostly brown. Even the sunlight looks brown there. Did I mention the all the brown dirt in the courtyard and the brown ivy vines climbing up the brown castle walls? I think you are starting to get an idea of the theme there. Dull, dull, dull.
I’ve been trying hard to brighten up this personal estate. I’ve added every light I can on the inside. Oddly enough, the few spots where the light from the torches and candelabra hits the walls actually makes them turn gray. (As does the flash from the built-in camera.) I’ve added flowers, bushes, trellises, and the most colorful of the banners and furniture offered with the Greywold bundle. It hasn’t helped much. I love to decorate personal estates and invite friends to tour estates when they’re new. I usually love to spend time in my personal spaces also; I wanted to run away and not come back two minutes after viewing this estate.
I don’t mind that the main room has a dais for the throne; it’s a natural place for it. But why did they put in a bed so we don’t get to choose how that room is used? Speaking of that bed, what’s with that fabric border around the top? Beds in castles, where there was rarely glass in the window openings, had heavy curtains all around the bed to keep in the heat and keep out drafts. And in the unlikely event that there were stained glass windows in a castle, they would have been in the chapel, not the bedroom. Also, speaking of that room, what’s with those blocked stairs continuing up? I don’t understand a decision to add something and then prevent people from using it. Does nDreams deliberately want to annoy their customers?
I find the tiny dirt courtyard (bailey) really annoying too. About half of the total space is taken up with an inactive archery range. What’s that about? Another quarter portion has some kind of outbuilding, perhaps a stall and hay shed? There are no animals present (and none will fit into the shed) so I have no idea where that unappealing and unnecessary pile of poop is supposed to have come from.
There are a lot of other inconsistencies that bother me, especially since nDreams is a UK company and one would assume this is supposed to be an English castle, during olden times. Most English castles had the equivalent of today’s bathrooms, called garderobes, and they had fireplaces and water collection/using points on each floor. Where are they? And by the way, originally tapestries were done in vibrant colors to warm up the appearance of the walls and again, to keep out drafts. They are only faded nowadays, due to ages of hanging in rooms with smoke from candles, torches, and fireplaces; a lot of dust and dirt; and sunlight streaming in through open windows.
I think what may bother me most is the haunting feeling I have in this brand new estate: that I’ve been there before. I’m sure this is due to all the similarities to Avalon Keep. (Maybe this is why nDreams went as far from a bright and cheerful decor as they could?) And not just the fact they are both castles. I think the most familiar idea is the four “Houses” that were made for the castle, each with their own matching colors in banners, furniture, and clothing.
Avalon Keep has House Raleigh (red and gold), while Greywold has House Langfrey (red and gold); Avalon Keep has House Grimoult (blue and white), while Greywold has House Alliker (blue and white); Avalon Keep has House Dumont (black and a different shade of blue), while Greywold has House Daederon (black and red); and Avalon Keep has House Thaon (green), while Greywold has House Karus (white and gray). And yes, they have matching banners, furniture, and clothing available for Castle Greywold, too.
Some people have been asking for another castle, and here it is. Obviously, no developer can satisfy everyone’s wishes in a single personal space, and there are points to appreciate about the Castle Greywold bundle, such as the five locomotions and two sets of dances that come with it. The clothes are very nice, too. But unless they can change the color scheme, add some grass in the courtyard, and make a few other changes, I want my money back. But I’ll keep the dresses for my trouble.
- It's a castle
- Estate is well-sized
- Bundle has interesting locomotions
- Bundle has great clothes
- Odd original spawn spot
- Dull views
- Inaccuracies
- Brown, brown, brown
May 31st, 2014 by Kassadee Marie | 6 comments
Home is endlessly entertaining to this California girl. Kassadee has been in Home for about four years, and loves almost everything about it (with a few notable exceptions). She spends way too much money there, and perhaps too much time... Someday she will travel the world and write about the people she meets and the places she sees.
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Lighting plays a big part in things, too. As it applies to castles, a great example of this would be Mont Saint-Michel. Unless it’s bathed in direct midday sunlight, it’s amazing how brown everything is.
This review does raise the question of how important fantasy versus reality is, though. One of my favorite films is 1938’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” which is about as unrealistic a portrayal of medieval life as you’ll ever find. (Isn’t it amazing how Nottingham looks absolutely nothing like Southern California?) The color saturation in that film borders on garishness — and yet it *makes* the movie.
Doesn’t mean the reality can’t be beautiful; I’ve been to enough castles in Europe to be amazed by the variety and detail in each one. But if we had our druthers, I suspect the majority of consumers will always opt for fantasy over reality. Why settle for “just” Tintagel, for instance, if you can have Tintagel not only as it originally was, but full of color-saturated pageantry and chivalry writ large? That is the magic of Home at its best — the ability to offer heightened fantasy, and to simply live in it without having to achieve anything.
When I was working on golf simulators they talked about hyper-reality. How often do the birds fly by? Often enough that the view is not boring. How much steam comes off the waterfall? Exactly as much as makes me wish I was standing in it.
I have this talk all the time. If reality were a crayon drawing it would have a lot of empty spaces. Developers need to fill in all the empty spaces with things that are fun for the player.
Castles as they were built were awful to live in. So don’t build a real castle, build a dream castle. It is not Trailer Park Barbie, it is Malibu Barbie even though there are a lot more Barbies in trailer parks than in Malibu.
Wow Cass, now that’s honesty. Thank you! I did the same thing when looking at the space, only I thought about how unimpressed I was with the last nDreams space, after touring a friends, and removed this one (Castle Greywold) from my basket. Glad I did. I love castles and oddly enough I even like the one room space from the challenges that is a castle, but one is enough I don’t need two odd little castles.
I’m from the UK and lived in the shadow of one of the important castles that controlled the south east of England, preventing attacks heading towards London from the coast. Even got a film based on onesie of the sieges that took place there. That’s the difference between a brown old castle and a historical building, is the stories it has linked to it. This castle I lived near, has 3 square towers and 1 round. It was held by a limited army for so long that the attacking army damaged it so badly that once they took the castle they couldn’t hold it when reinforcements arrived. So if you create a personal space thats a castle base it on a real one if you want realistic. There’s a whole historical set of clothes MMOs furniture items to match then as well. I loved the quote we don’t want trailer park Barbie we want Malibu Barbie, which is exactly right we dont. But historic spaces from around the world id have a look at.
Of course there is this castle. Neuschwanstein! This castle seems more appropriate for PlayStation Home. It really would be a challenge to create though.
There are so many historical buildings around the world that would be simple to make. Most forts and castles are simple. Europe has historic buildings galore. There could of been a whole set of historical bundles for different eras.