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Update on Nebula Realms

Nebula Realms PS4 I thought I'd post more about this and help all of you stay informed. The time is almost here for the closed beta, a lot of us have been looking forward to this and it's great to hear that we are very close to the closed beta at the least. After the beta we can expect to hear about it's official release. I have mentioned before how out of all of the social virtual worlds, Nebula Realms (formely known as Project Nebula) seems to be the most promising, the closest thing we will be getting to PS Home. We will be getting club support, minigames that can be played with your avatars and other players, stores, personal spaces which can be customized... I'll have to say that none of the other virtual worlds look as promising and it may sound as if I have favoritism but I really don't. I wish that Atom Universe could pull through and manage and hopefully they do but for now it only seems that Nebula Realms is what's giving us the closest thing to what we miss the most. It is official, the beta has been moved to mid-may which is right around the corner. Those who will be able to participate will be: - Kickstarter Project Nebula backers (all of them) - Forum Contest winners - Selected bloggers and Youtubers - Most participative, helpful and friendly forum and Facebook group and community members - Survey results/answers (we will send a survey in April to the Nebula Mail subscribers ) - Mail subscribers raffle I quoted Nebula_CM from the official Nebula Realms forums. Eventually we will get a public beta once they're equipped to handle more players but at the least we can get more solid information and what other players experience. I personally would love to participate but I have lots of friends who are active on their forums and I may get lucky and hear from them about how the beta turns out, which of course I will share with all of you here on our blog. Nebula Realms website & Forums As more information release about Atom Universe, I will post about it as well. I would like to post about Four Kings Casino but unfortanately there isn't much to say about it as it is already out & unfortunately that is all there is to it, it's a Casino with tons of games that you'd see in a Casino.

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Back from my Hiatus OK so I recently used SL(second life) for the first time, I actually bought myself a few things and managed to chat with a few people as well as making new friends. I know that this is a PS Home blog and as we all know we have lost PS Home thanks to Sony not wanting it to make the jump to PS4. I know many have been looking for their Home replacement until these other similar social virtual worlds come to PS4 (Nebula realms which was formerly project Nubula and Atom Universe, one’s by Kovok & the other by Atom Republic and both are former Home item and space developers) which are supposed to be coming to the PS4 sometime next year. Some of us have already made the jump instead of waiting for these new social virtual worlds to reach us on the PS4 while some of us are looking for a temporary place to call home for now. When I first installed SL on my laptop, I had no idea of how to edit my avatar, add new things and I still have plenty to learn but even as of now, I still enjoy SL & to be honest I find better deals on SL than I did on Home cause a lot of the created content is done by the community. I still think that Home was more populates during it’s last days than SL is in most of it’s spaces or I am not looking up these areas well. I’d recommend SL to anyone looking for a PS Home replacement if you have the PC for it. I can also mention the fact that trolls are rampant in SL & Adult content is there, whether it be someone’s private parts or other crazy nonsense. SL seems more adult themed than anything else and I can’t compare the experience as something better than Home cause I am a gamer first and that is one thing I loved about PS Home, it was on a console which meant most people there were familiar with the games we all played. Our club was focused on bringing gamers together so that they can enjoy their game with friends they met on Home and also earn PSN cash rewards. Every day I would go to my main hang out which was in Adventure District’s bar, we would chat about games and meet more possible club members. It was easy to spark a conversation, while in SL the variety of content and people is quite wide by comparison, it is what makes it difficult to even start a conversation with a lot of these people on SL. You can invest in a decent PC or laptop to run SL & like home and other social virtual worlds, it is free to use and it does have a premium/V.I.P service available to it’s users. You can rent apartments, buy land and that sort of thing but to most Home users that may be a new concept that they’re not familiar with and that’s part of what can make it difficult for some of us. Would I recommend second life to former Home users? I would if you have the patience for learning how to use programs, it takes some getting used to but once you do get the hang of it, it will be worth a try, you may even like it more than PS Home depending on your taste. There are lots of hot spots where users hang out and chat but unfortunately I am still new to SL but when I do find them, I will post them. In the mean time, I still wish Home were still around, cause in my personal opinion it was a social virtual world for gamers and it was a lot easier to make friends on PS Home than it is on Second Life, simply cause the biggest thing most users had in common were the games of course. No matter how many petitions pop up in regards to PS Home and wanting it back on PSN, it won’t happen simply cause Sony has made up their mind on the issue. People can argue about who made the most money (Sony vs Developers) but the biggest argument that cannot be denied is the fact that a lot of us built memories and awesome friendships through Home and it feels as if Sony disregarded that, maybe the PS4 would have brought more users into the fold, better textures, more item space, bigger houses, more mini-games and who knows what else but Sony didn’t even bother on giving it a shot. It’s like voting, majority of the country can favor one candidate but if they do not all vote, then they fail their candidate and the other person wins simply cause all of those who favored him/her actually spoke up and voted for them. Maybe the next time this happens, users may speak up and as I always say, when it comes to any form of business, speak with your wallets as well as your presence. I barely play my PS4 & I still kind of regret going for the PS4 when I could have started off with the PC off the bat. Now I play on steam more than I do on PSN, better games, better deals almost on a daily basis and even early access to games. Know that if Sony does not offer a decent virtual world for it’s user base then there is always SL & it is a lot cheaper than PS Home.

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Final Fantasy a Realm Reborn

I am officially hooked on FFARR

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Atom Republic's Atom Universe PS4 Demo.

It is official, Atom Universe will have a demo available for EU PS4 owners April 8th (tomorrow) & April 9th for NA PSN users (Thursday). Atom Universe FB Page & announcement

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Lolz

still one of the best videos ever

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Two more developers step up to the plate

With the end of PS Home approaching, we have had a few developers give this social virtual world a shot. As I mentioned before, we have Kovok & Atom Universe developing these; Kovok is the closes and unfortunately the only guaranteed one so far with Project Nebula while Atom Republic is working on Atom universe. I’ll go ahead and be honest, I am not really looking forward to the former Home community being split between these two, friends may prefer one over the other and that’s where this may become an issue cause either one will not last or they both don’t last. I for one see this as a big mistake on Sony’s behalf cause whether anyone admits it or not, Home had a very large following and even their space and item developers have said that Sony can’t sit there and say that they lost money because of home… If anything, Home lost Sony’s support a few years ago, the lack of moderators, hackers running rampant with no consequence which showed Sony was not concerned about home and more than likely lost interest in the idea long ago while these item developers helped keep home alive with constant item updates and that sort of thing. Issues I have with Atom Universe & Project Nebula • We are easy money: Think about this from a developer’s perspective. They are not in this for charity or out of concern for home users nor potty. They’re in this cause it can make good money if they can draw in the home user base; PS4 has a larger user base than the PS3 did and the sales prove that, so this allows for more customers than they may have had on PS Home. So basically these guys know what they want and that is for you to dump money into their service. Don’t spend a dime until you feel comfortable with the service. • PS4 & PC: These are both going to be available on PC & PS4. Keep in mind that PC has Second Life which has been alive and kicking since 2003 I believe so the user base on PC will not be the one that they should rely on cause why would I exchange Oranges for bottles? In order to gain our trust they will need a lot more than simple promises which cannot be guaranteed. • Home users have concerns: We are all dealing with the loss of home, it is no longer about the items to some of is, we want home cause home means something to is, we met plenty of people and supported home as best as we could. These people know how loyal the home user base is, some started kickstarter campaigns and one of them even failed. I think they see this as a huge opportunity, somehow I feel that these companies want to take advantage of home users. One of them even has a monthly subscription which is optional of course. The service is free to use but if you want premium benefits, it will have a monthly subscription, no longer can you purchase items with PSN money, you have to buy their currency in order to buy on their service. This was said because of it being on PC. Users will have a separate name than that of their PSN ID, you will also have a separate friends list as well… This was never an issue on PSN & seems quite impractical if you ask me. The fact that this will be on PC as well, already concerns me when it comes to hackers. • We want home not some replacement: I really lost interest in all of these new so called better than Home replacements, I would love to hear Sony say something about home actually being planned for later on down the road. These developers seem more like opportunists than actually trying to help. Home had always been in Beta, never had gotten out of that Beta state so some us really thought that the PS4 would have been where Home would have released out of beta form. I would link you all to their websites but I don’t want to promote these guys any more than I already have.

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Second Life I thought I’d share my opinion on what has happened with Madmunki & neotopia as well as the upcoming closure of PS Home (as of March 31st) which has led me to seek other platforms to play on. I have owned a PS4 for over 4-6 months and I can honestly say that the console does not offer much in terms of social gaming as it claimed. Sony touted the PS4 as the social gaming console, a social experience for gamers when in fact it offers none of that in any shape or form unless you want to include sharing your gaming information like trophies earned, recently played games or recently used apps or even streaming your gameplay videos on twitch or Ustream as social in any way. For those of you who have not made the jump to current generation consoles, I highly recommend not rushing in. If like me, you used PS Home more than you played games then you will be sorely disappointed as nothing that resembles Home is not available and will not be any time soon. neotopia has been canceled due to the lack of funding as far as I know, the next project that resembles Home for the PS4 is called Project nebula & if the wait is another year or more, you may want to consider better options. Consider the fact that PC offers more and the fact that getting into PC gaming is not that expensive or hard. You can actually spend $250.00-$300.00 to build an entry level gaming rig or you can skip all the technical mumbo jumbo by going with a decent laptop for around the same price range. The games on PC are dirt cheap in comparison to console, from indies to the big name developers and the genres are more than those on consoles. Consider the fact that community creations play a huge part in most games and social games like second life and you have way better options than console gamers do. Gaming on PC can be done from your couch and on your HDTV as well just so you know, you can opt to use controllers on the games that support controllers & majority of games already do so. I already moved on from PS3 cause I don’t want to log onto home on or after March 31st and end up looking at the heartbreaking screen. I met so many good friends, had so many memorable moments and organized so many club events from home, including those related to gaming with PSN cards as a reward system. I will share some links and a video in regards to Project Nebula which looks promising but not enough to have me remain on the PS4 when I have better options available on PC. KovokLTD I want to take the time to thank Madmunki for trying their best to help save the PS Home community and showing us love, they did their best to bring us something sooner and something where the community had a voice. Sadly their goal was not reached and I only hope KOVOK can take a look at Madmunki's potential and have them on board. To those looking into something that would replace PS Home for them then take a look at second life and also consider Project Nebula.

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Project Nebula

With PlayStation Home closing as of March 31st and unfortunately Neotopia shutting down their idea due to funds as far as I know. PS Home Gazette interviews project nebula developer Looks like their closed Beta will be available November of this year so we can expect this hopefully by 2016 if we are lucky. I thought it'd be a good idea to help spread the word for those of you who use PS Home.

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Avakin Life For those of you who are not familiar with Avakin Life, it is a mobile social virtual world by LKWD, Lockwood has developed tons of items on PS Home & they brought us Avakin Life about a year ago (or less). I had downloaded it when they first released it. I then deleted it in less than two or three weeks. It was pretty plain (similar to how PS Home began) & barely populated. A fee days ago, I decided to give it another shot and see how much it has improved and to my surprise, it is coming along well. It is nowhere near what PlayStation home is but for it being a mobile app, it is pretty good. I have not seen anything better yet. Would I recommend trying it? I would recommend it cause it is a temporary option. Personally if we could have had the option of funding actual Home developers in order to bring home to the PS4 then that would have drawn in more funds. As much as I want to keep some faith in Madmunki and their neotopia idea, it is not going to happen unless a larger amount of people are willing to fund them with large amounts which is not going to happen anytime soon.

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neotopia

As I stated said before, swing by their website.

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neotopia (PS4 project)

I am not sure how many of you are aware of one of the more well known Home replacement for those of us on the PS4, but neotopia was a new project by the guys at Madmunki, unfortunately the first kickstarter campaign did not reach expectations so they're giving it a second shot. neotopia blog I know that a lot of us are expecting or were expecting home to make the jump and to be honest, I would have loved to see PS Home on the PS4 but if Sony is struggling with it then we may be better off letting go and build memories before it goes away sadly. I hope to see more people support madmunki with their new project.

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Robin & Starfire

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http://cheapps4console.com/

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:3

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The worst news as we'll all know it (R.I.P PS Home)

You will be missed As most of you may know already, PS Home is shutting down March 31, November 12 is when they’ll stop publishing content. I have suggested it to my followers in the past to make their voices be heard on the SCEA PS Home section of their forums. It’s sadly too late to make them listen to us now. For now, let’s continue enjoying home, enjoy our last days before the inevitable shutdown on March of 2015. Some of you may or may not know but there are content creators who care enough to try & fill that upcoming void. One being Neotopia which is a Social Network like PS Home, they also have plans to bring other PS Home content creators on board. The only issue here is that it is not even in it’s first phase as we speak, they’ll need funding of course. I am not a promoter, I am not some sales associate or paid advertiser for this new idea, I am a home user through and through, I want Home to thrive but face it, it is not safe in Sony’s hands. I will provide links to you here so that you guys can pay them a visit & maybe register on their forums and chat with the devs, they’re there to answer our questions. Hellfire is also working on something but no official word on whether it is something similar to home. Here is a video of Hellfire’s upcoming project for the PS4.

While that Hellfire games demo does not say much about what this is about, Neotopia on the other hand clearly states what it is and what their goal is. This is one of those rare occasions where I fully support indie developers & would love to be a part of this. I will leave you with a link to their website and I highly recommend speaking with developers on their forums as well if you want to see their project come to life. Neotopia PS4

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PRN3M3SIZ Discusses PS Home ^_^

PRN3M3SIZ discusses PS Home and ideas on how PS4 can benefit by having PS Home.