Boycotts Are Not Allowed!

According to this post on the forums: (Cleaned up for format issues)

It is beyond sad that EU home gets a ton of American Swag and Codes

Transformers
Star Trek
Audi (ok, that one is techniqully a European company)
And Now..

Kick Ass.

What exactly am I missing, Why do we get none of these items? And don't reply with "Well EU Home doesn't get a lot of stuff NA Home gets"

Kick Ass is an American comic book, an American Movie. And they get the exclusive codes? wth? and if this is somehow fair, HAVE WE EVER GOT AN EXCLUSIVE CODE FROM A EUROPEAN FRANCHISE?

I can put up with the crappy way most of the NA events are run on Home, I have actually come to expect them to phail on those. But this is just shameful.

Really, I mean Really?

However common this message is, the final outcome kinda irked me:

Unfortunately, discussions of boycotts aren't allowed.

Yup. You can't mention boycotting Sony. And per usual a locked topic isn't a locked topic without Conrad_Max sucking on the Admin/moderator's nuts.

No more beating around the bush.

This is an awesome forum post. Even though the Lithium rent-a-cops are editing everyone's posts. They kinda remind me of security guards at a mall. Useless unless they're irritated.

Lets have a look.

Home is a stiff and lifeless world with so-so graphics and poor ambience. As one review put it, the environment is sterile and very limited as far as interactivity goes. Many spaces are incredibly dull and mostly devoid of ambient sounds. The interface is bland and boring to look at. The only gaming-related feature we have is universal game launching. Except for the latter, Home is completely isolated from the PlayStation Network. The absence of the Trophy Room/Hall of Fame is especially jarring, since it's been in the works for a very long time. This space would make Home a much more interesting place for gamers, but apparently Sony doesn't care about what we want. All they care about is shoving content down our throats to make a quick buck and to take our focus off of Home's numerous issues.

As one user put it (can't remember your username, sorry), Home isn't evolving, it's just getting flabbier. Sony is taking on much more than it can handle with the weekly content updates, and we're the ones who suffer because of it. Here's a thought, why don't you get all the kinks worked out before you dump a boatload of content on our laps? Seems like nobody at Sony has the guts to say "Hey, we screwed up big time, we should hold back for a while and try to figure out what went wrong before we release any new content".

No doubt some users will tell me that I don't "understand" Home, or some such nonsense, but that's just evading the issue. Home IS riddled with problems, and some seem like they're trying really hard not to pick up on that. Pretending to be satisfied will not do Home or its community any good. The problem here is Sony, not us.

The original post had mentioned two people by name. Luckily some unnamed hero snagged a screenshot before the original was butchered. Here's the current post:

No doubt some users will tell me that I don't "understand" Home, or some such nonsense, but that's just evading the issue. Home IS riddled with problems, and some seem like they're trying really hard not to pick up on that. Pretending to be satisfied will not do Home or its community any good. The problem here is Sony, not us.

And the actual post:

No doubt Conrad_Max and Joanna_Dark_ will tell me that I don't "understand" Home, or some such nonsense, but that's just evading the issue. Home IS riddled with problems, and some seem like they're trying really hard not to pick up on that. Pretending to be satisfied will not do Home or its community any good. The problem here is Sony, not us.

Truedat. Here's a fun game, how many staff edits can we fit in one topic:

1. Message Edited by Avara on 02-08-2010 02:04 PM
2. Message Edited by shungokusatsu on 02-08-2010 11:52 AM
3. Message Edited by shungokusatsu on 02-08-2010 11:53 AM

Note to Lithium: you can't code worth a damn. Learn to stick to one timezone for things, otherwise your forum software looks crappy and confusing. Actually, nevermind, it is crappy and confusing.

Note: I also tagged this post as "locked topic" because I'm willing to bet it will be not to long from now. UPDATE: It was.

Lockdown -- Updated

Written by: Kapow

Well I noticed there wasn't a February Suggestions Thread in the Sony forums, so I thought I would take it upon myself to post it. Less than 5 minutes after it was posted it got locked. I proceeded to PM Avara. I informed her that I just created a thread, gave her a link to it, and asked why it had been deleted. That was over an hour ago. She was online when I first sent it, and she is online right now. I have yet to get a response from her. So what, is there a fucking rule that says we, the average joe, can't post a suggestion thread? Is there a rule that says only Sony and forum staff can post those types of threads? This was an unjust lock. It was wrong of them to lock it. Did it make GlassWalls look bad that I had posted the February Suggestion thread before he did? Who gives a fuck who posts it so long as it gets posted. The earlier into a month these threads are posted, the better. But i guess that makes to much sense.

Here's a link to view the thread.


[Update] Got a PM from Cobra1:

Basically:
"You're not an HCM, fuck you."

I replied to her/his PM but have yet to receive a response.

Why is US Armed Forces Propaganda on an International Network like Home?

This topic begs the question: Why is US Armed Forces Propaganda on an International Network like Home?

The author makes a bunch of great points I want to preserve before it's locked or deleted:

Because political agendas are not allowed on Home, and a Military force is inherently political. It is a tool used to exert political will, and promoting a countries military is essentially promoting the countries political will, that the military is a tool for.

As such, it is essentially against Sony's own rules to have it as content.

This would be fine if Home was just for the US, but it isn't. It is for North America.

Do you think they would allow promotional material for the German army on Home Europe, or the Chinese Army on Home Asia? I seriously doubt it.

There should be no promotional material for any countries army in Home.

Well put.

A countries government stands for more things than just it's international political agenda. It's own internal laws and values, Social programs so on. There for it is not quite so bad. Although Homes treatment of even this has been quite unfair to the other country that inhabits Home.

But a Military almost entirely exists as a tool for a countries international political agenda, and foreign policy. Therefore, promotion of said countries military is intrinsically linked to the promotion of said countries foreign policy and international political agenda.

This is not appropriate for a place that services an international community, as Home NA does.

Better put!

Again I offer this analogy.

How do you think South Korea would feel if Sony allowed The Chinese Army to have promotional Material on Home Asia? Or, how do you think Poland would feel if Sony allowed the German army to have promotional material on Home Europe?

Home NA officially serves other countries than just the US, and as such must demonstrate more appreciation of how other countries view the content they post. Posting promotional material for a Military force that is presently involved in a conflict that the other country officially does not support only serves to alienate the country that does not support the conflict. Which is why, there should be no such material on Home.

Yet even better!

Actually, officially we are not in Iraq. Any Canadian Soldiers in Iraq are holdovers from UN obligations and are not directly involved in the US conflict. Which is the conflict I am talking about.

In any case this just goes to prove the real problem here that many Canadians on Home feel, and that is the complete ignorance and F--- You attitude of the Home NA team, and many other US Homelings.

Let us do a hypothetical here.

Suppose, that the US was on the same Home as say Iran. And one day promotional material for the Iranian Army appeared on Home. U.S. users would be screaming bloody murder that this is completely inappropriate content, and how no such things should be on Home, and they would be right to do so.

(And anyone who says they wouldn't, remember, you're the country that tried to change the name from French Fries to Freedom Fries Just because France criticized you.)

Yet, when the shoe is on the other foot, and it is you that is doing the same inappropriate action, and someone brings it up, you say they are over reacting.

This especially happens when it is Canada pointing it out, because you think, how can Canada possibly have a problem with anything we do. Well we are not just Lap dogs to the U.S. We do have a mind of our own, and we don't always agree with everything that you do.

Now as your neighbors, and friends we overlook a lot of it, like shoving 4th of July Stuff down our throat, with out even acknowledging our existence. But shoving your military down one's throat is a sensitive topic for any country.

And the fact that you can't see that, or expecting us to overlook that, like we do everything else, is stepping over the line. It shows a lack of respect to those friends, and conveys a sense of taking them and their friendship for granted.

People from the U.S. always think we are hating on them. We are not. We are your best friends. You guys are like Fred, and we are like Barney. And for the most part Barney went along with Fred and his larger than life abrasive attitude at times because they were buds. But sometimes, Barney had to tell Fred when he stepped over the line.

As far as a U.S. centric Home that also officially serves Canada. This is stepping over the line, and I am just making that known.

And it bothers me that the Home NA team didn't even stop to consider how this might be interpereted in the other country that they service, again like we don't even exist.

And that sound you hear is the entire forum of military trolls being owned collectively at once.

Update: Censored conversation due to Avara.

Home Moderation Terrified of Home-Watch!

We've gotten swamped with multiple emails from folks who have been censored. Rather then anything we'd love to do a little jig and get on with the mockery, but I'll post emails instead.

Email #1:

the removed my fucking signature and deleted a thread i made. bastards

Email #2:

i came across a link to your site in the home general forums, can't help but appreciate the bulk of everything you are posting there, keep up the good work and perhaps some competent people will be hired to run home and moderate. and oddly enough when i navigated back to the forums the post with your link had been deleted.

Email #3:

they deleted the last one i made 'cause it had the home-watch url in it. here's the message i got:

Warning
From: Admin Assistant Avara
Date: 01-16-2010 10:25 PM

Please refrain from advertising and posting links to inappropriate content (inappropriate language) on the forums. Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Email #4: (And my favorite, from a Sony Employee)

dude, lol. you are pissing a lot of people off.your blog is hush hush.but everyone is talking about it quietly.a bunch of us are laughing our asses off aroud here. please keep up , most of us hate home with a passion.

Other then you guys at Sony not being able to put together an email that can be read, you guys are awesome for shooting this to me, and thanks again for letting me paste it.

Censorship is abound! Seems we must have ruffled some feathers, because we're even being chatted about at Sony. Wow. Awesome job everyone. To celebrate, I've made a new sig image without our url, so we can avoid those hyper-sensitive feelings of the Home staff.