As part of a story on the ways sexual predators from the United States are using technology like online game consoles to "lure" Canadian kids, CBC's Gosia Sawicka decided to do a little first-hand reporting and signed up to Sony's PlayStation Home service. Posing as a 13 year-old girl.

One of the problems I have with PlayStation Home is the avatars — they're too uncanny; too department store mannequin for my tastes. Does dressing them up as the Doctor and giving them a TARDIS to play in help?

Last time we checked in on Sony's PlayStation Home service—yeah, it's still around—we found that, over the years, it's... changed. The people still using it, and paying money for things, have...interesting tastes.

It feels like an age ago, and in gaming terms I guess it was. The launch of PlayStation Home, one of the cornerstones of the PS3's launch era, was meant to usher in a new kind of online interaction. A place where the connectivity of Xbox Live could be turned into a virtual world, blurring the lines between community…

For some reason, Metal Gear publisher Konami will now let you buy these horse heads/"masks" in the PlayStation 3's virtual world, Home, for 99 cents a pop.

Sony's virtual playground turns bloody tomorrow, as the Street Fighter X Tekken Total Game Integration event elevates into violence. For the first time, PlayStation Home avatars will be able to beat the living crap out of each other.

If ever there was a reason to sit in front of your PlayStation 3 waiting for PlayStation Home to load it's today's North American debut of the prinny-powered Disgaea 4 Home Space. And for everyone else, there's pet ponies.

PlayStation owners are now able to stage or join movie-viewing parties in PlayStation Home thanks to an update delivering Sony's Crackle network to Home's entertainment-on-demand system.

The PlayStation 3's virtual world transforms from tired curiosity to gamer theme park tomorrow, when Sony rolls out its massive fall facelift for PlayStation Home.

The PlayStation folks are promising we'll "See beyond the doors"—the doors at the tail end of the above teaser clip—on October 5, 2011. What brand of video game hype is this? And should we be expecting something amazing next week?