“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.”

-Gilda Radner

 

So the news has broken, and the impact is still being felt far and wide. Most of us are in a state of sadness, mourning, disbelief or denial. The reality is, though, that the decision has been made and the ruling has been passed down: Home is closing, and the date is March, 31 2015.

I am in my Vigilarium, perhaps my favorite of spaces, and I am thinking of my time here in Sony’s PlayStation Home. I came on, and my life will be forever altered for the experience. Altered in a profound way, that I don’t think I can ever really put into words, except two: thank you.

I want to say thank you, pretty much to everyone that is reading this. Thank you to Sony, the developers, the friends, NorseGamer, Burbie52, MaeBell, strangers, trolls, everyone.

As we see Home crawl slowly into the fog of the past, we are all feeling the hurt and pain of the eventual closing of this place we all love and know so well. We were all stunned to see the news that Sony officially decided to close a place that we all clamor to with joy, and sometimes with frustration. We are all losing a little — and in some cases a lot — of ourselves in the closing, but before the light is snuffed out, I want to thank some people.

This may sound indulgent, but it’s the end of days for Home; indulgence is to be expected.

Thank you, Sony, for a platform that was free. Yes, there were things to buy and add-ons to games, but always as an option. Thank you for the structure that allowed us to meet people that we probably would have never met otherwise. These people were often from faraway places compared to where we live. I’ve met people from Puerto Rico, Canada, England, even from the east coast of the USA. These places may not seem far, but consider this: had it not been for Home, I would have never come to know or care for these people, and their friendships can remain long after the bulldozers have finished their demolition of Home.

Thank you for not pulling the plug sooner, and yes, we the typical user would’ve wanted it to stay till the PS20, but indeed — all good things come to an end. Thank you for making a place where people from all walks of life could gather together and find the common ground of gaming and forget their troubles, even as some troubles brewed here. Thank you for taking a chance on something that turned out to be more social than game based, and giving us all a free run of it, in environments that to this day are still stunning. Some of the places and items we bought or won were so well crafted that on that basis alone, I hate to lose them — but thank you.

Thank you to the developers.

Thank you Lockwood, VEEMEE, Granzella, nDreams,Hellfire, Digital Leisure, Atom Republic, Kovok, Jam Games, Engine Giant, Code Glue, Konami, LOOT, Juggernaut, O-Two, Game Mechanics and any others that I am certain I missed. Thank you all for the tireless work of making Home such a magical place where I had LMOs of dragons or dogs, wings or motorcycles. Thank you all for making costumes that let us, all of us, be who we wanted. We could, with the press of a few controller buttons be a hipster, a gangsta, a prohibition-era reveler, a Jedi, a monster, or a Greek god. We could be scary, proper, sexy, silly, whatever our varied hearts desired. We could be what we wanted, in the landscape we wanted. We had properties to satisfy any taste. There were luxury homes, space stations, zombie homes and realistic homes as well as boats, and many of these estates had games that we could spend hours occupying our time with. We filled those homes with a myriad of items ranging from ovens and sofas, to food items and working lights. truly the magnitude of items to adorn a home with was staggering, and all of it was produced well and often given out for free, and often when accompanied with a price, it was fair. Thank you.

Thank you, friends.

I wish to extend thanks to those that have me on their friends list. This is something we should all do in the waning months of Home. Thank you to all that are on my list and have been. Each in their own way impacted my life here in some way whether large or small. The effects were varied, be it the first person that ever befriended me — that’s the girl in the big hat in the Central Plaza — or the people I see commonly in Home today. I may have never said it, but thank you for the time and friendship, even if we haven’t spoken in some time; it still meant something to me.

I think of it this way: some people don’t want to simply add people and others do. In that, consider that when you made a friends list, that meant you were one of 100. I am one of those 100 on so many lists. Thank you to all my friends who wished me happy birthday, or informed me of things to be aware of or freebies to run and get. I am truly humbled that you all were so kind. You will never be forgotten. Thank you.

Thank you, NorseGamer.

This is again a personal, public note. Thank you for giving life to a passion of mine: writing. Thank you for letting me write for this fine magazine that allowed me to do the two things I love, talk about Home, and write. The opportunity was well appreciated and I am forever grateful.

Thank you to Burbie52.

It was through the Gray Gamers that I met the people at HSM, and eventually the one person that made the largest impact in my life. Thank you for the Gray Gamers. In Home we can make clubs, and though it is a very biased comment to make, I truly believe that the Gamers was the finest group of people that could of been assembled, all at your orchestration.

Thank You, MaeBell.

I met her through a set of circumstances through Burbie52’s club, The Gray Gamers. Since that day at the bowling alley, we have been inseparable. She is the one item that I am leaving Home with, and she makes all the experience, every single second, worth it.

Thank you strangers, trolls and everyone else.

Yes, thank you, trolls. Some were really vile, so I won’t thank them, but in part I thank them because I learned how not to be them. It was this reverse education that landed me all the friends I got, plus some were genuinely funny, either in there ineptness or blatant ignorance. They had an entertainment value. The strangers in Home kept it colorful. Many times it was a fun activity to go watch people in places, and simply like sitting at a streetside cafe, it was people watching at its finest.

As for the everyone else, thank you for sharing in the grand realm that was Home. Thank you to those that read me here in the magazine, thank you to all for being the threads in this grand tapestry that was a colorful and vibrant community that hummed because of us all and our singular inputs daily.

There is so much more to say, so much more to respond to and to address. There just is not enough space on the internet to explain what Home means to us as the users, and my heart breaks a little for those that will feel the closing harder than me, who need it on a deeper level that goes beyond the fiscal decision made in a board room. Truly, there are people here that need this on a profound level, and I hope those can find their own life rafts.

To some it was truly a lifeline in the realm of social activity. There are people, and I know them, that loved Home because it allowed them that were hindered by emotional or physical barriers in the real world to overcome those barriers and become things they wanted in the virtual. This is a place that allowed everyone to be what they wanted. I knew a man that loved that he could walk the streets of the lands, as he was wheelchair bound and not able to easily meet and maintain friendships. Home made it possible. I knew others with crippling social paralysis, that Home let them overcome to a degree, because Home became the world they made for themselves.

For all, it was a comfortable place to see friends, play games, decorate, explore, and have what is a truly unique experience. Let’s set aside the darkness that is surrounding the closure and see what we had, and appreciate the beauty, the fun and the outright magic that Home should be remembered for.

Home was a place that we could go to day after day, and see people that shared our interests and our lives. We met and typed or voiced with those people, started clubs, or groups, and were able to forge relationships that can and should last a lifetime.

I choose to let Home go, and remember it for the magic that it is and was. I am not going to sign any petitions that call for Sony to refund me. This is like a 3D movie to me. I paid, I got my special glasses that I got to use, and saw some great things — but the movie is over, and it’s time to give back the glasses and take away the memory of what you saw here. And we saw some amazing stuff.

So let’s fondly walk away with a smile and a tear, and not look back at the house lights going on in the 3D movie or the attendants sweeping up the popcorn and soda cups as cheesy music plays. Remember instead the great things that Home was.

Let’s say goodbye. Goodbye to the Hub, the Cantina, the Godfather space, Sodium, private estates, dances, companions, Edo, Aurora, the Casino, the blue screen at load up, the scrolling of the intro ads, Magnus videos, dancing in public places, our theaters, clothing, furniture, days and nights spent with those we care for, LMOs, beds we could sleep in, cars we could drive, beaches we stood on, the Acorn Meadows parks, riding boats, riding bikes, eating foods like cotton candy, bowling, Cutthroats, Indie Park, the Playground, Singstar, Novus Prime, Dolphy Races, Burn Zombie Burn, the E3 exhibit games, the Midway games, Peakvox Labs, Assassin’s Creed, Bootleggers, Cogs sky game, Dragon’s Green, FUBAR, Journey Space, Little Big Planet space, LOOT space station, Mercia, LocoRoco, Pixeljunk, Pottermore, RC Rally, Serenity Plaza, Slap Happy Sam’s Stage Show, Spunland, Uncharted 3, Wipeout Museum, x7, Yets vs Hunters, Xi, Harbor studio, daily challenges, freebies, gift machines, our estates, poses, default dances, flipping coins, greetings, status signs and everything else.

Words cannot close out this article in a way that will properly describe what we all had here. It will never be the same anywhere else. This was a defining moment, a lightning bolt, a shooting star. We got to be here, we got to see it, we got to share in the experience. Let’s look back fondly, with love and happiness at what we had, and who we had it with. Let the sepia tones of your mind flood as you see the times that were. The people, the places, the dancing, the fun. That excitement of your first friend request, your first purchase, your first attempt at making the avatar you became. Think back on the times you needed a friend, and there was one online, in some Home place that made your day, and the smile that came to your face for it. Think about the joy you felt as you got messages and invites and occasionally a gift from someone that just thought to say, ‘Hey, friend.’ That was all here, and will be, like that 3D movie, locked in that vault of your memory, to be recalled someday, all in this one amazing place: Home.

Think fondly on the fact that you were part of something amazing, and you were part of something that was indeed bigger than any of us, but yet made of us. In this, the sum was as great as the parts that made it.

Look back with a tear, and a smile. And from me…thank you. It’s been fun. Now let Home go curl up on the floor and close its eyes; it is done, it has done its deeds and served us well and often — more than we really know — in ways we have yet to realize.

Home will go dark one night, and we will be left looking at a screen and XMB sans Home, but it will be forever in our pictures we have taken, our friends list, and our hearts.

Good night, Home.

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