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127-581: PlayStation Home was a virtual 3D social gaming platform developed by Sony Computer Entertainment 's London Studio for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) on the PlayStation Network (PSN). It was accessible from the PS3's XrossMediaBar (XMB). Membership was free but required a PSN account. Upon installation, users could choose how much hard disk space they wished to reserve for Home. Development of

254-490: A common good . Social capital is split into three dimensions: the structural, the relational and the cognitive dimension. The structural dimension describes how partners interact with each other and which specific partners meet in a social network. Also, the structural dimension of social capital indicates the level of ties among organizations. This dimension is highly connected to the relational dimension which refers to trustworthiness, norms, expectations and identifications of

381-408: A population size that falls between the micro- and macro-levels. However, meso-level may also refer to analyses that are specifically designed to reveal connections between micro- and macro-levels. Meso-level networks are low density and may exhibit causal processes distinct from interpersonal micro-level networks. Organizations : Formal organizations are social groups that distribute tasks for

508-416: A power law . The Barabási model of network evolution shown above is an example of a scale-free network. Rather than tracing interpersonal interactions, macro-level analyses generally trace the outcomes of interactions, such as economic or other resource transfer interactions over a large population . Large-scale networks : Large-scale network is a term somewhat synonymous with "macro-level." It

635-423: A "broker" of information between two clusters that otherwise would not have been in contact, thus providing access to new ideas, opinions and opportunities. British philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill , writes, "it is hardly possible to overrate the value of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves.... Such communication [is] one of the primary sources of progress." Thus,

762-757: A Game Space called "Fortune Hunter", specifically designed for the Total Game Integration. The mini-game utilised the entire space which was a partial recreation of the Yemen level from Uncharted 3's multiplayer. The last TGI pre-order bonus, "Boost Gem Trial Pack 1", was for Street Fighter X Tekken . For the first time in Home history, users were able to brawl using their Home avatars and could unlock Ryu and Kazuya costumes (which allowed users to throw fireballs and perform custom jump kick attacks) by completing all 10 SFxTK challenges. A portion of The Hub

889-533: A broad range of contacts is most effective for job attainment. Structural holes have been widely applied in social network analysis, resulting in applications in a wide range of practical scenarios as well as machine learning-based social prediction. Research has used network analysis to examine networks created when artists are exhibited together in museum exhibition. Such networks have been shown to affect an artist's recognition in history and historical narratives, even when controlling for individual accomplishments of

1016-788: A broad range of research enterprises. In social science, these fields of study include, but are not limited to anthropology , biology , communication studies , economics , geography , information science , organizational studies , social psychology , sociology , and sociolinguistics . In the late 1890s, both Émile Durkheim and Ferdinand Tönnies foreshadowed the idea of social networks in their theories and research of social groups . Tönnies argued that social groups can exist as personal and direct social ties that either link individuals who share values and belief ( Gemeinschaft , German, commonly translated as " community ") or impersonal, formal, and instrumental social links ( Gesellschaft , German, commonly translated as " society "). Durkheim gave

1143-542: A change in one of the relations. The dynamics of social friendships in society has been modeled by balancing triads. The study is carried forward with the theory of signed graphs . Actor level : The smallest unit of analysis in a social network is an individual in their social setting, i.e., an "actor" or "ego." Egonetwork analysis focuses on network characteristics, such as size, relationship strength, density, centrality , prestige and roles such as isolates, liaisons , and bridges . Such analyses, are most commonly used in

1270-408: A collective goal . Network research on organizations may focus on either intra-organizational or inter-organizational ties in terms of formal or informal relationships. Intra-organizational networks themselves often contain multiple levels of analysis, especially in larger organizations with multiple branches, franchises or semi-autonomous departments. In these cases, research is often conducted at

1397-660: A community event that they thought should have been featured on Home TV, or any other news, they could email Home TV. New episodes of Home TV were released monthly and were featured in the Home Theatre. Users were given an avatar and an apartment which they could personalize with their own choice of decor and furnishings. The user's avatar was the means of travel and communication, while personal spaces and clubs were means of expressing themselves and meeting new people and friends. Users could create their own avatar or use one of several preset avatars available. Users could customise

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1524-400: A dyad, and you have a triad . Research at this level may concentrate on factors such as balance and transitivity , as well as social equality and tendencies toward reciprocity/mutuality . In the balance theory of Fritz Heider the triad is the key to social dynamics. The discord in a rivalrous love triangle is an example of an unbalanced triad, likely to change to a balanced triad by

1651-443: A glance, and easily shared." In February 2018, Eurogamer's parent company, Gamer Network , was acquired by Reed Exhibitions, a division of RELX . In September 2021, the community forum for Eurogamer closed, with the site recommending other platforms such as Discord instead. In the same month, Eurogamer also launched a supporter program, offering readers an ad-free experience and access to paywalled content. In May 2024,

1778-455: A globally coherent pattern appears from the local interaction of the elements that make up the system. These patterns become more apparent as network size increases. However, a global network analysis of, for example, all interpersonal relationships in the world is not feasible and is likely to contain so much information as to be uninformative. Practical limitations of computing power, ethics and participant recruitment and payment also limit

1905-454: A heavy tail in the degree distribution , a high clustering coefficient , assortativity or disassortativity among vertices, community structure (see stochastic block model ), and hierarchical structure . In the case of agency-directed networks these features also include reciprocity , triad significance profile (TSP, see network motif ), and other features. In contrast, many of the mathematical models of networks that have been studied in

2032-408: A level of the game itself and had mini-games or interactions related to the game. There were over forty Game Spaces that were released for Home. These Game Spaces varied depending on the region the user was in. Video game developers were able to create "Developer Spaces" for their developing company to showcase their products in Home. These spaces acted similarly to Game Spaces except they were not for

2159-440: A meeting point for club members, and the club members could enter the clubhouse at any time. The clubhouses also featured a notice board where the leader or sub-leaders could post messages and announcements to other members. Japan's Basic Clubhouse's video screen had the option to access a Home member's page after they had entered their PSN information. Users could block other users from being a member of their club. In addition to all

2286-439: A meeting. With the rise of electronic commerce , information exchanged may also correspond to exchanges of money, goods or services in the "real" world. Social network analysis methods have become essential to examining these types of computer mediated communication. In addition, the sheer size and the volatile nature of social media has given rise to new network metrics. A key concern with networks extracted from social media

2413-425: A network that bridges structural holes will provide network benefits that are in some degree additive, rather than overlapping. An ideal network structure has a vine and cluster structure, providing access to many different clusters and structural holes. Networks rich in structural holes are a form of social capital in that they offer information benefits. The main player in a network that bridges structural holes

2540-431: A new medium for social interaction. A relationship over a computerized social networking service can be characterized by context, direction, and strength. The content of a relation refers to the resource that is exchanged. In a computer-mediated communication context, social pairs exchange different kinds of information, including sending a data file or a computer program as well as providing emotional support or arranging

2667-477: A non-individualistic explanation of social facts, arguing that social phenomena arise when interacting individuals constitute a reality that can no longer be accounted for in terms of the properties of individual actors. Georg Simmel , writing at the turn of the twentieth century, pointed to the nature of networks and the effect of network size on interaction and examined the likelihood of interaction in loosely knit networks rather than groups. Major developments in

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2794-683: A personal space which they could modify and change suitably. The initial basic apartment, the Harbour Studio, was free and offered users limited options for customization and personalization. Users could invite any other Home user (even cross-region, unless space was region locked) to their personal space. Some personal spaces, such as the PlayStation Home Mansion, had a built-in TV that played content from PlayStation (such as PlayStation.Blog ). Loot Interactive 's personal spaces had

2921-403: A planned four-part series of games, but only two parts were released by the time of Home's closure. The first part was Sodium One . In February 2010, emails were sent out to a select few PlayStation Home members inviting them to participate in a private beta test for the service. This beta test was for feedback on certain changes suggested by the Home community. The first global "public space"

3048-427: A player with a network rich in structural holes can add value to an organization through new ideas and opportunities. This in turn, helps an individual's career development and advancement. A social capital broker also reaps control benefits of being the facilitator of information flow between contacts. Full communication with exploratory mindsets and information exchange generated by dynamically alternating positions in

3175-544: A pre-order bonus from Game Crazy . Users who pre-ordered the "Space Package" for the game received a PlayStation Home Avatar Skin. Total Game Integration (TGI) began in 2011 and became Home's unique way of promoting upcoming PS3 games that included Home pre-order bonuses from Amazon.com. Instead of pre-ordering directly from Amazon.com, users could pre-order the promoted game from within PlayStation Home to receive Home and/or in-game bonuses. The first game to utilize

3302-403: A quest where players could earn a number of rewards. PlayStation Home did not feature a virtual E3 booth in 2014. On April 20, 2011, Home released version 1.50, which dramatically improved the physics and graphics engines. Sodium 2: Project Velocity was also released; the second and final part of Sodium to be released. In November 2011, a new area known as the "Hub" was released, featuring

3429-442: A scale-free network is the relative commonness of vertices with a degree that greatly exceeds the average. The highest-degree nodes are often called "hubs", and may serve specific purposes in their networks, although this depends greatly on the social context. Another general characteristic of scale-free networks is the clustering coefficient distribution, which decreases as the node degree increases. This distribution also follows

3556-416: A session with advanced options. They could also join an existing session. When users had set up a game that was ready to launch, the name of the game and how many players had joined the session was shown under the users' names above their avatar's head. By using the game launching feature, users were entered directly into the game, bypassing the normal title screen. After the match ended, users could either quit

3683-464: A social network promotes creative and deep thinking. In the case of consulting firm Eden McCallum, the founders were able to advance their careers by bridging their connections with former big three consulting firm consultants and mid-size industry firms. By bridging structural holes and mobilizing social capital, players can advance their careers by executing new opportunities between contacts. There has been research that both substantiates and refutes

3810-432: A specific game. These spaces generally had mini-games related to their company or games and offered a wide range of content for purchase based on their company. There were twelve Game Developer Spaces for Home. Non-gaming-related companies could also create sponsored "Company Spaces" for Home. These also acted similarly to Game Spaces but were specifically made to sponsor the company's products. The first company to do this

3937-589: A variety of content that could be played on their Entertainment on Demand (EOD) screens. Users could also place their own digital photographs in picture frames to display on the walls of their apartment. While the Harbour Studio and basic furniture was provided to all users free of charge, premium personal spaces and furniture could be bought from stores. Other ways to obtain furniture, decorative ornaments, or even entire personal spaces included winning mini-games in Home and from playing certain PS3 games that supported Home rewards. Premium personal spaces were available from

PlayStation Home - Misplaced Pages Continue

4064-575: A variety of games, including Cogs from Lazy 8 Studios. The Hub also featured an "Activity Board" and a "User Generated Content" events system. Surrounding the Hub were districts based on game genres to suit users' moods. Users could also watch full-length movies for free as an effort by online video distributor Crackle via Loot Interactive . The movies were available on all Loot Entertainment on Demand (EOD) screens throughout PlayStation Home. In August 2014, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan announced that it

4191-430: A variety of their avatar's features, which included gender, skin tone, hair, body shape, and facial structure. They could also customise their avatar's clothing and accessories using a set of standard items that could be obtained from a variety of places, including the clothing shops in Home's shopping complex, items won from Home's mini-games, or PS3 games that supported Home rewards. Users could access their wardrobe from

4318-577: A virtual PSP during the pre-open beta) was laid out similar to the PS3's XMB. There were seven categories on the menu, which were Navigator, Personal, Social, Wardrobe, Redecorate, Options, and Help. The Personal category featured an inventory, which contained a user's portable objects, as well as any companions that could follow the user around (such as a pet dog). The Personal category also let users see their purchased items, rewards, downloads, and their PSN profile. The Social category let users see their friends' locations, group activities, game launching events,

4445-519: A virtual avatar of Christina Lee (host of PSN's Pulse ) hosting a special E3 Quest for all 12 games with rewards. Finishing the quest granted access to the VIP section previewing upcoming PlayStation Home games and content, including the upcoming massively multiplayer online racing game Mercia , as well as Hell Fire Games' upcoming Home Tycoon . The E3 virtual booth returned the following year for E3 2013 , once again featuring previews of multiple games, and

4572-476: A weekly Warhawk online gaming event. In August 2008, Sony sent additional invitations to select users who downloaded a new Home XMB theme in Japan and North America. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) and Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong (SCEHK) also sent out invitations to select users for a closed beta. Users who purchased more than HK$ 60 or SG$ 12 worth of content in a single transaction over

4699-437: A work group level and organization level, focusing on the interplay between the two structures. Experiments with networked groups online have documented ways to optimize group-level coordination through diverse interventions, including the addition of autonomous agents to the groups. Randomly distributed networks : Exponential random graph models of social networks became state-of-the-art methods of social network analysis in

4826-609: A writer for British magazine PC Gaming World ; Patrick "Ghandi" Stokes, a contributor for the website Warzone; and Rupert "rauper" Loman, who had organised the EuroQuake esports event for the game Quake . It became the official online media partner of the 2002 European Computer Trade Show . Eurogamer hosts content from media outlet Digital Foundry since 2007, which was founded by games journalist Richard Leadbetter in 2004. In February 2015, Eurogamer dropped its ten-point scale for review scores instead highlight some games

4953-463: Is a network whose degree distribution follows a power law , at least asymptotically . In network theory a scale-free ideal network is a random network with a degree distribution that unravels the size distribution of social groups. Specific characteristics of scale-free networks vary with the theories and analytical tools used to create them, however, in general, scale-free networks have some common characteristics. One notable characteristic in

5080-481: Is a theoretical construct useful in the social sciences to study relationships between individuals, groups , organizations , or even entire societies ( social units , see differentiation ). The term is used to describe a social structure determined by such interactions . The ties through which any given social unit connects represent the convergence of the various social contacts of that unit. This theoretical approach is, necessarily, relational. An axiom of

5207-431: Is a network-based sampling technique that relies on respondents to a survey recommending further respondents. The field of sociology focuses almost entirely on networks of outcomes of social interactions. More narrowly, economic sociology considers behavioral interactions of individuals and groups through social capital and social "markets". Sociologists, such as Mark Granovetter, have developed core principles about

PlayStation Home - Misplaced Pages Continue

5334-400: Is able to access information from diverse sources and clusters. For example, in business networks , this is beneficial to an individual's career because he is more likely to hear of job openings and opportunities if his network spans a wide range of contacts in different industries/sectors. This concept is similar to Mark Granovetter's theory of weak ties , which rests on the basis that having

5461-606: Is primarily used in social and behavioral sciences, and in economics . Originally, the term was used extensively in the computer sciences (see large-scale network mapping ). Complex networks : Most larger social networks display features of social complexity , which involves substantial non-trivial features of network topology , with patterns of complex connections between elements that are neither purely regular nor purely random (see, complexity science , dynamical system and chaos theory ), as do biological , and technological networks . Such complex network features include

5588-583: Is that polysystem theory, which has been around since the writings of Even-Zohar , can be integrated with network theory and the relationships between different actors in the literary network, e.g. writers, critics, publishers, literary histories, etc., can be mapped using visualization from SNA. Research studies of formal or informal organization relationships , organizational communication , economics , economic sociology , and other resource transfers . Social networks have also been used to examine how organizations interact with each other, characterizing

5715-402: Is the lack of robustness of network metrics given missing data. Based on the pattern of homophily , ties between people are most likely to occur between nodes that are most similar to each other, or within neighbourhood segregation , individuals are most likely to inhabit the same regional areas as other individuals who are like them. Therefore, social networks can be used as a tool to measure

5842-590: The Harvard University Department of Social Relations . Also independently active in the Harvard Social Relations department at the time were Charles Tilly , who focused on networks in political and community sociology and social movements, and Stanley Milgram , who developed the "six degrees of separation" thesis. Mark Granovetter and Barry Wellman are among the former students of White who elaborated and championed

5969-583: The Manchester School , including John A. Barnes , J. Clyde Mitchell and Elizabeth Bott Spillius , often are credited with performing some of the first fieldwork from which network analyses were performed, investigating community networks in southern Africa, India and the United Kingdom. Concomitantly, British anthropologist S. F. Nadel codified a theory of social structure that was influential in later network analysis. In sociology ,

6096-466: The PlayStation Store from August 29 to September 12, 2008, were also invited. In November 2008, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) invited annual Qore subscribers. After major version 1.0, invitations were sent worldwide. Home's open beta test began on December 11, 2008. In March 2009, an alternate reality game involving puzzle and intrigue called Xi proved popular after it

6223-491: The Rockstar Games Social Club . Social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for analyzing the structure of whole social entities as well as a variety of theories explaining

6350-403: The 1950s and theories and methods of social networks became pervasive in the social and behavioral sciences by the 1980s. Social network analysis is now one of the major paradigms in contemporary sociology, and is also employed in a number of other social and formal sciences. Together with other complex networks , it forms part of the nascent field of network science . The social network

6477-477: The 1980s. This framework has the capacity to represent social-structural effects commonly observed in many human social networks, including general degree -based structural effects commonly observed in many human social networks as well as reciprocity and transitivity , and at the node-level, homophily and attribute -based activity and popularity effects, as derived from explicit hypotheses about dependencies among network ties. Parameters are given in terms of

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6604-553: The Asian Home on June 17, 2010. On January 5, 2012, Red Bull released their first personal space for Home, the Red Bull House of Skate, which featured an indoor skate park. Phil Harrison stated that locations built around famous coffee, drinks, clothing, and record companies, along with major retailers and other such companies could feature content depending on the company's desire to create Home content. Game launching

6731-554: The Home Estates store in Home's shopping complex. Sony released many premium personal spaces for Home, from both first party and third-party developers. Various premium apartments were available to all of the regions; however, some were region exclusive. The first premium personal space released was the Summer House. Loot's Sunset Yacht (formerly Amaterasu Yacht) personal space was the first personal space to allow users to set

6858-495: The Menu Screen at any time and location, except when in another user's personal apartment. The wardrobe contained two sections: one was the main wardrobe for frequently used items (capacity of 500), and the other was a storage section for less frequently used items. New items were marked accordingly. Users could also filter the wardrobe view to only display favourite, purchased, rewards, or recently acquired items. Each user had

6985-897: The PS3-exclusive Killzone 2 . Users in the North American Home who pre-ordered Killzone 2 from Amazon.com received free additional costumes for their avatar. On February 16, 2009, if users located a Helghast soldier in the North American Home, they were granted access to the Killzone 2 demo . Other Amazon.com pre-orders bonuses were given for inFamous ("Reaper" costume), Darksiders ("Ruin Head Mask" and "War Armor"), MAG ("S.V.E.R. Barracks" personal space), and BioShock 2 ("Big Daddy" costume). Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time also received

7112-467: The Total Game Integration was Killzone 3 , with the bonus being the "Helghast Jetpack". The Central Plaza was redesigned as an ISA base of operations for the event. The second TGI pre-order that redesigned the Central Plaza was the "Exploding Zombie Outfit" for Dead Island . The next TGI pre-order, a "Nathan Drake" costume, was for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception . This TGI pre-order featured

7239-573: The World Map) was also laid out like the XMB, and sorted locations into categories based on the space's purpose. Users could communicate in a variety of ways in Home. Along with the existing PSN messaging system, users were able to write text messages to each other using either a physical or on-screen keyboard . These messages appeared in speech bubbles over the avatar's head and in a chat log. Users could switch between text chat and voice chat from within

7366-544: The analysis of social networks. Beginning in the late 1990s, social network analysis experienced work by sociologists, political scientists, and physicists such as Duncan J. Watts , Albert-László Barabási , Peter Bearman , Nicholas A. Christakis , James H. Fowler , and others, developing and applying new models and methods to emerging data available about online social networks, as well as "digital traces" regarding face-to-face networks. In general, social networks are self-organizing , emergent , and complex , such that

7493-457: The analysis of them is an inherently interdisciplinary academic field which emerged from social psychology , sociology , statistics , and graph theory . Georg Simmel authored early structural theories in sociology emphasizing the dynamics of triads and "web of group affiliations". Jacob Moreno is credited with developing the first sociograms in the 1930s to study interpersonal relationships. These approaches were mathematically formalized in

7620-1092: The artist. Other work examines how network grouping of artists can affect an individual artist's auction performance. An artist's status has been shown to increase when associated with higher status networks, though this association has diminishing returns over an artist's career. In J.A. Barnes' day, a " community " referred to a specific geographic location and studies of community ties had to do with who talked, associated, traded, and attended church with whom. Today, however, there are extended "online" communities developed through telecommunications devices and social network services . Such devices and services require extensive and ongoing maintenance and analysis, often using network science methods. Community development studies, today, also make extensive use of such methods. Complex networks require methods specific to modelling and interpreting social complexity and complex adaptive systems , including techniques of dynamic network analysis . Mechanisms such as Dual-phase evolution explain how temporal changes in connectivity contribute to

7747-544: The benefits of information brokerage. A study of high tech Chinese firms by Zhixing Xiao found that the control benefits of structural holes are "dissonant to the dominant firm-wide spirit of cooperation and the information benefits cannot materialize due to the communal sharing values" of such organizations. However, this study only analyzed Chinese firms, which tend to have strong communal sharing values. Information and control benefits of structural holes are still valuable in firms that are not quite as inclusive and cooperative on

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7874-412: The bonds between partners. The relational dimension explains the nature of these ties which is mainly illustrated by the level of trust accorded to the network of organizations. The cognitive dimension analyses the extent to which organizations share common goals and objectives as a result of their ties and interactions. Social capital is a sociological concept about the value of social relations and

8001-485: The central meeting point for users. These were the main spaces of Home and were updated the most. They were also where most events occur. These spaces included a central meeting point; a bowling alley and gaming arcade; a shopping complex; a café; various game, developer, and company spaces; the PlayStation Events spaces; and the districts. The Home Square (Europe, Asia, and Japan) or "The Hub" (North America)

8128-415: The central player in the network. Most social structures tend to be characterized by dense clusters of strong connections. Information within these clusters tends to be rather homogeneous and redundant. Non-redundant information is most often obtained through contacts in different clusters. When two separate clusters possess non-redundant information, there is said to be a structural hole between them. Thus,

8255-407: The chat log. Voice chat, with the use of a headset, was available within personal spaces and clubs, or on private voice chat channels with groups of up to eight users. The user could also perform visible gestures (or "e-motes") such as waving, nodding, or dancing. A "quick chat" feature, with predetermined phrases, was also available. Users could also indicate the emotional status of their avatar, which

8382-557: The competition's ten categories were displayed on large illuminate cubes, imitating the real-life exhibit. The Red Bull Beach space had the Red Bull Flugtag mini-game where users could compete against one another by launching one of five flying machines off of a 30-foot high deck to try to achieve flight. It also featured a Red Bull Jukebox with ten different tunes from Red Bull. All three of the Red Bull spaces were released to

8509-480: The controller. Options included "Quick Chat", a gestures menu, the "Menu" and "Safe" screens, and an in-game XMB . Sony originally planned to allow users to play videos and music stored on their hard drives on virtual screens and stereos. However, these features were never implemented, as Sony was not able to resolve potential licensing issues. The "Menu Screen" (formerly referred to as the Menu Pad, and before that,

8636-457: The degree of segregation or homophily within a social network. Social Networks can both be used to simulate the process of homophily but it can also serve as a measure of level of exposure of different groups to each other within a current social network of individuals in a certain area. Eurogamer Eurogamer is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network . In 2008, it started in

8763-495: The early (1930s) work of Talcott Parsons set the stage for taking a relational approach to understanding social structure. Later, drawing upon Parsons' theory, the work of sociologist Peter Blau provides a strong impetus for analyzing the relational ties of social units with his work on social exchange theory . By the 1970s, a growing number of scholars worked to combine the different tracks and traditions. One group consisted of sociologist Harrison White and his students at

8890-399: The economy. Analysis of social networks is increasingly incorporated into health care analytics , not only in epidemiological studies but also in models of patient communication and education, disease prevention, mental health diagnosis and treatment, and in the study of health care organizations and systems . Human ecology is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of

9017-565: The field can be seen in the 1930s by several groups in psychology, anthropology, and mathematics working independently. In psychology , in the 1930s, Jacob L. Moreno began systematic recording and analysis of social interaction in small groups, especially classrooms and work groups (see sociometry ). In anthropology , the foundation for social network theory is the theoretical and ethnographic work of Bronislaw Malinowski , Alfred Radcliffe-Brown , and Claude Lévi-Strauss . A group of social anthropologists associated with Max Gluckman and

9144-478: The fields of psychology or social psychology , ethnographic kinship analysis or other genealogical studies of relationships between individuals. Subset level : Subset levels of network research problems begin at the micro-level, but may cross over into the meso-level of analysis. Subset level research may focus on distance and reachability, cliques , cohesive subgroups, or other group actions or behavior . In general, meso-level theories begin with

9271-483: The firm-wide level. In 2004, Ronald Burt studied 673 managers who ran the supply chain for one of America's largest electronics companies. He found that managers who often discussed issues with other groups were better paid, received more positive job evaluations and were more likely to be promoted. Thus, bridging structural holes can be beneficial to an organization, and in turn, to an individual's career. Computer networks combined with social networking software produce

9398-554: The following year with previews of seven different games and the PlayStation Vita , with virtual rewards for watching the videos as well as a demo of a new PlayStation Home game, "Scribble Shooter". In addition, Sony's E3 press conference was streamed live in PlayStation Home in a special virtual theatre, as well as other live interviews that occurred during the week of E3 2011 . The E3 virtual booth returned again for E3 2012 , this time featuring previews of 12 games as well as

9525-467: The formation of structure in social networks. The study of social networks is being used to examine the nature of interdependencies between actors and the ways in which these are related to outcomes of conflict and cooperation. Areas of study include cooperative behavior among participants in collective actions such as protests ; promotion of peaceful behavior, social norms , and public goods within communities through networks of informal governance;

9652-463: The formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. From 2013 to 2020, sister site USGamer ran independently under its parent company. Eurogamer (initially stylised as EuroGamer ) was launched on 4 September 1999 under company Eurogamer Network . The founding team included John "Gestalt" Bye, the webmaster for the PlanetQuake website and

9779-568: The game and be returned to their XMB, or they could quit the game and be returned to Home. Simplified game launching, also known as universal game launching, was implemented with Core Client update v1.30 and allowed any PS3 game to be launched from Home. With simplified game launching, users could insert a game into their PS3 while in Home and follow the on-screen directions. Users had a limited number of options to select with simplified game launching. For instance, they could not choose what map or level they wanted, nor could they choose what settings for

9906-628: The graffiti mini-game and save it to their PS3s HDD to display for their friends. Users were also able to create their own apartments with nDreams' Blueprint: Home. On October 16, 2009, Rockstar Games began having " Beaterator Parties" at the Listen@Home station in North America's former Central Plaza. Beaterator is a PSP game that allows users to mix their own music and produce their own loops. During Beaterator sessions, Rockstar Games played Beaterator tracks that users had uploaded to

10033-550: The intensity of social network use. In a dynamic framework, higher activity in a network feeds into higher social capital which itself encourages more activity. This particular cluster focuses on brand-image and promotional strategy effectiveness, taking into account the impact of customer participation on sales and brand-image. This is gauged through techniques such as sentiment analysis which rely on mathematical areas of study such as data mining and analytics. This area of research produces vast numbers of commercial applications as

10160-418: The interactions of social structure, information, ability to punish or reward, and trust that frequently recur in their analyses of political, economic and other institutions. Granovetter examines how social structures and social networks can affect economic outcomes like hiring, price, productivity and innovation and describes sociologists' contributions to analyzing the impact of social structure and networks on

10287-417: The lab. Still other experiments have documented the experimental induction of social contagion of voting behavior, emotions, risk perception, and commercial products. In demography , the study of social networks has led to new sampling methods for estimating and reaching populations that are hard to enumerate (for example, homeless people or intravenous drug users.) For example, respondent driven sampling

10414-490: The last level of Killzone 2 . Sony also provided the opportunity to receive free apartments. The Chamber Apartment was the first and was only available in May 2009 in the North American Home. The PlayStation Home Mansion (North America and Europe) was Home's first expandable personal space; multiple rooms required purchasing in order to own the whole mansion (e.g. first floor, second floor, garage, and swimming pool). Blueprint: Home

10541-400: The main goal of any study is to understand consumer behaviour and drive sales. In many organizations , members tend to focus their activities inside their own groups, which stifles creativity and restricts opportunities. A player whose network bridges structural holes has an advantage in detecting and developing rewarding opportunities. Such a player can mobilize social capital by acting as

10668-413: The many informal connections that link executives together, as well as associations and connections between individual employees at different organizations. Many organizational social network studies focus on teams . Within team network studies, research assesses, for example, the predictors and outcomes of centrality and power, density and centralization of team instrumental and expressive ties, and

10795-434: The map or level within Home. Users had to do that after the game had been launched. The name of the game and how many users had joined the session was also shown under the users' names above the avatars' heads. Picture frames were the first feature to support user-generated content with photo sharing. The inFamous Game Space also supported user-generated content by allowing users to create their own unique graffiti designs in

10922-465: The message of the day, and news. Users could take screenshots of Home in either first- or third-person view and save them to their PS3's hard drive. With the use of Loot's Active Duty Camera (a premium item), users could also record videos in Home while in personal spaces or clubs. The " Safe Screen " was used for reporting, changing communication settings, and quick access to the user's personal space and XMB friends list. The Navigator (formerly known as

11049-498: The micro-level, social network research typically begins with an individual, snowballing as social relationships are traced, or may begin with a small group of individuals in a particular social context. Dyadic level : A dyad is a social relationship between two individuals. Network research on dyads may concentrate on structure of the relationship (e.g. multiplexity, strength), social equality , and tendencies toward reciprocity/mutuality . Triadic level : Add one individual to

11176-488: The mood of the setting (e.g. sunrise, sunset, day, night). In addition to the standard features of personal spaces, Loot's Space Apartment also allowed users to view Twitter feeds from a ticker, and search for photos from their Flickr account and display them on photo screens. PS3 games could also have premium spaces dedicated to them. For example, the Visari Throne Room was based on Visari's Throne Room from

11303-445: The other members knew. To find new information or insights, members of the clique will have to look beyond the clique to its other friends and acquaintances. This is what Granovetter called "the strength of weak ties". In the context of networks, social capital exists where people have an advantage because of their location in a network. Contacts in a network provide information, opportunities and perspectives that can be beneficial to

11430-414: The owner. A user could only be a member of up to five clubs, including the club that the user may have been the leader of. Though the user could own multiple clubhouse designs, they could only be the leader of one club and decided which clubhouse design would be used as the meeting place for their club. In a similar way to personal spaces, the club's owner was able to set up and decorate a private clubhouse as

11557-542: The past, such as lattices and random graphs , do not show these features. Various theoretical frameworks have been imported for the use of social network analysis. The most prominent of these are Graph theory , Balance theory , Social comparison theory, and more recently, the Social identity approach . Few complete theories have been produced from social network analysis. Two that have are structural role theory and heterophily theory . The basis of Heterophily Theory

11684-408: The patterns observed in these structures. The study of these structures uses social network analysis to identify local and global patterns, locate influential entities, and examine network dynamics. For instance, social network analysis has been used in studying the spread of misinformation on social media platforms or analyzing the influence of key figures in social networks. Social networks and

11811-473: The prevalence of small subgraph configurations in the network and can be interpreted as describing the combinations of local social processes from which a given network emerges. These probability models for networks on a given set of actors allow generalization beyond the restrictive dyadic independence assumption of micro-networks, allowing models to be built from theoretical structural foundations of social behavior. Scale-free networks : A scale-free network

11938-425: The project to what would become PlayStation Home. In a 2007 keynote speech, Phil Harrison used the term "Game 3.0" to describe the service. Home had been speculated since the launch of PSN, when Sony expressed interest in such a service, specifically trophies (known at the time as "entitlements") for first-party titles. PlayStation Home, as a feature, was first publicly mentioned in an interview with NG-Gamer . This

12065-550: The public during special events. It consisted of six spaces – Events Landing, The Gallery, the Presentation Podium, The Backstage Pass, The Observatory, and the PlayStation Network Sphere – and was a venue for special events, announcements, and parties. Sony Computer Entertainment and various third parties could create dedicated "Game Spaces" for specific games. These spaces generally depicted

12192-537: The public. The club featured a dance floor and a mini-game called FLIRT . Stage Sets were premium personal spaces where users who had a video capture system could make their own machinimas . Loot released four different Stage Sets for users to create and film their own machinimas with, and provided various tools within the Stage Sets (e.g. lighting and props) to help the users create their own machinimas. Loot also had an array of items available at their Loot store in

12319-476: The relationship between humans and their natural , social , and built environments . The scientific philosophy of human ecology has a diffuse history with connections to geography , sociology , psychology , anthropology , zoology , and natural ecology . In the study of literary systems, network analysis has been applied by Anheier, Gerhards and Romo, De Nooy, Senekal, and Lotker , to study various aspects of how literature functions. The basic premise

12446-441: The reviewer felt particularly strongly with labels such as 'Essential', 'Recommended' or 'Avoid'. The change was driven by doubt about the score system's usefulness and its desire to be delisted from review aggregator Metacritic because of its "unhealthy influence" on the games industry. In May 2023, Eurogamer returned to scoring reviews, opting for a five-point scale due to them being "universally understood, simple to take in at

12573-456: The role of between-team networks. Intra-organizational networks have been found to affect organizational commitment , organizational identification , interpersonal citizenship behaviour . Social capital is a form of economic and cultural capital in which social networks are central, transactions are marked by reciprocity , trust , and cooperation , and market agents produce goods and services not mainly for themselves, but for

12700-401: The role of cooperation and confidence to achieve positive outcomes. The term refers to the value one can get from their social ties. For example, newly arrived immigrants can make use of their social ties to established migrants to acquire jobs they may otherwise have trouble getting (e.g., because of unfamiliarity with the local language). A positive relationship exists between social capital and

12827-625: The role of social networks in both intrastate conflict and interstate conflict; and social networking among politicians, constituents, and bureaucrats. In criminology and urban sociology , much attention has been paid to the social networks among criminal actors. For example, murders can be seen as a series of exchanges between gangs. Murders can be seen to diffuse outwards from a single source, because weaker gangs cannot afford to kill members of stronger gangs in retaliation, but must commit other violent acts to maintain their reputation for strength. Diffusion of ideas and innovations studies focus on

12954-505: The scope of a social network analysis. The nuances of a local system may be lost in a large network analysis, hence the quality of information may be more important than its scale for understanding network properties. Thus, social networks are analyzed at the scale relevant to the researcher's theoretical question. Although levels of analysis are not necessarily mutually exclusive , there are three general levels into which networks may fall: micro-level , meso-level , and macro-level . At

13081-400: The service began in early 2005 and it launched as an open beta on 11 December 2008. Home remained as a perpetual beta until its closure on 31 March 2015. Home allowed users to create a custom avatar , which could be groomed realistically. Each avatar was given a personal apartment that users could decorate with free, bought, or won items. Users could travel throughout the Home world, which

13208-437: The service would no longer be beta when it "[represented] a kind of final quality." On October 14, 2009, Jack Buser commented that "the vision of Home [had] evolved." He said that originally, they built Home as a "social network for gamers", but it developed into a "game platform, first and foremost." On December 17, 2009, SCEA released its first massively multiplayer online game , produced specifically for Home, called Sodium ,

13335-634: The shopping complex. Home consisted of various locations for players to interact and participate in activities, which were produced by both Sony Computer Entertainment and various third parties. Spaces on the Navigator were broken up into categories based on each space's publisher and/or purpose. Spaces' names and availability varied based on the user's location. There were four different versions of Home, which were based on four regions: Asia, Europe, Japan, and North America. Countries joined whichever Sony Computer Entertainment division they were under. Japan

13462-576: The social network approach to understanding social interaction is that social phenomena should be primarily conceived and investigated through the properties of relations between and within units, instead of the properties of these units themselves. Thus, one common criticism of social network theory is that individual agency is often ignored although this may not be the case in practice (see agent-based modeling ). Precisely because many different types of relations, singular or in combination, form these network configurations, network analytics are useful to

13589-601: The spread and use of ideas from one actor to another or one culture and another. This line of research seeks to explain why some become "early adopters" of ideas and innovations, and links social network structure with facilitating or impeding the spread of an innovation. A case in point is the social diffusion of linguistic innovation such as neologisms. Experiments and large-scale field trials (e.g., by Nicholas Christakis and collaborators) have shown that cascades of desirable behaviors can be induced in social groups, in settings as diverse as Honduras villages, Indian slums, or in

13716-588: The standard features of the clubhouses, the War Room Clubhouse helped club owners or sub-leaders get their message across during club meetings or discussions. It also included a special access point allowing users to teleport from the War Room to other set locations. On December 2, 2010, a free exclusive club released for PlayStation Plus subscribers in Europe. The PlayStation Plus Private Members Club

13843-400: The user's PlayStation Network Wallet . Alongside content designed by Sony Computer Entertainment , other companies were also able to sell virtual goods through their own stores in Home. For example, Diesel , Ligne Roset , and Game were represented in Home with their own stores where users could purchase virtual items based on each company's own clothing and furniture designs. Advertising

13970-638: Was Red Bull with their Red Bull Space, which released on January 8, 2009, for Europe and North America and featured the Red Bull Air Race mini-game. The Air Race was a virtual version of the real-life event . On November 26, 2009, Red Bull released two new spaces for Europe and North America, one for the Red Bull Illume and the other for the Red Bull Flugtag . The Illume space had an exhibition of action and adventure sports photographs from Red Bull Illume. The winning photograph from each of

14097-591: Was Home's central meeting point where users commonly met and chat. It connected all of the Core Spaces together, and was where much of the advertising occurred. There were five distinct districts for specific game genres. Europe's Home Square and The Hub featured a "districts design" to access the districts. They also featured an "Activity Board" allowing users to access reward giving quests, which sometimes included users having to visit various places and/or play various mini-games. The PlayStation Events Space opened to

14224-533: Was a bar area with several tables and a two-to-four player card game with special rewards. The space also had Plus news, accessed by reviewing a cocktail menu or watching the trailers running on an in-game video screen. On April 11, 2012, a new club called the "x7 Club" was released in North America, and could only be accessed by Plus subscribers, or users who had purchased one of the select Home exclusive items. All x7 members received special discounts, free items, and early access to select content before it got released to

14351-414: Was a feature in Home which allowed users to launch PS3 games while in Home. There were two types of game launching: full and simplified. Full game launching support allowed users to organize and start multi-player games with other Home users, who may or may not be on their friends lists. Users could set up a full game launching session by going into their menu screen, selecting "Game Launching", and setting up

14478-519: Was a personal space designer tool which allowed users to create, build, and save up to five of their own personalized apartments. With a variety of different style packs, users could craft their own personalized apartment, ranging from 60 square metres to 25 rooms. Users could move their apartment to various places, ranging from a country field to the top of a skyscraper. Users could also add rooms, doors, windows, wallpaper, flooring, ceilings, feature objects, exteriors, skies, and environments. Blueprint: Home

14605-662: Was developed by nDreams and released on August 1, 2012, in Europe and North America. Users were able to purchase and form clubs. There were four clubhouse designs available to purchase – the Basic Clubhouse, the Desert Haven, nDream's War Room Clubhouse, and the Crystal Seashores Clubhouse. Each club had a leader, who was the user that purchased the club. The leader could elect up to 4 sub-leaders and could have up to 32 members in total, including

14732-449: Was displayed below their name. Some avatar costumes also had additional e-motes. Although the service itself could be used free of charge, premium content was available to purchase from various stores in the shopping complex and in certain spaces. Users could browse and pay for items, such as virtual clothing and furniture, by accessing a shop and using its PlayStation Store interface. Items were paid for with real currency using funds from

14859-612: Was featured as a collectible 'artifact' in the 2020 video game Astro's Playroom , a 3D platformer developed by Japan Studio 's Team Asobi which was pre-installed on every PlayStation 5 console. PlayStation Home's point of view was from a third-person perspective . Upon entering Home, users were greeted with the "Message of the Day" containing Home news. During loading screens, users were presented with help tips on how to use Home. PlayStation Home had no on-screen interface during exploration; however, all of Home's features were available from

14986-468: Was frequently updated by Sony and its partners. Public spaces were made for display, entertainment, advertising, and networking. Home's primary forms of advertising included spaces themselves, video screens, posters, and mini-games. Home also featured many single and multiplayer mini-games, and hosted a variety of special events, some of which provided prizes to players. Users could use items won to further customise their avatar or apartments. PlayStation Home

15113-464: Was later detailed by Kotaku and finally confirmed by NG-Gamer. It was officially announced by Phil Harrison on March 7, 2007, during his keynote speech at the 2007 Game Developers Conference where it was originally scheduled for a global public release in October 2007. Home was delayed and expanded multiple times before initially releasing. Invitations to the closed beta were offered to winners of

15240-565: Was originally named "Hub", and started as a 2D online lobby for the PlayStation 2 game The Getaway: Black Monday . However, the online userbase for the PlayStation 2 was too narrow and the project was soon ported to the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3. Phil Harrison , then president of SCE Worldwide Studios at the time, liked the idea of having a virtual 3D community hub for PlayStation gamers, and transferred

15367-403: Was prominent in Home's public spaces. The majority of advertisements were focused on PlayStation-related content, although other video gaming-related brands were also represented. Most advertising was targeted to specific regional audiences. To advertise games in the North American Home, Sony released pre-order bonuses for PS3 games, mainly from Amazon.com . The first Home pre-order bonus was for

15494-578: Was redesigned for this TGI. The vouchers for the Amazon.com pre-order bonuses were sent out within ten days after the games' release and expired 90 days after the games' release. The European and Japanese versions of Home also had chances to get these pre-order bonuses as well, but through different pre-order promotions and events. On December 23, 2009, SCEE launched PlayStation Home TV to the European Home, with news and event information. If users had

15621-460: Was released by nDreams for Home. In June 2009, Peter Edwards, Director of Home for SCEE, reported that the number of users exceeded 7 million and that 80% of users were male, aged 18 to 35. At TGS 2009 , Kaz Hirai announced that Home had been downloaded by 8 million users. Jack Buser, Director of Home for SCEA, stated that "beta" would not be removed from the name. In a Eurogamer interview with Peter Edwards on July 24, 2009, Edwards commented that

15748-638: Was released on June 10, 2010, allowing all users from the Asian, European, Japanese, and North American Homes to converge in one space. This space was called the FevaArena Global Pitch Area, which was dedicated to the 2010 FIFA World Cup . The Arena allowed all of Home's users to participate in events and mini-games to celebrate the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In June 2010, Sony released a virtual replica of their E3 2010 booth in all versions of Home. The virtual E3 booth, slightly modified, returned

15875-555: Was shutting down the service in Japan and other Asian territories. After September, users in these regions could no longer purchase content. In September, Sony Computer Entertainment America and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced the final closure of Home in their respective regions. New content ceased to be published after November 12, and users were given until December 3 to purchase content, after which, users could no longer purchase content. The official closure of Home occurred on March 31, 2015, worldwide. PlayStation Home's logo

16002-411: Was the finding in one study that more numerous weak ties can be important in seeking information and innovation, as cliques have a tendency to have more homogeneous opinions as well as share many common traits. This homophilic tendency was the reason for the members of the cliques to be attracted together in the first place. However, being similar, each member of the clique would also know more or less what

16129-480: Was the only country with its own version of Home. SCEHK operated the Asian Home, SCEE operated the European Home, SCEJ operated the Japanese Home, and SCEA operated the North American Home. The different regions' Home environments had similar and different features between each other. The Core Spaces were the spaces made by Sony Computer Entertainment specifically for the Home environment, and served as

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