Sony, Home, and the Beta Tag

[chaospluto]

twesterm said:

markers said:

twesterm said:

chaospluto said:

twesterm said:

ssj12 said:

blazinhead89 said:
Home sucks

 

wait a few months, it will be 100% better

 

What's 100% of nothing again?

When it first "released" people said give a few weeks and I did.  I came back to it a few days ago and nothing had been fixed other than it was easier to connect. I even had to redownload all the areas again!

Call me cynical but I'm going to take a wild shot in the dark and say a few months isn't going to do a lot for it.

 

Hmm, did you play Warhammer Onine when it first hit retail?  It was laggy, buggy, horrible to run around and play in.  You had to tweak your graphics card settings outside of the game to get it too run right and look good and that wasn't even the half of the issues.

But, just after 2 month, a lot of the issues were either being looked into and being fixed or had been fixed.  It was almost a whole new experience 2 months later.

I hear it's even better now, of course, this is Mythic.

Anyways, what my point is; Sony is pulling the same approach, their listening to their user base and are working on fixes and also new ideas to throw into Home.

Programing something such as Home or an MMO, isn't easy.  Of course, most people will say "How long has it been in production for?  Come on it should be way better at this point, etc, etc.".  True, but this is something that has never been done on a CONSOLE before.

Now for those who think it's so easy, go ahead and try it your self and have Millions of people breathing down your neck for changes, upgrades, content, etc.

 

FFXI, a game made for the PS2 first, says hello.

And people keep bringing up how long it has been in production because it's *very* relevant. They are doing nothing new in Home, nothing, yet they take craploads of time and "release" with almost nothing to show for it.

• MMO - not new
• Online marketplace - not new
• Chatroom - not new
• Customizable characters - not new

And don't take that as a knock on Home because it isn't. I'm just saying it is something different together, but broken down it's all things that have been done before and aren't that hard.

you should know that even if you are making something that isnt new or innovative that it can still be difficult work.

 

 

I'll give that MMO's take effort, but then again they've also had four years.  Most quality games, even MMO's, take 2-3 years.  For Home's four years of work it has, what, 6-7 really small zones that are near lifeless?  A small amount of furniture and clothes?  Anything else?  Oh yeah, dance animations.

Now online marketplaces.  My wife happens to be a project manager for a web development company and I know for a fact those are simple.

Chatrooms?  I've made something that works over a week for an assignment and I'm not even a good programmer.

Customizable characters - It takes effort but not four years of effort.

Simple flash games?  Browsing a site like NewFineGrounds and seeing any idiot can make a flash game, that shouldn't be too hard.

If this is what they had to show for a years work, I would be impressed with Home and say it has potential.  Seeing how they've spent the last four years, I say it's something that could have potential in another teams hands, but in it's current state it's only an embarrassment and nothing else.

I mean really, what do you think they spent the last four years on?  I would guess getting all their WoW characters to 70-80 and making dance animations but apparently getting a Wow character to 70 only takes a month so I guess it has just been dance animations for the past four years.

Studio London and Studio Cambridge have both been working on Home, now let's take a look at what else they've been working on shall we.

(Curtosy of Wikipedia):

Studio Cambridge -

• Heavenly Sword
• Wipeout franchise
• Killzone 2
• Passport to... franchise
• Eyetoy franchise

also PlayTV

Studio London -

• Home for PS3
• Eyepet for PS3
• Various SingStar Projects for PS3 and PS2

When they were in Development -

• Eight Days for PS3
• The Getaway 3 for PS3

Now this isn't even all of what they've been working on, only some, this is also including Home in the mix of all of this.

So to tell me they have only been working on Home, is pretty unthoughtful.  That's like saying that you only mod on the forums, which I couldn't say that because I don't know you in real life nor personally.

Just because a company says something has been in development for 4 years or so, doesn't mean they haven't been working on other projects.

Food for thought.

Edit: I would have responded last night, but was too tired.  So sorry for the late reply.