So it looks like Sony's Home is having a few problems, though I could have told you this was going to happen a year ago--and smugly, too, because I'm a jerk. But rest assured; I'm not the only one on the Internet who thinks he knows everything. The general consensus with Home since its initial announcement has been "Really? They're still doing that? Well, good for them, I guess." In this case, I think the poor developers can be excused; you have to really feel for them on this project, what with its monstrous scope and need for indefinite maintenance as a permanent beta. What's blameworthy in the whole Home fiasco is the fundamentally flawed idea of a virtual world, which seemed like the coolest idea in the world until we all got computers and discovered all the things we wanted them to do were completely asinine. As a society, we shared a day of lament for ever liking Lawnmower Man.
But back in the early 90s, virtual reality was all the rage; for a ludicrous amount of money, you could put on a digital wetsuit and stumble around in a world of geometric shapes before all the vomiting started five minutes later. And this need for "virtual spaces" eventually moved to the Internet with VRML, a new web language that promised to turn poorly-designed web sites into poorly-designed 3D representations of poorly-designed web sites. But then we all realized this was stupid, useless, and far less intuitive than clicking a mouse to get where you needed to go; the empty gesturing of a virtual world doesn't really add anything aside from draping an unnecessary layer of "reality" over what should be simple actions. Yet, here we are, about ten years after we started knowing better, and Home continues to exist.
It's plain to see why Sony wants Home to succeed so much; to those uninitiated with technology, the idea of a virtual world is an enticing one; and Sony is certainly looking for an audience outside of their hardcore regulars. But I'd argue that even though my mom might find the idea fascinating, if she bought a PS3 for Home (probably the most unlikely thing on the planet), she'd be the victim of virtual sexual assault roughly 10 minutes after logging in. After all, this is what people do with technology--just look at Second Life (don't look at it, please), which has become the Internet's pervert headquarters in recent years. When you give people a virtual world, the first thing they do in it is find innovative new ways to masturbate. But I really don't blame them; I mean, you need something to do while you're there, right? Might as well start touching yourself.
The problem with the idea of virtual space for the sake of virtual space isn't exclusive to Home, though; it's one of the main reasons I've stopped playing quite a few games. Nothing is worse than wandering through giant vistas, towns, etc. with nothing to do from point A to point B just because a design team wanted you to experience a 1:1 ration of what it's like to wander aimlessly from point A to point B in the real world. Series like Persona have realized the problems (and budget concerns) with building a virtual world, and have been using menu-based movement pretty effectively without any tangible loss to the player. Though I guess if walking your fake character onto a fake train to go to a fake store in a fake town is your thing, Home may be up your alley--but it's probably more important to go to your time machine and get back to 1995 before you disrupt the space-time continuum and destroy existence as we know it. Thanks in advance.
Related Links:
Getting Started With Home: A Diary
Heading Home: Revisiting the Curious Case of Playstation Home
Playstation Home: All Your Worst Fears Realized To Hilarious Results
