The Daily Grind: Do you use PlayStation Home?
by Seraphina Brennan 
Oct 30th 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Consoles, Virtual worlds, Home
We ask because the world seems to present two very different versions of itself. On one hand, some of the mini-games are kinda interesting, the virtual environment does take full advantage of the PS3's graphical capabilities, and the virtual spaces for the different PS3 games are kinda cool.
However, on the flip side, you get to deal with the worst of the PlayStation Network community while you can't completely remove them from your screen. If you make a female avatar, get ready to get swamped by every guy in a 30 virtual mile radius no matter how you're dressed.
So tell us why or why not you use Home, and don't be afraid to give us all of the gritty details. Go readers, go!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
phobic99 said on 8:08AM 10-30-2009
I logged into Home for a total of 15 seconds shortly after it was released.
I haven't been back since. Actually, I forgot all about it until you guys published this article.
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TexRob said on 8:59AM 10-30-2009
I was really excited about Home, have they done anything with it though? It seems to have all but died in momentum. It just feels like something to launch while on your PS3, but a reason to turn on your PS3, and it takes a long time to launch. I know I will get downvoted, but the PS3 doesn't have that "get right into it" feel the 360 and Xbox Live does. You can form a party from the dashboard, and then figure out what you want to play, within seconds. The PS3 is just a huge dissapointment for me. I loved LBP, and I am looking forward to snagging Uncharted 2 soon (too many other PC and 360 games right now), but for the most part I got my PS3 for GT5...and guess what STILL isn't out yet. Polyphony is going the way of Sony vs Microsoft. I think they think they can get away with doing whatever the heck they want, because of who they are. Guess what, Forza 3 is fantastic, GT5 isn't the system seller of the magnitude it once was.
Ok, got off on a tangent, but my point is, Home is a portal..on a system that isn't very popular and is not conducive to community interaction. I understand it tries to create that, but it sure feels like it fails at it. I thought Home was going to be the PS3s Xbox Live Dashboard, and it has not thus far achieved that.
Ivasen said on 2:15PM 10-30-2009
The point of home was to be a virtual hub for everything media, a 3D playstation/Xbox store.
The problem that happened during launch, it was completely baron aside from one store and a bowling alley.
It felt like a stripped down F2P MMO that you had to pay for your clothing and stand around all day.
Most game companies are learning to not release their product unfinished, it would have been nice to have all the things it was touted to have.
I would have loved their Theatre system, it was suppose to have all the movie previews of up coming games and movies, you were supposedly able to purchase a movie and get your own Theatre room that you could invite your friends to.
They were suppose to have huge arcade rooms where you could play mini games and major game titles together, it was suppose to be the area where you have games like COD, Unreal games, little big planet and other multiplayer games where you could just jump right in and play or spectate and after playing it would send you back to the arcade room where you could jump right into the next one.
Then theres the housing system..nothing was out for it at all, you couldn't buy new furniture, new wall paper, or even a new and bigger house.
You weren't even able to stream music from your HD onto your stereo, nor play movies on the TV from your HD.
TLDR; It wasn't finished on release.
Oh well, I still enjoy all three of my gaming systems, each ones have their benefits.
Starpoke said on 8:42AM 10-30-2009
I feel sort of bad saying this because a friend of mine is an artist on the Home project, but I have only logged into it a couple of times. I can't quite see the point of it at the moment, but I can see how it could develop in the future.
It needs to be a cross between a social networking site and an interactive 3d game lobby, in short I should want to turn on my PS3, log onto home to see what my friends are up too, then be able to launch games through it, maybe even meet up with a friend and join a game with them.
It's all a bit too photorealistic too, why shouldn't I be able to create a cartoon blob as my avatar if i want to?
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sikk said on 9:14AM 10-30-2009
Sounded too much like The Sims for me to even try it. I never liked the idea of The Sims and still don't really. I draw a line when it comes to actually playing mmog's for their pvp/pve content and playing mmog's' that are basically chatrooms with pretty pictures. The only time you'll catch me in a game or virtual environment like this is when we get cool virtual chairs like in the movie Surrogates, or we get holodecks, until then I'll continue to steer clear.
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Arkanaloth said on 10:10AM 10-30-2009
I was in the Home beta, I as pretty skeptical about it and the beta pretty much confirmed that line of thought.
Home is pointless.
It's pretty much Second Life with 0% player generated content, far less content overall, far less physical geography, and micro-trans and advertisements as far as the eye can see. All wrapped into a graphics engine and world that's as useless as it is pretty.
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Vitamin Dei said on 9:40AM 10-30-2009
I don't own any of the current generation of consoles, but I used to own both a PS3 and 360 before I decided that I didn't have the time or money for the two extra game-hungry mouths. I was definitely excited about the potential of Home, but found that it fell a little flat. I didn't feel it offered me anything more compelling than standing in Stormwind or Pocket D, or even logging into an IRC server.
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Curtis said on 9:44AM 10-30-2009
Performance sucked too. Took FOREVER to load the characters, and you had to download for at least 5 minutes a new map. It was just bad, IMO. No point either except to meet up with other creepers on PSN.
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Bryan said on 9:59AM 10-30-2009
Same as the first poster. HOME is a novelty. I tried it out when they were doing the beta testing to see what the fuss was. It didn't impress me in any way shape or form and I haven't been back into it since.
Don't plan to go back either. Stop making crap like this and start putting out RPGs and games I want to play. And NO more FPS Halo clones, I'm sick of this genre and consoles. Same goes with games like God of War. I like the genre, but I always feel shammed because the games are about as long as a feature length movie. $60 bucks spent on a game I beat in 2 weeks and it then sits there on my shelf for years after.
I bring up that last point to show why MMORPG's are worth the monthly fee. At least those I can't beat in 2 weeks, or ever for that matter lol.
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bones said on 10:32AM 10-30-2009
My daughter goes there every now and then. She has shirtless guys wanting to dance with her. If you play any MMO, you can walk around town and chat with people OR you can quest.
Home does nothing worth while. The bowling and pool games are weak.
Give us weapons and spawn some monsters already!
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LarryL said on 11:09AM 10-30-2009
I use Home daily or every other day. I LOVE it, aside from all the losers who hit of virtual video game avatars, and the idiots partaking in pretend virtual relationships through Home. Different strokes, but they are just SO sad to me. And they take it really seriously too! These people are sexual deviants imo, that are turned on by toons. It's disturbing.But off the losers, and on to Home itself. It's an awesome service imo. I have hours of fun every night. It's awesome playing these casual games with real people who you can chat with in a world with thousands of peole doing the same. Every night I play bowling, pool, poker, BUZZ trivia, the UFO game, and others. And those are the old game, now, since the newest update, the games are starting to become very advanced.....less like casual games, and more like.....just games. And some very MMO like games/quests. Xi was awesome in that way. That was just like an MMO, that mixed into the real world. GREAT STUFF.Home is pretty much the epitome of "social gaming". Before it came out, I was a gamer that thought Home was just going to be a waste of time, but as soon as I got into the closed beta, my mind was changed, and the service is lightyears beyond what it was in the closed beta. I like the service so much, that I spend a couple dollars a month in Home on items. Not because I feel I NEED better looking clothes for my avatar, but because I love what Sony gives me for free so much, that I voluntarily donate a few dollars a month in Home to support the service.Kudos on Home, Sony. Don't listen to all the ignorant internat Home haters. Myself and a million other gamers LOVE Home, and will continue to do so. Thanks.
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GaaaaaH said on 11:14AM 10-30-2009
You sound like a paid ad.
Purkit said on 11:26AM 10-30-2009
I own a PS3 for three reasons:
1. So I can watch Blue-ray movies from Lovefilm instead of DvDs.
2. I use it as a media centre to stream my music into the living room.
3. BBC iPlayer for the win!
I think I heard you can play games on it as well, but as yet I've been unable to find any worth the money.
I did have a look at PlayStation Home for about five seconds... what exactly is the point?
Safe to say if the xbox 360 came with Blue-ray and didn't sound like a jet engine I'd have one of those under my TV right now.
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Pingles said on 11:55AM 10-30-2009
My PS3 is used solely for Blu-Ray movies (I have no games for it) but downloaded Home out of curiosity. It did nothing for me. I explored a bit, logged off and never visited again.
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cliff said on 1:23PM 10-30-2009
I logged into Home for a few minutes after I first bought my PS3, but quite frankly it looked like just one gigantic exercise in marketing - it lacked anything fun or interesting to do.
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Scott said on 1:50PM 10-30-2009
I have a PS3 and a PC. Have never owned an Xbox 360 and not familiar with their Live service or dashboard so I don't really have anything to compare it to. I love my PS3, but Home for me is just not very useful.
It takes too long to load when moving between areas. It takes too long to just log into the thing. If I was interacting with a lot of people online, it might be kinda fun to invite them all to my apartment or to all congregate in one of the game areas, but I'd rather be playing my games than just hanging around in an overblown chat room.
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CindyL said on 2:21PM 10-30-2009
I'd use it if I had a Ps3, I really Smallworlds (ning social application) right now so Home sounds it's right up my alley. If it's true about the male avatars approaching girls I hope they have a robust ignore list....
People wanting good RPG's that last more then 2 weeks.. ;)
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CindyL said on 2:22PM 10-30-2009
Hmm I meant to say Dragon Age is coming out next week, it should last more then 2 weeks. ;P
Lateris said on 3:20PM 10-30-2009
It is officialy in a beta phase to this day. I do like the mini games that are involved in terms of design. I think MMORPG development should take a look at how some of the interaction can be absorbed into MMO designs much liek gambling will be in Incarna\Eve. I like the bowling, the arcade games, and the saucer game in the pond. I think it has a long way to go.
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saminseattle (PSN:gamesnskate) said on 3:58PM 11-01-2009
No, I haven't used PlayStationHome in months. I'm a full time community College student and am looking for a part time job, so with the little time I have on my hands I like to play games like Uncharted2 and Ratchet&Clank ACiT, why waste my precious time on something like Home?
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