by Burbie52, HSM team writer

I am sure you have all heard or used the saying, “It’s just a phase.” Whether your parents have said it about you, or you have said it to your own children, it is a very true statement: life is full of phases we all go through. Growth spurts or teething, the phase where you cling to your mother’s skirts, these kinds of things are a commonality we all have. When it comes to grownup things, we have phases we go through as well.

We go through life each day with the hope for something better. Some people seem to have it made; others, like myself, have to struggle through living day to day, hand to mouth. Each of us has their own way of blowing off steam; for some it is sports, for others it is writing or playing video games. For me it is the latter; I have never been athletic — though I keep myself in fairly good shape, I am not one for hitting a ball or bouncing one. The same is true for my gaming: sports games are not my thing at all.

When I first came into Home I was amazed. I had never seen anything like it, and to this day it still is a standalone type of experience. There is no other place you can go and find such a social environment filled with activities for you to do with your friends. I was totally hooked immediately, and have a love for Home that is still there well over four years down the road.

Home itself has gone through a lot of phases. When I first arrived, there wasn’t much to do here, except hang out in Central Plaza, deal with trolls or going to the bowling alley or someone’s personal estate to have a few laughs. I had plenty of those times with my friends, and will always remember laughing til I cried at the antics of some of them. We had to create our own amusements, as there was little else to do, really; and it was wonderful.

The old haunting grounds

Then Sony decided to pick up the pace with things to do in Home. They added a lot more games to do, and also more events to fulfill and obtain rewards. They added new areas to explore and have fun in, and Home was growing by leaps and bounds for the whole of 2011 til 2012 (the latter dubbed by HSM as the Year of the Game). Some think they killed the spirit Home had when they replaced Central Plaza with a sterile Hub to move people along; many of my friends left Home at that time never to return. For them, this growth spurt was just too much too fast, I guess. It was a phase they couldn’t get through.

Though some left, still more discovered Home during that time, and though they heard the stories about Central Plaza they had never experienced it, so they didn’t miss it at all. A new generation of users sprouted up and began to enjoy what Home had to offer them. Home then went into another phase: the Year of the LMO, 2013. These new abilities have given many people a great deal of fun and laughter. Some of them are confined at home for health reasons and/or because they don’t have the ability to get out, or they live in a very isolated area. Places like Acorn Meadows give these people a wonderful environment to do many activities they can’t do in real life.

This past year we have seen some developers leave and others come in for the first time. Home has had a lot of phases, and now Home is going through a new phase: it is slowly winding down. Even though Sony hasn’t formally announced anything, everyone can feel it in the atmosphere here. Every time I enter Home now, there seem to be less of my friends in it. Many have moved to their new PS4 consoles, while others have found other pursuits in the form of different games. I myself have been spending much more time playing Final Fantasy XIV than I do in Home lately.

When we all started this adventure we call Home, we had to know in the back of our minds that it wasn’t going to last forever. With the advent of a new generation of console and Sony’s focus changing to that, it will only be a matter of time now. Home still has a lot of life in it, though: even when they stop producing content, I will come in to see my friends and have a few laughs.

When it comes to gaming itself I have gone through many phases in my life. Video gaming has been a part of my life for almost forty years now — hard for me to believe it has been that long. I have had a lot of fun with it, and still do, and am looking forward to many more years of playing — at least until my eyes or hands give out on me. When that happens I will be really sad to see it go, but it will be just another phase of my life I am going through.

My old backyard -
a phase of my life

During all the years I have played games I have gone through phases that varied according to my economic situation or physical one. When I lived in a rainforest on the Big Island of Hawaii the gaming slowed a bit, but I still had a machine and played when I could. Then a child arrived, and gaming took a backseat for a while — but I guess I was lucky it happened in the ‘eighties when there was comparatively less going on anyway in the industry. I still played Indiana Jones and all the other 8-bit games I had on hand occasionally.

When the first PlayStation hit the market, I got one as soon as I could — and the rest is history. PlayStation consoles are the only machines I have had since, with the notable exception of  a GameCube I bought specifically to play a few Zelda games because I had heard about them for so long that I just needed to try one. But I traded that in for a PS2 and have never looked back.

As for the games themselves, I am a true die-hard RPG player and always will be; they have some meaty stories which make then a real joy to play. I’ve played some platform types occasionally for a break — things like Ratchet and Clank, and also Spyro and Tomb Raider have caught my attention over the years as well.

My new home away from Home

Right now I am in Final Fantasy XIV, and Home has taken a backseat. I’m finding this is true of many people I know as well. Home’s uncertain future, and lately its seeming technical instability as well (I have been booted more in the past few weeks than in my entire five years here) has made some people rethink their Home use, or at the very least their consumption habits.

I haven’t given up on Home completely, of course; I doubt I will until they close the doors permanently. But as everyone I know drifts away into other phases of their gaming lives, I am finding myself going into another one of my own. Building relationships and friendships in a new environment and looking forward to many years of enjoyment still to come. As I come to the latter part of my journey here on Earth and in Home, I find myself reminiscing about the good times I have had and enjoying the ones I still have left here all the more.

I will be gaming for many more years to come, I hope, so I intend to enjoy what time I have left with a fervor I never had before. Time is a thief, but it won’t steal my joy as I journey on through until the end.

Share