PSN has always been known to be pretty lacking. Home was supposed to be a solution, but it didn't exacly do much. Many are already dissapointed with it and there's lots of difefferent reasons for it...
HOME:
Home offers lots of neat features,great communication options, and some good customization options but Sony went in the wrong direction with it all. There's two big things that should describe the XMB and PSN: Fast and Convenient. The problem with all these features that Home has to offer is simple: It's all in Home. So basically what that means is that you're gonna have to load up home everytime you wanna use any of it......bad bad bad. Home doesn't exacly feel like it's part of the XMB or PSN at all - it's more like a seperate application.
What goes on in Home, stays in Home.
AVATARS:
Avatars are a key feature in each console. People like customization. It makes them feel a little more attached to their virtual character. It kinda gives them the feeling that it's really theirs. Home's avatars could've been attractive to a wide audience considering that it doesn't have that cartoon'ish look like the Mii's or NXE guys. With the PS3, your avatars make an appearance in one place only: Home. What they should've done is have them make multiple appearances in different parts of the PS3, such as the XMB especially. So unless you're in Home, your avatar is pretty much nonexistant.
A REASON TO USE HOME?
"What Home to me feels like is Second Life for hardcore gamers" - Aaron Greenberg
I don't really agree with this. It's funny because hardcore gamers arn't likely to have any use for Home. "Hardcore gamers" would rather be gaming with their friends. Sure, Home has "minigames", but they're far from great. They're just quickies - their replay value doesn't last very long.
Home has been getting the "Second Life" description tagged on it so many times. It does feels that way sometimes, but it definitely doesn't feel like it was aimed at "hardcore gamers". When it comes to games, they went much to far with the realism: having to wait in line to play an occupied game is just ridiculous on so many levels. It doesn't even matter if it was fixed because you'll still be thinking, "What are were you thinking Sony? Where are you trying to go with this?" Besides partially offering a second life and some minigames, Home doesn't really offer much to gamers.
It really needs another way to occupy it's users. I imagine that it'd be even less attractive to casuals - most people I know would rather dance and sit in person. If they feel like doing any gaming, it's definitely not gonna be in Home.
If it isn't really catching the attention of gamers, and it's not likely to bring in any casuals, who is Home really aimed at?
Now I understand that it's still "beta" and there's more updates coming, but from what I've seen, these updates might not really fix the problem as to why many arn't interested in Home.
THE XMB:
It's this that should've got the big update. Here's one thing that I really hate about the XMB...
I often play CoD5 with a few other friends that I know. For some unknown reason, the game invites sometimes arn't working that well. When that happens, sometimes we call eachother to see what's up......why is it that I have to use the phone just to talk to them without having to exit the game? Sure, we could send messages back and forth but that'd be a bit of a hassle. If my friends were in another country, I'd be forced to deal with it.
Some people will try to argue that the XMB/PSN is fine just because it offers all the basic features you need. That's not fine. People don't consider XBL and the Dashboard superioer just because it offers only "basic features". It's because it does that, and more. If I was on a 360, I could've started a chatroom for all of us, making the whole experience just much easier and faster. So how would a PS3 user do that? You'd be forced to exit the game.
Speaking of invites....why is it that I still can't send them when my friends are playing a different game? When Aaron Greenberg said that Home feels like "old tech", he probably should've said that about the XMB instead.
While Home is getting all these updates and features, the XMB/PSN remain outdated and cumbersome. Their focus is in the wrong area. They're too busy creating a virutal world that isn't really catching anyone's attention. They've spoiled Home far too much. Having to exit your game and load up a seperate application to use all of those features is simply not the way it's supposed to be. As soon as you log into XBL, you've got everything at your fingertips. You're already feeling the effects of the NXE. There's no need to start up anything else.
Avatars, minigames, chat features, customization, game launching.....yeah, Home has it all...
Sorry Sony, you gave us what we wanted but......you put it all in the wrong spot.
