I don't want to get chastised for triple posting, so be warned... this is going to be long and cover multiple topics... 
Hmmm, nice read btw. I might hop on now, where is the listen@home thingo you talk about?
It is in the NA version of Home, located in the Central Plaza. It's very easy to spot as it is on a large stage, and you'll likely see people dancing on and in front of the stage. Also, the closer you get to it, the louder the music will get.
Well it's certainly the comunity tool it was intended to be, the amount of random people who you just start chating with is astounding, at it's core I'd desctibe it as a HUGE game lobby, with many social alements thrown in.
It is pretty weird... even when you are chatting with a GTP friend. For instance, I saw
LaBounti in Home so we sat there on a bench in the plaza just chewing the fat... it was really sureal.
The mini games, chess, bowling, arcades ect ect are all well exicuted and many bar the arcade games are multiplayer which adds to the comunity aspects.
I agree. I was particularly impressed with how well the multi-player aspect of bowling, pool, darts, chess, etc are executed. A few days ago I was playing a game of speed chess with someone, and we were having a blast trash talking each other... definitely in a mutually satirical way mind you.
It's prety bare bones at the moment, especialy the EU version and I hope the updates come thick and fast, especialy the game start list....1 game? come on!
Which game? I didn’t think there were currently any games that you could launch from Home. The only game I can recall that you could launch from Home was GT5P, but that was only when the TGS2008 space was available, and you also had to have a Japanese version of GT5P.
I'm still not clear on how this whole game launch thing is going to be handled. If all you are doing is leaving Home to play a game, it's easy enough to quit Home and then play the game. However, if it will allow us to synch up with other people in Home so that we can go directly into a multi-player game, now that would be useful. Especially when organizing online game tournaments. 👍
but it should be a fantastic experience as the system develops. The most intuative and radical system yet on the console scene Sony really is going the extra mile with this, reminds me of the Dreamcast home system.
I saw a very interesting article that came up among the list of top stories in Google News, that described PS Home as not just a game and not just a social network, but rather a
"development platform". I was intrigued so I clicked on the link and it turned out to be a pretty interesting read... I'll go look for the link and post it for those curious.
In the meantime, if I recall correctly, it basically mentioned how Sony created and released compressive Home development kits, that basically would allow a company, game developer, or who ever to create their own "Space" in Home, with all the necessary tools to allow them to pretty much create whatever they want. In some ways it reminded me of LBP, and the notion of basically giving away and or making available all the necessary tools to allow that person to make what ever their imagine can come up with.
Based on the footage I have seen of the upcoming Red Bull Island... it seems there is no limit to what a creative developer might be able to come up with. 👍
As to all those complaining about this that and the other, your all entitled to your opinions, I just think "some" of you have missed the point of Home, If your not a social gamer or you were expecting some sort of RPG I can see you not liking Home, which is a shame but not the end of the world. After the mass download yesterday and the server overload (we all knew it would happen) thinks look rock solid this morning in home.
Well said! 👍
Thankyou to all of you guys who answered my questions, really helped a lot 👍
I spent quite a lot of time in Home today, actually most people are interesting and friendly to talk to and you can have a decient proper conversation even with the girl avatars (if are they really girls) if they arnt being constantly harrased by some sad people.
For those that want to be more convinced the person they are chatting with is really a guy or a girl, I'd recommend insisting that they at least say "hello" using a mic. Granted it's not fool proof, and it will limit you to chatting with people that have a mic, but I bet most imposters would have a hard time faking that.
It was also nice to see all of the other EU people in there and I also noticed loads of guys from AUS and NZ... do they connect with this server? I also find it hard to believe that everyone from these countries is dumped into the same Home space.. i.e. not everyone on EU Home is in the same one plaza right? There has got to be multiple ones.
My understanding is that like the NA Home, EU Home uses multiple servers, but it will still tell you if your friends are in Home, and you not only can chat with them via the Home Phone, but you can also invite them to join you, or join them, and that will switch you to the same server. 👍
As far as the servers for EU Home goes, as you already experience, it appears they have joined together all the english speaking countries that fall under the EU PSN umbrella. Which would include UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
I used my Spanish PSN account to acces Home, and it was clearly a dedicated server for Spain, but still has the exact same content as all the other EU Homes.
Everyone seems to do running man congas infront of the 'whole world in your hands' screen..
It is mad but quite entertaining for a while.
Wait till you see my Frankenstein avatar doing the robot.
Oh and the big glass door which leads off into another area of the plaza... was that open in the closed beta?
No that was closed. There is a similar "closed door" area in the HK/JP and the NA Plazas as well, but they look different.
Has anyone tried hooking up a microphone to broadcast your own music to the people of Home?
<--- guilty as charged... actually my wife was the guilty party, I just helped.
The real fun is creating celebrity avatars, and then using the mic to play recordings of them... whether it be a popular singer singing one of their hits, or a comedian telling a joke... We've done that a few times and we always get some pretty funny reactions.
The first time I did it, was with an Obama avatar that I made, and I played his famous "Yes We Can" speech... and it was amazing. As a testament to the inspirational tone in that speech, after less than a minute I had drawn a large crowd around me, and nearly everyone would cheer at all the right moments. There were only a couple people who clearly were not fans of our President elect, but after they made their rude comments everyone just ignored them and they walked away.
My concern though is that this feature could get abused by clever marketing firms, by hiring a bunch of people to roam around Home using the mic to promote what ever product it is they are pushing. Granted, you can mute anyone you like, but I hope this doesn't happen.
you should check out the HK Plaza... it not only has a lot of hidden areas, but it also has some amazing virtual bay views.
alements can be thrown?
I keep getting the C-3PO error
