Onyxmeth got his ass on a PS3 today! Yay! A close friend of mine recently moved back from California. We intended on watching Gran Torino on the PS3, but while he used the bathroom, I flipped around on the menus and noticed the Home icon. I figured this may be my only chance in a while to try this sucker out, so I downloaded it for him. When he returned I was in the midst of making some really ugly bald avatar dude. Truly hideous he was and an ideal candidate for an epic Quincy. Here is what I saw wrong upon entering Home and what I feel can be done to right some wrongs here, since there aren't enough topics bashing Home yet. 
Criticism 1: The avatar system.
Problem: For one, there is just a general lack of clothing, facial hair and accessory options for your avatars right now. Secondly, the method for facial adjustments has much promise, and in many ways is the best method I found out of the three competitors, but it can be daunting for some to have to fidget with both knobs to come to that perfectly happy medium. Not everyone does well with too much freedom in creation and require a guiding hand.
Solution: Sony will obviously add more clothing, facials hair and accessory options in time, so it's nothing more than a minor annoyance right now, and they just need to release the damn things soon to keep people interested. Regarding the amount of freedom in facial creation tools I feel the system needs a randomizer for each section with a visual sample. This is similiar to your preset section when you begin. Not everyone wants to fidget with the knobs and would rather see on a list some randomized solutions to sort through. This would be in addition to what is already present, so it would be there to benefit the less creative and in some cases lazy.
Problem Meter: 1/10
Criticism 2: Waiting in line.
Problem: A virtual world does not need to mimic real life. It should try to mirror the parts we enjoy while eliminating what makes life tedious, boring and uneventful. With that said, let me proclaim something, "Nobody likes waiting on lines!". Was that clear enough? I walked into the bowling alley, and there were lines to play bowling, pool and arcade machines. Waiting for my enjoyment? That doesn't sound like virtual life, that sounds far too much like real life. I have that, and it's also free, with better graphics too! Plus more advertising! Tell me. When the stores at the mall have a sale, will the influx of customers create one of those epic 30 minute lines just so I can pick up a piece of virtual furniture for a dollar? The hilarity of it would be impressive. People shop online to avoid the lines, but Sony's mall mimics the awful nature of the real mall, the crowds. Anymore in reality and the stores may actually start virtually stocking items and selling out of them just for the hell of it. In case anyone is wondering, I haven't been to the mall yet, so if my thought process is wrong on this one, then you can bite me, because I don't care and it's funny anyways.
Solution: Lose the waiting Sony. Only those that are gluttons for punishment appreciate this aspect of reality in Home, and frankly those folks are still waiting for the S&M simulation rooms, so you'd better get a crack at that for them, so the rest of us can get back to playing our games when he feel like it, not when the guy in front is finished. Here's a simple solution(another will be provided later). How about since we're downloading room after room of Home, why not just have us download each game as we approach it, and it'll always be available to us on the fly? I can't see the guy breathing on my neck as I play Echochrome, and he can't see what the fuck I'm playing anyways from his comfy spot, so the arcade experience is lost.
Problem Meter: 6/10
Criticism 3: Home is the wave of the past.
Problem: Home is like the vision of what everyone thought they wanted from the internet in the mid nineties, back when the internet was this scary new world. I recall the movie Disclosure, because it perfectly shows the idiocy of that early thought process. Michael Douglas has to find some top secret files in his company that will expose them for some wrong doing. He puts on his virtual reality helmet. He walks through a virtual hallway. He open a virtual filing cabinet and rifles through virtual paper. I watched this many years after release, so obviously I wasn't impressed. Why? All of that unnecessary crap could have been done in real life! Why set up a system that is in no way any more easy to navigate than real life? Here is how the future really turned out. I use a mouse to click on a folder. It opens. I click on an icon. It opens. My file is inside. No walking or rifling required.
Here is where Home comes into play. Home is basically the cumbersome virtual reality version of something that can be done easier and quicker in another fashion. Why have a theatre and not just a community viewing straight from a menu? Why a physical store and not just a menu? Why a bowling alley and not just the menus that take you into each game, not waiting required? Why a big space full of people and not an actual chat room and instant message system?
Here, I'll just answer myself. Onyxmeth, some people like to get lost in this virtual world. They like the taveling. If they don't then Home is just not for them. Au contraire. Why can't Home be for everybody?
Solution: Similiar to how the NXE on Xbox 360 has a quick navigating blades menu that is accessed from the big X button on the middle of the controller, Home should have something similiar to quick navigate through Home without the trivialties of walking around. Chat rooms, IM, quick navigate to viewing rooms, the stores, everything can all be done through a menu system in addition to the traditional setting. It will let you in on public conversations going on in another location far from where you are. Interested in joining in? Click on their PSN tags to quick navigate your avatar to their spot. This will improve the social aspect of Home, by showing you where the interesting stuff is going on and not just the six guys near you doing the Running Man to a woman sitting on the floor to simulate gang bang felatio. You want to bowl? Join the bowling matchup chat rooms to talk it over and get a game going. Once it's ready, you all just join a lane in the middle of "Whogivesafuckthisisnotreality".
Problem Meter: 9/10
I may add more later as I get more time with the program. I just wanted to start a more constructive thread, highlighting not only problems, but how these can possibly be fixed in the future. I want to give everyone in this thread the chance to comment on what I wrote, but also add to this. What I don't need are the following two things, those with nothing nice to say without constructive solutions and those with nothing but praise for Home. Neither benefit this thread.
Home is supposed to be a program primarily for social networking over PS3, so the real meat of the issue is, how do we make it an effective one for everybody, and a desirable one? My main points are, make it less tedious, add on content and coming in the future, moderate the community. Running Man conga lines are hilarious to join in on always, as I did it myself. Gang rape dancing a lone woman is only hilarious the first few times. After that, it just starts to look a bit creepy.
Tag: Became a freaking mod and a complete douche, coincidentally, at the same time.
