Grey Gamers: the End of an Era
by Burbie52, HSM team writer
Home has seen many clubs established over the years: clubs that have many themes and uses, from fashion to gaming, from the weekly updates to fams and mafias. Recently, Home’s been experiencing a slowdown — at least it has where my friends are concerned. The club I started more than four years ago has also slowly been getting smaller, as people are moving on to other gaming pursuits, and the new PS4 console — where Home doesn’t exist.
I belong to five different clubs in Home. It would be more, but the limitation to five has always been an issue, so there are some I have to jump between in order to keep up with the happenings in Home. At least, that is how it used to be. Nowadays, by comparison, many of the clubs I belonged to have moved on. They died without a whimper: just sort of faded away and disappeared. Clubs like Incognito, that had been around since the beginning, just sort of disappeared without a goodbye or a fare-thee-well.
The Grey Gamers started with a single idea. I was hanging around with some friends in Home and we got to talking about the fact that there were a lot of older people in Home like us who needed a place to find one another for whatever they choose to pursue. Friendships, gaming together, or just the ability to have a decent conversation with someone who knew what you were talking about.
When I started the club, I had been in Home about nine months. I bought my console and television as a Christmas present to myself in 2009 and discovered Home shortly after. As I have said previously, Home was a very new experience to me; I’d never seen its like, and I probably never will again. After having a few conversations with my friends about the lack of a social network for older people in the community, I decided to bite the bullet and give the Grey Gamers a home; bought an original clubhouse, and the rest is history.
The club grew by leaps and bounds, and quickly overflowed the one small club I owned, so we added a friend’s clubhouse as a second meeting place. I was jumping back and forth between them to keep in touch with my members each week for quite a while; then I decided it was too hard to continue this way, and we moved to having all of the meetings in a public place. We would pack servers on a regular basis, especially when there was an event.
We have had a lot of fun together. Our Halloween event, a zombie flashmob, was turned into a video by one of my good friends — Gideon, of Hairbrained Ideas.
We had a lot of fun making that video as a club. Then I took a look at all of the wonderful formals we had in Home that had nowhere to be used, and we decided to have a masquerade ball. Once again we packed the server, and everyone had a wonderful night laughing and joking. So much of our time together was spent dancing and just talking to one another, and this was before the advent of LMO dancing.
The Grey Gamers always had only a few rules: no drama, because we are too old to allow that kind of silliness, and mutual respect and the willingness to reach out and mingle and get to know each other. We’ve had a good run, and even though Home has now announced an end of things, many of us will carry on as friends outside the conclave of Home. Lasting relationships have grown out of this group; one may even turn into a marriage. That alone made this experience worth the effort.
Here is one more video made by Gideon about three years ago; we had so much fun at the Masked Ball that we decided to put a modern twist on it and have a Black and White Ball. Once again a lot of fun was had by all and my friend Itchy Heini provided us with some added entertainment.
Unlike other clubs in Home who have faded away without a whisper or a goodbye, I have decided to end the Grey Gamers on October 4, 2014, with a bang. We will be having one last party together as a club to say goodbye to an era of laughter and friendship in PlayStation Home. I wanted us to end on a good note not just go softly into that good night. For those of you who have been a part of this great adventure, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for four years of great times together. I look forward to more fun and frolic individually with each of you who chose to continue our relationships outside the confines of Home.
October 2nd, 2014 by Burbie52 | 5 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
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g.g. made home a better place for us older gamers i chated with some good folks n had fun ill miss home but ill miss g.g. more because with out g.g. home would just be anouther game the people of g.g. made home a home 4 me
Hope you can make it to the party this week.
Hey Burbie, great article, as always. I will miss the GG a lot. It has been a true Friday fixture for me since I joined. It is and was the finest club one could join. As a club member I want to thank you for the tireless work you put into making it all fun. And a special thanks, as this was where I met my Mae, truly thanks and it will be missed a lot.
Well Burbs it’s been a long fun journey in HOME together as a GG family member. You had provided us with a wonderful adult gamers social club. Through a mutual friend Viper and I had met you when you were talking about starting a club called Grey Gamers. Then WHAM a couple of weeks later GG was formed! Burbs, you were one never to let grass grow under your feet, lol! I have met wonderful people through GG and it made my HOME experience so much more richer. Friday nights was always saved for GG gatherings, no matter what I was doing in RL. I will miss HOME and especially GG. My friendships made there will continue to flourish long after HOME and GG cease to exist. See you tomorrow night Burbie
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Burbie, you have always welcomed EVERYONE no matter what and always made people feel right at home. You love helping new people and are a great coordinator.
I just want to say, “The Grey Gamers” is where I met most of my BEST FRIENDS on Home. It will always be an important part of my social network life and remain in my memories. I hate to see it end, but just like anything in life, nothing ever stays the same.
There are no words that can express exactly how I feel or what I have experienced from this other than… thank you for making Home a better place to be.
This event is important and everyone whom has ever attended Grey Gamers (whether a long or short period of time) HAS to come tomorrow night! It will be a happy and sad event.
River