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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Playstation Home

08:51 / 13.12.08

Hi all,

This is not exactly what I had in mind for a first post (after lurking for a fair amount if years). But is anyone interested in or using Home?
Currently I've had a wonder about with a little ramdom interactions (a bowling game and chess) here and there. Just wondered if any 'lithers fancied a virtual meetup? and what, if any, thoughts there were on it?

21:07 / 13.12.08

All I can tell you right now is it's eaten up 4 gig of hard drive space on my PS3 and, true to the form of previous betas on the Playstation Network, the servers don't seem to be able to cope with the load. I'm finding it impossible to connect.

23:18 / 13.12.08

If I'm understanding the concept correctly, isn't there something to be said for meeting up with strangers, people you'd never have run into otherwise, people from all round the world on-line, and then trying to shoot them?

08:08 / 14.12.08

There's a lot to be said for the concept, but I feel that it's going to need severe policing for a while.

I was emailed a code to let me into the closed beta a couple of weeks ago, and there really isn't much to do (this may have changed now that we're in open beta).

You can go and play chess or draughts with strangers, or pool, or bowling. These seem to be the best ways to meet people, as you can actually get a conversation going. I had a decent game of pool with a nice Australian chap - lots of "good shot!" and "ooh, unlucky mate" going on.

Other than that, you can only really wander round. Once it opens up, and there are people you know on there, it should get better. I understand that you can go to the cinema as a group, or watch films/listen to music in someone's apartment. Apparently, soon, you can come to my apartment, I can play music from my harddrive on my virtual hi-fi, and you can hear it.

There's some use there, I guess. "Have you heard the latest by XX? Come to mine and have a listen."

Useful, then, for people who's mates are spread far and wide to be able to "get-together" sometimes, albeit in a virtual manner?

And I imagine it might be great for the online gamers, who can have clubhouses which showcase their trophies and so on.

On the other hand, my wife went on with a female avatar, wearing nothing more provactive than jeans and a vest top, and got constantly harrassed by groups of blokes crowding round her, wanting to add her to their friends list, and then asking in a graphic manner if she fancied cybersexing them. Try sitting down, and without exception she would end up with a bloke in front of her performing some sort of emote that looked like he was fucking her in the face.

According to the PS3 forums, this is a massively prevalent problem for females; although "ignore" and "report" function do exist, it's not exactly fun having to do that every few minutes.

I'm so far struggling to separate that from what is possibly a new and innovative experience, to be honest.

13:43 / 15.12.08

E. Randy Dupre wrote ...true to the form of previous betas on the Playstation Network, the servers don't seem to be able to cope with the load. I'm finding it impossible to connect.

On average it's taken me at least 4 minutes of repeated button mashing before finally connecting sometimes alot longer. The US servers connect straight away and I've seen on the eu website Sony have apologised and said they are working on it and ... suggest that you wait for a while before trying to log into PS Home again.

13:57 / 15.12.08

The concept is a good. Not entirely new, probably a mix of MMORPG and Second Life. Currently nothing much has changed from the closed beta. You can play chess, draughts, pool and bowling and attempt to have a conversation with someone.

But unfortunately there is a good chance you will either be subjected to abuse from someone who can't spell complete words or hear abuse from said person. Or (as Neon Snake said) witness a female (or female avatar at least) being abused by someone or groups of someone. I've read on the PS3 forums that this behaviour is missing from the Japanese version with people behaving in a more civil manner. So I'm not sure why these people feel the need to behave like morons.

I think there is a potential for it especially if they add the ability to watch movie's and listen to music with friends/family especially if they are all scattered across the planet. But as it is now, I find myself getting bored after an hour of ignoring people or playing games with people who leave half way through because they are losing.

I'm hoping this will all calm down and things will improve. Again as Neon Snake said there is the ability to report these people but as soon as I entertain the thought I lose the will as the names start multiplying. Sony has said all chats are logged (not sure about voice) and they will be reviewed if the person is reported.

16:32 / 15.12.08

Sony have apologised and said they are working on it and ... suggest that you wait for a while before trying to log into PS Home again.

To be entierly honest, I don't think I'll bother. Eurogamer's write-up of the thing confirmed most of my suspicions - that it's free of any kind of personality and entirely pointless. It always looked that way in the pre-release screenshots, but, likee a fool, I'd presumed that Sony might have taken some of the negative comments on board. I forgot that this is the company that classifies hardware design faults as "features".

Sony just don't understand how to make online connectivity work on a console. I still can't quite get over the fact that my PS3 has to download information about my own profile whenever I decide to view it, rather than storing it locally, and that it takes somewhere around fifteen to twenty seconds to do so.

The thing about having to wait in a virtual queue in order to play the bowling and pool games is both hilarious and unbelievable.

Penny Arcade's take on Home

20:07 / 15.12.08

that it's free of any kind of personality and entirely pointless.

Yeah, pretty much. Not being an online gamer, I don't know whether it's of much use to the gaming community. There's a lot of talk about clubs and clubhouses, and being able to launch games from Home - is this something that the gamers amongst you see as being useful? Is it something that will make the experience "better" in any way?

I'm intrigued by the concept of Home, but am struggling to find things to do, or things that I will be able to do in the future, that aren't already available to me by another route. Chatting with mates who live a long way away? I guess so, but I can use MSN or the like.

I can see us (me and my other half) cheerfully decorating our virtual summerhouse and putting up photoframes with our own pictures in, and quite enjoying it; I can't see that enjoyment lasting more than about half hour though, or us wishing to go back to visit that often, and it doesn't really need online connectivity if we're in our own space.

And yes, the concept of queueing for an online game of anything doesn't really compute to me. It seems utterly, utterly daft.

06:49 / 16.12.08

While it's both free and a beta I think it's definitely been rushed out the door to keep their promise of an open beta before 2008 ends. I personally believe they've also cut alot of features to balance loading all the servers with new people. It seems they are just using this time to iron out (i hope) issues with masses of people online.

While it's a pain waiting for to play bowling or pool (or any other games) I can see what they are trying to achieve. Attempting to make it as real as possible. I think the last paragraph of that Eurogamer review sums it up perfectly

Then there's the stiff, airless lack of character to it. You can tell Home is the sort of place where pressing Select brings up a "Go to Personal Space" option. It's as glossy, whitewashed and empty as an episode of Laguna Beach, a non-place where non-people have non-conversations. In its anxiousness to offend no one, Sony has made Home appealing to no one. Until it connects with the outside world it's a just a very expensive snow-globe. Home is a nice enough place to visit, but right now, you wouldn't want to live there.

As it stands there is not much to hold your attention for more than 60 minutes. It doesn't give you any immediate gratification and does nothing more forums, instant messaging or email does. Plus the charging for group's, items clothing etc seems to be Sony's attempt to get some funds back in the current economic crisis. But that may be my cynicism.

06:54 / 16.12.08

And as for the waiting for your profile to load that irritates me too. Especially since most if it is already on your system (the trophies). It seems strange to have the trophies section update the server and then having the ps3 pull your profile and trophy information back to display it too you.

12:16 / 16.12.08

They want me to buy a virtual chair so virtual Me can sit down in my virtual flat? Fuck off Sony.

13:46 / 16.12.08

You have to pay to start a club, too.

Which isn't even to mention that clubs or clans, without a specific game for them to be a part of, are a complete waste of time.

16:07 / 16.12.08

It can't all be lifeless unfun, can it?

08:28 / 18.12.08

And now Sony are disabling microphones in it.

"Additionally, as part of version 1.04, the voice chat feature within PlayStation Home will be temporarily suspended. As soon as we are ready to resume the voice chat feature, we will inform you via PlayStation.com and PlayStation.Blog. In the meantime, we encourage users to make use of the Wireless Keypad for PLAYSTATION 3 or any USB or Bluetooth-enabled keyboard for text chat and also the “phone friend” features to communicate within PlayStation Home."

This whole thing seems a bit embarrassing for Sony.

10:21 / 19.12.08

lol iamus, that was a funny video.

I tried again last night to log in and got in first time. I'm not entirely sure if it's the removal of voice that made it all possible who knows.

10:27 / 19.12.08

Back to what Neon Snake said

is this something that the gamers amongst you see as being useful? Is it something that will make the experience "better" in any way?

I'm not sure as it stand it will do anything for the online gamers. You still can't even start a game from within Home or display trophies which, from what I originally understood, was one of the main purposes.

Going forward I think it could be useful, but launching home to meet friends and then all launching a game seems a tad long winded.

If they were to use home to replace the current xmb interface so that starting the ps3 and logging in would take you straight to your apartment. and then having the various features from the xmb (music, movies, photo's etc) as items in your apartment. This shouldn't really slow anything down since your apartment already resides on your ps3 anyway so you wouldn't even have to be connected to the internet.