HOME: Whats Wrong With It and How It Could Be Better
Now this may piss some people off. Actually, I know this is going to piss people off, but it must be said because really, “What the hell is the point of HOME?”
HOME was released to create a visual online community for people on the Playstation Network, and while the idea is solid, “Is it something both the hardcore and the casual want?”
When it comes to online communities there are things like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, AIM, and PC games that do a much better job at bringing people together and helping them communicate. Instead of having to run around a limited world in HOME, instead on sites like Myspace/Facebook you can simply interact with the people you want to interact with in a much more convient way. On HOME, you are limited to your friend list or people you don’t know avatar, have to buy either a keyboard attachment to your controller, a seperate keyboard or a headset to communicate easily, and have to download these very mundane areas you can visit.
People then argue that the things like the arcade games, the movie theatre, and EA Sports Complex really make HOME a place you want to visit. I’m sorry, but if I wanted to play mediocore arcade games I can do that on my laptop, iPhone, PSP, etc. Going to a public spot only to see that bowling, pool tables, and the arcade games are full aren’t exactly the gaming expierences I think we all wanted when we dropped $400 or more on a Playstation 3.
The movie theatre is really flawed since we are in a world with Youtube and Online Trailer Sites available on any computer around the world. Why stand in a virtual theatre to watch maybe a 2-3 trailer loop without having the ability to fast forward or rewind, while you can go online and simply pull up that trailer whenever you want?
The EA Sports Complex is probably the closest thing to something halfway interesting, but where it fails is that there are already better products out there doing the same thing. Currently they have a racing game available, and while that is nice if a person truly is a racing game fan wouldn’t they rather play a game like Burnout, Gran Turismo, or GRID rather than some mediocore racing product.It really doesn’t matter if they add a football mode, basketball mode, and golf mode because there are currently more entertaining products out there that offer every sports expierence. Now if you aren’t a fan of these sports, then maybe you could find some enjoyment out of these free products, but most likely these products aren’t the essence of quality so do you really see yourself running to these games over a PS3 or PSN title?
Also while it’s great that the PSN is free it is obvious that they are trying to recoup costs by making players pay for everything in HOME. The avatar/apartment customization features are very limited from the get go, and most of the time while visiting HOME, you can see 2-3 people wearing the same thing as you. It doesn’t really make you stand out.
Also PC games like Everquest and World of Warcraft succeed in making people interact because they are all in there playing a fun game, and a lot of the time need to work together to complete missions. What’s the point of talking to people in HOME? How do people choose which person is worth talking to and which one isn’t?
The place basically seems like a walking and talking ad. It does a good job at revealing tidbits of news to the fans of the PS3, like the Joker exclsuive content in Arkham Asylum, but isn’t there a easier and better way to reveal this news? Couldn’t they have made a simpler online community thats main focus was getting the people the content as quick and efficent as possible.
Instead of a Sims-like world it might have been better to create a feature like Facebook/Twitter, or at least also included it with HOME. Basically, where you can create your own profile, get all the up to date news, get connected to sites like Youtube/Hulu, and maybe offered demo codes to games on the PSN which are quality products. It allows the PS3 community to be connected in a way that we are both confortable with, and allows us to take advantage of the already successful services. You would also be able to use it on a computer and PSP, and for community games you could do something like the 1 vs. 100 idea that Microsoft has but take it to another level. Have multiple games that people can play, and have it updated to worldwide rankings where the higher you get the more rewards you get. This community would take gamer cards to another level because after playing someone in, let’s say Killzone 2, you could view their profile and see their intersts, what else they play, maybe a video they put up, a real picture, basically a Myspace/Facebook page, but insted for gamers in a central community.
I think more people would appreciate HOME if it allowed them to view what they want to see as quickly as possible. If it gave them a reason to interact with other people, and instead of focusing on a large quantity of small games, instead they should focus on a small group of high quality community games where people in the Playstation community work together. Also in a world where everything is portable they need to improve the HOME features on the go. Why should people use HOME on their PS3, when they can go on their laptop and open 3 tabs, Facebook/Youtube/Addicting Games and get basically the same expierence but where instead you, the user, are in control.
