10 Quick Ways To Improve Home

Home is finally here. Well, sort of. Home version 1.03 was released on December 11 as an open beta for all PlayStation 3 owners. Sadly, the only thing this barren version of Home is doing is adding to the growing worry that Sony have created something that no one wants. So, how can Sony give people a reason to care about Home? Here are ten quick ways to do exactly that.

[ArtisianDragon]

Actually this was pretty nice article to read through, some of the improvements I whole heartedly agree with. Only thing I'd like to add is the streaming music and all of that jazz. Other than that I can't find much fault with the article and found it to be a pretty nice read.

[marinelife9]

Great ideas in the article. Sony says they're listening for advice so hopefully some of them get implemented.

I would also add

1. A deck of playing cards (poker, spades etc would be great to play at someone's house or just outside in the main plaza)

2. Updated content that is exclusive to home. (Put all the new videos, trailers, contest, betas etc all in home and make them exclusive there)

3. Keep it fresh. Update the content daily. Twice a day if you have to. Home becomes stale as soon as you think you've seen everything. Playing the same Far Cry trailer over and over again will keep people from even visiting the main plaza.

[ArtisianDragon]

Yes cards would be something that is always welcome in any place [thought those would have been included in the first run of home in the first place, but meh. Hopefully they will be put in soon enough.]

As for the fresh content, definitely. Sat in the theater a couple of times, thought a new trailer would show after seeing the previous trailer. Was quite surprised to see the same trailer playing over and over again. So yeah something new playing all the time would be nice [though I wouldn't mind if they did type of a random and repeat of trailers that have been shown in Home. Just so long as one of the same trailers isn't playing back to back again.

[cliffbo]

yeah i can go along with those suggestions... except the last lol.

this is what Sony want, so i'm all for sensible suggestions without the fanboy krap

[ArtisianDragon]

The last one I just took as a quick jab, I mean he did put 'kidding, kidding' so I just went with that and got a quick little giggle in from it :).

[cain141]

It's going to be a work in progress. Need to give sony some time to work out the kinks...

[shoinan]

It's been nearly two years since they announced it... that's some work in progress!

[dannyhinote_13]

Home has unlimited potential, but as of right now, Sony is giving few reasons to join their virtual world.

Until there's a compelling reason for me and my friends to join, we will stay away.

[cain141]

I agree...

[italianbreadman]

As do I. It just seems so empty.

[xwabbit]

Y is this on the xbox section LOL ?

[predator]

How about make HOME the same in all regions for a start lol

[cain141]

That won't ever happen... Unfortunatly...

[ahnonamis]

They'll worry about improving it AFTER the mainstream press stops talking about how awesome and totally revolutionary it is.

[cain141]

Most the people in the press I know have been trashing it. Then again they work for smaller sites lol...

[heyheyhey]

link one article in the past 7 days that has been praising Home.... it's time for Sony to get a move on with Home or people will forget all about it

[thegamereviews]

So far Home has not lived up to the hype. It is a fairly sterile environment fueled by micro transactions and heavy load times. I cannot see this as something that is sustainable.

[ps3king]

Your spelling is great. Good job!!

[HemDroid]

.

[NovaUK]

I knew there was a lot of hype surrounding Home at launch, a lot of people believing it would be a great social networking service - all the better that it was on a games console.
One particular reason I feel that the Home service has reached a less-than-desirable number of users is that many consumers bought the PlayStation 3 as a cheaper blu-ray player or weren't really interested in the networking side of games. It's fair to say that most gamers who wanted a strong network service have already become Xbox Live subscribers and taking some of Live's market share is going to be something of an uphill struggle for Sony.

[Keele]

You can't improve that which sucks.

[heyheyhey]

wha...... i definitely wouldn't vote for you as president sheesh

[Nicaragua17]

LOL exactly,that's why the Xbox 360 still suffers from RROD and it still continues to suck!!

[Socomer 1979]

come visit our American HOME.
its always popping here. Alot of people & lots of girls.

Just for the fck of it , I go into home & read my magazine.
I sold virtual weed in home. I've passed on porn pics in home.
I even went to sullys bar & mended a broken heart with some
Women advice because he got caught cheating on his girl.

I play music from my iPhone & got a battle rap going.
I'm a show stopper!

[aiphanes]

You can do a lot right now in HOME is you really put your mind into it...be creative...its looks like a lot of people lost that creativity...

And sony is one of the best companies at adding cool and useful stuff to there services and systems...

Look at what the PS Store was like 2 years ago....look at it now..
Look at what the PS3 firmware was like 2 years ago...look at what it can do right now.

HOME will be totally awesome within 1 year...

[Mitch_Cumstein]

Girls don't have adam's apples. Those are trannies little buddy.

[christian hour]

You actually use "Girls in home" as a plus? You do know there are girls outside HOME right? Right outside your WINDOW! Except those girls aren't males with female avatars like the ones in HOME.

From my time in HOME i've had one good conversation with a man from scotland about amsterdam and how great the weed is over there. Every other time its just been a bunch of idiots spurting random crap. OR dancing... people just dancing.

My main beef with Home is that you can do all these things but you either have to wait in line, or you have to wait for something to download or load for the next area. Where I'd be quicker just downloading the trailer off the PSN or off XBL or even my god damned PC. I'd be even quicker renting a lane at a real bowling alley than waiting for a virtual one.

Oh and HOME avatars are lifeless looking, and they all end up looking the same. For something thats been in a closed beta for a good few months, been in development 3 years (from what i've heard) well then this just isn't acceptable or fun. But then again the idea of a social networking world never appealed to me. I don't like MMO's or things like second life. The only people I game with are people I know or have met through people I know. So I guess I wasn't going to like HOME in the first place :P

But yeah okay, to the point, short and sweet.

Sony could have spent all this time its been working on HOME getting its service and utilities on par with xbox and xbox live. Saying all that, I love my ps3. I just wish it could do the things my xbox can do sometimes... and then again i wish my 360 could do the things my ps3 can do :P

[Mitch_Cumstein]

which means Sony has an excuse for Home being terrible. Oh and I just wanted to congratulate all the PS3 Fanboys for forcing Sony to abandon voice chat as a result of all the pedophiles cussing like drunken sailors in Home. Someone has spiked all that kool-aid PS3 Fanboys have been sipping. What a classy bunch.

[JOEdANGEL]

For all the hooplah home received, it was really disappointing to me. If they even implement just the trophy reward system they were talking about it would make it ten times better. Im sorry but the prices they're charging for clothes and other items is total rubbish.

[heyheyhey]

i don't agree with #2.... again it should OPTIONALLY replace the XMB... im sure a lot of people would object to the idea though... it's a cool concept, but in practice would probably be cumbersome

[Socomer 1979]

you wish home & ps3 didn't get any better.
its too bad that it will.

Psp xmb interface in home.
streaming movies, music & live events.
game launching. Developer spaces. More !

I'm part of making psn better!

[darthv72]

A nice amusement park where the avatars can go on rides and play carnival type games as well as arcade games. "Step right up and win the little lady a virtual cupie doll"

Or maybe sony can open up the world map to.....the world? I'd like to see spaces from the likes of japan and europe. Being stuck in one territory sucks. Even if they opt to create some type of travel system where you get on a little plane or boat and go to another countries home server(s).

Some much possibilities......

[christian hour]

Makes you wonder doesn't it? When users can come up with a million better ideas for HOME and how to improve it, yet Sony has been paying guys for 3 years now to make HOME good or fun and... well You've visited HOME haven't you? What the hell have they been doing with all the time its been in development and in Beta?