Once in a while, PlayStation Home gives me something inspired to write about, as it has over the past year or so since I started writing for SG. Of course, by “inspired” I mean “amusing for 20 seconds then just plain boring”.

Things might be about to change…for once. See what I mean over the jump.

In the past, Home has been a tragic tale of hype, hype and more hype. First of all, there was the launch itself; dull as you’d expect, and overrun with more pervs than you’d wish to find on the PSN. From there, new features dripped into the 3D world (sounds old fashioned, that) like, well, water dripping from a pipe. We’ve had new areas – less new areas than everyone else if you’re in Europe – and some new items and the like, and there’s been an interesting movie promo or two.

Things perked up a little with the introduction of the alternate reality game Xi, which introduced a storyline to the Home world and mixed it up with some minigames and distractions outside of the application. Even then, I got bored of Xi pretty quickly and it was lost to me as quickly as it had been found in the first place.

What Home is really missing is a truly productive creative spark. Sure, you can style your avatar and your Home Space exactly as you see fit and waste as much money as you like on virtual clothes and armchairs, but what do you get out of this other than “nice place” during your bimonthly gathering at your apartment, if even that?

Home is notorious because it’s unproductive to the point of being entirely useless. Gaming isn’t productive, but at least it’s immersive and keeps you engaged. Home just makes you wish you were playing something else, and then you do so.

This is where StageSet comes in, and where things hopefully begin to pick up. StageSet is an upcoming Home Space that will let you collaborate with friends to make short movies together.

Making movies in Home. That sounds pretty badass to me. It gives the service a greater sense of purpose than anything before it. To put it simply, StageSet finally gives you something to do in Home.

You’ll be able to meddle with the lighting of your set, choose camera angles and even film in front of greenscreens and add special effects in later on. That all sounds pretty cool, and while I can’t write much about it the potential of the product when it’s in your own hands will be massive.

Obviously, since it’s in a limited environment like Home, there’ll be some restraints on the acting and even on voices and conversation; will we, for instance, be able to dub lines using a microphone? And can we upload videos to YouTube or export them to the XMB to watch later? This’ll all be answered pretty soon, as StageSet launches this week. Finally, a reason to boot up Home for the first time in a good couple of months.

…and, action!

SceneSet Coming To Home – AlphaZone4 via Joystiq

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