When One Door Closes…
by Susan,HSM team writer
“It’s time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I’d rather much say hello. Hello to a new adventure.”
-Ernie Harwell
Goodbye, Home. Now, what’s next?
That sums up my thoughts pretty well when it comes to my view on the topic of the recently announced closure date for Sony’s beta test on the PS3 called PlayStation Home. About eight or so months ago, I began to extricate myself from Home. Back then, I’d just became a PlayStation MVP, and started to realize the PSN’s boundaries extended way beyond the dome of Home and the avatar I created. I was already mentally prepared for the inevitable email that came that hot morning of September 26, announcing publicly when the servers were pau.
Many in the nation of avatars haven’t a clue as to what goes on behind the scenes to make the community a community. I don’t claim to know much about anything, but for the most part I choose to believe that the people who used Home went about its daily existence and rituals without the knowledge or inkling that something was about to happen. Unless you perused social media sites like this one, logged onto the PlayStation Home forums or got involved with groups that participated in the positive development of Home, much of the best part of Home passed you by, in my opinion. Club leaders, participants and countless others volunteered their personal time and energy in PlayStation Home to kept us up to date.
We all got something back internally from our visits to Home, otherwise why would we have kept returning? Maybe it was the daily strolls you took at VEEMEE’s Acorn Meadows Park by the pond, with that special person you logged in for just to see and share a virtual sundae with. Or maybe you thought you were the Minnesota Fats of the pool tables at the Bowling Alley, but kept telling people to stop joining because you’re practicing. I, too, got something back every time I logged into PlayStation Home. I was a part of a movement. A movement that helped shaped what happened in Home. I got to challenge myself in ways I never thought I would, and I grew as a person from those challenges and obstacles that I allowed to be laid before me.
So…now what?
What does a person who composes articles and produces videos — whose topics are 99% of the time about PlayStation Home — do when that bread and butter is gone? As I said earlier, I’ve been mentally prepping myself for this day of infamy by diverting a lot of my energy into being an MVP. I’ve been allowed to participate in several closed betas of games and have started to stream live on Twitch our gameplay when allowed by the developers and Sony management. Having SHAREfactory on the PS4 has allowed me to delve back into video composition for gameplay, as well as learn more about video streaming, and I am excited for this application and want to see where it goes from here.
The writing part of what I do was up in the air for me. I’d received offers to continue as a blogger/writer for a couple gaming sites but the one I thought would best fit the needs of me was to continue with the HSM team and move on over to LOOT as one of the core writers for their new community media page, assuming it’s permitted.
On the PlayStation Home forums, a good friend, StephieRawks, posted this question: What do you want your Home legacy to be?
I’ve been unable to answer that because I feel my legacy is just beginning and Home was the platform from which it was launched. Will I miss Home? Yes, of course. You don’t spend — sometimes more than I want to acknowledge — eight to twelve hours a day on it and not feel a loss. I’ve been able to fill the upcoming void that Home will leave behind with the MVP program, and ideally my writings with the reforged HSM team will continue.
…But I’m also glad Home’s closing. So I can focus my energies on what’s to come.
This will be my last article written as a team writer for HomeStation Magazine. I hope you follow me and the rest of the team to our new home as we continue to enlighten you and educate you from a perspective unique to our team. I love you and this extended ohana the community has formed, and I thank everyone who has supported me as well as hated me. (That list is short on one side and long on the other, but the I embrace them equally.)
Below is a video that was done a couple years ago by my friend and confidant, Olivia Allin. It sums up Home for me. This isn’t a goodbye, but a hello. A hello to a new beginning with the friends that I have made over the past four years because of Sony’s PlayStation universe.
Mahalo Nui Loa, Aloha and A Hui Hou. ~*Sue
October 7th, 2014 by Susan | 2 comments
Susan is a team writer for HomeStation Magazine, co-founder of the award winning media group-AvatardProductions, a PlayStation MVP and a Home Guide. PSNID SCEA/xx96791DEATHxx-SCEE/oXx_EnIgMa_xXo. An avid PlayStation Home user, she is most often found setting land speed records at the Sodium 2 velocity racetracks, sitting at the Pier Park or playing with the R/C vehicles at Acorn Meadows Park.
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Well said Sue.
I hope to keep in touch with you even after Home is gone, you’re a great person.
Very well written Susan, I know you’ll only continue to keep doing great things.
Home has just been the beginning for many of us involved, the experiences gained from it will surely put us towards even greater achievements in the future.
Wonderful final article, I look forward to what you do next.