PlayStation®Home General Discussion

[randomthings]

Sometimes I'm on Home and I can be simply browsing in the Shopping Centre or even just sitting in Home Square and yeah, I do enjoy the simple things on Home. But I can't help but sometimes wish we'd gotten more of the things that had originally been shown in the old GDC and E3 videos with Phil Harrison and others showing off what the service could do. Some things never actually came to be, such as the Central Lounge space, which eventually was changed to Home Square.

Some of these decisions seem sensible and the right ones to have made, but there's some other small stuff, like old items they showed off that have never been released or even older spaces. Looking at an old 2007 GDC video, which can be viewed here: http://goo.gl/ix7m8  I love the original version of Harbour Studio and even the furniture they showed off within it looked cool.

I'm not at all saying I don't like Home as it is, I love it to bits. I even do I weekly post about it on my blog. I just don't think that we've seen the "Game 3,0" that Phil Harrison once spoke of, and that some parts of Home have gone downhill, such as the state of the Square for example. I personally preferred the old one. I think that Home has become different as to what it was originally intended to become when the project began.

Anyway, I'm not intending to make this just a rant. What's your thoughts on this?

[RUBBERDUCKZlLLER]

I completely agree with this.

[exup35]

Just wonder if its down to lack of money or investment or simply pipe dreams and those that thought of it just lost interest.

theres quite a few things that seem underutilised or never came to be

as for those things (in various spaces) that have seemed to tail off and not be used

The VIP lounge and stage in Sodium - just what is it for really?

The VIP area in Singstar which gave stage to perhaps one band, and now has been turned into a shop (kinda like the starboard launch bay on the Galactica??)

Those escalators in Home Square.

Even the Home Theater seems to be stuck in a loop now, and what happened to the Robot Chicken films?

[Mr_BurnZ]

That's like the stairs that lead to the 2nd level in Novus Prime. Nothing is up there, what's the point?

So you can talk to people that have bought something from the Novus prime store? Yeah... cool...

Trying to segregate the Home population is lame.

[Bumfluffking]

i miss the mini game with the helicopters and the teddy bears in the hot air balloons in the old home square

[Pacman_Ownage]

Since the dawn of this board we have wanted Phil back.

...By we... I meant... the one or two people that somehow believes one tall bloke will be the answer to all our problems?

[randomthings]

Another thing that I've always wondered about is the alleyway to the right of the Bowling Alley. Looking through there, everyone thought that maybe the escalators led to another large section of Home, but nothing has come of it.

[Pacman_Ownage]

---

randomthings wrote:

Another thing that I've always wondered about is the alleyway to the right of the Bowling Alley. Looking through there, everyone thought that maybe the escalators led to another large section of Home, but nothing has come of it.

---

Conspiracy theories and giant gatherings of people 'rocking' outside the gates were Home at it's prime.

[loonytoon1982]

Looking at the GDC video linked above and listening to what was being said, there are only 2 things that haven't come out of that description. Those of course being the music streaming and the Hall of Fame. The real issue with the old videos is that they were tech demos which are showing what could potentially be possible but unfortunately that was just 1 person using it. The public spaces were restricted to a small number so naturally things worked a hell of a lot smoother back then aswell.

I would love to see it eventually meet the hidden potential that it has tucked away somewhere and I still believe that day will come when we see that old version working in a sustainable way to cater for the many who use it.

I think a lot of us are with you on the Home Square issue though, would really love to have the old version back as it was much more user friendly than the new version. I can understand that there was a need for an update to make it more functional but would love to see it back to it's old form in some way, even if it was just extended out to include it.

[Sir_Gunnalot]

Phil Harrison is Home's great big savior? Phil Harrison, the dude that works for Atari, the company with a long and storied history of making atrocious business decisions? I love irony

Besides, half of this stuff coming in to Home would mean developers would need to be proactive about bringing stuff to Home, and short of Sega, Rockstar, Namco, Capcom and Ubisoft, I can't see that happening soon. 5 companies or so out of a wealth of hundreds? Doesn't say much, does it? That's why we have people like Ndreams, Lockwood and all those minor companies, while making generally excellent products, don't make the stuff that pushes the PlayStation brand forward. I mean, what can the Midway carnival do to give me a few nifty little add-ons for Motorstorm Apocalypse, for example. It's just unbranded stuff, that while it makes the place look full, and probably even good in some respects, simply just ensures that Home becomes a different service to the rest of the PS3, rather than being a part of it, being an extension of, or whatever.

Home rewards for certain milestones is a good start. How about (other than Socom), something in the opposite direction? The only thing I can think of is that new Eve Online thingy that is coming to the PSN complete with nice Home space which will be supposedly playable across all 3 platforms (PS3/Vita/PC).