Voice chat re-added to Home today

There was an amusing snippet on Home on Playr this weekend. They noted that everyone on there was a bloke, so changed their avatar into a woman. Cue instant harassment from 90% of the Home population, guys following them around like horny dogs, lines of people wanting to ‘chat’, and an in-box full of unsolicited friends requests.

@ Blerk
Wow! Who would have thought so … ? *yawn*

As I said before, I had a lot of good chats on HOME so far. Some very good conversations.

And here’s my secret recipe:
1.) I’m a female character since day one! I look like an independent, well educated young girl. I wear trousers (never skirts), have very short hair and the smallest tits possible.
2.) And I ONLY chat with other girls (which are boys too of course, at least 90% of ‘em).

And guess what: It works very well! This way, your chance of meeting nice people is much higher!
Now I hope, not too many people here read this and act alike.

@Blerk

I really find that side of Home creepy/sad. To be fair, the Eurozone servers seem far more normal, and whilst there’s still a male heavy bias, the female avatars that are there don’t get swamped.

It’s nice to see gamers living up to their reputation.

“And here’s my secret recipe:
1.) I’m a female character since day one! I look like an independent, well educated young girl. I wear trousers (never skirts), have very short hair and the smallest tits possible.
2.) And I ONLY chat with other girls (which are boys too of course, at least 90% of ‘em).”

Wow. That’s just shocking.

I’m shocked that you pretend to be a girl online, in order to talk to other girls, 90% of whom turn out to be boys!

Seriously… that’s just very sad.

No I don’t pretend, you idiot! It’s part of the game, everyone knows. You just don’t get it.
And in case someone asks me in HOME I will not hide my real gender. It’s just a way to meet nicer people and not morons like you.

… You say you work in the games industry, but you don’t even seem to understand the term “game”. Go play your stupid shooters …

Haha

Now I see why you don’t have a 360…

You’d get totally ripped apart on LIVE doing that sort of stuff!

LOL!

What don’t I understand about the word “game”?

Is Home a “game”?

“It’s just a way to meet nicer people and not morons like you.”

By.. lying about who you are?

I think you might have missed the whole meaning of the words “nice” and “moron”.

You know what’s works just as well? Pointing out the male chauvinistic attitudes of men when they’re acting like pigs towards a woman in Home. The real women will nod, verbally agree with you, and likely start conversing with you. The horny, sexually repressed males with female avatars will just ignore you and keep gyrating their virtual hips.

I like Home.I honestly do. It has some great ideas. But this is one side of it that really puts me off, and makes me *not* want to use it.

And like I said in a previous post, I find it sad that Sony would rather spend timing deleting really great LittleBigPlanet levels instead putting safeguards in Home against this sort of blatant sexual harassment.

@ G1GAHURTZ
1.) Yes, Home is a game! You’re just too narrow minded to get it!
2.) No, I do own a 360!

@ Michael O’Connor
Playing a role (as in RPG), (while being polite of course) is blatant sexual harassment? OMG, where am I?

Really?

What is the goal of this game?

Level 70 Hunter?

Save the princess?

Beat the bad guy?

Please tell us, because me, Sony and just about everyone else seems to think its a social networking interface.

“Playing a role (as in RPG), (while being polite of course) is blatant sexual harassment? OMG, where am I?”

Over-defensive, much?

The sexual harassment remark had nothing to do with you. That corcerned my issues with Home in general.

Chill out, junior. The virtual estrogen seems to be getting to your head.

And no, Home isn’t a “game”. It’s a social networking tool where you interact with *real* people, not virtual NPCs.

@ Michael O’Connor

By your logic EVERYONE in Home is “lying”!

I’m fat but my avatar is slim: OMG, I’m lying!
I’m bold but my avatar has long hair: OMG, I’m lying!
I do not own the clothes in RL that my avatar is wearing: OMG, I’m lying!
My real flat doesn’t have a beautiful harbor view: : OMG, I’m lying!

@ Michael O’Connor
“The sexual harassment remark had nothing to do with you.”

Sorry, my bad. Misunderstood that one.

@ G1GAHURTZ
Quote:
“Level 70 Hunter?
Save the princess?
Beat the bad guy?”

Is that your definition of “game”?

Now seriously… THAT’s just very sad.

@ Michael O’Connor
“And no, Home isn’t a “game”. It’s a social networking tool where you interact with *real* people, not virtual NPCs.”

RPGs are not defined by playing with virtual NPCs. AFAIK the origins of RPGs always involved real people, back in the table-top days.

But it make no real sense arguing whether HOME is a game or not.
For me, HOME it is a game, like “Linger in Shadows” is a game and I’d even go as far as saying that this kind of entertainment is the future of gaming.

lol! Yeah, each and every single one of those things are included in “games”.

That’s a fact Quiiick.

Now tell me exactly what is it that makes Home a game, because you seem to be the only person in the whole world who thinks that it is.

Which seems to make you wrong, the way I see it.

If that’s the future of gaming I think I’ll buy a Delorean.

Great Scott! Wait for me!

From the Official Playstation website:

“PlayStation®Home is a 3D social gaming community that allows PLAYSTATION®3 users to meet, chat, plan, and launch into games together. You can create your own custom avatar, decorate your personal apartment, play mini-games, shop, watch videos, attend special events, and much more – it’s all part of PlayStation®Home.”

Now, can you tell us exactly why, even though Sony is telling us all that it’s not a game, rather a place where you can “launch into games” and whilst inside of it “play mini games”, you still manage to believe that it’s a game??

This thread is great.

But it has potential!

It should have really launched when it wasn’t shit though. I’d like to call it a rush job but when you look at the timescales it really wasn’t.

@ G1GAHURTZ

You won! LOL!
In fact, G1GAHURTZ you make me laugh. You’re same narrow minded **** as Shitner.

Sony also says “Linger in Shadows” is not a game. For me both, LIS and Home ARE games. Do I need anyone’s permission to say that? No.

And as I said before, it makes no sense arguing whether HOME is a game or not, because it’s not an important question. I don’t even consider it a topic in this thread. You think it’s not a game, I’m fine with that, really (no sarcasm)! I have absolutely no intentions convincing you otherwise.

Some of my WoW characters have been female, it’s great because sometimes people just give you free shit. Getting free stuff like that is like some sort of meta-game.

^^^ This conversation is a fine example of how gamers like to ‘socialise’ irrespective of the medium through which they do it.

…

Anything can be a game if one wishes it.

Failure to understand that shows a distinct lack of imagination.

For the record, I don’t see Home as a game.

Thanks, Truk!

… and for those who really insist on a definition, here’s mine:
A game is something or somewhere I can play or act in.
Even life itself is sometimes “just” a game!

Quote 1: “Anything can be a game if one wishes it.

Failure to understand that shows a distinct lack of imagination.”

Quote 2: “you don’t even seem to understand the term “game”.”

Truk, what you’ve said is totally out of the context of the conversation. Quiiick was trying to suggest that I didn’t know what a “game” was because I had made fun of him for pretending to be a woman in Home.

Which means that he seemed to be saying, as his other comments also suggest, that pretending to be something that you aren’t in Home is actaully part of the “game” and therefore completely justifiable.

I simply pointed out that in gaming/console terms, Home is not a game.

Sure, “anything” can be a game. Happy slapping old women in the street and then Youtubing it is a game to some people, I’m sure. But in the context of the conversation, as Michael also pointed out, Home is for social networking, so the rules of interaction are not necessarily the same as they would be in the “game” that Quiiick was suggesting that it was.

@ G1GAHURTZ
“Truk, what you’ve said is totally out of the context of the conversation.”

No, it’s not. It’s perfectly within the context of this conversation. Who are you, to exclude whatever you think fits?

Hmm, OK, but if people are treating it as a game, then surely it becomes one? I mean, Sony might have not intended that, but if it emerges naturally that some people are using it for some sort of game they’ve made up, then I can see why they’d think it a game.

What something is *for* should have no bearing on whether it can be a game or not.

OK, sorry. Home is a really fun game where you get to talk to girls by pretending to be one.

And anything can be a game, like charging you’re SIXAXIS or taking a Blu-Ray disc out of the drive as fast as you possibly can.

I just don’t get it.

It’s me…

I’m the one who just doesn’t know how to have such amazing fun.

Stupid Call of Duty… What have you done to me!?

So I hear Wii Fit is not a game because Nintendo don’t refer to it as one.

/consults buzzword manual

It’s a digital entertainment experience!

@ G1GAHURTZ
“OK, sorry. Home is a really fun game where you get to talk to girls by pretending to be one.”

You’re a hypocrite and an idiot! And it’s so telling what you presume the purpose is of someone changing the gender of an avatar. I made it very clear that it’s not about “talking to girls”. But you still suggest otherwise.

I spent a lot of time in HOME, as some may know from other threads and I met a lot of very nice and friendly people from all over europe: From France, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Germany, and Luxemburg.

I did have some strange encounters thought: Boys approaching me as near as possible while I was sitting at the pond and than shouting: “nice bow-job”.
My reply to this was always one of the premade sentences which you can choose by hitting L1: “Where do you come from?” And the answer always was: “uk”.
Now, I don’t mean to say that all brits are filthy assholes, but it was quite telling.

Oooh… now that’s fighting talk! lol.

And where are you from then Quiiick?

“I’m the one who just doesn’t know how to have such amazing fun.”

What? No one is suggesting this. This isn’t about you, is it?

“And anything can be a game, like charging you’re SIXAXIS or taking a Blu-Ray disc out of the drive as fast as you possibly can.”

If you want. I’d think it would be a very dull game (and I’m not at all sure there’s any mechanics possible in the charging idea), but if someone wants to make a game out of those then I believe they’d be games.

“… but if someone wants to make a game out of those then I believe they’d be games.”

Exactly! Someone (*cough* Hideo *cough*) even once made a game mechanic out of changing the controller-ports on a console.

Highlight of this thread: Gigz admits that the XBox community are sexually insecure, therefore admitting by relation that Home-runners (what else am I supposed to call those who jog about in Home?) and PS3 owners in general are more open-minded.

He’d get “torn apart” for that on XBox Live? I would love to introduce you to a real World transvestite, Gigz. That’d be a show I’d pay to see, honestly!

I’m thankful I don’t have a Live subscription, so I can’t be a part of the user-base who would “tear apart” Quick for self expression. And that’s what it is, self expression, a concept that only a backwater hick couldn’t grok.

Good show, Gigz. Blimey O’Riley…

As for me, I’ve had good experiences in Home, too, but usually only in the Euro-zones, I’ll admit that much. I should probably try the female character thing, but then I’d have to give up my Egon Spengler clone.

(Edit: I’m sorry … but he really did make me angry, this time. I’m a gay individual, and I do happen to personally know very effeminate gays. It’s each person’s prerogative whether they wish to portray themselves as feminine or masculine, in my opinion.)

“Highlight of this thread: Gigz admits that the XBox community are sexually insecure, therefore admitting by relation that Home-runners (what else am I supposed to call those who jog about in Home?) and PS3 owners in general are more open-minded.”

Hey, it’s Xbox LIVE. I didn’t make it the way it is.

“what else am I supposed to call those who jog about in Home?) ”

Sad?

G1GAHURTZ said:Haha

Now I see why you don’t have a 360…

You’d get totally ripped apart on LIVE doing that sort of stuff!

LOL!

no its because he doesn’t want his home burnt down

man the usual fagbots are all up in here commenting on a console they can’t afford. thats just sad don’t you guys have that great game called halo to play instead?

Home’s alright, I reckon. Just needs something to make it worthwhile.

I wonder what the numbers are like now from the day it launched. How many daily visits? Be an interesting stat, that. Are people using it?

“And that’s what it is, self expression, a concept that only a backwater hick couldn’t grok.”

Self-expression would be him admitting to these women that he’s really a man. Not a man whose lack of social skills means he has to pretend to BE a woman to get their attention.

“no its because he doesn’t want his home burnt down”

I find that 90% of the people I’ve played games online against / with on the 360 are normal, reasonable adults.

There’s even… SHOCK HORROR… women are there. Imagine that! And since most of them use headsets, its a hell of a lot easier to know whose who than it is with some virtual female on Home who conveniently doesn’t have a headset.

“man the usual fagbots are all up in here commenting on a console they can’t afford. thats just sad don’t you guys have that great game called halo to play instead?”

I’m not usually this inflamatory… but god, you’re a fucking muppet.

I have a PS3. I also have LittleBigPlanet, and consider it the best game of the year. I also don’t particularly like Halo.

That doesn’t mean I can’t look at something Sony does and thinks its stupid.

I find it ironic that the guy whining about fanboys is the one acting like a bigger fanboy than everyone else. The PS3 an Sony are just as capable of making mistakes as Microsoft and the 360 are.

i said the people who can’t afford one being G1GAHURTZ. Now if you want me to turn my attention to you puppet, then keep shooting your mouth. you have no idea who you’re fucking with kid

for the people who actually own the console they’re trashing then its ok for your input, everyone else STFU. It will stop a lot of flame wars.

“you have no idea who you’re fucking with kid”

Making threats on the internet, ftw!

“Self-expression would be him admitting to these women that he’s really a man. Not a man whose lack of social skills means he has to pretend to BE a woman to get their attention.”

You seem to be an equally “fucking muppet”: I made it very clear from the start that I’m not interested in getting real woman’s attention, just meeting nice people of both genders. I also said that I do admit my real gender when asked about, so what makes you state otherwise.
And what has this to to with “social skills”? This is really beyond me.

“You seem to be an equally “fucking muppet”: I made it very clear from the start that I’m not interested in getting real woman’s attention, just meeting nice people of both genders.”

The women on Home aren’t real women?

Oh wait, that’s right, most of them hate using it because of the constant sexual harassment and stalking they get.

“And what has this to to with “social skills”? This is really beyond me.”

Honesty tends to be one of most important parts of social interaction.