“I should’ve figured I’d end up in a fan war over that one, though. I just never thought that would happen to me!”

Oh no!

I should’ve figured I’d end up in a fan war over that one, though. I just never thought that would happen to me!

I’m hardly about to deny that Microsoft is one of the world’s most unequivocally evil companies (I’ve tried cancelling my Xbox Live subscription – Er, slave contract once) or that any of the major criticisms against the Box regarding its reliability are positively true. I’m not a fanboy by any means. I just think their console is actually, functionally better when compared, and wastes far less of my time, which is something I massively appreciate in any gadget.

For example, I love the Fight Night series, and I played it both 3 and 4 like a rabid monkey on my Xbox360, but when I tried out the same game on my brothers Playstation 3, I was just amazed at the outrageous loading times of this, according to Sony, “vastly more powerful console”. I really despise wasting time looking at a static screen for any reason, especially when I’ve been promised more power.

And that’s not even starting on the grief of navigating the console interface itself, which was just ridiculously unintuitive, seeming to rely solely upon me just magically knowing where they put everything, since some of the choices made absolutely no sense, whereas the Box is really quite highly intuitive and descriptive when it comes to whatever you want to do. Especially considering the network and Media Center options.

Although I know it doesn’t stop anyone, you’d be hard pressed to argue that Sony haven’t dropped the ball with the PS3, just a little. I wouldn’t mind Sony more or less than anyone else if it wasn’t for their delusional statements, and even then, I’d still gladly buy one of their machines if they made it worth my while. Sadly, for the moment they just don’t, and I think it’s sad to see Sony living in some alternate universe where everything is apparently progressing exactly according to plan.

I’m not looking to offend anyone or press an agenda, it’s just an honest oppinion based on my own personal observations.

I just hope they keep it as a free service offering promotional goodies to those who buy their PS3 games, rather than a moneygrabbing, micro-transaction clusterfuck, although even as I’m writing that and thinking about the supposed 10 million subscriber base, I’m just thinking “OF COURSE THEY’RE NOT”. They’re gonna grab the money and run, like any sane person would.

I’m not impressed with the PS3 as a whole though, having tried out both that and the 360. I must say that Sonys mindnumbingly arrogant self-glorification, completely without any sense of irony just makes me want it even less. It’s the Moussolini-machine as far as I’m concerned. Sticks it’s chin up really high and talks like roaring thunder, but it’s still an intolerable, pudgy douche that doesn’t think very fast.

We all hate Sony. We’re such meanies.

/Steals Sony’s lunch money

I am sure 90% of bashing comes from xbox live members

Incidentally, I wasn’t having a pop at Home myself earlier on – I was just pointing out what the general argument about home tends to be whenever this argument crops up. Personally I have no interest in Home whatsoever, but if someone else thinks it’s the best thing since sliced head then who am I to argue?

No problem with that, in fact the post you’ve just made should be directed at Home’s development staff, as much of the stuff you’ve posted about does need to be addressed.

Although it’s hard to blame them for charging for everything from picture frames through to gaming costumes, given that micro transactions are probably the services main form of investment.

Jesus Christ.

Or: like me, they liked the idea of having their own space to invite people into and have lots of gaming-themed virtual tat around the place, have pictures on the walls, sit and watch videos (as they said would be possible), play minigames…. all of that.

Instead, you have to pay a few quid for picture frames (long delated, too), you can’t share videos, gaming tat is very limited (but thankyou Namco for your freevie virtual arcade cabs! Pity it won’t let me play them), voice chat is restricted, there’s no way to only play with people on your friends list and minigames have to be queued up for.

FFS.

Yeah there are fuckwits in it, but no more than there are irritating wankers in Modern Warfare 2 on coms.

Regarding money, third partys pay Sony to develop and publish “spaces” within the Home environment for monetary gain or simply advertising.

It’s going to get bigger and better. I rekon once it’s open to media sharing etc, it’ll get much more popular.

Home is not for me at all – never use it – but its clearly going to find an audience with some, and I suspect it easily pays for itself with the microtransactions (something I hate myself but there you go).

I do agree though that initially Home was given some serious hype and push from Sony, and that is where I personally believe the backlash sprang from.

Because when it launched the reality was a small, mainly empty space to begin with developed by a small team which has slowly grown on the back of increasing advertising/microtransactions – and I think it was the miss-match of hype to actual experimental reality that caused the friction.

With that said it’s almost sounding interesting now and at this rate I may actually log in for the first time since launch just to see what it’s like now.

Partly. The thing with Home, is that it’s an evolving service. The entertainment value of Home is ten fold that of when it launched, yet some people continue to speak of it as this barren place with nothing to do, but that’s a totally inaccurate assessment of the Home which exists today.

I’m assuming that you mean “when most of the people who slag it off don’t have a PS3″… because you’re unlikely to use it if you dislike it enough to slag it off.

As for me, I think Home is a waste of time… but I’m not going to give anyone grief for liking it. (losers!)

What possible evidence do you have that the money they sunk into Home has adversely effected the PSN? The PSN receives regular firmware updates, and adding features like cross game chat isn’t going to be down to throwing cash at the problem, but more to do with figuring out how the hell to reverse engineer such a feature into games which were never designed to work with such a system.

It’s doubly amusing that many of Home’s most vocal detractors don’t even own a PS3, and as has been said, Home does make Sony money.

One of Sony’s strengths has always been their ability to create a broad range of services and games, which appeal to a wide cross section of audiences. Home clearly isn’t geared towards the traditional console gamer who waits inline for the next Call of Duty, it’s been designed to broaden the consoles appeal to the people who sink hours into Second Life and the 2 million plus folk who have signed up for Free Realms.

Nobody is asking everyone to like Home – I’m hardly it’s biggest fan myself – but the same tired criticisms of the service are beginning to grate, when most of the people who slag it off don’t even use it, and so continually underestimate just how much stuff there is to do on there.

A knock off Second Life with less features is even more shit.