by Jin Lovelace, HSM team writer & filmmaker

Well, so much for the shrouded mystery behind Home’s forthcoming demise.

And there I was, purchasing some more Billabong and Element clothing for my next fashion project. For most, the news about Home’s closure is a pretty hard blow to absorb. I mean, I can’t believe that it has been eight years since the PlayStation 3 has been around, and a good seven years since Home’s debut.

So much time has been devoted to meeting new friends, socializing with random people from around the world, and meta-gaming fashion shows and events, it’s astounding what has taken place here in the virtual world. I remember like it was yesterday when I first meet the Homelings to discover another side of PlayStation Home, and made it a goal to work alongside the media sites available at the time.

That was five years ago. Wow.

I can understand how emotional it is to be relieved of this application that has brought so much happiness and jovial times for you and others. After all, some of you bought the console exclusively for logging into this application.

And while I can hop on board the love of Home train, my feelings are — honestly — a bit more ambivalent.

I mean, I don’t know if it’s bad at all to feel this way, but to be frank I’m honestly not torn up by this. Sure, it hurts a bit to see this world come to an end; this world that I couldn’t wait to be released since its announcement back in 2006 at the GDC event, hearing that lovely voice explain what was to come. In fact, I know a lot of people, shops, restaurants, and a martial arts dojo that can vouch for my love and affection of Home, as I spoke their ears and skin off about it. I couldn’t wait!

But another side of me feels that I’ve done all I set out to achieve. I went from being a timid Home fashionista to creating fashion machinima and being featured inside a product. To me, I find that pretty cool. If nothing else, the Home experience sharpened my skills as a filmmaker.

When I created this machinima, Formless, it was around when I was receiving a lot of queries about what motivated me to not only stay in Home, but to continue to produce fashion projects. I gave a simple answer: I do it because I just love it. I had a pure goal in mind: to create. Since no one else was doing it, I felt like, “Gee, why don’t I curate a product that would feature Home fashion machinima, write up articles detailing how you could get a bang out of the items for your buck, and put a creative spin on the subject of Home for the developers to not only notice, but to know there’s someone with a voice?”

–And went onto create Twilight Touch. 

Recently, I’ve managed to take a break from this virtual world and explore my gaming collection. I had some fun with my church group, playing — and falling asleep to — Diablo III, and catching up on my studies. And somewhere in between, Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate casuals have seen some light amongst a few of my friends.

But I guess you can say my ambivalence derives from being formless. Because Home gave our work a certain form, and now that form is ending. So the big query remains: where do I go from here? What is the state of Twilight Touch?

My answer: I’m not going anywhere.

Left to right: BeautyByMe, myself, and Beau’s friend

Home is coming to a close; that’s reality. For me, I started Twilight Touch as a fashion blog that expanded into an organization, a fashion powerhouse, and a voice for creativity. I feel excited that I’ve managed to develop such relationships with some of the Home developers and meet awesome people who have put up with my work for all of these years.

If there’s anyone that I have to thank, first of all it’s HSM. If not for them, well, I wouldn’t have received the exposure that was much desired — not out of notoriety, but for all to view my art in its natural form. I may not be the best, but after a number of years of producing videos and curating wallpapers like the one you see in this article, I’m a lot more confident and comfortable.

As for my brand, it’s not going anywhere at all. I believe I started something good with TT and I wish to expand upon it to offer some services and more quality content. I don’t wish to give away too many details, but for those who have been following the product, I ask that you stick around.

I think what sums up my feelings is Norse’s recent article that sat with me for a while.  In fact, I’ll answer it right here:

Knowing what you know now, if you had the choice of going back and redoing — and thus reliving — your entire Home experience all over again…would you?

Nope.

I appreciate what I’ve done and contributed to this community. From the experiences I’ve faced, to my voice in a genre that was once looked over to become a great topic on Twitter feeds and even on this site, I’ve poured in time and resources that I hadn’t imagined and I learned a great wealth of information that projected me towards achievable goals — from being featured inside Home, to building a pretty solid database on virtual fashion. I don’t regret anything that I’ve done, and over time I’ve managed to forgive what was done to me, as well as what I’ve visited upon others in response.

With that said, I’m taking what I know and applying it onward. I’m looking forward to what the future holds with the education I’ve accrued.

Peace and blessings to everyone. And remember: if you’ve learned anything from Home, take what you know and apply it to a better future.

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