Watch as hamsters 'dance-off' against humans for Home superiority
by Xav de Matos 
{ Jun 21st 2009 at 2:45PM } 
When we heard Home was pitting Hamsters (Read: Virtual Furries) against Humans in a virtual world dance-off, we were intrigued. Actually, first we re-read our news feed to make sure we weren't hallucinating and then we became intrigued. Last night we decided to log onto Home and find out what all the fuss was about. Like cars slowing past a train wreck, we were unable to look away as dozens of PlayStation 3 users came together for the "ultimate dance-off."
The winning faction has not been officially revealed, but humans appeared to be the clear winner during our multiple login sessions. If you're wondering what the point was: based on which side showed the most support, Home users would receive a different free item. If Hamsters are the decided winner, the PlayStation Home community will receive Viking and Valkyrie helmets. If Humans win, Home users net free Fedoras and Aviator headwear.
It's easy for us to be dismissive of the wacky promotion, but users involved seemed to be enjoying themselves. Seriously. As avatars bumped (also, grinded), users would motivate and compliment each other on their "sick moves" ... it was one of the strangest things we've ever seen on a gaming console. The horrors of a giant hamster "shakin' its money maker" can be viewed above. Fair warning it's 3 minutes and 41 seconds that cannot be unseen, nor is it time you can ever get back.
The winning faction has not been officially revealed, but humans appeared to be the clear winner during our multiple login sessions. If you're wondering what the point was: based on which side showed the most support, Home users would receive a different free item. If Hamsters are the decided winner, the PlayStation Home community will receive Viking and Valkyrie helmets. If Humans win, Home users net free Fedoras and Aviator headwear.
It's easy for us to be dismissive of the wacky promotion, but users involved seemed to be enjoying themselves. Seriously. As avatars bumped (also, grinded), users would motivate and compliment each other on their "sick moves" ... it was one of the strangest things we've ever seen on a gaming console. The horrors of a giant hamster "shakin' its money maker" can be viewed above. Fair warning it's 3 minutes and 41 seconds that cannot be unseen, nor is it time you can ever get back.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
VaultICEE @ Jun 21st 2009 2:47PM
What.
The hell.
Wiizer @ Jun 21st 2009 2:58PM
Our server was mush more interesting. BUBBLES EVERYWHERE!
Sly @ Jun 21st 2009 3:38PM
U LIKE IT UP DA BUT HUMAN
that made me laugh pretty hard...
Bagels: Commander in Chief of the lolcat sarcasm alert force. @ Jun 21st 2009 6:17PM
No matter who wins... we all lose.
Speakin' of winning, WHERE's MA WEBCOMIC WRAPUP? E3 fatigue can only excuse you for so long.
wallywallas @ Jun 22nd 2009 12:34AM
LOL @ 2:10
What are you staring at? ::: There's no cat there.
Your flat pants...
--------------------------
WTF?
Dance Mofo @ Jun 21st 2009 2:51PM
hamsters FTW hahaha
skyzbig @ Jun 21st 2009 2:51PM
Don't knock it till you've tried it...
ZaxCG2 @ Jun 21st 2009 4:07PM
I've tried it. I would hate it less if I hadn't.
Brock @ Jun 21st 2009 3:09PM
If you have a 360: This=GAY
If you have a PS3: This =FTW!
adolson @ Jun 21st 2009 3:03PM
I have a PS3 and disagree with your statement. This is NOT FTW. This = me crying for humanity.
Rhamsey @ Jun 21st 2009 3:22PM
If you and your roommate together have both, than this is just fucking stupid cause you have better games to play.
Lunastra78 (PSN: lunastra78) @ Jun 21st 2009 3:46PM
I gave Home about 20 minutes of my time when it first came out, and that's all it's gonna get.
MetalBLACKFOX @ Jun 21st 2009 7:03PM
lol that just explained why i thought it was gay-thank you sir
LordToastington @ Jun 21st 2009 11:38PM
I have a 360 and enjoyed this thoroughly.
TuxBobble @ Jun 22nd 2009 12:25AM
No, this is just plain stupid. And I own a PS3...
Stop promoting that G-Force movie, Sony! Give us some useful content instead!
Matt_82 @ Jun 21st 2009 2:54PM
Looks like there`s about 50 people there. Is that how many people usually show up for stuff on Home?
lennygundam14 @ Jun 21st 2009 2:55PM
usually when they have stuff like this happening at Home, the servers usually explode.
tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 21st 2009 2:57PM
Home is usually pretty damn full, don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. Every time I log in (which is maybe once every couple days for about 30 minutes) every single Home space is full of people in it. It's annoying cause it makes it very hard to get in to any of the games they have in the spaces, specially the Siren one. I still haven't been able to even try the game there because there's always a good 20 people camping the entrance.
BlingOnMyWrist @ Jun 21st 2009 2:58PM
Yeah, there are several Main Plazas, when a Plaza fills, another one opens so, there were most likely several servers with this going on.
Kill a mans jiro @ Jun 21st 2009 3:17PM
There are more than 1 main areas which act as servers, so there may be 50 there, but in another plaza there could be 100, god knows how many there are but there are quite a few
Shmil @ Jun 21st 2009 2:58PM
I kept watching but the Quincy never came!
Wiizer @ Jun 21st 2009 3:01PM
Ever since they took away actual talking from the main areas (other than text), the Quincy Trend has declined.
Pdriver @ Jun 21st 2009 3:00PM
Know why the humans won? The Hamster outfit was $1.99 and smart people don't buy virtual outfits. I went to check it out and there were not many dancers like in the video.
TuxBobble @ Jun 21st 2009 3:33PM
Yea, I would have gone for hamster, but it wasn't free. In competitions like this, free ALWAYS WINS.
TheLonelyStoner @ Jun 21st 2009 5:40PM
yeah buying virtual clothes ftl, just like in little big planet, nobody bitches about that smh
PN04 @ Jun 21st 2009 5:57PM
Depends on the server. there were like 4 different instances of the Central plaza up last night and only one of those 4 that I got into hadnt started the dance battle. This one was pretty tame but the other one I started on had a line of about 30 people stretched out form the Kiosk and maybe another 15 or so randomly spread about with a small contingent of about 8 or 9 hammies. The forth one was just the business as usual hang out, but probably gained a few more people as the night went on.
Frankly compared to some of the more intense events this one was rather mild.
Matt_82 @ Jun 21st 2009 3:01PM
@Blingonmywrist: I didn`t know that, but I had my suspicions, thanks for that.
sony boy @ Jun 21st 2009 3:04PM
they need to have a yugioh competition. that will get ppl to buy the ps3.
crazypenguin @ Jun 21st 2009 3:10PM
lets see, with one side costing around two bucks to get the costume and the other being a default freebie, i wonder which one would win...
Tez @ Jun 21st 2009 10:02PM
Not to mention the freebies the humans get are way cooler. Fedoras rule.
arkweld @ Jun 22nd 2009 12:13AM
free or not, the use of the word "cool" in close proximity to the words "PlayStation Home" is never appropriate.
Hydrophobicfish @ Jun 21st 2009 3:10PM
"Whoever wins, we all lose."
Xav de Matos @ Jun 21st 2009 3:12PM
I didn't think anyone would wait until the end to see that. Congrats. Also, I'm *so* sorry.
Hydrophobicfish @ Jun 21st 2009 3:16PM
To be honest, I was just about to scroll down to read the comments and then I saw you bring up the text entry field, so I decided to give the video a couple more seconds. To be honest, that made it worth it. I certainly got a good old jolly laugh.
That whole event was absurdly bizarre. And hey, no need to apologize for me sitting through that, you went through it too, and we're both gamers We're kindred spirits of a sort! Your pain is my pain!
Robert Maynard @ Jun 21st 2009 3:17PM
Watching that get tapped out lessened the pain of watching - slightly. xD
j.howlett @ Jun 21st 2009 3:24PM
i saw that and thought if only joystiq had one actual sony fanboy
Xav de Matos @ Jun 21st 2009 3:29PM
@j.howlett: It's not a fanboy or anti-Sony thing at all. I like Sony products (that's why I own so many of them) but this 'ish was just absurd. And we call it like we see it. You'd see the same post if this was happening on the Xbox or Nintendo Wii.
Sly @ Jun 21st 2009 3:37PM
i agree with xav... this is too weird to leave unreported...
j.howlett @ Jun 21st 2009 3:44PM
i agree it was absurd, it's just that joystiq doesn't have a writer for playstation that will throw a party when a game gets dropped from one region for the competition. i'm still waiting for the e3 09 sony round up
Xav de Matos @ Jun 21st 2009 3:54PM
I don't know what you mean by "throwing a party when a game gets dropped from one region for the competition."
As far as I am aware (because I am not the person working on it) the round up is on its way... as you can imagine, there is a lot of content to include in that particular post.
j.howlett @ Jun 21st 2009 4:02PM
@xav: it was just destroy all humans, but if i really cared about the game i'd import it or play the earlier ones
Xav de Matos @ Jun 21st 2009 4:04PM
I don't think anyone here would have bothered to throw a party for that game. It wasn't very good.
j.howlett @ Jun 21st 2009 4:24PM
i went and read it, the term used was 'exclusivity celebration'.
deaftly @ Jun 21st 2009 4:32PM
The sony boys are seriously way to sensitive over EVERYTHING potentially negative about their brand.
sonicspike41 @ Jun 21st 2009 5:15PM
@deaftly
Isn't that pretty much the definition of being a fanboy? I can't think of any fanboys who aren't overly sensitive about their console of choice getting flamed, or often times even just getting upset over people defending another console.
@Xav
Who's doing the Sony E3 Roundup? I saw JRW did the other two. The Microsoft one did have a huge ton of information, links, videos, screenshots, etc. Did he decide to cover Nintendo and Microsoft first (which I imagine took him a good week or so between them), and then decide to devote a full week working on just the Sony one?
Either way, I can't wait. I read through the liveblog of it, but naturally there's a few bits here and there I missed out on, and of course all the scattered videos and screens across the net. Whoever is working on it, tell them to put down the controller and turn on their computer... and make sure they don't have peggle or WoW installed.
j.howlett @ Jun 21st 2009 5:26PM
there are fanboys and there are trolls, some people are both. found the post http://xbox.joystiq.com/2008/11/26/path-of-the-furon-canceled-on-ps3-becomes-a-360-exclusive/
sc00by_y00 @ Jun 21st 2009 8:39PM
j.howlett ... Take what you read with a pinch of salt.. Seriously you make all ps3 owners look a bit retarded when you go on like that ...
If you hadnt noticed, there are quite a few bloggers on here and this is one publishing I would never call biased, sure they have those that love their 360 and those that love their ps3, Does any one at joystiq hold any love for the wii ? Im sure there must be a couple that still play with their wii as well (pun intended, wee as in pee). They bash the platforms and they also praise them, so its all good (How many stories did Joystiq run about the rrod /e74 fiasco, that MS wanted swept under the rug ? ).. Kinda of makes them look quite fair when you take everything into perspective right ?
Dont mean to be harsh on you, just saying think before you type..
j.howlett @ Jun 21st 2009 11:20PM
i wasn't calling them bias, the human vs hamster thing reminded me of the destroy all human thing. i'm just looking for an view thats unapologetic for using playstation. i've seen the retardation on all sides but it's only called out for some. then xav said what he said i responded.
Alistair Azimuth PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Jun 22nd 2009 1:16AM
I get what j.howlett is saying here.
When the sites consolidated all the X3F bloggers brought their unapologetic 360 punditry to the main Joystiq with them. Even when we had PS3F none of those guys were hard core pro-PS3 pundits. There still isn't a blogger on Joystiq that is a champion of the PS3. We don't have that guy that will give sick burns out of principle.
deaftly @ Jun 22nd 2009 2:20AM
"There still isn't a blogger on Joystiq that is a champion of the PS3."
wow.......