Locust_Star fired? No!

Last post a user made some observations that made it look suspiciously like Locust_Star got fired. Locust_Star has since made a post which confirms he's still alive & employed.

Locust_Star fired?

Posted in a comment field in a previous post:

...This is REALLY old news, sad to say. Like, beginning of august old. Try looking at other things.... like the fact that Locust has not been on the forum at all in September, and Glass did the most recent PS Blog entry....

First off, it's true. Second, you're a dick poster, I posted about it back then too. Ass.

No Playstation Move Area, and Villian's Lair Sucks (Still)

Locust_Star posted the following today:

Hey everyone,

I've just received word that the PlayStation Move event space, as previously announced in today's blog post, will not be releasing in SCEA tomorrow morning (Thursday, August 12th). I will update you with more details as I receive them.

Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you. We are sure that you'll enjoy the rest of the content that we are releasing tomorrow (the "Sneak Attack" items are personal faves of mine - check 'em out!)

Which translated from Home PR speak vaguely means: Shit, our bad. This area is fucking broken like everything else we produce. But this time we were kind enough to notice it and address it. Give us some credit?

Ok, I'll give you this one Home. You managed to resist releasing a broken area for once. But that doesn't help the following person who bought a broken area:

Following GlassWalls "BEST PRACTICES for reporting issues", I will relay my problem and course of action to date:

Purchased Villain's Lair early June, 2010. Neither mini-game works properly.
Village Griefer: Any high scores, approximately 800 and above, at the end of the game 1) I get kicked out, left standing next to the chair, unable to get back in the game, and no leaderboard scores are visible, or 2) the game totally locks up and the only way to exit is to manually turn off my PS3 (huge pain).
World Domination: In the second round of the hard levels, after I have set up my board, I get kicked out of the game, left standing next to the board, able to see it how I just set it up, but unable to get back in.

That is what normally happens, but under different circumstances, other things have happened too, which I will relay later.

Course of action taken:

1. Checked the Knowledge Center: Nothing related to this problem.
2. Searched the forums for a similar problem: Found one, it had zero replies.
3. Deleted Home, reinstalled: No difference.
4. Called Sony: Was told by "John" they are tech. support only, and I should contact a Mod.
5. Sent Locust_Star a PM 6/23/10 thoroughly describing my problems: No reply.
6. Deleted Villain's Lair Saved Data Utility (PS3): Removed my decorations, same problems persisted.

On 7/01/10 my 80G PS3 experienced the Red Light of Death. On 7/02/10 I set up a new 120G slim under the same account.
On 7/02/10 I went into Villain's Lair and played Village Griefer, which performed flawlessly, for hours, recording scores ranging from 819 to 1071. Checking World Domination the same day, I discovered it was gone. Completely. No table, no globe, nothing.
On 7/03/10 I returned to play Village Griefer, to discover IT was gone. No chair, no leaderboard (not no scores, but no board itself) and the viewing window was pitch black. Checking World Domination shortly after, I found it was fully intact, and was able to complete my original game with no problems.
On 7/04/10 I found the space to be the same as it was on the 3rd. I invited a friend over the same day, who owns Villain's Lair. She saw HER leaderboard scores in my space, was able to sit in the Village Griefer chair only she could see, and actually play and complete a game. I saw a black window, no chair & no leaderboard.

Later that day I deleted Home and reinstalled. The original problems returned. I had my friend over again, who was now unable to see any scores on the leaderboard, and unable to play the game. I saw scores and was able to play, but if my score was higher than my lowest high score, same problem, kicked out or locked up. I then visited her Villain's Lair where I was unable to see any scores on the leaderboard and was unable to play. She had no difficulties.

On 7/05/10 I had a friend in who did not own Villain's Lair, who was able to see the scores on the leaderboard and played the game several times. I was able to see the scores and view her games till about the 4th game, when I froze up and had to manually shut down my PS3.

There is no consistent pattern to my problems except that any score over 819 results in a kick or freeze up. This is extremely frustrating. I want to play my games.

Recommendations:
1. Completely delete Villain's Lair, which I am unable to do myself, and reinstall.
2. Have 2 Mods over, one who has the game, and one who does not, to experience this for themselves and take the proper course of action to correct it.

Expectations:

1. I will receive no helpful replies.
2. Nothing will be done in the hopes it will just go away. Believe me, it will not.

I hope this has been thorough enough to get something done about it. Thank-you.

More insider information - HARD NUMBERS ARE HERE!

Well, it's now known what the virtual item sales are for Home. With all the Kotakus, IGNs, 1ups, and other gaming new sites out there, a tiny blog got them first. And they are SAD. A forewarning, these numbers don't include the income from advertising. This is only the sales from micro-transactions, and only for the USA.

Home rakes in on average $125k a week. That's right Home fanatics, it's not even breaking a million per month. Hence the reason it's quite possibly being canceled in the near future.

So who's to blame for all of this? Well first off there's Katherine De Leon, who is responsible for the virtual spaces in Home. So when the [all] spaces bugged out, she would be the one to blame. We reported prior to this that they had hired someone to "revamp" Home, and it turns out it was Katherine who did the hiring. She hired a woman by the name of Celia Pearce, who claims:

Celia Pearce is a game designer, author, researcher, teacher, curator and artist, specializing in multiplayer gaming and virtual worlds, independent, art, and alternative game genres, as well as games and gender. She began designing interactive attractions and exhibitions in 1983, and has held academic appointments since 1998. Her game designs include the award-winning virtual reality attraction Virtual Adventures (for Iwerks and Evans & Sutherland) and the Purple Moon Friendship Adventure Cards for Girls. She received her Ph.D. in 2006 from SMARTLab Centre, then at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London.

Her website can be found here. Be warned, her website is an eyesore that challenges even the worst Geocities pages of the late 1990s. Higher than Katherine though is Jack Buser. Jack Buser (seen here doing his best impression of Animal from the Muppets) has failed to keep Home's development moving forward. While most successful companies and software projects excel due to the teamwork and combined efforts of everyone involved, Jack Buser had made every attempt possible to do the polar opposite. Every member of the team, if it be Katherine De Leon, Glasswalls, CydoniaX, Locust_Star, Buggie, or [insert name here] has had issues with Buser. According to sources he's a bit bipolar and has an extreme fear of failure. So chances are he's scared shitless at the moment because Home is doing really poorly.

It seems to us Buser's biggest mistake is placing his responsibility as the director for Home on the shoulders of the dingbat Celia Pearce and her idea of what Home could be. She spent months hanging out at malls and theme parks, taking pictures, and put all this together into some sort of grandmaster "redesign for Home." So there you have it...the future of Home is a giant mall/amusement park designed by a clueless, socially inept middle-aged lady who billed so much money to Sony for this "work" she bought a house with it. She then passed off this piece of shit to Katherine who passed it off to Jack, who decided to bank Home's entire strategy for the year on it. Now, normally strategic direction of a platform should come from the DIRECTOR, don't you think? But since Jack is so incompetent he dove on this thing like a fat kid on cake.

Most of the costs for Home development are in London, but there's also a ton of money paid out to 3rd parties who also build a lot of their virtual spaces and items. In fact, this is how most stuff is being created for Home this year, since Katherine De Leon has managed to hog most of the budget for her internal team of about 25 people to only work on the piece of shit Home redesign.
Some other interesting information, we have discovered Home does have its own QA team and they also use Sony's internal QA. Each region also has their own. Katherine, Jack, and the Home business manager talk to game developers to try to convince them to make stuff for Home. Jack answers to the Senior Director of PSN Marketing, Susan Panico.

So we have to ask: Susan Panico, what the fuck is going on? Why are you letting this crap go on? Isn't it time to cut and run?

More insider information/Apology to the HCM

So recently I've been getting a LOT of information from the sinking ship that is home. I'd like to share that with you now.

A brief history of Home:

1. Phil Harrison begins announcing the direction of Home, introduces media sharing, trophy room, etc.
   
2. Phil Harrison quits after a disagreement with Kaz, the head guy in Japan.
3. Katherine De Leon fills the spot of main producer
4. Jack Buser, becomes Director of Home.
5. CydoniaX, Glasswalls, Locust_Star become the HCM
6. Home releases public beta
7. Home operates for a year, under constant threat of being axed.
8. Game journalists rip on Home constantly
9. Katherine De Leon proposes a large scale redesign of Home, Focus groups hate it

Etc. Maybe sometime I'll actually make a timeline video or something. Here's some other interesting information:

1. The Home Community management team is FORBIDDEN to speak of promised features that have not come to be
2. Jack Buser might be losing his position
3. Home is STILL UNDER THREAT of being shut down
4. Game media still rip on home any shot they can, if they decide to acknowledge it at all.
5. Jack Buser fired CydoniaX because she reported him to the Human Resources division of Sony for "sexism, abuse, manipulation, undermining, and generally turning his whole team against each other"
6. Katherine De Leon is responsible for every space published in SCEA Home, so when something breaks, she is the one to ask about it.

I'd also like to humble myself at the moment, and speak a little bit about the HCM. Or what's left of it. Over the last six months of this blog, the HCM has taken quite a deal of punishment from this blog. We investigated them each in detail, and nitpicked their every move, post, and action.

Recently, I received an education about the HCM, and realized that they are not at fault for a good chunk of what we placed on their shoulders. However, Sony gave them zero permission to protect themselves nor gave them the ability to express what they were responsible for, and what they were not responsible for. This stemmed from above them, from the folks by the name of Jack Buser and Katherine De Leon. For months we have hounded and attacked the HCM because we assumed as many have that THEY are responsible for how shitty Home is. I have since discovered the truth.

What is disturbing to us is while we shit all over the HCM crew the people who were truly at fault sat in the background quietly, and allowed the HCM to accept all the blame for things that were their bosses' fault. That to me is even worse than the constant shit we've dumped on them over the last half a year.

Imagine enduring the abuse we can put out for half a year, knowing that none of it was your fault, however the folks who's fault it actually is force you to stay quiet and accept the blame that belongs to them. That's incredibly shitty management and Jack and Katherine should be fucking ashamed of what they've done.

So Glasswalls, CydoniaX, and Locust_Star, I apologize for the incredibly harsh way we've treated you. Although there have been many occasions where you did make mistakes and do silly shit, we wouldn't have gotten on you one tenth the amount we have had your bosses given you the ability to defend yourselves. For that I am sorry. Shoot me an email and I'll send a couple pizzas your way some day. All hush hush of course.

But back to the subject at hand. Jack Buser, Katherine De Leon, for months you've sat quietly in the background and let others take the blame for your incompetence. This is a polite warning to you: We are coming for you. You thought we were bad going after the HCM? Heh, you haven't seen shit yet. Better get some suntan lotion, we're coming after you with the fury of a thousand suns.

Glasswalls & Locust_Star post with a friend!

Well it seems as though E3 was pretty dull this year. Sony showed off a bucket filled to the brim with raw sewage which they then threw out on the crowd. Honestly other then the ice cream truck thing for the new Twisted Metal, I didn't see a damn thing that stuck out in my memory.

Speaking of things people forget, Home had a microscopic booth. Most people stopped by to ask questions of the Home staff such as "Where's the bathroom" and "holy shit, you mean Sony's still supporting Home?" The booth was almost an afterthought, as Sony made zero mention of Home the entire time at E3. Honestly it makes sense to avoid bringing attention on your retarded children, but you want to make them feel included. It's almost as though they had them there to simply escape the embarrassing talk that they might have given up on the concept. No, the large scale massive social networking software of the future can still be found.... in a tiny booth near the Ladies restroom, past the Hot Dog-on-a-Stick. Sadly, CydoniaX didn't make it. Guess it wasn't in the stars! (HAHA SEE WHAT I DID THERE) Although unconfirmed sources are suggesting she has been fired, although her name still appears in the message of the day.

The funniest part of the whole thing is they were giving codes away at E3 for free home items... which were broken and didn't work. At least the folks at E3 got the full home experience.

Just to clear things up...

I just wanted to clear up a little bit who's who in this picture. Everyone likes to put name to a face.

Warning: Lameness may cause anal leakage

This topic made me want to stab myself in the scrotum. Jim777, who I've made an extreme effort to not crap on because he's barely legal. But Jesus grape-flavored Christ.

I am turned our favorite Home team into raceable characters in ModNation! So you can tear up the track with Glasswalls or throw a salvo of missiles into Locust_Star, all depending on your mood

As much as I'd like "throw my missile" into Locust_Star, I have to ask, are these people really worth the effort to emulate in a game? I say no. I do however like how Jim777 managed to nail Jack Buser's pedophile meets Johnny Depp Willy Wonka hairdo & CydoniaX's hands seem to be to scale.

Locust_Star shows his immaturity, unprofessionalism, and huge vagina

Ugh...where do I begin? All these events that I'm about to discuss took place over 3 months ago. Note: the screens I am about to show are only screens of messages I received, at the time, I didn't see a need to screen cap my own messages. Although some messages have quoted stuff I said.
With that being said, I suppose I'll get started...oh, and this is probably going to be really long, so get ready for a lot of reading.

So, let's go waayy back to this post I made: http://home-watch.blogspot.com/2010/02/update-glasswalls-hackers-confusion.html (go on click on it, I'll wait...)

So now some of you might be thinking, "Well what about the other part of the question??" Fear not, I have sent another PM asking, more directly, what steps they, the Home staff, are taking to prevent such things from happening.

I'll let you know when he responds.

Yea, well I never got a follow up to my follow up. Oh, and that question I sent Glass, the one quoted in that picture, I also sent that to Locust_Star and CydoniaX. Exact same question sent to all 3 HCMs at the same time. <<----remember that, that's important. Seriously, remember it.

Anywho, since I wasn't getting the answers I wanted, I decided to make a thread asking about it. That was a no no apparently, as it was deleted , quick. Twice. But on fellow happened to see it before it got deleted, and that's when I this guy whose name shall remain unsaid.

He/she (I'm gunna say he from now on, seemed like a he to me anyways) decided to make a the same thread, asking if hacking and/or importing stuff was allowed and what-not. He made two of those threads and both were shut down. He received warnings from shungokusatsu that were basically the same as what is pictured below:

And a few hours after that is when Glass replied to my original question. SO, now we're all up to speed on how all of this go started. Remember that serious business I told you to remember? Well here's where that comes in handy, also this is where the lots of reading kicks in..

So now about 2 weeks have passed, and CydoniaX has made a thread. Not just any thread, but a thread where the HCMs...actually manage the community! Oh what a joyous occasion this was, I mean, its not often these people actually do what they're job title is. I just went back and search a little bit for this thread but didn't have much luck in finding it, I'm sure it's there somewhere though.

Anywho, this was basically a thread to ask whatever questions were on your mind, and one of the HCMs would eventually answer it. So I took it upon my self to ask, again, about the hacking and importing situation. And my question was on the first or second page too, "no way they can miss this" I thought. but after about a day and 9 pages later, my question had still gone unanswered, So, what else should I do but post it again, so I did. I get bitched at for asking the same question multiple times and quite soon after that (perhaps minutes) my question had the book thrown at it.

But you see, I had to be smart about the way I asked about hacking and importing, because you're not even allowed to mention that stuff in Lithium's public. After pussyfooting around with Cydonia for a few back n forths within that thread, she invites me to ask her the question, straight up, in PMs. Ok, cool. So I go to start comprising a new message (same direct question) and before I could even get half way through, I noticed I had a new PM. I checked it...and this is what it was:

Funny, right? Does that give off a little hint of how often they actually check they're PMs? She replied to the original message I had sent to all 3 HCMs 2 weeks earlier. The one that GlassWalls was kind enough to give an answer to, the one I posted here. Here's the really funny part, it took them this long to piece together that I am one of the people who write for Home-Watch. And we all know I've been open about the fact that I, PSN ID: zKAPOWz, contribute to this blog since i first started writing here. Hell, even before that, I would always leave comments here using my PSN ID or just Kapow (which is what i go by). It also reinforces the fact that they read this blog a lot.

Ok, so they think they've "found me out" or something, throwing the Home-Watch URL in my face, oh, and don't forget, 1 day after i got this message from CydoniaX they made the Home-Watch URL a curse word.

Anyways, so they think they've caught me red handed or something, yea, they:

I guess Locust finally decided to make a childish response to my 2 week old question, but here's where the fun really starts. But, unfortunately, like I said earlier, I didn't screen cap my messages, so I'll have to do my best to summarize what I said back then. Wait, nevermind, just realized I sent the whole conversation to Home-Watch when it all went down. Copy n Paste mode, GOOO! [Kapow's comments in bluegreen]

"alright, i'll just spread the word that hacking and importing items is acceptable and encouraged.

thanks for taking this matter seriously."

"Why thank you, but it's 'we' not 'me'. I'm not the head-honcho over at Home-Watch, just so you know. I don't like to take credit for what other people have started.

And it's sort of like Jack; you don't necessarily have to log on (or follow) to read something . I'm sure the boss over at HW knows how much traffic his blog really gets daily."

This response was by far my favorite. I like how he says we like to "mislead, misquote, and misrepresent" others, but what the fuck is this guy spewing right now? Really, lets dissect for a minute. Like I said earlier, these dick faces actually think they've "outed" me, when I've never tried to hide the fact that I contribute and support this site. I've been open about since the first time I've left a comment up until now. I openly tell people I am one of the writers here. In short, I've never tried to hide, or "minimize" my contribution to this blog. I'll even go as far to say that I was and still am the biggest supporter of this place, and have been the loudest voice both here and in the forums. And my signature? Really? I've only changed it once since I made it and that was upon a warning I received from a MOD because I had our URL in it. (you know, the curse word before it was a curse word) So i changed the text from "We're Watching you. . . home-watch.blogspot.com" to "We're watching you. . . and we will not stop Home-Watch."

So far he's wrong that:

1. he thinks I updated my signature because of him and that she-bitch CydoniaX
2. he thinks they "outed" me, and
3. he thinks I've tried to "minimize how they perceive my contribution to this site."

Right now he's looking pretty damn foolish, and that's just the first sentence! Let's carry on! Who was it that was asking about that quote from Locust calling us an "ugly, hateful, libelous site?" Yea, this is where That came from. Next he tries to wag his small e-penis at me, boasting about past writing experience, like I give a shit. And uses that as a segway to talk about my "homophobic rants and the poor punctuation" on my twitter. Ok, I was playing Street Fighter IV and i said something like, "Zangief is a real fag!" or something like that. I said fag, oh my god! What am I missing? I said fag, I also say gay, and homo and queer too. Moving on, he says I have bad punctuation. Um, it's fucking Twitter you douche nozzle. Nuff said. Moving on! You might want to take this time to stand up and stretch, maybe get something to drink, because now I'm about to post what I replied to him after his erroneous, idiotic message. Here we go:

hmm, well i'll try to convey my sarcasm better next time. but anyways, i wasn't trying to minimize how you perceive my contribution to Home-Watch, i am a major contributor to the blog. i don't try to hide it nor do i shout it from the roof tops. at first i hid the fact that i wrote for Home-Watch, only because i wasn't sure if the boss man over there wanted people to know he or she had multiple people writing for the the blog. but once i got the ok i told a few friends and they told their friends and..well you know how that goes. so once word got around and people asked me if it was true, i confirmed it for them. by no means did anyone (especially not you or Cyd, i guess you two didn't know i wrote for Home-Watch until i posted the PM Glass sent me?) 'out' me. every article i write for Home-Watch, i write knowing full well what i am posting and saying. i post screen caps with my name and others names int it for a reason, mostly for authenticity.

and i haven't changed my sig in a while, i only changed it from, "We're Watching You (with the Home-Watch url at the bottom right)." to what it currently is now, for the simple fact that the MODs wouldn't allow the Home-Watch URL to be posted publicly because, "it linked to profanity." which is a bull**bleep** excuse because people post links to Destrctoid and the likes all the time.

so with all that being said i'm not really sure what you mean by i didn't update my sig until you and Cyd "confronted me." but like i said, i guess you two were late to the 'party' because it's certainly no secret lol.

also, i have no doubts about your past work & writing credentials, without them i doubt you'd be at your current job. but it also doesn't take someone like that deduce something as simple as the similarities in peoples writing styles. that 'skill' is elementary to any ametuer writer.

as for my antics on twitter, saying '**bleep**' and 'gay' does not make someone a homophobe. but seeing as you don't know me personally, i don't blame you in making assumptions. when i am writing something with meaning or purpose, i make sure that my grammar and punctuation is decent, at the very least. when i'm writing something on Twitter, i **bleep** (fag) in talk like an ass with lots n lots of sarcasm n junk (<---like that). i mean, it's Twitter for god's sake, not a term paper. so if you want to keep judging me based on my Twitter shenanigans, by all means go right ahead.

last but not least, i have no doubt you are watching ME, as i am the only 'Name' that writes for Home-Watch. you guys have no one else to watch, and i don't mind taking some heat off the boss man. i'm sure he's, "lovin' every minute of it." (<--that's from a song i think, it got stuck in my head. "Lovin' every minute of it!")

anyways, try not to forget we are just trying to help Home and it's community in our own special way me, you and HlPPE played pool together back in the first days when the beta changed to 'Open.' we had good times back then, i have no qualms in having more good times with you guys in the future. we all don't have to be enemies unless you wish it to be that way. ok, i'ma stop now, i've rambled enough and i'm not going back to proof read so you get what you get.

aah.. one more thing i guess, why not? just in case you were wondering, i know as much about the creator of the blog as anyone else. i don't know what you guys, HCM or MODs, did to him or her, but it must've been something pretty bad.

hahaha, now That one made me laugh. if you're talking about the article i made posting the screen cap from Glass, i don't see how that was misquoted, misleading, or misrepresenting him. i've even told Glass that i won't post anything He says to me if he so wishes it. Glass has my respect. notice how none of this is on Home-Watch (until now). it seems you haven't really been paying attention to anything i've said and i won't bother repeating myself.

i'm sorry you feel so threatened by me and My colleagues but we will not stop and we will continue to expose Home and it's community for what it really is.

don't think this is our last interaction. you have decided to continue this 'war', so we'll see you on the battlefield.

Man...I am such a bad ass, amirite? Anyways, a few days later, I got banned from lithium, got my sentence doubled and now here I am. There's still some shenanigans going on with my ban though, as I pointed out here http://home-watch.blogspot.com/2010/05/commaderkoopa-calls-out-lithium-mods.html .

Welp, that's the end of this story. Let the comments begin.

Beardless Wonder

Beardless? That could be due to one of this weeks Home failures, which is fucking up the Obi-Wan outfit.

Today I bought the Obi-Wan Tunic and Armor Bundle, everything is in my inventory except the beard. I shall wait a week or two before I start feeling ripped off, in hopes that it will appear. Please, can the powers that lead, look into this.

Which Locust_Star replied:

Did you check the Facial Hair section? That's where it should be appearing.

And sixteen minutes later:

Update: We are fixing this issue now. Those of you that have already purchased the bundle and have not received the beard will need to contact Customer Service on Monday for vouchers for the beard. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Derp. How many update bundles will break? The list continues.

I love a good milking!

Each week, Locust_Star posts in his flamboyant-style writing the latest update news. Which can usually be summed up in five words: "New content, give us money!" However, each week folks post in the comments field all kinds of negative replies. I figured before it gets too large I'd post some of them:

i don’t get it, we are constantly forking out cash in HOME and we still don’t have features we’ve been asking for 3 years now, what are you guys doing with all that money?

NHL Jerseys??? come on…

Locust.. can you please answer this.. Are you all working on the missing main features, like televisions, and working radios, trophy room/hall of fame.etc. ?? would be gratefull if you reply..

I really wish you all would update the mall, specifically the treads stores, because it’s been going on 2 months since the last update, and there really aren’t any fresh articles of clothing out, especially for the men. I’m not trying to be demanding, I would just like to see, more clothes; pref-ably fashionable clothes. The mall has been very stagnate.

will the community items be free or will you be milking us from our ideas?

WHY ARE YALL KEEP MAKING THESE PERSONAL SPACES FOR..?? WITH NOTHING TO DO IN THEM ???

yawn

It’d be real nice if those Lithium employees didn’t give me a perm ban from the forums.

Okay neat on the event front, but seriously we need a features update. Even in-game music would be something at this point. Just the ability to listen to something else while in home.

But seriously, open voice chat (with friends only and off options for nay sayers), stereos and tv’s need to be implemented soon.

Please tell the guys who write code for Home, that the games saved on your harddrive need to be organized better

You know we can’t look in the playstation forums on our PS3 right. then why say go to the playstation forums for more information

Why does home keep getting so much junk. We are the cash cow of the Homes. Japan gets quality stuff. EU gets quality stuff. But US gets so much that it’s unorganized and most of it is just junk that isn’t related to anything. We need to get home back on track.

We need games or some type of game sharing for personal spaces. Something like the arcade machines that doesn’t kick you from home and something multi-player. chess table, some board games, Pool tables, old school games PS one classics ANYTHING to do in an apartment would be cool

I’m saying they’re giving us too much useless junk. We’re the cash cow. We just get stuff because they know we’ll buy it. I’m saying other regions have less stuff but what they do have is quality stuff.

I’m very dissapointed at the absolutely abysmal “updates” home has gotten. I’ve been on in excess of 9 months and not 1 single bug has been fixed. on the contrary they’ve gotten much larger, more frequent and more numerous and quite often lead 2 my ps3 having fatal crashes. I’ve deleted home and re-installed many times to no avail. People at sony need to wake up to the fact that beta testing is there to find and elimnate bugs not fob overpriced unwanted virtual junk on the public.

Locust_star + Elitist users = BFF

I've been in a series of emails with the nice folks of The SoSe Project. According to them: (Trimmed to the point)

Hello Home watch staff. You may or may not heard of us. We have been running home exposures for over... well since Closed beta/Day 1 of playstation home. Only on its users. At times we encountered Mod discrepancies but that wasn't our main goal.

our Members have been attacked by inside politics within' sony. We have video evidence as well as text evidence that 1 of PlayStation Top home Moderators "Locust_star" has been using Members to help bully people into Violating Sony's Terms of Service.He's doing this to help his cause to "ban" members from playstation. He's actually Using a Frosty. Yea i said it, a Fucking frosty... The lamest out of them all. With that said They Targeted The SoSe Project because of the controversy and its Popularity with its continuous gestures to make a mockery of playstation home as a whole.

The shit we have on locust star for now is just the Frosties admiting to conspiracy and Snitching.

Darken12-nl, a lil bitch from the netherlands helps Locust_star with conspiracies. If you can get a troll around her (she talks and tells all her business in public) then you can get her to admit shit to you yourself.

Locust_Star was off duty on home hanging out with the frostys. Not sure of the Psn but we know the mod or mods where there. Friday... Darken was makin accusations and bullying purposely. Next Day 1 account goes down. Get a call from GW. Saying that locust is aware about a incident and is baning 2 other accounts. Darken did admit to bullying and calling sony and making false alligations as well as havin a relationship with locust star. Monday, Another account gets hit. and finally tuesday the SoSe account goes down when it doesnt sign in! Simply because darken claims to have a close relationship with locust. it doesnt make her special. It just puts another open case between User/employee conspiracies.

I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE SOMEBODY'S WATCHING ME

Since this blog's creation we have seen a steady influx of traffic from Sony of America. Recently it's been more then our friends at 919 Hillsdale, but also Sony San Diego, and Sony of Europe. Even a few hits once and again from Sony of Japan.

THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S DAY PRANK. THESE STATS ARE DIRECT FROM OUR STATISTICS COUNTER:

Enlarging the above image will show that Sony's Foster City offices make up 20% of our traffic. 1/5 of our traffic. What do they look at?

Well, according to the stats, they look themselves up. A lot. The hits usually start in the morning hours, and then continue to about 6-7PM in the evening. So pretty much their entire shift. So literally, they check the blog all day long. Stalkers. CydoniaX and Locust_Star often check for posts about themselves, often following the blog labels to hop around various posts about themselves. Awesome part is, this continues when they get home, as I've identified their home ISPs as well. I won't expose those because as much as I find them to be incompetent and terrible at their jobs, I respect their privacy. However, as past posts' comment fields have gone, others don't have the same moral obligations. And they love to read those as well!

So, without adieu:

Posted by ????

Has anyone noticed that Locust_Star is literally the only person that doesn't use a real name when posting on the PS.Blog? What's that all about? If someone else uses a screen name when posting on the PS.Blog please, enlighten me. But I can't think of one other person who does that. It sort of screams unprofessional to me. Like, who is he that he needs to remain "anonymous"? Every post about Home always gets low ratings, with the exception of core updates, and no one (who posts about Home) uses their real name but Jack. No one in the gaming world takes Home seriously already but to use your fantasy name when making official posts about it isn't going to help its reputation any.

Just a though.

Progress?

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a few things happening. Good things for a change. I'd like to bring attention to them. First is this topic by Locust_Star:

I've discussed some of this with users via PM, but today this little nugget of good news came down for you all that are still waiting for certain items to be recovered:

"For users that have lost reward items, we are planning to have an extended maintenance in March to merge the lost rewards we have been able to recover with the current live database. Details will be announced at a later date."

You heard it right, you'll finally get some of those lost items!

Secondly, there was this post by... Locust_Star again:

As some of you may know, select items contained within the Venetian Mask Bundle have not been appearing in inventories after purchase. We apologize deeply for this error. As a gesture of good will (and a means to making sure everyone that purchased this bundle receives these items), we will be making this bundle free to the entire community starting at 12:00am PT on Saturday, February 13th and ending at 12:00am PT on Monday, February 15th.

A little late reporting this we're aware, but it goes to show you, people pissing and moaning is starting to get some action. Broken stuff isn't being tolerated anymore, and folks haven't just sucked it up. To the home community, minus the useless HCV, thank you. Your non-stop complaining got progress. We just hope you don't stop. And thanks to Locust_Star who has picked up the pace with the bugs and communication.

make.believe Clarification

Locust_Star:

To clear up some misconceptions: This event is on-going (it will last approximately one month) so, no, what you have seen thus far is not the entirety of the event. Please continue to search for new clues throughout the month. And please let anybody you see in world that appears confused know that this is a month-long event that will be unfurl over time (with a lot more than just one reward item to be granted to those that successfully complete it).

This all being said, I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I won't be fielding questions regarding specifics of what to expect from this event. Sorry!

To summarize, the make.believe event will be lasting one month with new clues throughout the month. So keep playing and maybe at the end you'll get something a little better than a poster.

Gesture of Good Will

Written by: Kapow

As some of you may know, select items contained within the Venetian Mask Bundle have not been appearing in inventories after purchase. We apologize deeply for this error. As a gesture of good will (and a means to making sure everyone that purchased this bundle receives these items), we will be making this bundle free to the entire communitystarting at 12:00am PT on Saturday, February 13th and ending at 12:00am PT on Monday, February 15th.

Message Edited by Locust_Star on 02-12-2010 11:53 AM

Message Edited by Locust_Star on 02-12-2010 12:08 PM

There you have it folks, once again Another bundle has not delivered all items. So "as a gesture of good will," the Venetian Mask Bundle will be Free to Everyone starting tonight at 12am PST (2am CST, 3am EST) and ending on Monday, February 15th.

GET LOUD!

This blog gets a lot of mixed reactions. Especially since we single out and pick on people. It's usually for the greater good, and hell, it's funny. But the main point is this: We believe in the possibility of Home, we are Home users, and we are upset.

The issues with Home are many. The constant sexual harassment, the massive amount of bugs that remain unresolved, the complete disregard of it's users by the staff, and many other issues. We would like to address the Home community, and see if we can rally you to make a change.

Now, there are a LOT of folks who are upset with the direction Home has taken. If you read the forums, no one has any confidence in the staff's abilities, and are disappointed. Recently groups have sprung up to help work on Home's problems. Now, we're all for people voicing their opinions. God knows the good folks of Lithium and the HCM combined have worked hard to silence any naysayers. However, there's one issue that these groups aren't addressing.

The Home Community Management Team, and the forum staff at Lithium do not listen to anything that you say or do.

Now you can create all these themed clubs, give them cute nicknames, and hold debates all you like. The combined efforts of Lithium/HCM have worked very hard to silence anything that would give Home any bad press. You can complain, but if it's on their turf and they are the ones that determine what you can and cannot say. So let me explain the roles of those who are the biggest roadblocks.

1. Lithium. Lithium is a company of web development hacks. Fifteen minutes on their forums can give you a very good idea of how awful the forum setup is. However, as bad as it is, that's only an introduction to the main problem, which is the Lithium staff. Lithium is paid by Sony to operate the functions of the forums. They keep users from spamming, help users find the information they seek, and general functions of supporting an online community based around Sony's Playstation products. However, you need to understand the people who are operating the forums are low paid high school graduates, and maybe a handful of those going to community college. They are young, inexperienced, and full of anger & rage at their parents for forcing them to pay rent. These folks work hard to CENSOR, SILENCE, MODIFY, OR BLOCK any criticism of Sony and it's platforms. This including Home. (This also includes banning, warning, and editing the signatures of ANYONE CAUGHT LINKING TO OR SUPPORTING THIS BLOG)
   
2. Home Community Management. (HCM) These are another crew of inexperienced hacks. To clarify direct information, I have been informed by insider sources that two of the main HCM (CydoniaX & Locust_Star) have -zero- clue what they are doing. I was also informed GlassWalls is mediocre at his position, but better then the others. What the Home staff will do in order to maintain a level of order is deliberately harass "trouble users" and provoke them into some type of interaction that will cause them to get banned. They ignore any and all tech support related questions, chiming in rarely when people make too much noise. (Or sometimes to cover the problem they'll lock or delete tech support posts) They also create user groups and situations to obtain free ideas and services. One being their failed HVC (Home Community Volunteer) program. Somehow they didn't see how giving a bunch of teenage kids free range to act like authority figures would backfire.
3. Home Development Staff. Seriously, how long does it take to patch up the collision detection in Red Bull Beach? How hard is it to make the Bride Hair Wig stay on the avatar's head? How difficult is it to modify the way the wardrobe is handled? The answer: Not that hard. As a developer myself, I could have had all the issues that plague most of Home finished in a few Hours. Bigger ones a week or less. These aren't complex issues.
   

The efforts of Home users to promote progress have been quieted at every possible angle. You can create as many clubs as you like, post on the forums until they ban you as well. Nothing is going to happen because the combined efforts of the HCM/Lithium will quiet you. They will censor you. If need be, they will remove you in order to protect their interests. Their interests are simple: To look good, and to maintain job security.

Let us ask you this. If you walked into a McDonald's and ordered a meal, wouldn't you be disappointed if your french fry box was empty? Wouldn't you be disappointed? Wouldn't you voice an opinion? What if when you complained about your missing food they banned you from ever entering again? Chances are you'd call up the people above them and complain. So why is Home any different? It's a free service sure, but how many of you have invested money into it? Created friends and social circles? And it could all be taken away for something as simple as irritating the staff, or in some cases their friends. So let's continue the McDonald's analogy. Say the Manager of your local McDonald's was friends with someone you didn't get along with. When you both are in the restaurant, this other person gets much better treatment. They get free food items, they get their requests filled before you, and they can break the rules and go walk around in the kitchen with the staff, while the staff ignores you. Pretty upsetting. But this is exactly what is happening in Home. You are paying money that you work to earn, and in return you are being treated like garbage, ignored, and plain blown off. And if you have the GALL to speak up, you are placed on someone's shitlist where you have to walk on broken glass in hopes that you're not banned.

THE MOMENT YOU SPEND ONE DIME ON HOME YOU ARE A CUSTOMER. AS A CUSTOMER YOU DESERVE THE RIGHT TO BE HEARD AND TREATED WITH RESPECT.

So we urge everyone, if you are upset, make some noise. Get loud. They might be able to censor & silence you on their turf, but their turf is just a grain of sand in the sea of the internet. Start a blog, make some calls. Remain anonymous if you have to, but understand, none of these "improvement clubs," debates, or forum posts are going to get the job done. You need to get out there. I'd encourage people to use the following tools to make a little noise:

Lithium:
6121 Hollis Street
Suite 4
Emeryville, CA 94608
Call (510) 653-6800
Fax (510) 653-6801

Sony Tech Support:
Phone: (800) 345-7669
Hours of Operation Monday through Saturday 6:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m
Sunday 7:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m Pacific Standard Time.

Start a Blog:
http://www.blogger.com/

Upload videos of Home issues:
http://www.youtube.com/

http://vimeo.com/

Contact Various Game Journalism Sites:
http://www.ign.com/
http://www.1up.com/
http://kotaku.com/
http://g4tv.com/

And last but not least, don't be afraid to band together as a group and bombard someone's contact that has influence. Don't sit back quietly as Home sponges your money and then screws you for it. If you don't stand up for yourself, they will continue to walk all over you.

Sexual Harassment? locked.

A few days ago a fairly average post came up:

Dear Forum Admins,

I've been noticing an increase of male avatars who seem to chase after female avatars who may or may not be really female but I have seen more 'men' chasing after women on this game. The reporting feature in the same by pressing select does not seem to work at all so I ask this. Could you setup any alternative means to report sexual harassment through PS home or through a reporting feature that could be implemented to the PS3 itself?

Luckily Locust_Star stopped by to drop a gem of wisdom:

Our moderation team receives all reports, regardless of the pesky Error message that some users receive when using the Submit a Report feature. Please continue to use this feature to report any violations of the Home EULA or PSN ToSUA.

Then locked the topic. We can't have folks thinking there's no way to take care of the HUNDREDS of sexual harassers that women deal with daily. I love the "pesky Error message that some users receive when using the Submit a Report feature." Oh, that pesky error where you can't submit sexual harassment! Crazy!

Worst bowling alley trip ever!

In the topic: Worst bowling alley trip ever! A young lady complains about something that's a real burden. THE REPORT FUNCTION BREAKS AND DOESN'T ALLOW SUBMISSION OF REPORTS.

Don't know if this has been pointed out but the report function seems to have been malfunctioning. I'm usually not bothered by the harassment I experience but it annoyed me tonight when guys kept coming up to me, sitting on me, asking me to take off my bra. Not what they were saying, but the fact that I couldn't submit a report. Just had to a rant a tiny bit. Otherwise it was the worst trip cause I couldn't even break 100 on my score lol. I'm terrible at bowling.

Since that feature is broken, I suggest immediately messaging Locust_Star, CydoniaX, and GlassWalls.