Will Home Complainers Please Shut Up!

DeAno Jackson at PlayStation LifeStyle writes: "Today, US Home Community Manager Locust_Star announced the biggest update in the services history, including a new log cabin personal space, StageSet, the addition of Japan's Siren gamespace, free Patapon 2 clothing for your avatar, and even exclusive Patapon 2 and Fat Princess developer interviews in the Theater. It's a GREAT update to a service that many people enjoy, but despite that, certain people around the Net still are finding ways to complain about this.

Let's make a few things clear from the outset. Regardless of personal opinions, Home is a service that 5 million people around the world enjoy. That is slightly less than 25% of PlayStation 3 users worldwide. It has made Sony more than a million dollars since the service went into open beta late last year. Third party developers are excited about attracting gamers through this new medium, and have already pledged their support.

PlayStation Home is a success. Get over it."

[dragonyght]

its useless to try to convince them since they cant see pass their nose

[CaseyRyback_CPO]

Home as it is is great. There is nothing like it in the gaming world thats tied directly to games. Second life is a great virtual world, but Its not exactly doing what HOME is doing for PS3 consumers.

However, Home as it is is definitely NOT what was hyped/advertised/spoken by Sony. Trophy Rooms, Music/media options/sharing, and Game Launching was what was shown. Its evolved into something else, but Sony has yet to address the original reason EVERYONE was interested in home in the first place. Which is just BS. A simple "this is why we cant do Y, this didn't work out because of X" Is better than coughing then ignoring the question to answer the moron who is asking about Eye of Judgement swag.

Sony definitely lied to its userbase about HOME, and its features. But the features they didn't lie about simply dwarf the would-have-been-cool features.

The problem with home is this, and its just because of the nature of home:

1. Trophy room, No one cares to come home to your apartment. Even if you have games like the namco machine installed. The reason is because unless they are your close friends, they would rather talk/interact with people in the plaza/other spaces. Sure it would be cool, but only to your buddies, whom either have just as many trophies, none at all, or something else. I go to my good friends apartment, look at his trophies... Great, then i go back to his.. look at his trophies.. great..

2. In game launching, this is definitely needed. Shockingly Capcom has really put their feet forward in this element, not only with unlocking home swag, but releasing game launching for 2 major titles. Its easy to see that this is a developer issue, and nothing the home crew can do themselves. It should be mandatory going into the future though.

3. Trading Videos/Photos, great idea. But much like voicechat was ruined by pedophiles and retarded n00bs, sony will be sued instantaneously once some 12 year old sees a photo of my junk. If they limit it to videos PURCHASED over PSN, i think this can be done. but User generated piracy/n00blets ruined this feature.

I mean that stuff was great, but we dont live in the perfect world to where it would be pulled off. Which I can use common sense and see, but sony needs to address that. Home is amazing for non-gaming fun, or even gaming fun. The people complaining about not having trophy rooms and other things i'd imagine aren't going to be the social butterflies sitting at the poker tables playing games simply just for fun. Which I did the other night instead of actually playing anything, great fun to be had in home. Sony needs to come clean about lying, and come clean about the Bull features. The pedestrian "JUST WAIT ITS GUNNA BE AMAZIUNGGUGH!!!" is getting old(for those features).

Well, this is short for me, but i side with the complainers on this one. Add the stuff you said you were going to add, or at least explain to the community paying your bills.

[pixelsword]

...I kid, I kid!

Great points!

Actually, I don't even know if Killzone 2 can launch from home, and like you said two Capcom games can launch from home, so what the effen eff?

[CaseyRyback_CPO]

http://community.eu.playsta...

Soo yeah, they lied about what they could do at all those e3's/

edit:

pixel, checkout the link.. its the SCEE Home manager guy answering basically what we are talking about.

[pixelsword]

...

http://www.n4g.com/up/24668...

[Lfmesquite]

I personally haven't been a big fan of HOME, so I just haven't used it much. Recently I've revisited a few times and it's getting better. There's more rooms and activities now and there's still a lot more to come, and there's always some people using it and socializing.

Home is only a failure if you were talking about it being a huge system seller or something. If you just take it for what it is, it's actually turing into something decent and I might actually use it once in a while, it's not horrible or anything.

[4Sh0w]

honestly Home has been a huge dissapointment imo, I was just expecting it to be this huge social experience with a bunch of mini-games and contests, as it turns out its only a fraction of what sony promised it would be, I guess it will get there in time, but how long? and will people still care if they have to wait so long while it evolves?

[CaseyRyback_CPO]

I love home. But sony lied about what it would do, lied in videos, demonstrations, previews, everything. Under promise and over deliver. They SHOULD be tight lipped, especially when nothing is confirmed. Like XI/EA's Space. Phenomenal features that were hardly spoken of at time of launch. No expectations, little buzz, and bam. Amazing.

Sony isn't getting a pass for this. The link to the eu forums does have a simple explanation, which was asked for since the features didn't seem to be landing.

[phosphor112]

If they haven't had a chance to do what they claimed they would do.
Saying "I will fix your car" and not doing it, is a lie.

Saying that same phrase, but having intentions on doing so (e.g. keeping your word) renders the phrase not a lie.

[CaseyRyback_CPO]

how about you read that link, they cant do the features that were claimed. And it explains why. Which is all I wanted personally.

You guys are as bad as some others on this site when you think someone is being negative about something. Sony lied about it. Nothing wrong with that, companies do this, and Home is entertaining without said features, but the BS features that drew most people in aren't in home at all.

They showed off features they couldn't do.

[Blaze929]

who's complaining?

[callahan09]

@ Casey:

This quote from you struck me as odd, "better than coughing then ignoring the question to answer the moron who is asking about Eye of Judgement swag."

Why did you mention EoJ specifically? I'm an EoJ fanatic and I don't think that's a particularly good example to use, and quite an odd one at that (unless you have a specific instance of where that happened, which I'd like to hear about if so!) because Sony has a bad history with us EoJ guys. They'll do promotions and contests and then do a terrible job of getting back to us on our prize winnings or answering our questions on the fate of the game and any future sets of cards they may release. Just recently they had a tournament for Dioskuri promo cards (the most rare card) and it was supposed to have 100 winners, but most winners aren't being contacted or have not had their queries answered when we contact them. The way they've been treating EoJ and the fans of EoJ has been pretty crappy lately... they need to realize that every last one of us (and there are plenty of us) would be willing to buy more sets if they made them, and that new offshoots to the franchise would sell just as well as the current expansions. But they keep ignoring us...

Oh well. Tiny rant... As a huge fan of the game, I wish Sony would put a little more care into us!

[ActionBastard]

The rational, level headed complaints of Home are exactly the type of feedback Sony wants/needs. I agree with Casey. They hyped the sh!t outta it and it turned out to be half of a half of a half of what they showcased at GDC. And it's their fault. That said, what they have done with it has been great IMHO. The spaces, Xi, the consistent stream of updates...it is very cool. No, it's not perfect and yes it could be a lot more, but, isn't that why it's a beta? :)

[SprSynJn]

"They showed off features they couldn't do."

Yet, what it can't do YET. That is what he is trying to tell you, but you keep skipping over it for some reason. I have said it many times and I will continue to say it, Home is a wonderful product for its price. Since that price is $0, no one has a right to complain in my opinion. When/if we start to pay for it, then you can complain in a profession manner.

[phosphor112]

All it really says is that while they aren't working on those things we'd all like, they are working on the essentials. Ya know, maybe the ability to login just as quick as the PS3 starting up? It's all about stability and consistency at this stage. Later on they will add functionality. That's how it was for the PS3 firmware. They made sure everything was working without crashing, THEN they implemented all the other doo-dads we see today.

"Drexl: With a 3D trophy room...but for now we feel we can better spend our time building other things in Home.

TedTheDog: The sharing your trophies thing is quite important i think. Look at the number of people in the forums with signatures that have their trophy information in them. We know people want to share and friend’s lists are limited."

See that? That's them saying they AREN'T working on that just yet, but they do find it important to add that. Those statements do not formulate a lie.

Most everything else they say talk about their visions they have, and what they plan on achieving.

If you would like, point out something from that Q & A that shows that they lied to us. Enlighten me.

[SL1M DADDY]

Needs to rethink the issue. Home is free. It may not be for you. it may be successful and never come close to what you want it to. Home is what it is. It is getting bigger and better and of you can find something to complain about it, then Home is not for you.

[DoucheVader]

How many people b!tch and complain about a free service such as home. Sure it's not perfect, but the price is right.

I am not talking about standard feedback, but all out b!tching like...

OMG I will never use Home again unless the devs do XXXX.

[FPShooter]

I agree with you 100%. So many people have so many complaints about Home one would forget that its a totaly optional service with a $0.00 price tag.

I like the progress that Home has made from launch. I also realize that Home is still young and progress takes time. Home has had plenty of updates since launch and that tells me that they're trying to get closer to what more gamers want. I can admit that Home is not perfect but for that matter what is?

Home is going to be a something special someday and until then i'm just going to continue enjoying all the PS3 exclusives.

[You Already Know]

I am one of the complainers....but you do have a point...

however...saying that Home is a service that 5 million users "enjoy" is far fetched, it is a service that 5 million users have used...

and while this update sounds decent and all...I'm still not using it...it's just not my thing...

also..it's a great "free" service...but it still has a ways to go for even half the current users to actually enjoy it...

[-EvoAnubis-]

Which is fine. Home doesn't need to appeal to everyone; that's been a major strength of the PlayStation brand as a whole. As it updates and more features and spaces are available, it'll become more relevant to the community as a whole.

[Spike47]

is that it has seemed to wander off of what it was supposed to be. Unless you have clan friends or something along those lines, you will find that Home has many "special individuals".

Apart from that, Home is free and amazing for what it is.

[SL1M DADDY]

Home does not wander off of what it was supposed to be but rather what YOU thought home was supposed to be like? See, getting your hopes up the hyping something based on unofficial media will cause many to be jaded for all the wrong reasons. Heck, even Sony might have tossed out some target desires for Home but until it rolled out, there was no true facts about what it would be. Just waht people wanted it to be.

[PinkUni]

I WANT MY GAME LAUCHING

SHARING VIDEO AND PICTURES WITH FRIENDS

AND I WANT CROSS GAME CHAT!!!!!!

[jBat17]

but i'm not really sure how often i'll be visiting it.. home is a bonues.. thanks sony!.. now how about adding skype on the ps3?

[DMasta718]

All I want is for voice chat to return

[-EvoAnubis-]

Which it will, soon as Sony sorts out the bandwidth issues that required its removal in the first place.

[BRG9000]

I wish people would stop saying "Sony made a million dollars on Home!" Sony is a multibillion dollar company. A million dollars is insignificant revenue... the company makes that in a few minutes. And considering how large and long the development of Home was, and the server equipment required to support it, they have clearly poured millions and millions of dollars into creating it. One million dollars revenue for its first 6 months (though admittedly that number was reported some time ago) is not remotely impressive. Their investors, and really everyone except fanboys, do not care.

[BRG9000]

Well this article, written today, still just says "More than a million dollars since beta launched late last year." My point is that is not impressive, and is a lousy point for this article to make.

Maybe try reading the article before flaming commenters?

[-EvoAnubis-]

The reason I said "more than a million" is because there haven't been official numbers since that was announced. Made more sense than simply fabricating a number.

[Sez]

Home sucks. Get over it. I've deleted it off my ps3. And saying 5 million enjoy it. Did they do a survey to see if all 5 million love home. I think not. I've used it myself. As I said before it sucks major @zz. That just how I feel. And I know a few other that share the same feeling. It's a waste of HDD space.

[ExPresident]

Waste of HDD space in your opinion maybe. But apparently theres a large crowd that diagrees with you hence developers are supporting it and Sony is doing more and more with it. I don't use HOME much b/c chatting and using the games they have on there aren't something I'd prefer to do over other things. That being said the EA space and its Texas Holdem tables are great and a very nice addition.

That including all the bonuses games are starting to offer in HOME and to its users make it more and more appealing. Just because it isn't for you doesn't mean its trash or that there isn't a community wanting to use it.

[ultimolu]

YOU DON'T HAVE TO DOWNLOAD IT.
IT'S A FREE SERVICE.

YOU GET THE F*CK OVER IT.

[caffman]

there. Now stop shouting, its 7.26 in the frigging morning

[Sez]

My b@llz in your mouth is free. Get over it. Does that sound fair. Hum..... STFU. As I told you before. You don't want it with me. So why don't you just block me or ignore me like you do other. Your a hypocrite and a coward. F--kin c@nt.

[ultimolu]

Go f*ck yourself vega. You have some f*cking nerve calling me a hypocrite when you still own a PS3 and you hate Sony.

I'm a c*nt? I'm a damn good c*nt. Thanks for complimenting me ya d*ck.

I told you like it is. If you hate Home, don't download it. Sony didn't kick you in the balls and forced you to download it now did they?

[Sez]

first off. i was given a ps3 as a gift. not because i brought it. and i don't sell gifts. regaurdless if i like it or not. you are a hypocrite and i have proven it before. you are a coward because you like to IM people then block them. because you are afraid to here what they have to say.

no sony didn't force me to download the peice of sh!t that is home. i did it to get my own opinion. and i hate the sh!t. just like you feel you want to comment on every 360 thread. i doing the same. just cause you and other don't like what i have to say. tough sh!t.

do me a favore. get off my d!ck. and if you think i complimented you. by calling you a cunt. then you think that. you are a peice of sh!t biotch and you have to nerve to talk about me. when you hate MS and the 360. which makes you a hypocrite also. at least i speak about thing i know. you don't. i buy games to play them. do you own a 360?? no. do you buy games for the 360??? no. so how can you open your mouth and talk about something with out giving it a try. which is something i did. thats why i said home is a waste of HDD space.

[ultimolu]

Then sell it.

Why do you own one if you hate Sony with such a burning passion? It's pretty clear that you favor the 360.

And no I won't get off your d*ck. You have the f*cking nerve to call me a hypocrite when you're the one who owns a PS3 and yet you hate Sony. If I hate a company, I stay away from their products. If it was a gift, then you should have sold it.

I hear you talk sh*t about how your PS3 is getting dust and blah, blah, blah, blah and yet you haven't sold it yet.

I block people when I feel they need to be blocked. I have a right to do that. You said things that really pissed me off. Your stupidity is what pissed me off and had me respond to you. No wonder you're ignored by 62 people.

And I did play on a 360 more than once you d*ck. My brother owns one. I'm impressed with the software but the hardware is something else. That's why I don't own one as of right now. I don't entirely hate Microsoft as you're ranting about. I only hate their tactics and the way they try to buy their way through competition this generation.

You, on the other hand are hating on Sony for something that happened years ago and YET YOU STILL OWN A PS3.

Who's the hypocrite now?

Like I said, you are a JOKE.

Don't pass yourself as a gamer because you are not a gamer.

And stick your own balls in your mouth. I wouldn't want to touch those things with a ten foot pole.

Goodday.

[Sez]

i see you really want some attention. so by all means let me give you some. ok. your telling me to put my own balls in my mouth. yet you won't get off my d!ck. how stupid do you sound. i mean if your so much on my d!ck. why not get the ballz. i think you need to calm down and think before you post a comment. the only one the sounds stupid is you.

"I block people when I feel they need to be blocked. I have a right to do that. You said things that really pissed me off. Your stupidity is what pissed me off and had me respond to you. No wonder you're ignored by 62 people"-
1) so let me get this straight. you blocked me after you sent me a IM because of my stupidity..... ah first off you didn't give me a chance to answer your comment. because you blocked me after you made your comment jack@ss. thats why i called you out off-topic.

2) do i care if 62 or 100 people on this site ignores me?? no i don't. because all of them or guess?? SONYFANBOYS. and because i don't have sony's nutz in my mouth. they hate me and ignore me.

yes i hate sony. so what. why do i have to sell my ps3 that was given to me. what to make you happy. to f@ckin bad. i not. and i will bash sony as much as i want. it pisses you off so much. stop being a internet thug and do something about it. make me sell it. if not STFU and keep being on my d!ck. but please oh please get my nutz. lol

the only person here thats a joke? is you. i must have really hurt your feeling. because you feel the need to post a comment to me. do you like me or something? usaully i stay away from people i hate. but for some reason you feel this need to respond to my comments. get a life.

i'm not here to kiss your @zz or anybody elses. i post my opinion about how i feel about a curtain article. just as many of you do. you don't have to like what i say. hell you don't have to agree with what i have to say. same goes for me. but it's my opinion and i'm entitle to it.

Edit: by the way. i don't care if you use your other accounts to disagree with me or ignore me. it doesn't change how i feel. and it doesn't affect me. as it does so many of you sonyfanclowns.ok good day.

[JD_Shadow]

Dude, it's alright. We all know you're just mad because your 360 red ringed. It's okay. You WILL get through it. Not like it's ever been the first time, either.

Maybe if, you know, play GAMES on the PS3 instead of b!tching on here, you MIGHT actually ENJOY the system that you CLAIM you own.

[Sez]

for real dude... thats all you could come up with? are you new here are something? or is it that sonyfanboys just that retarded? i mean which one is it. because you could look at my avatar an see i have a ps3 (that i claimed right), you could of look at in my bio's and see my gametag and see what i have been playing(that i claimed right), you could of even look at some of my past comments and seen that i own and sold KZ2 after i finished it (that i claimed right)

i mean was that the best you could think of my 360 got RRoD. let me explain something to you. i'm still on my first 360 (launch at that) for going on 4 years. never had a problem yet. and i own over 45 games for my 360. so i have plenty to play. i own 5 games for the ps3 and one on the HDD. so i have played games on the ps3.

the problem is not me playing games on the ps3 which if you look up my gametag. you would see what i played last. maybe if sonyfanclowns would buy games instead of preach "when (insert game here) comes out. people will run out and buy a ps3" maybe,just maybe. games would sell on the ps3.

but i guess that was your dumb@ss (or whatever that was surpose to be) rebutal to help out ultimolu. i think you guys are related. be cause you both say the dumbest things.

[n4gn4gn4gn4g]

to a random blog whine instead?

Pot meet Black.

[I_LOVE_MYSELF]

No U

[Homicide]

Are trophy rooms available yet?

[PokemonMaster]

Of course not, that's what I'm looking forward too but its taking centuries.....

[Silly gameAr]

I was skeptical of Home at first, but seeing the continued support of Sony and 3rd party companies, I can see what Home can become. It will take time, but with all the new stuff that keeps coming, i think Home will eventually become a selling point for the PS3.

Now let's get some custom music and streaming video and it's on.

[LiquifiedArt]

As much as i'm a SONY diehard and will never own an xbox, HOME has problems. The idea is nice, but the execution is lacking and its not just cause of limited content, which is understandable.

There are a few main problems I see.

The first, is HOME is not part of the playstation experience. That really causes issues, because it feels very separate. Its not intergrated directly into your weekly gaming experiences. That is a major flaw. I do use HOME, but my train of thought goes something like this, "Ok. Do I want to go to Home or Play X Game?" It should never be like that. It needs to be streamlined and made part of a cohesive whole.

The second, The "HOME is for casual and Hardcore alike." mentality has diminished the light of the, What I call, "Cool Factor". Very robotic, very dull, very reality. Reality means its similar to real life. In which case, it loses a lot of its interest. It needs to be Stylized. Yes the costumes help with that, but everything feels very "Cleanroom". Maybe being able to alter sizes of limbs and muscles would help with that. Right now everyone is either 150lbs or 200lbs with a bear belly. Where is an avatar with just a large frame, who is muscular? (i know clothing implementation would have problems with this, but it detracts from the experience). A LittleBigPlanet version of HOME would be much more stylized and just as personalized.

The third, Space interaction. Instancing is fine. Problem is spaces do NOT feel like a cohesive whole. I cant just wander the world and end up in the rock band district of HOME. The only way to access them is using you menu. At minimum, Company spaces, should exist and be directly intergrated into the world. Then inside those spaces, each company adds and removes other spaces. They would do this for new and old games. That would make it feel more like a 'Gamer World' and not so much a place where your individual experience varies. Once again "Cohesive Whole" is an important phrase.

The fourth, Lack of Home Party System. If I want to meet up with a buddy and putz around, we have to constantly "Join Friend", he can't just be sucked into whatever space I visit. Another way to do it, is simply have an option where "Forced Space Change" is disabled so that if he wants to go to the mall first, it will still allow him to do so. When he then travels to the bowling alley, it should automatically bring him into my instance. The need for a group chat instead of 1 on 1 phone call is also neccessary.

I'm sure I could think of others.
Will I still use HOME? yes.
Does it have potential? Yes.
Do I think Sony lacks Direction on HOME? DEFINETLY.

I really hope they reorganize the cards in their hands and play the right onse. Most hardcore gamers, who happen to be the playstation's target audience, who buy the games, don't use HOME. Thats a problem.

I will continue to be vocal about these things in hopes Sony reads it at sometime.

~LiquifiedArt

[callahan09]

I agree Home could use some improving, but it's cool now too, and it's free, so I'm not as vocal about complaining as some people are.

The only thing you mentioned that I think would actually get me to go into Home more often and get a significant amount more fun out of it would be the simple idea you had where you could travel the entire world cohesively and wind up anywhere, without having to go into the menus to transport to places like the Resident Evil space.

[-EvoAnubis-]

If you check the links in my article, you can see that there is a place for you to voice what you think should happen in Home. Instead of posting things in random places and hoping that Sony will read it, how's about posting it where they're certain to? You have a lot of good points, and I'd hate to see them ignored simply because you didn't do it in the right place.

[neogeo]

This new movie maker will be huge! thanks to youtube! think about the stuff that will be made! talented people will make amazing movies and youtube will show them with millions of views. Home makes 3rd parties tons of money. i already bought 2 games just because of HOME. RE5 and Godfather 2, If i had not seen the spaces i would not have paid money. Also home will be here for many years. PS4 will have HOME with all the old spaces and new ps4 spaces that cant be seen without ps4, Heck it will be in PS5. HOME is here 2 stay forever! like it or not.

[ultimolu]

If you don't like Home, don't download it.
It's not forced upon you.

[SlaughterMeister]

Home is boring, period.

Sony claimed it would be a great experience where you could roam and explore vast online communities from which you could boot your games, movies, etc, and in which you could meet tons of new and interesting people, then show off your amazing 3D trophy collection to said people.

Instead, it's limited, you have to wait for everything, the games-once you get to play them-are simplistic and get boring very quickly, you get the same conversations there that you get at any old social networking site, and we CAN'T SHOW OFF OUR TROPHIES IN 3D!

It's an excuse for Sony to charge us money for nothing. I understand that PSN is free and they have to make money somewhere, but tack on a couple bucks to the games or something. Then, at least, I actually GOT SOMETHING for my money. Instead I get a fake t-shirt for my avatar who looks like a mannequin come to life then immediately ran to the closest hospital for a lobotomy.

Home sucks, I'll complain all I want.

[ReBurn]

I haven't signed into Home since early January. Not sure what's been added since then, but in January it was pretty boring.

[panasonic23]

My ballz in your mouth is free. Get over it. DAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!!!

[Lifewish]

this service is a success in Sony's eyes and really is a solid service. It makes money and with the content streaming in there is a lot to do. It will just take some time to fully perfect it, just like it took them some time with the XMB to get everything working.