Whats the point of Home?

sarumite

So I went on home as I got some home items unlocked by playing Pixeljunk Shooter.....It was my first time on there in ages, I hadn't been on there since it launched and I still I don't get the point of it. I have no interest in queueing up to play bowling etc. It seems to me to be a total waste of time.

landsleaving

Yeah, it is.

I thought the best example of this was going to the uncharted space and seeing a bar... then doing nothing. Then doing the running man dance until some germans got annoyed. Pointless.

Also absurd was the namco space where you can go up to an arcade machine, try to play tekken 6 then be told you need the game disc inserted? Right... so if I have the game, why would I go through the whole home setup just to play it rather than say, playing it the normal way.

Load of rubbish. Unless they start giving us reasons to go on it, like exclusive content you can find (with a bit of effort) for new games, or early demo access, or even free stuff like the flow giveaway America got, no one will use it more than once or twice.

So to answer your question, home is sony's metaphor for life, there seems to be a lot going on and lots you can do, but ultimately it's just a series of disappointments and other people getting in your way. Then you give up and return to games.

Minstrel27

Of course you are going to need the disc to play Tekken.

I got flow for free also

landsleaving

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Of course you are going to need the disc to play Tekken.

I got flow for free also

It could have been a demo... one you can play for free only through home... to encourage people to use it... which was my point... Not just the ability to play the game by opening home first, which is pointless. Maybe I didn't make that clear...

Minstrel27

landsleaving wrote: »

It could have been a demo... one you can play for free only through home... to encourage people to use it... which was my point... Not just the ability to play the game by opening home first, which is pointless. Maybe I didn't make that clear...

You do realise how much data would be required to do even that?

rizzla

I probably would go in for a laugh and a bit of griefing if they kept the mic support in it.

It's still in beta right?

landsleaving

Minstrel27 wrote: »

You do realise how much data would be required to do even that?

I'm guessing the same amount as any other demo. Which could download in the backgorund. Simple enough really. It would get me to go onto home to play it.

What would you suggest to make home more interesting if that would be too difficult?

projectmayhem

I don't mind home in the slightest. It's actually quite good as a social platform/chatroom idea. A friend of mine did a big research paper on it and how people interact on such an environment.

My only real complaint is that it does nothing to aid gaming... it's very difficult to even launch into games from the system with friends. Though some of the "rooms" are a lot of fun... even if the fun ends after 10 minutes.

Gunmonkey

Home is just another example of Sony shooting itself in the foot by stopping SCELondon (formerly Psygnosis who made Wipeout, Destruction Derby, G-Police, Colony Wars and Team Buddies) from making something....you know....good!!

pablomakaveli

I thought home was crap about 20 mins into using it. I found the download rate to be far higher when just running around in it compared to being online in a normal game. Absolutely pointless is the best description for it.

Grumpypants

Dont think ive played anything less interesting since i tried that second life thing.

Minstrel27

landsleaving wrote: »

What would you suggest to make home more interesting if that would be too difficult?

Nothing can make it more interesting. It is a pointless waste of HDD space.

GothPunk

I don't mind Home, in fact at times I quite like it. It's unfair to only mention the Bowling and Namco Bandai spaces, when the Uncharted 2, Buzz, EA Sports and Sodium spaces (I'm sure there are more, like the EA Sports space) that don't require queuing and are actually quite fun. I see lots of people in groups chatting to each other so Home obviously serves it's purpose as a social networking type application, and game-launching is pretty good (albeit there are two types of game launching, of which only one of them is of any real use). I do agree though that Home could be much more useful if you could form parties with other people in a space and then launch into a game, and it with be nice if we get the trophy room that was shown before Home launched.

The Heavy Rain ARG 'Four Days' was running in Home and that got me exclusive access to the Heavy Rain demo - until Kotaku and everywhere else posted a cheat guide to getting the demo. So Sony is already learning as to the best use of Home to promote games. The thing I use Home for mostly though is the theatre, it actually has some good stuff.

Thing is, Home isn't for everyone, but clearly it serves it's purpose well - lot's of people use it to socialise and Sony make money from the people willing to spend real money on virtual items. I guess that's it's point.

The question you should be asking though is what is the point of anything? :pac:

Gunmonkey wrote: »

Home is just another example of Sony shooting itself in the foot by stopping SCELondon (formerly Psygnosis who made Wipeout, Destruction Derby, G-Police, Colony Wars and Team Buddies) from making something....you know....good!!

I think you mean Studio Liverpool, who have nothing to do with Home and are still making fantastic games, like WipEout HD/Fury. SCE London Studio are the SingStar/Eyepet/Eyetoy guys, so Home is right up their alley.

Scráib

I'll agree with most people here, home is rubbish! The only thing I've half enjoyed on it is the poker! It's just bland and boring. If it's to let you talk to people why not enhance the friends lists functionality on the XMB menu?

eddhorse

GothPunk wrote: »

The Heavy Rain ARG 'Four Days' was running in Home and that got me exclusive access to the Heavy Rain demo - until Kotaku and everywhere else posted a cheat guide to getting the demo.

Ed holds hand up...................guilty

scienceoverBS

personally i think home is muck , my 5 year old likes it

marko91

only thing remotly interesting was the red bull race thing...on my new ps3 i havent even downloaded home and i never will...almost as bad as killzone!...mw2 wont be leaving my ps3 for a long time.

wayne040576

Home is pretty much just another way for Sony to serve advertising to people. I think that's all they had ever planned for it.

gstar

GothPunk wrote: »

I see lots of people in groups chatting to each other so Home obviously serves it's purpose as a social networking type application

I agree! i havent used home in around a year, but there are about 10 of us who are all on each others friends lists and we used to go meet up of an evening have a few games of bowlin and chat and catch up with each other and have a bit of craic (like normal ppl do in real life lol) and i have to say i have made some good online buddies through it; i now spend a lot of my online time playing proper games with them like cod or whatever. I dont think i would go back on it now though cos i upgraded my hdd and im sure it would be painful to download the updates, just doesnt bear thinking about!

GothPunk

It actually doesn't take that long to download initially, but re-downloading all the spaces can be a pain. I'm the same, I have a few people on my friends list who I just got chatting to and although I haven't met up with them in Home again I do play 'normal' games with them or try to beat their scores on leaderboards.

I love the ARG in Home, the original one Xi was great, as was the Heavy Rain 'Four Days' challenge, I hope they do another one soon.

richymcdermott

Ive Mixed feelings towards home its seems to me it was a smart business plan that sony allowed EA Namco and other developers to advertise there product in home which benefits sony in getting content .. i know the main part was to have people talking to each other and letting the community grow , though everything must have a downfall aswell for one people following around women characters which is ridiculous i made a female character for a laugh and had at least 8 to 10 guys following me and sending me friends request are people that lonely :P, ive read pedophiles were goin around in us home stalkin kids . sony must of known this is what could happen , another issue is people like myself with 40 gb ps3 need the memory as home takes too much and even if you use all your memory for it the loading times are really bad , well thats my review on it it has its benefits and doesnt but gotta give props for sony for trying somthing new

DeVore

I downloaded it because I was sick of arranging the furniture in my new apartment. I loaded Home and it looks actually quite similar to my place. I had a weird moment of deciding which furniture to arrange and then quit Home and went back to fixing my own stuff. Quite an odd feeling hahah...

Um. Yeah. Pointless over bloated GUI "analogy" when PS3 has a terrific GUI already and is one of the few things I prefer about the PS3 to the Xbox. Simple, straightforward and clear.

DeV.