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[Panajev2001a]

PES tournament, PES tournament, PES tournament!!

With flashing lights, virtual beer, commentators, and strips you can wear for your favourite team!

Q: Would we be able to showcase bespoke events such a live broadcast
of a multiplayer game?
Absolutely - it would even be possible to replicate a game that is being played
by two players together on one PS3, replicating their avatars and movements
on the "world stage". This could be an invitational match, with users paying to
view the event live.

I forgot that one! Online tournaments being broadcast through Home, people could even sell tickets to Virtual Championship matches maybe .

 

[Gattsu25]

Google is going to send their people to Sony pretty soon to talk about Google Ads and AdSense .

This is the part that caught my attention:

Dynamic advertising will also
be implemented, allowing us to direct specific targeted ads at particular users.

Personalized ads? :O

 

[Tieno]

I forgot that one! Online tournaments being broadcast through live, people could even sell tickets to Virtual Championship matches maybe .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS5peqApgUA

 

[Panajev2001a]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS5peqApgUA

We are talking about live (or slightly time-delayed... I do not know the impact of their "spectator mode" and how it is implemented to multicast to a variety of users) broadcast of content of a probably better quality than that YouTube video.
I am not too sure of what point you were trying to make though so sorry if I have not addressed it in full.

 

[Tieno]

We are talking about live (or slightly time-delayed... do not know the impact of their "spectator mode" and how it is implemented to multicast to a variety of users) broadcast of content probably of a better quality than that YouTube video, I am not too sure though of what point you were trying to make though so sorry if I have not addressed it in full.

The point that this video is awesome because of the cheering and the cool fighting and the sense of watching a live game in a virtual world populated by avatars ccould be pretty cool. I'm sorry
And well, this watching tournaments stuff could be really great for fighting games.

 

[Panajev2001a]

The point that this video is awesome because of the cheering and the cool fighting and the sense of watching a live game in a virtual world populated by avatars ccould be pretty cool. I'm sorry
And well, this watching tournaments could be really great for fighting games.

sorry, I was watching the video with the volume off :lol.

I think they have put an incredible amount of work and thought into Home and I want to get on it and support it as I want services like this to move forward. I want to have all the potential becoming reality !

I think that finding a way to allow and manage (as well as profit from) user-to-user e-commerce is important and really it would be awesome to have great tournaments with highly competitive and skilled players duking it out with nice crowds, nice ads and nice ticket sales for the main event... ....... oh... think about possible real next-generation versions of SmackDown vs Raw....... I cannot take it anymore... I am starting to hear only a register going cha-ching! cha-ching!

 

[kevm3]

WHats cool is how developers can sell you their own clothing... Hopefully they will also be able to sell you new hairstyles, bodytypes or whatever. So if you wanted to look like Cloud, you could.

 

[travisbickle]

Also I'll eat my hat if there isn't a Square Enix Museum in the near future on Home. And it will be the most beautiful thing you will ever enter.

Spoiler

Unless you get to have sex with Angelina Jolie

 

[Tieno]

sorry, I was watching the video with the volume off :lol.

I think they have put an incredible amount of work and thought into Home and I want to get on it and support it as I want services like this to move forward. I want to have all the potential becoming reality !

Me too, I watched the GDC Home demo a few minutes ago and jizzed at the trophy room and the way you can display your awards...and then they pan to the galactic-senate-like room of throphy rooms from all the different games.

 

[gofreak]

WHats cool is how developers can sell you their own clothing... Hopefully they will also be able to sell you new hairstyles, bodytypes or whatever. So if you wanted to look like Cloud, you could.

I'd imagine 'promotional' clothing, branded with game stuff, would at least in some instances be free. Certain things might be highly desireable and command a fee, but I'm not going to pay to walk around in a t-shirt with a game logo, for example. I'm sure a lot of games will allow you to unlock branded clothing and other stuff for free as an added reward to finishing the game. But, of course, I can see there being a market for 'premium', maybe limited edition stuff that's more sophisticated/attractive.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

• Will take the mystery and the geekiness out of online interaction

how? HOW!?!!

 

[Bad_Boy]

Holy shit this thing is so in depth and well thought out. Great thread shagg, A+ work.

 

[fanduck]

Q: When I jump back from a game into Home, will I return with the same
people next to me? Will I return to a default location?
Upon returning to Home, you will land in the same place which was your last
position before you left (for instance, if you left Home from your apartment,
that is where you will return to.) However, given that Home is an online world,
other users will doubtless have moved on while you are off doing something
else (unless you've specifically asked them to wait for you.) Currently Home
is not a persistent world, so when you leave Home, all of your possessions go
with you. For instance, it is not currently possible for other users to visit your
apartment while you're not there. We are working on the persistent aspect of
Home, and expect to implement it in the long term.


That kind of sucks. This means the myspace comparisons can stop now. Hopefully Home V. 2.0 will include this feature. Or, maybe Sony could charge a fee to use Home, and store this information on a server somewhere.

 

[Steroyd]

Q: What is the ambition of Home?
A: Home Space
• Design and build your own apartment, house or even
neighbourhood.
• Purchase new landscapes, apartments and furniture
World

GAF TOWN CONFIRMED

Holy shit at the Q&A I'll have to read the rest of it on my PSP in bed.

I love my PSP.

/strokes PSP.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Q: When I jump back from a game into Home, will I return with the same
people next to me? Will I return to a default location?
Upon returning to Home, you will land in the same place which was your last
position before you left (for instance, if you left Home from your apartment,
that is where you will return to.) However, given that Home is an online world,
other users will doubtless have moved on while you are off doing something
else (unless you've specifically asked them to wait for you.) Currently Home
is not a persistent world, so when you leave Home, all of your possessions go
with you. For instance, it is not currently possible for other users to visit your
apartment while you're not there. We are working on the persistent aspect of
Home, and expect to implement it in the long term.


That kind of sucks. This means the myspace comparisons can stop now. Hopefully Home V. 2.0 will include this feature. Or, maybe Sony could charge a fee to use Home, and store this information on a server somewhere.

I think that they might have to charge a fee to make your private space a persistent world as having this for potentially many thousand users would be really expensive for them, but they could justify asking for a fee (it could be easy to see the fact that storage+bandwidth costs would not be negligible for Sony IMHO): people are accustomed to pay a monthly fee for MMORPG's.

 

[kevm3]

Also I'll eat my hat if there isn't a Square Enix Museum in the near future on Home. And it will be the most beautiful thing you will ever enter.

Spoiler

Unless you get to have sex with Angelina Jolie

It'll be really awesome if they allowed companies to basically create their own home worlds. They can offset the cost by allowing companies to host their own little spaces. For example, Square could have a balamb garden type of place, a beautiful outdoors type of place or even try to replicate one of FF7's towns in 3d, which actually allow you to purchase items, view streaming videos of games, etc.

That'd be awesome.

This can basically turn into making the internet 3d. Some company could put up a music store which you can walk through, shuffle through different album racks and listen to samples before buying.

 

[Bad_Boy]

That kind of sucks. This means the myspace comparisons can stop now. Hopefully Home V. 2.0 will include this feature. Or, maybe Sony could charge a fee to use Home, and store this information on a server somewhere.

I think it would be cool if you could allow certain people to be able to visit your home while your not there. But I guess that could be a little creepy if you sign online and some guy is in your house walking around. :lol

 

[Panajev2001a]

GAF TOWN CONFIRMED

Holy shit at the Q&A I'll have to read the rest of it on my PSP in bed.

I love my PSP.

/strokes PSP.

Q: What is the ambition of Home?
A: Home Space
• Design and build your own apartment, house or even
neighbourhood.
• Purchase new landscapes, apartments and furniture
World

Woha.... I missed this too!!!!!!

They have set some great long term goals for Home, the more I read the more I am excited for it. I think people would pay to buy landscapes, apartments, etc... to make their own neighborhood .

 

[jiggle]

Also I'll eat my hat if there isn't a Square Enix Museum in the near future on Home. And it will be the most beautiful thing you will ever enter.

Spoiler

Unless you get to have sex with Angelina Jolie

That's the Developer Home I most looking forward to seeing.

Nice to see the lobbies are limited to less than 70 ppl. Lags suck in mmorpg.

So the beta sign up page that was put up yesterday, that's for the open beta in august? Not the april one? That's kinda disappointing :/

 

[WasabiKing]

This is the part that caught my attentionersonalized ads? :O

To a degree, we could do that here.

 

[Tempy]

Sounds great. Let's hope Sony, 3rd parties and users can come up with interesting content.

For instance, it is not currently possible for other users to visit your
apartment while you're not there.

Too bad

Another thing I want to know is to what extent users can create content. Similar to Second Life? "More"? "Less"?

Personally I'm excited about the creative aspects of it all (in The Sims I usually spend most of my time customizing the sims and building my house), and if users can upload models/textures/sounds and be able to script things, then I'd be very stoked.

Of course it'll probably end up with virtual cock 'n balls all over the place

And how does Sony plan to combat copyright infringements? What if people start walking around like Superman(tm), Goku(tm) and Bart Simpson(tm)? People in Second Life got around the inability to change the avatar model, by creative usage of apparel - make a hat shaped like whatever you want it to be and wear it like a costume.

 

[kevm3]

I think it would be cool if you could allow certain people to be able to visit your home while your not there. But I guess that could be a little creepy if you sign online and some guy is in your house walking around. :lol

Yeah, it'd be cool if you could give certain users 'digital keys' so they can access your house... except you can specify what times they can enter and not.

 

[Bebpo]

Sounds pretty well thoughout but two techinical issues atm:

-Friends list is still 50 max
-World size is limited to 64 person sized bits
-No persistant world (can't check someone's acheivements without them being in home doing nothing. Guess it's sorta like the real world where everyone's houses are locked and you can only enter them with the person home)

Sounds like they want to improve most of that, but I'm a bit worried they won't increase the friends list size.

I mean with only 64 spaces and 50 invites how are you going to get all of GAF in one place?

 

[Tempy]

I think it would be cool if you could allow certain people to be able to visit your home while your not there. But I guess that could be a little creepy if you sign online and some guy is in your house walking around. :lol

Naked.

 

[White Man]

I think it sounds interesting, but it also sounds like it could potentially be microtransaction hell.

 

[gutter_trash]

i'm curious to know how Sony will police the user's use of certain JPGs depicting either inappropriate material or copyrighted material.

private homes, whatever, but public homes? hmm I hope Sony doesn't use a timed submission system for approving your use of JPGs of your choice to deck your home

 

[Panajev2001a]

It'll be really awesome if they allowed companies to basically create their own home worlds.

"You rang?"

Here :

Q: How will third party partners be able to be involved in Home?
A: Third party partners will be able to build their own custom lobbies for
their products, where they can present information to users, provide
downloadable content and implement various ecommerce models.
Advertising options will also be made available through Home.

Q: Will retailers (e.g. GAME) be able to have a presence in Home?
Yes. Retailers can create their own lobbies and deploy these for commercial
operations.

Q: How soon can publishers and developers have and manage their own spaces?
We would like to engage with interested publishers and developers
immediately. If you an existing licence holder you should channel requests for
information through your existing 3rd Party Account Manager. If you do not
have a licence agreement, please visit http://home.scedev.net where you will
find more information and an application to register your interest.

Q: When can IP holders have / manage their own Home Spaces?
We would like to engage with interested IP and content rights holders
immediately. If you are an interested non-games company or IP holder,
please register your interest with us at http://home.scedev.net . An
appropriate representative will follow up your enquiry.

Oh and more about user-to-user e-commerce :

Q: Will users be able to sell things to each other?
Ultimately, an auction service will be implemented that will allow users to sell
their Home assets and user-created content to other users.

Q: Can I earn money in Home?
As noted above, there will be eventually opportunities for user-to-user
auctions.

 

[Crag Dweller]

Now if they can just figure out a way to give me a garage and my cars from GT5 so I can hop in and drive around the countryside with friends.

 

[gofreak]

Another thing I want to know is to what extent users can create content. Similar to Second Life? "More"? "Less"?

A lot less I imagine given Harrison's comments, in which he distinguished Home from Second Life based on the user-created-content aspect (in fact, he made it sound like there was none, really, but this FAQ suggests otherwise, at least in the long term). It doesn't sound like something that will be there from the start, but I am looking forward to them implementing that.

So the beta sign up page that was put up yesterday, that's for the open beta in august? Not the april one? That's kinda disappointing :/

The page refers to the closed beta. Closed beta is next month, open beta in august.

To a degree, we could do that here.

Indeed, targetted ads are no big deal, but it is interesting that they're open to third parties integrating their systems with Home. I hope they'll also be open to third parties streaming in content or web-pages from servers outside of home too e.g. if Gamespot or 1up wanted a space in Home, then they could reuse their existing website stuff immediately if that is allowed. (e.g. Gamespot could stream press conferences into home using the same infrastructure they already have).

 

[RuGalz]

We should get a GAF space. I'm ready to make some mini games for the space!

I don't think that will conflict with my work...

 

[Bebpo]

I think it sounds interesting, but it also sounds like it could potentially be microtransaction hell.

But that's just how it is. Xbox Live Marketplace was the same thing, it was interesting and exciting to have DLC and trailers/demos/etc... but it also opened the potential for microtransaction hell. You gotta have one if you want the other, but luckily no one is forcing you to buy microtransactions in either system.

 

[USC-fan]

i'm curious to know how Sony will police the user's use of certain JPGs depicting either inappropriate material or copyrighted material.

private homes, whatever, but public homes? hmm I hope Sony doesn't use a timed submission system for approving your use of JPGs of your choice to deck your home

talking about this?

Q: How much control will we have over what people get up to in their
private spaces?
A: Our policy is not to actively police private areas, and a user cannot be
invited to another user’s private space until they have accepted an
invitation to be on their buddy list. However, the complaints process will
still operate in these private spaces, so if people feel that they have
been subjected to inappropriate behaviour while in someone’s private
space, they will be able to lodge a complaint by the usual process.

 

[gofreak]

private homes, whatever, but public homes? hmm I hope Sony doesn't use a timed submission system for approving your use of JPGs of your choice to deck your home

No homes are public. Your home is private, period. You have to be invited to go to someone's home, and you have to be on their buddy list in the first place also. You can do what you want in your own home, but someone can complain if they feel your behaviour is inappropriate. In public spaces, the public 'common' lobbies, the content you see on displays etc. is provided by Sony et al, not users.

 

[Panajev2001a]

We should get a GAF space. I'm ready to make some mini games for the space!

I don't think that will conflict with my work...

Do you know that your Publisher/Producer just felt this disturbance in the force (possible microscopic reduction on productivity somewhere somehow maybe who knows?) and is probably going to come to the office tomorrow with a baseball bat ?

 

[Chris_C]

Also I'll eat my hat if there isn't a Square Enix Museum in the near future on Home. And it will be the most beautiful thing you will ever enter.

Spoiler

Unless you get to have sex with Angelina Jolie

That's not a bad idea, Hollywood could get in on that, whoring out virtual celebrities for users pleasure at $5 a pop. Or you could pay for the services of a "companion escort" in the form of Salma Hayek to walk around with you whilst you traverse the virtual halls, drawing envious looks from all your friends as you rub shoulders with society's elite.

Spoiler

I call dibs on Lukems!

 

[Tempy]

No homes are public. Your home is private, period. You have to be invited to go to someone's home, and you have to be on their buddy list in the first place also. You can do what you want in your own home, but someone can complain if they feel your behaviour is inappropriate. In public spaces, the public 'common' lobbies, the content you see on displays etc. is provided by Sony et al, not users.

Ah, but what about auctioning of user created content? Surely this can't be limited to just friends since I'd just give them stuff for free. What if someone created a statue of Homer Simpson which could say random quotes whenever you "use" it.

Would such user created content go through a Sony filter first?

 

[TTP]

Q: When I jump back from a game into Home, will I return with the same
people next to me? Will I return to a default location?
Upon returning to Home, you will land in the same place which was your last
position before you left (for instance, if you left Home from your apartment,
that is where you will return to.) However, given that Home is an online world,
other users will doubtless have moved on while you are off doing something
else (unless you've specifically asked them to wait for you.) Currently Home
is not a persistent world, so when you leave Home, all of your possessions go
with you. For instance, it is not currently possible for other users to visit your
apartment while you're not there. We are working on the persistent aspect of
Home, and expect to implement it in the long term.

I wonder if they can check your trophies at least. That's very important to be able to do so without invitation IMO.

 

[Panajev2001a]

No homes are public. Your home is private, period. You have to be invited to go to someone's home, and you have to be on their buddy list in the first place also. You can do what you want in your own home, but someone can complain if they feel your behaviour is inappropriate. In public spaces, the public 'common' lobbies, the content you see on displays etc. is provided by Sony et al, not users.

Well it might not be exactly like that (here the FAQ does not take into account perhaps the only thing that Harrison said that is not reflected much in the FAQ itself), the content is public space is moderated, user-created content does not seem to be banned from it:

Harrison told CNET News.com that while users will be able to design their own clothing and avatars, as well as other content--be it furniture, vehicles or the like--Sony will moderate anything meant for public spaces, most likely to ensure that Home remains a family friendly space. Content meant for private spaces will not be moderated, he added.

.

 

[Arsenal]

Very interesting - thanks for posting the FAQ. Kind of like XBL meets Second Life, I like it.

Question - What is the primary method of communication in these lobbies? Keyboard seems like the obvious answer based on the screen shots and having up to 64 people in a lobby. Maybe chat is only available in private spaces?

I am a little skeptical since so many of the answers talk about things happening "eventually". Lots of "Initially/Currently" things will be this way, but "ultimately, in the future" they will be this way. There is definitely a lot of potential there, but it is clear that Sony is playing catchup and will be for some time yet.

Best of all though, its great to see Sony rising to the challenge and raising the bar - they certainly are not going to go quietly into the night. The online functionality of the consoles is going to be an escalating race where each company tries to top each other and we will all benefit from that.

 

[Panajev2001a]

That's not a bad idea, Hollywood could get in on that, whoring out virtual celebrities for users pleasure at $5 a pop. Or you could pay for the services of a "companion escort" in the form of Salma Hayek to walk around with you whilst you traverse the virtual halls, drawing envious looks from all your friends as you rub shoulders with society's elite.

Spoiler

I call dibs on Lukems!

Why did not we think of this before ? Of course... legalized, non pornographic, safe for work (well, it depends... age restricted areas) escort services .

If they can price it "reasonably" for 3rd parties, well the sky is the limit... who could say no to premium cable-TV-like content ?

A Comedy Central Home space would KICK ASS!

 

[dynamitejim]

So can developers use the Home framework to create 3D lobbies for their games? Instead of meeting random people in the main lobby you go to the specific Resistance/Motorstorm/whatever lobby completely modeled with the theme of the game and then you start a game from there. Sounds like it would be much easier to meet people to play the specific game that way.

 

[Panajev2001a]

So can developers use the Home framework to create 3D lobbies for their games?

Yes:

Q: How will third party partners be able to be involved in Home?
A: Third party partners will be able to build their own custom lobbies for
their products, where they can present information to users, provide
downloadable content and implement various ecommerce models.
Advertising options will also be made available through Home.

Q: Will retailers (e.g. GAME) be able to have a presence in Home?
Yes. Retailers can create their own lobbies and deploy these for commercial
operations.

Q: How soon can publishers and developers have and manage their own spaces?
We would like to engage with interested publishers and developers
immediately. If you an existing licence holder you should channel requests for
information through your existing 3rd Party Account Manager. If you do not
have a licence agreement, please visit http://home.scedev.net where you will
find more information and an application to register your interest.

Q: When can IP holders have / manage their own Home Spaces?
We would like to engage with interested IP and content rights holders
immediately. If you are an interested non-games company or IP holder,
please register your interest with us at http://home.scedev.net . An
appropriate representative will follow up your enquiry.

 

[gofreak]

Ah, but what about auctioning of user created content? Surely this can't be limited to just friends since I'd just give them stuff for free. What if someone created a statue of Homer Simpson which could say random quotes whenever you "use" it.

Would such user created content go through a Sony filter first?

Sounds like it, given the quote from Pana above.

There are some more notes from the evening blog session with Harrison at Slashdot, with a couple more tidbits. Particularly this;

http://games.slashdot.org/games/07/03/09/212220.shtml

I was intrigued on Wednesday (as were a number of readers) by the possibility of indie games in the Arcade rooms they showed off. Phil Harrison responded by saying that it is something they're very interested in. Originally, all of the games were going to be done in Java but technical problems arose. The games are now done in C. If they can wrap up the tools in an easy package, they'd be very happy to release them and allow community-created games onto the service.

*Breathes in deeply and slowly*

(I'm not going to hold them to this, but if they do allow it, then here's PS3's 'youtube for hobbyist games'! Please let that happen..)

 

[jiggle]

Great I hope i get in on the closed beta.

Question - What is the primary method of communication in these lobbies? Keyboard seems like the obvious answer based on the screen shots and having up to 64 people in a lobby. Maybe chat is only available in private spaces?

You can talk through headset even in the lobby. Already demonstrated.

I am a little skeptical since so many of the answers talk about things happening "eventually". Lots of "Initially/Currently" things will be this way, but "ultimately, in the future" they will be this way. There is definitely a lot of potential there, but it is clear that Sony is playing catchup and will be for some time yet.

Sounds like a MMORPG, constantly being updated with new added contents/features.

The initially/current/ultimately thing could be referring to beta -----> official release also.

 

[SpudBud]

Home sounds so ****ing awesome.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Sounds like it, given the quote from Pana above.

There are some more notes from the evening blog session with Harrison at Slashdot, with a couple more tidbits. Particularly this;

http://games.slashdot.org/games/07/03/09/212220.shtml



*Breathes in deeply and slowly*

(I'm not going to hold them to this, but if they do allow it, then here's PS3's 'youtube for games'! Please let that happen..)

Wow, that could be really awesome . I wonder what the limitations for those games would be, in the FAQ they mention the possibility of IP holders to re-release old Game IP's through these Arcade Cabinets/Mini-Games inside the Home service so they must mean some kind of graphical capabilities at least beyond the original NES .

Having a LUA+C/C++ tool-set with GBA-like graphics routines (tiled or bit-mapped backgrounds and sprites and some other GBA-like effects)... this could be done without opening ANYTHING of RSX to community developers.

 

[Arsenal]

Yeah, it'd be cool if you could give certain users 'digital keys' so they can access your house... except you can specify what times they can enter and not.

I think the reasons for this are more technical. Private spaces/houses sound like they are not hosted on the central servers but are P2P. I doubt Sony is going to centrally host all these things unless they offer a for-pay service for people that wanted to pay for that hosting.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Ah, but what about auctioning of user created content? Surely this can't be limited to just friends since I'd just give them stuff for free. What if someone created a statue of Homer Simpson which could say random quotes whenever you "use" it.

Q: Will users be able to sell things to each other?
Ultimately, an auction service will be implemented that will allow users to sell
their Home assets and user-created content to other users.

Q: Can I earn money in Home?
As noted above, there will be eventually opportunities for user-to-user
auctions.

I think it would be moderated by Sony in some form and that the seller would have to give a small percentage of the money the buyer has paid to Sony.

 

[gofreak]

Wow, that could be really awesome . I wonder what the limitations for those games would be, in the FAQ they mention the possibility of IP holders to re-release old Game IP's through these Arcade Cabinets/Mini-Games inside the Home service so they must mean some kind of graphical capabilities at least beyond the original NES .

Having a LUA+C/C++ tool-set with GBA-like graphics routines (tiled or bit-mapped backgrounds and sprites and some other GBA-like effects)... this could be done without opening ANYTHING of RSX to community developers.

Heck, this might give you RSX access if it's through a sony bundled library, something you don't have in Linux.

But yes, the runtime environment would obviously be constrained (but typically so will the capability of hobbyists). But this would take your hobbyist games out of just the 'Linux world', into the mainstream 'PS3 world', which would be very very valuable. I've little doubt there'd be the option to monetise that and sell your games there also.

Please, please, please Sony!

 

[Zombie James]

Oh and more about user-to-user e-commerce :

It'd be awesome to create some really great wallpaper or something like that and get a couple of bucks out of it.