HomeStation Magazine Issue #1: Out Now!

This is an announcement I’ve been looking forward to for some time.

It’s been a few months since the events which caused the dissolution of HOMEstyle Magazine. What took place between the magazine’s founder and the magazine’s editor-in-chief is a private matter, and we hope that privacy is respected. I, personally, consider them both friends of mine. At this point, I think everyone just wants to put it behind them.

(In the words of Terry Gilliam’s godhead from Monty Python’s Holy Grail, “Get on with it.”)

A few members of the old team decided to attempt to restart HOMEstyle Magazine under new management. We wish them the best of luck with this endeavor, and we truly hope to see them succeed. They’re good people.

Most of the team, however, decided to start over with a new vision: a magazine devoted to covering Home, PlayStation Network, and Sony gaming in general. But, in addition to covering news and gaming, it would also be a place for literate discussions of Home’s social issues.

This group of writers and artists firmly believes that there is an older, more mature audience in Home – the demographic that doesn’t have to ask their parents for permission to hit up a credit card for five dollars -- and there’s a hunger for a publication that caters to this group.

And, thus, HomeStation Magazine was born. We're all about Home, and we're all about PlayStation. We're HomeStation.

And today, 1/11/11, HomeStation Magazine released its first issue. You can find our website at http://www.hsmagazine.net if you want to see it.

There’s been a long-standing question which appears over and over again:

What exactly is Home?

Is it a gaming network with some social elements, or a social network with some gaming elements?

HSM firmly believes the true, long-term strength of Home is the latter, and we approach it from that point of view.

In HSM, you’ll find reviews of video game titles, personal spaces, public spaces, various clubs such as the Homelings and the Grey Gamers, and news and events. But you’ll also find some genuinely fascinating articles on the social elements of Home – the subtle, intangible sociological elements that make up this virtual reality we all share.

For those of you who haven’t been exposed to HSM yet, our style most closely adheres to Gay Talese’s concept of New Journalism. And I should point out that HSM is Sony-positive and Home-positive publication. We don’t shy away from criticism, but all of us on the team are rabid Sony and Home enthusiasts, and we want to see this virtual world succeed – because that makes it more fun for all of us to use and enjoy.

You might be wondering: Issue #1? Hasn’t HomeStation been around for a while? I see mentions of it in the Sony forum from time to time.

And the answer is yes, we’ve already been up and running for some time. Our website went public right before Thanksgiving, in fact. And in that span of time, we’ve already recorded thousands of unique visitors and tens of thousands of page views. This thing took off like a Saturn V rocket, and that’s thanks to you.

Home is a dynamic, ever-changing environment, and we try to publish new material to the website at least every 48 hours, if not daily. And, so far, we’ve been right on track with that level of production.

Much of HSM Issue #1’s content is already in our website’s archives. However, we do have some magazine-exclusive stories which we think you’ll really like. Of particular note, Hibana has a drop-dead-fantastic fashion column, and our cover story is an interview with Jersquall and Sophronia. I have a very high opinion of both of these people; they’re both class acts, and I’m grateful they consented to be interviewed for HSM.

If you’d like a tutorial video of how to use the magazine viewer, please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ3hPWjRdGE for instructions. There are some very cool features which we've built into the magazine that we hope aren't overlooked.

On behalf of the HSM team:

MJG74 – Art Director
Cubehouse – Web Designer
Hibana – Advertising Editor
gmbluedestiny – Artist & Team Writer
Stryctnin – Artist & Team Writer
Aeternitas33 – Team Writer
Burbie52 – Team Writer
Cynella – Team Writer
Dj_Tenchu – Team Writer
Keara22HI – Team Writer
SealWyf – Team Writer

I’d like to personally invite you to check out Issue #1 of HomeStation Magazine, and let us know what you thought of it – and all our stories – on our website.

If you would like to consider joining the HSM team, or contributing on a freelance basis, please let us know. This is a magazine by the community and for the community, and we hope you enjoy it.

Aloha,

 

Thanks, Crow! The response, both in terms of visitor traffic and feedback, has been fantastic. The HSM team is very grateful to those forum users here who took a look, offered responses, and enjoyed our magazine and website.

If there are any topics anyone here would like to see covered, let us know. We're a magazine by the community and for the community.