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- Thread starter Macho Madness
- Start date
Agent X
Member
OldJadedGamer said:
I think patsu gave a good response to this. Someone could make the same remark about any gaming project that is in development that doesn't appeal to them. I generally don't like Japanese console RPGs, so every time Sony decides to create another one, I could be thinking, "You know, all the money that Sony's throwing away on worthless RPGs, they could instead invest in the next Uncharted or the next Wipeout."
One reason why some people may be disappointed in Home now (aside from the many delays) is that a few of the most eagerly anticipated features from 2007 ultimately crept into the standard firmware in 2008. The most obvious of these is trophies. Everyone now has easy access to trophies through the XMB, so the idea of "opening another application to see trophies" seems cumbersome. Of course, that's not all that Home is about (not even close), but to a certain segment of the population, that's essentially all they really wanted out of Home. Now that they got that from the firmware, they no longer see the value in Home.
Even if you don't find Home terribly useful or appealing now, the point is that Home will continue to grow and evolve. Perhaps at a later time you'll find something appealing about it.
Home seems unfinished because it is unfinished, but they have to start somewhere...you can't expect them to fulfill such an ambitious goal of creating a burgeoning online social gathering place for gamers in such a short amount of time. I don't think everyone's expectations will be 100% satisfied right away, and the features I would like to have from Home might be different from what someone else wants or expects.
Ultimately, the community will make their demands known, and Sony's development team should listen to them, weigh them, and implement what they think will benefit the most people. If they take too long to implement cool new features, then it will fizzle out. On the other hand, if they continue to adapt to the needs and desires of gamers, then it will prosper.
JimtotheHum
Member
so just downloaded it and messed around alittle bit, gonna definitely give it some more time, but...
two things that pop out to me (initial impressions) the environments seem way too sterile, in the effort to be hip and modern, I think they made something that visually isnt very interesting.
also (and this is a problem with alot of online sony play) it is very silent since most dont have headsets
so what you have is a silent sterile world with people running around where interacting with people is a chore since most have to type out messages with that cumbersome texting window.... I will give it more of a chance but this what I got out of it after about a half hour of play.
two things that pop out to me (initial impressions) the environments seem way too sterile, in the effort to be hip and modern, I think they made something that visually isnt very interesting.
also (and this is a problem with alot of online sony play) it is very silent since most dont have headsets
so what you have is a silent sterile world with people running around where interacting with people is a chore since most have to type out messages with that cumbersome texting window.... I will give it more of a chance but this what I got out of it after about a half hour of play.
Dreamwriter
Member
Agent X said:
4 to 6 years is a short amount of time?! In comparison, Bioshock took 3 years...including an extension beyond the initial schedule due to things like completely changing the game's genre. WoW was created in 5 years, and included roughly 80 square miles/200 square kilometers to explore.
I'm not expecting something the size of Azeroth, but you know, something the size of a single city in Final Fantasy XI would be nice given how long Home's been in development.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Pool and Bowling are fun, won some stuff on the arcade machine 
32x on Echochrome pretty food
Overheard some girl talking to another that they where going to get a PS3 for Home, they where at a friends using theirs....... so er yeah, i dunno, some people like it and i guess its only gonna get better.....
32x on Echochrome pretty food Overheard some girl talking to another that they where going to get a PS3 for Home, they where at a friends using theirs....... so er yeah, i dunno, some people like it and i guess its only gonna get better.....
Dreamwriter said:
They didnt have teams of 100 working full time for years on this though. Dont think of it that way, its not a game per se like the other ones you mentioned.
As I said above, Sony's responsibility is to create the core spaces and underlying tools, then publishers/developers use those tools to plug in their own stuff and their own spaces. Sony does not make the Warhawk space or the Far Cry 2 space, those respective devs do. And as far as we know there are a good number of devs working on stuff for home.
EktorPR said:
I think it can go both ways.
And to keep this thread going, It's amazing how home has transformed over time. Also theres a nugget in during 3:05.
Atleast I know Music/Video sharing exists will help me sleep.
pcostabel
Gold Member
People don't seem to realize the true scope of Home. Did you notice that when you go to the world map you have to click on the Sony icon to open it up and select a specific location? This is not just to show a fancy animation, it is because the whole map that is in Home right now is only one of potentially thousands of hubs. Think of each hub as a website. If someone showed you a beta version of Mosaic with a test page with some images and text, you would have probably thought that this www things sucks. Home is exactly that: a beta version of a web browser for a www that does not exists yet. In a year or so, you will be able to go to the Amazon hub to browse for books and music, check out the latest Mitsubishi Lancer at the Mitsubishi hub, maybe even test drive it in GT5, attend GDC and E3 virtually, visit the 1UP offices (you can already visit the Famitsu offices in the Japanese version) and hopefully set up your own hub the way you can set up your website today. The possibilities are mindblowing.
pcostabel said:
Now that, is a good explanation.
It's just that the SCEE home square, is very meh.
I went to the US square, and it was better, and more lively. I still haven't visited the JP square, looks awesome from what you just said. Also, whoa at the possibilties stuff.
Crayon Shinchan
Aquafina Fanboy
pcostabel said:
I hope this comes to pass.
WEB/HOME duality would be a pretty cool thing to have.
pcostabel
Gold Member
just log into Home using a Japanese account. One of the spaces is Famitsu offices. They have a video of a review of the new PSP in the lobby, where they also talk about Level5 RPG Whit Knight Chronicles. I can't understand Japanese so I am not sure what they were talking about exactly.
Fizzle said:
Sony probably made a few sample spaces to show off the potential as they tour the offices of third parties. But the point the whole time as was said by both Sony and also devs who have seen the presentations was to offer tools to the outside world to plug their stuff into Home.
And it is interesting about the media sharing. In that video it seems to work exactly as I want it to work now, play stuff off my own hard drive, even if others don't see it. A jukebox that plays my own mp3s in my apartment only, a TV that plays trailers or full movies off of my own hard drive, even of others dont see it. I understand the legal issues behind sharing media, but at least let us make our own spaces functional and entertaining to ourselves, even if we cant share with others.
AndyD said:
This is why I want Home to boot up automatically (and more quickly) when I turn on my PS3. Technically, you can do everything you want in your own apartment. Ideally, that's exactly how envisioned my use of Home. I don't really need my XMB unless i wanna change my settings or check my message's etc. These stuff, I can do with in-game xmb. Maybe an exclusive improved version.
But i'm hoping they add the following features to:
- Call a friend whilst he or she is playing a game, Private chat basically.
- Spawn back to the exact same place with your friends after finishing a match. I also found it peculiar how i can't choose the match settings when i played Warhawk through game launching. You can do it SOCOM but not this?
- Cross area invites. I don't like the fact that you have to be in the same place to party up your match. I mean if i'm looking for a few people then yeah. But if someone is in my friend list already, is checking out a a place, and i wanna bring him along, I don't feel like leaving my area cause of it.
And there's a probably a few more said already.
dreamer3kx
Member
i dont understand what some of you guys are expecting from home, isn't this what Sony told you you were going to get?
Dreamwriter said:
I agree it is important to see a fully developed game space instead of an empty shell like the Uncharted space and the FarCry space. A "picture" is worth a thousand words. Would be even cooler if they allow users to modify a space collaboratively using LUA script (like MUSH !).
The activities (or "gameplay") are more important than the maps. If they build out an entire city in Home, it will be an even bigger borefest (and waste of time) -- unless they add fighting, quests and drama to accentuate the experience. All these are up to the game space developers to implement.
The only thing remotely exciting so far is the leaked Buzz! space article. In that game show space, you can play a mini Buzz! game with other users right "on stage" in Home itself.
I suspect the Home development team spent a lot of time figuring out the basics (e.g. How to represent a 3D world efficiently, What tools to use for porting existing assets from games, how to run LUA efficiently in parallel with other stuff, how to coordinate game launching for different games, How to take efficient snapshots so that we can come back to the same place after a game with some prior objects intact, etc).
The examples you highlighted above are all pre-packaged, closed experiences as opposed to open ended ones like Home. It is possible for someone to use a foreign item in a game space anytime. I wouldn't expect a huge, seamless and fantastic looking world here. They will always need to reserve some resources for user-generated activities.
Tieno said:
This.
I hope the Home dev team focuses more on usability. I think it is the single most important element in Home. It can swing impressions easily.
The only way to sidestep/reduce this is to create a totally different "product" so there's no comparison. But usability is still important regardless.
OldJadedGamer
Banned
patsu said:
I only have people I know in real life on my friends list (or friends of friends) on both my PS3 and 360. I'm very blessed that I know a lot of people in real life with systems. I have about 10 people on my PS3 list but no one is ever on. Everyone I know (except for one dude who HATES Microsoft) has both the PS3 and 360. So even when I want to play LBP, I have to sign onto the 360 and get a party together so we can jump over and play some LBP. I have 4 friends in the Home beta but they are never in the damned thing and I'm the only one ever online.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:Pool and Bowling are fun, won some stuff on the arcade machine
Overheard some girl talking to another that they where going to get a PS3 for Home, they where at a friends using theirs....... so er yeah, i dunno, some people like it and i guess its only gonna get better.....
You kept your chat options on? I turned them off after 5 minutes while during bowling I had one kid playing rap music into his mic full blast and another kid next to me singing about a what I gather was a "hoochie momma".
OldJadedGamer
Banned
Fizzle said:
I'm spoiled on the 360 because I've had my chat options set to friends only for a while now. I never think about these kids anymore because I haven't heard them in so long. The only people I hear are the ones I want to hear.
I'll check the mute options next time I sign on and mute the annoying ones but you're right, I shouldn't turn it off completely. At the time the kid was sooooo annoying, I couldn't find the option to shut him up fast enough.
OldJadedGamer said:
Then you can't blame the system. I have 50+ people on my friends list. Most of them are active.
If you continue to shunt new friends, you won't get to enjoy online gaming on PS3 as much as I do. Even without Home, I get friend requests all the time. Some have turned out to be good playing partners.
Yes I leave it on all the time. You get both annoying and fruitful encounters. Just ignore the annoying folks using the Home options. Better yet, report them so that we can benefit too.
OldJadedGamer
Banned
patsu said:
I don't recall that I ever did. As I stated earlier, I feel that funding new first party games would have been a better investment then Home.
OldJadedGamer said:
It stems from the same argument. Home allows people to make friends easier. If you can't appreciate it, and don't want to get involved, your online gaming experience in PS3 will continue to suffer.
More first party games is unlikely to change that in general.
For the rest of us who appreciate the added social dimension, I think Home is worth a shot. But they need to address the usability concerns.
Fizzle said:
Post it here:
http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board?board.id=b_EN_PS3_Home
Its the official Home board for EU. All beta discussions now allowed there. And they are responsive too.
I dont think they allow open discussion yet in the US public boards.