I'd check it out if I had a PS3, those things are still too expensive.

@Sinful said:

So Pat, getting a huge check from Sony for this advertisement?

Why would he? Do you think Jeff gets money for reviewing a game or Ryan gets money for talking about something on the podcast?

Great article Patrick! Looking forward to your follow up with Jack!

I want to see a quicklook of Home, i have never seen it played.

I remember getting into home when they did that ARG but haven't been back since, I keep thinking about it then remember all the downloading/waiting it took to actually get into it and decide against it. Maybe I should try it again soon.

I didn't get into it here, but the ARG is basically referenced as the single coolest thing that happened in Home, outside of what people use it for that have little to do with the service itself (i.e. hang out with friends).

Patrick Klepek hits every nail on every head.

Home has to be one of the biggest failures this generation. They hyped it so much and it amounted to nothing.

I never got the hate it deserves. It is a great little social playground for those who want one. I used to go on a few times a month to mess around and check out different places and I personally enjoyed doing so. I havent been on in maybe a year or two, so I obviously am not a dedicated fan, but I appreciate what it does.

Also great article Patrick, I enjoyed it.

Home isn't for me. That said I understood why people like it when I spent an hour playing Chess with a guy while talking about Rom-Coms to someone who was just watching.

Great read. Its things like this that make me glad that GB brought aboard an actual games journalist that isn't concerned solely with hitting a daily post quota which regurgitates press releases and banal thoughts (ie destructoid, kotaku). Nice work Patrick. I look forward to the rest

@dagas said:

I'd check it out if I had a PS3, those things are still too expensive.

@Sinful said:

So Pat, getting a huge check from Sony for this advertisement?

Why would he? Do you think Jeff gets money for reviewing a game or Ryan gets money for talking about something on the podcast?

Don't feed the trolls, dude.

Great article, Patrick!

I checked out Home myself fairly recently after not logging in for a while, and I was surprised by how many unique locations they had and how many people there were. The most impressive place I went to was Konami's dance club, where you go onto a dance floor and play a DDR mini-game with other players. The only real problem with Home I have is that advertisements are automatically removed from any screenshots you take, leaving a bunch of ugly, black squares everywhere.

I still think there needs to be a Home quicklook done. Testing games, people-watching, playing virtual IKEA, janua. And anyone who hasn't gone onto Home at all, or not in 1-2 years, need to install it and give it a shot.

I'd check it out if I had a PS3, those things are still too expensive.

@Sinful said:

So Pat, getting a huge check from Sony for this advertisement?

Why would he? Do you think Jeff gets money for reviewing a game or Ryan gets money for talking about something on the podcast?

@dagas said:

I'd check it out if I had a PS3, those things are still too expensive.

@Sinful said:

So Pat, getting a huge check from Sony for this advertisement?

Why would he? Do you think Jeff gets money for reviewing a game or Ryan gets money for talking about something on the podcast?

Don't feed the trolls, dude.

One of the most surreal things I've seen in home was a youtube video (which has since been removed) of 2 groups of people having a "gang war" where they just stood around and shouted the name of their own group in the chat. I just can't imagine in my mind what that kind of person is like in real life.

More power to ya if you wanna use your ps3 for this but I shall never visit home ever again.

Wow this was enlightening...I kinda want to check it out. Like a zoo.

Woot! Whoever was the Mod that checked out my Profile! Thank you for the quest!! :)

I did Home once. Went bowling for the first time; worked out how to strike every time in about two goes. Then I played some free games, that was a pretty cool interface idea and then I did some shoot-out promotional game. I was quite impressed by that idea even though it was quite simple. Then I went back to fixing my blu-ray drive...

i love to people watch in Home, some of the conversations i have overheard have been just incredible
 
i always show it to my friends when i remember to, they usually agree that it's one of the most fascinating things on any platform right now

So it's bascially IRC?
 
edit: With hats.

@Ygg said:

Home has to be one of the biggest failures this generation. They hyped it so much and it amounted to nothing.

If you think that, then you didn't read this article.

Another great, article. Thanks Patrick that was a good read.

That Thoreau quote proves we should all stop using famous quotes as arguments. It's quite good but doesn't fit at all in this context. Is it any better that we go to our graves having pretended to be who we always wanted to be?

But I don't want to dismiss the whole community. As far as I know, Home is far greater than any game in the social aspect, so the joke's on me I guess.

This article was a great read. I only knew Home as a... home... for idiots and griefers and this humanizes them a whole lot. Maybe you could do something similar about the simulator community (Trainz, Farming Simulator, Ship Simulators Extremes etc.). I need to know what the hell is up with that.

The first time I used Home, a 25 year old guy tried to pick up a 14 year old girl. Since everything is public (including the word bubbles when people speak), the girl gave out her phone number to the world.

Home is for two types of people:

A. Pedophiles

B. 14-year-old girls who like to click on flashing sidebars that say things like "Dress Up MySimz!", which offer limited options and install a hundred trojans onto your computer.

Also happened during the first time I used Home: I typed "WHY DO YOU PEOPLE STILL PLAY THIS GAME", and another young girl went "Pfft, it's not a game! It's a social experience.", then went back to talking about Naruto with her friends.

Whenever I'm in there I always have a hankering to make fun of everybody. The there is not a lot to do in home, I think.

I've had a PS3 since early 2008 and have never once installed or loaded up Home. I'm pretty alright with that.

great article!!

I play video games to get away from people.

interesting stuff, I look forward to more on this topic!

*deleted*

@Kesselrun said:

None of the interactions between this "community" are any different (or more significant) from what has been going on in chatrooms and MMOs for years. A guy that writes for a Home magazine and a guy that creates and sells content on the platform have every reason to talk up the platform. Second Life was also idealized for years in the press, presented as something very different from what actually went on in the game. It's good that people can find others to chat up and have fun with, but you can poke around and find equally large and active communities in all sorts of games. I'm not sure why things like Home are viewed as different or more human-centric when they are almost purely about advertising and cash shops.

They're not, it's the perception that Home failed. It didn't. It just didn't become a phenomenon, but there are large groups of people that feel Home is very important to them.

Would love to see a Home Quick Look please! I won't go in there but I'd love to watch a Quick Look of it.

"Since then, Home has remained just a skipped over icon since then, finally changing last week." "It probably helps the authors mostly skew older." "That's not the case for everyone, but viewed from that perspective, Home's attraction could be extremely attractive." You know, its nice that Patrick now writes more original and longer stories, but it would also be nice if he actually attempted to have consistently good grammar for these more involved posts. The AP Lit and Lang student inside just cant ignore those mistakes, not to mention issues of style as well as smaller mistakes.

Good article, but -- duh. Home is just another incarnation of the online social meeting place. It started with BBSs and MUDs, and now includes discussion forums, MMORPGs and apparently Home. I don't see anything new here really. But still, good read.

*deleted*

It's just amazing to think that, if you create a virtual space with some toys, traveling and communication functions, it will blossom with virtual life.  At the same time, it's a little sad to think how so many people rely software like Home because they cannot bring themselves to communicate with others in the real world.

Interesting, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to move on from The Palace yet.  And yes, I did hang out there for a month when I was 14. It was a different time.

Thank you, Patrick! Now I finally can point to a group of people who have a lamer life than even I do. Phew!

Kinda did this back when I was playing Ultima Online. All I ever did was craft armor sets and try keep good relations with the server's player base despite being the head guild smith of the most notorious murderers guild on the server.

I hate PvP, I never participate in it and being killed and looted by other players is a terrible experience. Yet that environment makes it insanely interesting socially and economically. Similarly to how EVE is like but far less complicated.

I constantly gave out low quality armor sets to new players as a political/business strategy of sorts. The players that would stay and grow to be more powerful trusted me as they're sole vendor for quality armor/weapons. The ones that became murder's also did not try to kill/loot me, even if they considered my guild an enemy.

I made huge profits by reselling armor sets that I obtained from my guildmates who murdered and looted one of my customers. Despite this, I still maintained good relations with the person most of the time. Once and a while giving the armor back to keep that relationship, if it seemed to sour.

I kinda want to experience that again.

@Ghost_Cat said:

It's just amazing to think that, if you create a virtual space with some toys, traveling and communication functions, it will blossom with virtual life. At the same time, it's a little sad to think how so many people rely software like Home because they cannot bring themselves to communicate with others in the real world.

Saying those people use Home because they can't make real world relationships is dismissive. Its not that they can't do that, its that its easier to find people with similar interests in a place like Home than it is in the real world.

god damn Patrick really like to write, good stuff though, thank you for the article.

@WerewolfGuy: I've noticed it too and made a comment on one of his other articles. He really needs to start proof-reading his writing before he posts. Fun and wacky is what I associate with GiantBomb, not amateur.

creepy yet kinda cool at the same time, maybe i'll check it out

Great article. I would enjoy home a lot more if the controls were better.