Why HOME sucks?

[Therealqtip]

I hear from alot of people that HOME sucks but I wanna know why. and if you like it why is it good?

Is it like a sims game or animal crossing or what?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I bet everybody was expecting me to be the first response, so I'll be glad to oblige.

Home is, and was envisioned as a free "social media network", very similar to "Second Life" that could be populated with PS3 users using the excellent processing and network capabilities of the PS3 and PSN.

It was announced as such and there were a segment of the PS3 community that initially "got" what it was going to be.

There were others that bought into questionable hype that it was going to be something more than was discussed or promised.

Home is a place where you can walk around with a virtual avatar (customizable with either free or pay clothing or costumes), and all of the other avatars that you meet are other users online. You can interact, chat, play multiplayer (or leaderboard tracked) games (bowling, pool, chess, texas hold em poker, Buzz trivia, and currently many other games in themed spaces) travel to private spaces (apartments), launch directly into compatible multiplayer games (Street Fighter 4, Warhawk, Resident Evil 5, etc.) watch videos in the movie theater, listen to music and dance in the main plaza, and just "hang out" and meet other social PS3 users.

Home launched into closed and then invite only beta about a year and a half ago, and since has gone into open beta. All PS3 users are welcome to sign into home and participate now.

When the open beta launched there was admittedly a very limited scope of things to do, and no 3rd party spaces.

Since then Sony and participating 3rd party developers have delivered on at least 3 new spaces per month. Notable spaces are the EA Sports Complex which houses several themed games to play (golf driving range, F1 racing, club DJ, and others, including 2 levels of Texas Hold Em Poker) and the Buzz Trivia HQ which has up to 64 users simultaneously competing in live trivia games 24/7.

There are even some "arcade games" fashioned after the classic coin-op arcade games scattered around the Home universe. They're all 1 player affairs, but they're all decent time-wasters and nearly all of them unlock items for your personal space or clothing.

There are community calendar days (Saturday nights are Street Fighter 4 launching in the mall) and for a few months Sony hosted a huge unfolding-story "alternate reality game" in a space called "XI".

Again, when it launched into closed beta, and in the early stages of open beta there wasn't much to do. But in the service's present form - the notion that Home "sucks" is largely left-over stigma from the launch period. Some people saw what little there was to do, formed a knee-jerk opinion based on that and have never given the service another chance.

There's plenty planned for the future in terms of spaces, expanded features and other things - and Sony has reported that they make a significant amount of money from micro-transactions, and anything that makes them money with no to low overhead is something that they like and will surely continue to support.

Sony even used an "event space" to broadcast their E3 conferences to the Home community.

Currently there's nothing even remotely like it on the other two game consoles. Mii Parades and XBL Parties don't even come close to the social experience you can have in Home.

Bottom line, it's a social network at it's core. If you don't like social networking ... or if you don't like people, it's probably not worth booting up.

It may not be for everybody, but "sucks"? There are currently 7 million registered users, and if that means that there are even 4 million active users ... that means there will never be a shortage of people to interact with.

[Therealqtip]

It's funny because I was hoping you'd respond because I read one of your posts saying that "I'm probably the only one here that likes HOME" and if it's free then I'm up for it if I get a ps3 soon.

[BHvrd]

Well Frankie you aren't alone in your reply, but i'm kinda curious why you removed me from you friends list. :(

I would agree though, that people expected an instant revelation with Home, myself included, instead it has turned out to be an experience that is "under construction".

The thing is actually still in an open "beta" form and actually states that everytime you load it up. It constantly progresses though and gets more fun as time goes by.

The best thing I experienced when I first started Home was the bowling alley when they had open microphone chat. It was a surreal experience and honestly when they took it away it ruined it quite a bit for me as I was after the immersion.

There is still no way to play your music or videos in your personal spaces and there is still no trophie room. It's all somewhat understandable considering all Sony has had to pull together to get this to work and eventually it should be everything it's cracked up to be, but for the mean time it's a fun alternative, but could be much more.

I really miss the open microphone chatting.

[megasdkirby]

I know I am still new with the PS3, but I installed home recently and it looks pretty darn cool.

Sure, I am still confused at what I can do, what to do, how I can do it...etc, etc. But walking around the virtual world seems kinda neat and relaxing.

It was also neat watching how others communicate or act all silly (a guy jumping up and down on top of a sign?).

I still don't know what exactly can be done at HOME, but it did intrigue me and I will continue to search around and have fun with it.

[Kid Ice]

I wouldn't say it "sucks", there are simply better things to do on the system. I can waste my time on a social network when I'm out and about with my laptop. Game room time is precious.

[Baloo]

I think a lot of people find it to be suckish is because of how little it really has to offer. Sure you can play games, interact with people, and other stuff, but you can do all of that in Second Life for free on your computer. With the PS Home you have to pay for a lot of stuff, and it can really bleed you of points, and your basically paying to do something you can do for free on your computer.

And then there are some like me who don't really care for that kind of Second Life virtual world stuff.

[mnbren05]

I really cannot stand Home. I appreciate the sentiment but it is like playing the Sims except you have to buy digital shit with really money. Nothing to really do but walk around, chat, and play some games. I'd rather do that in real life than on a 42'' lcd screen.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I think a lot of people find it to be suckish is because of how little it really has to offer. Sure you can play games, interact with people, and other stuff, but you can do all of that in Second Life for free on your computer. With the PS Home you have to pay for a lot of stuff, and it can really bleed you of points, and your basically paying to do something you can do for free on your computer.

And then there are some like me who don't really care for that kind of Second Life virtual world stuff.

"How little it has to offer" is not only highly subjective, but increasingly innaccurate on a week to week basis.

And you can have copious amounts of new clothes, items and even living spaces for free if you spend a minimal amount of time in the service.

All the games and public spaces are free...and while there is a lot for sale to cutomize your avatar or private spaces....you don't have to buy stuff to get the most out of the service IMO.

[Dangerboy]

PSN Home.

It's XBox Live Lite. With Walking.

[poloplayr]

For me the experience is just too clunky, cumbersome and complex. Any social network type of experience needs to be easy, easy, easy. Waiting for a gazillion load screens and downloads for each new area is what kills it for me.

Also, it feels like they deliberately added a layer of unnecessary complexity to an experience. Like forcing you to go that extra mile just to do the simplest of things. That kills it for me.

Simply put: it is not fun.

[alexkidd2000]

For me the experience is just too clunky, cumbersome and complex. Any social network type of experience needs to be easy, easy, easy. Waiting for a gazillion load screens and downloads for each new area is what kills it for me.

Also, it feels like they deliberately added a layer of unnecessary complexity to an experience. Like forcing you to go that extra mile just to do the simplest of things. That kills it for me.

Simply put: it is not fun.

This pretty much sums it up. There is no way I am going to spend 15min to try to find friends and load up a game. I might only have an hour to play!

[WoodyXP]

It's slow and overrun with douchebags. That's why I don't care much for it.

[megasdkirby]

Sony should make a deal with Vivid to spice up HOME a bit. :)

[kupomogli]

I tried going on it yesterday and about a week ago for the first time since it's launched. A week ago it gave you some free army clothes and a Criss Angel Coffin table. Yesterday I got the Namco Essentials demo just so I could get all the home items(which the demo blows with only two levels of Pac-Man so hopefully I don't have to keep the demo to keep the items I won.)

I didn't purchase anything, but I went around the mall and looked at the stuff for purchase. Which checking out the fact that you can make your characters look like Street Fighter characters, Resident Evil 5 items, Fight Night items(you possibly could make Rocky,) multiple other different games, as well as other clothes to which you could make yourself look like a Ninja if you wanted. Not to mention you can mix and match alot of these. Again, I'm not into purchasing digital items, but seeing all of it I was actually tempted in purchasing the Ghostbusters outfit which came with about five different items for 1.99.

Then there are the digital spaces. Again, not something I'd purchase, but seeing the Ghostbusters one being a three story digital space like the station from the movies. I was thinking, man, this is cool. So I actually checked it out on Youtube. There are a few videos that people made on it and it looks really good. Why have that crappy apartment they give you when you can have a much bigger Ghostbusters station or the other area they let you purchase.

Afterwards I checked out a few spaces. I checked out EA's Godfather space after reading that it has Texas Holdem tables. Kindof seemed this one was a little laggy when I got in there, but started a game of Poker and it was pretty cool. Too bad you can't get your own Poker table for one of your digital spaces. Checked out the Siren: the Blood Curse space, which was pretty gay and had absolutely nothing but an empty room with a sign at the end. Lame as hell. The Namco space sucked as well, though I did look at the one coin thing there to add another free item to my space.

Truthfully though. There's "some" stuff to do. But I don't really see the point in going there to waste time. Sure the Texas Holdem thing is cool and launching a game from within Home, a new feature they added, is cool if you find people in there you want to start a game with. But I don't really see much to the service that you can't do if you just want to play a game against a random player.

*edit*

I've also played some of the arcade games, never played bowling though, that might be fun.

[NayusDante]

For me, Home just doesnt' seem like enough of a unique experience. I've seen the virtual avatar chatrooms, and Home does do a few neat things with voice chat and the public games, but it really doesn't draw me in. If I turn on my PS3, it's to watch a movie or play a game. I'm not going to spend time sitting around in a virtual movie theater watching trailers (read: Sony propaganda) with other people. That's not social interaction, that's called 1984 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R706isyDrqI).

[jonnyutah]

ahhh george orwell :)

[kupomogli]

I started playing the tournament poker in Home, and being a fan of gambling, it's pretty badass.

The only thing that pisses me off is when you get a table of two or three douchebags that go all in on every hand that one of the others don't. You have a decent hand but you don't have an all in hand. Then when it shows their hand they come up with a fucking 2/7 off suit.

Anyways. On the green beginners, I won the silver bracelet. I'm going to win first on a tournament game in red and black tables and get the other bracelets.