Play Station's Virtual Home Is Less Than Hospitable

“Dude, this place is quiet,” says one avatar, a rather generic-looking 20-something guy, as we lurk on one side of the Home central plaza, watching virtual people go by on what appears, on my television screen, to be a sunny day in a modern town center. “This could get boring fast,” texts another in agreement, a speech balloon popping up over his head.

This month, Sony introduced a virtual world to the PlayStation 3 in a move designed to intrigue the gamers of the world by giving them a virtual place to mingle and hang out. Fire up Home for the first time and you can build your virtual self from scratch, selecting everything from facial features to the clothes that will cover your digital body. After that, off you go to wander around advertising-laden movie theaters, malls and bowling alleys, to meet and converse with your fellow PS3 fans.

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