[Official] Playstation Home

[Sethos]

DM not being able to login sounds like a problem :p

Lies, all lies

[Rappy Veteran]

Lies, all lies

Sony Blog doesn't agree with you :p

We are aware that some people may be experiencing difficulty in accessing the PlayStation Home beta at present. This is due to overwhelming demand for the service as people access Home for the very first time since it became Open Beta and appeared on the XMB.

While we prepare solutions to ease the problem, you may continue to experience difficulties accessing Home. We kindly ask for your patience as we work to meet the incredible demand for this revolutionary service.

[Sethos]

"revolutionary service" .... :|

[TDQuiksilver]

It's a shame that some of you do nothing other than critique everything you get your hands on. Can't you just try to enjoy it for once?

It's a beta. It has issues. But hey... atleast we finally got it! There is lots of fun to be had with this. :D

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

What's wrong with criticizing something? It lets the developers know what gamers aren't happy with and then they'll go and change/improve it (Y)

[kyro]

wont get there in HOME till they introduce new space or that redbull plane game .

probably in next weekend. this weekend i am all full with work.

[TDQuiksilver]

What's wrong with criticizing something? It lets the developers know what gamers aren't happy with and then they'll go and change/improve it (Y)

It's not the criticizing that's wrong. It's the inability of some forum go'ers around here to actually enjoy a product without being nitpicky that gets a little old. I'm just saying - can't we atleast discuss all the positive aspects and potential possibilities of Home without finding a way to talk it down?

Sony is finally finding their own way to bring the Playstation community together. And that is pretty important this day in age.

[Ironman273]

It's not the criticizing that's wrong. It's the inability of some forum go'ers around here to actually enjoy a product without being nitpicky that gets a little old. I'm just saying - can't we atleast discuss all the positive aspects and potential possibilities of Home without finding a way to talk it down?

Sony is finally finding their own way to bring the Playstation community together. And that is pretty important this day in age.

That's not criticizing. That's ignoring any negative aspects and only talking about positives. In other words, undeserved adulation. As for bringing the community together, a lot of people would disagree with you. If you think it's just the "fanboys" of Neowin read the link from Gizmodo and Penny Arcade I posted.

[Emil Valsson]

I amazed Sony didn't see this "demand" coming. Getting really tired of all those delays, screwups and whatnot coming from that company.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

We need the USA music box :p

By the way, useful list of unlockables for Home/Namco Museum

Echochrome

4000 points on stage 1: Echochrome outfit (pants, shoes, gloves, shirt) x2 for male and female

10000 points on stage 1: Some sort of trophy

6000 points on Stage 2: Echochrome t-shirt and

10000 points on stage 2: Thinking man statue

20000 points on Stage 3: Echochrome table

Ice Breaker

Ice Breaker beanie hat - level 5

Ice breaker shirt - level 8

Ice breaker pants - level 13

Ice breaker shoes - level 16

Penguin Ornament/Statue - level 20

Carriage Return

No known awards for this arcade game.

Namco Beta-From Japanese PSN Store

Make a japanese PSN Account: http://blogs.ign.com/xheavenxsentx/2006/12/09/39684/

Search until you see a namco download (its a big namco n). download, and install.

Pac-Man

1 Cherry - 1 gift in Home

1 Strawberry - 1 gift in Home

Beat first level - 1 gift in Home

Eat all 4 ghosts with one power pellet. - 1 gift in Home

Galaga

Beat Stage 1 - 1 gift in Home

Beat Stage 2 - 1 gift in Home

Get a Dual Fighter (let one of the yellow guys capture a ship then get it back by killing yellow guy) - 1 gift in Home

Get Your Ship Captured & Destroy It - 1 gift in Home

Dig-Dug

Beat first stage - 1 gift in Home

Get carrot in 1st stage - 1 gift in Home

Get turnip in second stage - 1 gift in Home

Kill 2 monsters with 1 rock - 1 gift in Home

Xevious

Complete first area

Complete second area

Find the Sol Tower using a bomb

http://media.strategywiki.org/images/d/dc/...ous_TowersA.jpg

Find the flag and retrieve it using a bomb.

http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Image:Xevious_FlagA.jpg

Male gifts from Namco beta

* Namco hat

* 5 t-shirts

* 1 pair of shorts

Female gifts from Namco beta

* 5 t-shirts

* 1 pair of shorts

* 1 pair of shoes

Home space decoration/furniture from Namco beta

* 4 arcade cabinet

* 1 pooka statue

* 1 Namco chair

* 1 four in one table top arcade cabinet (to get the 4-in-1 table game cabinet, you need to unlock all 4 available achievements for all 4 games to get to Level 3)

[FiB3R]

I take it those will work with the Hong Kong version too? The GF is currently hogging the TV, so I can't find out for myself.

[soniqstylz]

DM not being able to login sounds like a problem :p

Nah, it's good for the rest of us ;)

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Ooooh low blow :p

Don't woo wike me Soniq? :(

[TDQuiksilver]

That's not criticizing. That's ignoring any negative aspects and only talking about positives. In other words, undeserved adulation. As for bringing the community together, a lot of people would disagree with you. If you think it's just the "fanboys" of Neowin read the link from Gizmodo and Penny Arcade I posted.

You're off base and clearly not understanding. Without taking your flame bait, allow me to try to clarify further:

A lot of people would also agree that Home is what the Playstation brand needs to make a name for itself as far as forming a "community" goes. Forming an online networking presence is what it really, really needs. Take a stroll through the PSN boards - people have been begging for this thing for quite some time. It's no secret.

You will have those that are never pleased and those that are thankful for finally having something. I don't know about you, but I would never let the opinions of a news website (ala Gizmodo, Penny Arcade and the sorts) ever sway my judgement when it comes to digital entertainment. There are people we refer to as sheep - those who will gobble up every bit of opinion a site spits out at them. Surely you're not one of them?

What I'm ultimately getting at is instead of continuing to fill a hole with endless banter and nothing of real value to the project - go and actually sit down with Home, give it a good long play, interact with everything and try to see what it has brought and can bring to the table. There is a ton of room for expansion here.

Allow Home to grow and mature. Let the community provide legitimate feedback needed to polish the service into what it can become. You might be pleasantly surprised one day. Just maybe.

And yes, even legitimate feedback could have negative points - but you've heard of constructive criticism right? I would call that welcomed feedback - and that's exactly what developers need to fine tune this product. I guess what I'm asking for is useful feedback.

I'm just wondering if it's entirely possible for people around here to actually get off the anti-Sony bandwagon for a day and give Home a shot. As we hear with any software around here... it's still in beta! ;)

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

A good read over at Eurogamer..

One of the stranger things about PlayStation Home - and there are a great many strange things about PlayStation Home - is the experience of being in a virtual world without the slightest hint of fantasy about it.

It's hardly real life, of course. We don't live in a permanently sunny West Coast d'Azur lesiure complex, spend our days jogging between the bowling alley and the mall, or stand around in cinema lobbies doing the funky chicken in slouch pants. But this a purely contemporary, commercial, aspirational kind of escapism; a marketing fantasy.

So everyone looks like a 20-something male in bland, high street casual fashion, because that's who everyone actually is. You can only do things you might do in real life - chat, watch film trailers, play a frame of pool, or maybe a videogame. Conceptually this makes sense. It's not alienating, it's easy to identify with, and the socialising and advertising are entirely in context. But you're left pondering the inevitable question: why would you want to spend any time here?

This dislocation combines with one of the other strange things about Home. It's a virtual world populated by console gamers, many of whom are familiar with the interactions and social etiquette of massively-multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft, or even tweenie hangouts like Habbo Hotel.

At the moment - and we must remember that Home's beta only went open to all today - it's an unruly melee of greasy flirting, spammed greetings and aimless A/S/L enquiries. Female avatars get attention everywhere, but in Home, they're absolutely mobbed, relentlessly shadowed, danced at and messaged. It doesn't help that most people don't have keyboards plugged in and aren't brave enough to use voice.

Continues..

[Ricardo Gil]

I've been trying to log in with my EUR account since yesterday, but it just keeps failing. Either the server doesn't exist or some timeout occurs. Funny thing is if I try it with my USA/JAP accounts it works. I guess Europe as usual is getting the short end of the stick.

Meanwhile, no matter what region I log in to, Home sets its interface to Spanish... wtf?

@TDQuiksilver:

How can someone even enjoy something that's broken?

I was cursing Home even before I managed to connect, that says something I guess.

[TDQuiksilver]

I've been trying to log in with my EUR account since yesterday, but it just keeps failing. Either the server doesn't exist or some timeout occurs. Funny thing is if I try it with my USA/JAP accounts it works. I guess Europe as usual is getting the short end of the stick.

Meanwhile, no matter what region I log in to, Home sets its interface to Spanish... wtf?

@TDQuiksilver:

How can someone even enjoy something that's broken?

I was cursing Home even before I managed to connect, that says something I guess.

While I understand your frustration - realize that it's not "broken" for everybody. Again, it's beta.. it has it's issues.. and things will hopefully get ironed out here. Connectivity issues are huge and I fully expect those to be at the top of the list.

People kicked and screamed for it. They got it. Now let's not bite the hand that feeds.

[Ji@nBing]

IGN's take on it:

Chris' Take

If I had to describe Home in one word, it would be "boring". Yep, I'm bored to death with Home. I've only found two things that are entertaining for more than about 30 seconds: griefing and trying to enter the Matrix (read: break the game).

Greg's Take

After seeing PlayStation Home at GDC 2007 and the handful of events that followed through the months, I wasn't impressed. The social networking application seemed empty, limited, and bare. Why would people want to load a virtual world to find a friend to load another game and launch that title? Now, after a month or so in the beta and taking a few hours to fool with the final product, I can finally weigh in with an informed opinion.

PlayStation Home is dumb.

Jeff's Take

I've said it since Home was announced, and I'll say it again: Home is perhaps one of the biggest mistakes that Sony has ever made. Plagued with bugs, delays and a significant lack of content, this is a gimmick, a boondoggle that was gambled on by Sony to drag users away to a virtual space that would hopefully compete with the popularity of the Nintendo Miis and the large amount of content delivered weekly to the Xbox Live Marketplace. But there are way too many issues with the service to make it worth anyone's time.

Ryan's Take

I think it's safe to say that I'm the only editor in the IGN office that enjoys Home. Granted, my experience with the Beta has been limited, but what I've seen has pleased me -- at least mildly. I think we have to keep in mind, when considering Sony's virtual space software, that Home is indeed just that: an avenue for straight-forward social interaction dressed up in nice clothes. Furthermore, it has incredible potential for growth, if it's continually supported. I'm in full agreement with the general populace that Home should have hit the PlayStation Network a long, long time ago, but now that it's here I'm happy to see it.

More @ IGN

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

a boondoggle that was gambled on by Sony to drag users away to a virtual space that would hopefully compete with the popularity of the Nintendo Miis and the large amount of content delivered weekly to the Xbox Live Marketplace

Fair enough IGN on the opinions, but I'm sorry WTF does Home have to do with the Xbox Live Marketplace?

That's where the Playstation store competes...

I can understand the critique day 1 as there isn't a lot of content, but those journalists saying it's "dumb" and everything else, it would be nice for them to return to share their views in 3/6/12 months time as well as the service matures and picks up in content.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

The big names definitely aren't liking it, not a good start!

[TDQuiksilver]

Fair enough IGN on the opinions, but I'm sorry WTF does Home have to do with the Xbox Live Marketplace?

That's where the Playstation store competes...

I can understand the critique day 1 as there isn't a lot of content, but those journalists saying it's "dumb" and everything else, it would be nice for them to return to share their views in 3/6/12 months time as well as the service matures and picks up in content.

Exactly what I'm trying to say too.

[Sethos]

Stop covering over it, every corner of the normalized Internet hates it, what is a few months gonna do?! They can add contents and that won't make this anymore fun?! It's the core "gameplay" of home that is boring.

[spenser.d]

Exactly what I'm trying to say too.

I'm sure those journalists will return with their views of it in time. At the moment it seems like a broken service that Sony definitely needs to get on improving, fast. I don't think it's fair of you to try and silence those that are criticizing it when it seems that all the criticism is justified, at least for the time being.

Nobody is saying Home won't or can't improve, but this is another one of those times (and Sony's had a lot of these) where Sony's hyped something of theirs up and didn't deliver on the hype.

-Spenser

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Exactly what I'm trying to say too.

Just ride the storm, we're used to it like nothing else this generation!

Everything is ripped to shreds in light of the console war. Look at how grim it was to be a PS3 owner in 2006/early 2007 when PSN was getting all the work done to it - No one looked to the future, it was just all "Sony is over" "PSN is epic fail", "PS3 should be scratched" etc.

And in regards to those comments I'm talking about journalistic headlines/articles, as opposed to Joe Bloggs having a rant on a messageboard.

No way in hell disregarding how badly in need of all the FW updates the PS3 was either, but at the time [like now with Home], there are those in the media who'll start turning the cogs of no hope at all, all over again.

You can't exactly blame them on face value though [due to the bare-bones of Home right now], so just bite the bullet and hope Sony change the opinions of the critics by delivering good content, and building the service into something unique and worth PS3 owners time.

I'm sure those journalists will return with their views of it in time. At the moment it seems like a broken service that Sony definitely needs to get on improving, fast. I don't think it's fair of you to try and silence those that are criticizing it when it seems that all the criticism is justified, at least for the time being.

Nobody is saying Home won't or can't improve, but this is another one of those times (and Sony's had a lot of these) where Sony's hyped something of theirs up and didn't deliver on the hype.

-Spenser

Yeah I agree with this (Y)

However the service itself was never going to be a day 1 blow out hit, it's all about maturing and evolving along a timeline of continually adding/changing and building content. Much of that content will be influenced by user feedback, so it's essential to get people into Home, using and testing it and feeding back information about what they want to see.

[Brad.]

The big names definitely aren't liking it, not a good start!

If anyone says it was a good start they need their head checked. Went round my mate Daniels today to try it out. Couldn't connect! hahahah