Seems cool so far except fot getting hit on by 15 year old, more on that later.

Controls are relativly intuitive.

Fair amount of options for customizing your avatar. I'm imagining there's going to be tons more options in the future once the game's out of beta and they start selling stuff.

Overall it feels like a wierd mix of the Sims, and Mabinogi.

as a beta tester I have access to my appartment, the central plaza, a theatre, a games arcade (bowling alley), and of course a mall.

the mall sells (free for now) furniture for your appartment, clothes, and real estate.

So I bought a summer home on the lake, which I do prefer to my appartment in the city, but we'll see what it's like in the winter I may want to stay closer to downtown.

The main draw of course is the social interaction which, is about what you'd expect from a bunch of early adopters, in a beat envirionment on a game console. Namely a bunch of teenage boys, being teenage boys.

Not that there's anying wrong with that, it just is what it is. the main plaza is one open area, and your 'chat room' is proximity based. So if someone's being an ass you just walk away.

Audio chat seems to work but it's a bit spotty, i'm not sure if this is ongoing dev stuff, or I have a crappy headset.

To really make this work, you're going to need a headset and or a keyboard. Trying to type with the onscreen keyboard is slow and painful. My console is about 12' on the other side of the room and i'm too lazy to haul out a usb keyboard and an extra extension cable so I can type from the couch.

I think that clip on messenger keyboard, and minikeyboard like that Logitech Dinovo thing are going to be key here. I think Home could be a great drop in drop out place to see what's going on, talk some trash, but a group to game with, but I can't see myself spending hours in there. So making it easy will b ethe key. I guess they get that with the new branded headset and minikeyboard on thier way for this Christmas season.

Oh and yes I'm one of the those crossdresser guys. No I'm not actually a girl. I'm not going to spend time customizing an avatar so it looks just like me, then spend an hour in a game looking at my own ass. Seriously that's wierd. If I'm going to start at my character/avatars ass in a game for any length of time, you can be sure it's going to be a cute little woman with blue hair and plaid skirt.

I'm sorry if this is confusing to you in game but you'll have to get over it.