Playstation Home: First Impressions

Welcome Home?

After it was unveiled in early 2007, many wondered what Playstation Home would offer gamers, and how the service would impact the appeal of the Playstation 3.


Sure customizable avatars were a given, but what other features would it bring to make us want to play and explore in a networked environment? Finally, after nearly two years of waiting, Home beta has debuted.

Before you can roam like a nomad through your virtual paradise, you will begin by creating your personal avatar, naturally by altering the usual facial and body specs. Clothing choices are few and far between, but you are able to purchase additional choices later. After your avatar is complete, you are then welcomed to your apartment, which starts as a pretty empty and basic pad. Luckily, you can purchase additional items to compliment your taste, which I will discuss later.

Unfortunately, I already noticed a bug in Home where I got stuck within the glass doorway outside of my apartment. I was only able to move repeatedly in a circular motion, as if blindfolded like a piñata awaiting its impending bashing. I was forced to access the main Start menu in order to spare myself from a continuous nauseating torture.

The Home "Central Plaza"

The Home setup is essentially a virtual playground of different areas to explore, while being able to interact with other Playstation Network users. After leaving your apartment, you enter The Central Plaza, which basically serves as your main hub world. You can approach the real users’ avatars as they roam around, voice or text chat with them, and can even hear them speaking over their microphone headsets when you’re nearby. From here, you are free to wander around, talk with people, or visit some of the surrounding areas within the plaza.

The Central Plaza hub world is somewhat large and can be tiresome to walk through. Luckily, at any time you can access the Main Menu by pressing the start button, where you can shortcut key your way to any location without having to walk there. You also have immediate access to your wardrobe for a quick clothing change.

Another area to explore is a beautiful two-story Mall. The Mall includes shops such as "Threads," a place to update your avatar's lackluster wardrobe. A lot of clothing options are marked as "coming soon" but at least there's potential.

My biggest gripe is that like in “Second Life” you actually have to spend money on your digital threads. I'm pretty sure my avatar doesn't need a new $0.49 hoodie at this point, but I could be wrong.

They also have a furniture store within the Mall, where you can buy furnishings and accessories for your pad. Perhaps you want to splurge on a new Summer House Armchair for $0.99? A lot of the other stores are more of a "coming soon" ad for what’s to come, which is promising.
What is extremely cool about the upper level of the Mall is the big screen TV, which streams Pulse, a video presentation of The Playstation Network. The video is essentially a run down of all things Playstation, including games, TV and Blu-Ray releases. The big screen element really makes you feel like your avatar is a true representation of yourself, where you and a bunch of the Playstation avatars crowd around and actually watch what is on the screen. It's a really neat element that is explored further in the area called Home Theatre.

Currently, the only thing to view in the theatre, at least while I visited, was a trailer for the motion picture “Twilight,” which wasn't anything groundbreaking.

It may low on content now, but I can see the Theatre becoming a great way for Sony to share exclusive news and information about upcoming titles.

The next area, The Bowling Alley, was the most crowded area amongst the avatars and where I spent most of my time. There, you are able to play several arcade games, shoot some virtual pool and of course bowl. Being able to walk up and bowl or play pool with other Home users is a really cool feature, especially for free.

What makes the Bowling Alley somewhat lifelike, or annoying, is that the occasional microphone equipped teenager will scream and generally be obnoxious for all to hear, similar to a crowd at a real bowling alley. Luckily, if you walk far enough away you can't hear them anymore.

What I don't really understand about the Bowling Alley is that there are only five lanes, which for me meant not ever being able to play because they were always occupied. I attempted about a half dozen times, but to no avail. I'm not sure why there aren't infinite lanes open, but again, Home is only in beta and things will probably improve.

Overall, my impressions of Home do leave me a bit underwhelmed. It has great potential to be a feature that could draw gamers in. I think the key is having more to do within the environments and more interactivity between the users. Home should strive to be more of a virtual theme park, rather than a virtual museum.

I would be thrilled to have Home act as my Playstation’s start up menu, where when I start up my PS3 game or Blu-Ray disc, I feel like I'm in a virtual world. Maybe people on my friends list see what I’m watching, and opt to join in watching with me. Again, just ideas, but I see potential for Home which is exciting. And in all honesty, there's no reason for Sony not take big risks and try new things to increase hardware sales if nothing else. But at this point, this is not a service that will get anyone to go out and buy the system.

If Blu-Ray hasn't been a surefire selling point for the PS3, Home certainly will not be.



Jason Leavey