Now, before you start going "yeah, pull the plug on it" I do think the HOME still has teh potential to be something great. Its just very disjointed and dosent seem to have a great direction right now. There are somethings I like about it like the Theater, but I would be a fool to say that HOME is anything like that one GDC video showed years back. People do seem to like it though, as I see plenty of people in HOME everytime i boot it up and theyre all wearing the over Priced costumes and items. So its gotta be making SONY some money. But I really think it needs to be more than that. I think these are some ways to better improve the Experince.
1. SONY, decide what you wanna do with this thing. Either you want it to be about Everything Playstation and games, or you want it to be a Social Networking hub. You cant do both sucessfully. That means, if you want it to be about Social Networking, get people that KNOW about that kind of stuff working on it. (like Second Life devs and all that. People that know about this kind of stuff.) or if you want it to be about the games, eliminate all the useless crap your doing like selling Tshirts from Diesel. Focus on selling stuff that might have something to do with the games you have, and give people a reason to go into HOME because of the games they have. Show making of videos, have Exclusive Behind the scenes, give stuff away for certain games, give people a reason to pick up a certain game because it has something to do with HOME in a meaningful way.
2. make it much faster and more Responsive. Everytime I want to load something up, it takes FOR EV ER for the place to load up, and if I wanna buy something it takes FOR EV ER for the time to load up. You need to make it much more seamless and hassle free if you want people to use it.
3. Crack down on harassment. I cant tell you how many times I see someone bugging and harassing a girl Avatar. is this what you want sony, your service to be? a Bunch of horny men trying to get it on with virtual women? I dont know how you would police something like this, but it needs to be done.
4. Give people a Compelling reason to use HOME. This goes back to my first point. Right now, the only reason I use home is for the Theater. You need to give me incentive and purpsoe to use this thing. a bunch of dumb mini games that I have to wait in line for to use will not cut it. If I wanna use these things, I should ne able to use it right than and there, not wait in line. Again, if they did something like you get a in game item for using something at Home, or buying something in home, that might be worth it (this maybe a bad example of something they should do, but its jsut something I thought of at the top of my head). Anything would be great.
Home is just a stupid idea anyway. They should get rid of it and focus their talents ELSEWHERE instead of some poorly implemented virtual cyberspace filled with ads and text chat.
Your fourth point is the one I agree with most. I am a new PS3 owner, and have hovered over the Home button a couple times, but passed it up. Why? Because I have no idea if there is an actual point to clicking it. I would rather just stare at my trophy list and debate playing through Uncharted 1 again on Hard, then again on Brutal.
@Raven_Sword: Oh I totally understand what you mean, that if Sony were to implement those features that it would be a better experience... but the question is, is the Home experience an experience you truly want? I mean, it's just a chatroom with limited communication means because:
1. Majority of PS3 owners don't have a mic 2. Vast majority don't have the chatpad 3. Most people type slowly using the controller
And honestly when I think about Home, there is nothing that even makes me think twice about going into it, regardless of if it was the most efficient chatroom and virtual apartment you could find. It's nothing to do with your suggestions (which would undoubtedly make it better) but it's just Home's nature as an out of the way means to do trivial things.
Haha, I remember the first and only time I went into Home... it was before Twilight came out and there was a music video for the movie playing in the theatre. Everyone would go in to harass everyone and it ended up just being a clusterfuck of textboxes in the air, screaming profanities masked by asterisks.
Yeah, plus if you had a bunch of people talking all together, it would be a complete cluster fuck. (thats what it was like back when they allowed voice chat. nothing but swearinga nd Racism. ) Like I said, I only use the theater in home. I really wish sony would just bundle there Mic with the console.
If they allowed private screening of movies you have like the Xbox does in a personal theater, that would be awesome. Also, integrate more arcade-y sports games into Home. Beats waiting in line for retarded games.
I feel the whole thing could be done better. You raise some good points. They themselves seem split on what they want HOME to be. Also I don't think they can do anything about the harassment, but it would be nice if they tried. Everytime I go in there I see like 5 guys jumping all over some girl.
I like HOME for all the nonsense that goes on in there. Like 50-60 people making one big line and then everybody starts doing the running man. And anyone with a cheap USB Keyboard are using it (at least I hope so, or they're retarded) when writing in HOME so it wasn't that hard to get started. And the other stuff home has going sometimes like the XI thing and stuff like that, those things are fun when you're running around helping other people who might not get what the hell is going on.
Of course there will always be those who don't like HOME for what it is. A simple community chat thingy with 3D avatars. nothing else.
I know a couple of people because "HOME is a dumb game" I can't believe people actually thought it was a game, I almost crapped my pants laughing at their ignorance.
But I agree with you, and I really agree with your third and fourth point. Sony really need to do something about it to at least make it a better experience for those of us who actually enjoy using HOME for what it is.
I guess I enjoy it a lot since I didn't have a totally insane and pathetic amount of expectations for it when it was announced other than "oh, a 3D chat thingy with games in them, ok then" People kept hyping it up to be the biggest thing happening since sliced bread. Morons
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along
with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely
increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment