wtf went wrong?

[Mag-Mower]

look at these reviews... PS Recived some pretty high scores

PC Gamer - 80/100 - 80
Gamespot - 7.9/10 - 79
IGN - 7.7/10 - 77
PC Zone - 82/100 - 82
Gamespy - 3/5 - 60
Computer & Video games - 8/10 - 80
PC Zone - 92/100 - 92
EGM - 95/100 - 95

so the average score is: 81%

its a shame that such a highly regarded game is going down a slope of subscribers and popularity, you would think a game that had an average score of 81% would be doing fairly well... why cant SOE advertise more :(

[Lartnev]

Nothing went wrong. PlanetSide's had a long eventful life.. for a FPS :)

[Mag-Mower]

but more people play CS 1.6 now, alot more people than PS recived, look at EQ, its 6 years old, has 250000+ people still subbing while ps only has 50000+... mag am cry...

[321]

Nothing went wrong. PlanetSide's had a long eventful life.. for a FPS :)

It wasn't long, most FPS games last for five or more years.

Two things happend, first they took out surge, and second MagMower got the game.

[Jeffey]

no publicity

[Mag-Mower]

they took out surge for magmower...

[Warborn]

The fact that they wasted an expansion on Core Combat didn't help at all. That thing was abysmal. Expansions are suppose to revitalize the game by adding lot's of cool new stuff, but Core Combat did almost nothing to improve the game.

[LimpBIT]

they didnt advertise PS enough. When i first started playing there were TONS of people. Like I could walk around the sanctuary and see vangaurds all over the place. Now your lucky if you see a green dot on the map in the sanc. Well, I hope a PS2 comes out and they make some TV commercials and ads for it.

[Jeffey]

The worst part is... this is SoE, they made EQ1 into the MMORPG of the last 6 years, and they very easily could have done the same with PS, respectively.

[Mag-Mower]

wow, PS is up about 10000 subscribers from this time last year. which i guess isnt too bad, considering there are doomsday messages on the OF...

[Lartnev]

The worst part is... this is SoE, they made EQ1 into the MMORPG of the last 6 years, and they very easily could have done the same with PS, respectively.

PlanetSide and EverQuest are two VERY different genres of games. Such comparisons are not really fair since EverQuest also existed in a different time without a lot of competition.

I don't think there's anything in particular went wrong. Perhaps certain things could have been better (advertising imo is not one of them seeing as I remember plenty of ads in magazines and I'm sure I saw a TV ad, the only other MMO I've seen recently on TV is WoW), but pointing them out and brooding isn't really going to change anything.

[Rhemuss]

I dunno, a lot of people I know or talked to online didn't even know what a Planetside was until I told them... and if they did play the game they either told me "It was too laggy for my PC (or in general)" or "Yeah... that game got boring really quick"

[Jeffey]

PlanetSide and EverQuest are two VERY different genres of games. Such comparisons are not really fair since EverQuest also existed in a different time without a lot of competition.

Without a lot of competition you say? We're talking about Planetside right? :lol:

[Lartnev]

Without a lot of competition you say? We're talking about Planetside right? :lol:

No, EverQuest :)

PlanetSide's had a lot of competition, from MMOs and from big name FPS games :D

[internetn]

Bout the advertizing thing.. I found planetside throiugh a magezine advertizement...

[Mag-Mower]

as did i, but there was only 1 magazine ad that i ever saw, and that ad was pre-release too...

[Lonehunter]

When a game needs guerilla marketing as a Publicity boost, I think it's safe to say the company doesn't want/plan on doing any advertising. Wich is what prevents PS from blossoming in my opinion.

[GreyFlcn]

Core Combat
Thats what went wrong.

Take the reviews from that.
PS would look like the worst game in the history of the world.

[AcidCat]

I think the comments about Core Combat are right on - I think that was PlanetSide's chance to "take it to the next level" and get people excited about the game again, but the content the expansion actually delivered was uninspired and did nothing to revitalize the game.

There are a couple key things PS had to overcome, and it never really did. One, it had to convince a FPS audience that what it brought to the table was worth paying monthly for. Though many tasted, few stayed for the whole meal. Even though I and many others were quite happy to pay monthly - a very large base of potential players was never convinced that PS offered enough above and beyond any free FPS out there to pay monthly for.

Second was the technical difficulties many players had. I know performance issues put many players off and that word of mouth did its share of damage.

Also, changes and routine updates and additions to the game - which people expect with a pay-by-month MMO, came at a glacial pace. PS needed better developer effort to add significant content on a consistent basis and fix flaws faster - a perfect example is support xp - this should have been in a game like this at launch, but finally shows up two years later. The game was just plain mismanaged, there was no clear vision, if there actually were developers at SOE that really cared about this game, that passion never really manifested in the game itself.

[Mag-Mower]

well, CC was an eff up, yea. but what about now? its included in PS:AS, so what do you have to lose when you buy AS? its only 10 bucks, and you get the original and CC, i dont think people would really notice...

[Rhemuss]

well didn't CC add a bunch of bugs with it?

[Red October]

I think the comments about Core Combat are right on - I think that was PlanetSide's chance to "take it to the next level" and get people excited about the game again, but the content the expansion actually delivered was uninspired and did nothing to revitalize the game.

Also, changes and routine updates and additions to the game - which people expect with a pay-by-month MMO, came at a glacial pace. PS needed better developer effort to add significant content on a consistent basis and fix flaws faster - a perfect example is support xp - this should have been in a game like this at launch, but finally shows up two years later. The game was just plain mismanaged, there was no clear vision, if there actually were developers at SOE that really cared about this game, that passion never really manifested in the game itself.

Bingo! I pay two dollars more a month on EQ2...but content, fixes, etc. keep rolling in fast. If they didn't...i would have switched over to WoW. Face facts, Planetside was the ugly red-headed step child of SOE. It had huge potential...but apparently management at that time thought differently. I would say that same attitude was sending EQ2 to the grave as well untill they did an about face and started listening to what the players actually wanted and stopped telling everyone what they can't do, telling them what they wanted and went into mode of leting everyone do what they want to do (and taking the risks and consequences). Not to mention, delivering on their promises.

I stopped playing because, it got stale. Battle Islands were awesome...but it was like pulling teeth trying to get a good size battle there. Core Combat was a great place to fight....when you had a sizable amount of people down there. Problem was, these places were tough to take and there wasn't too much or not enough of an incentive to invade..or hold. Usually the Outfit's would head to an easier cont to take (since you could get BEP and CEP much faster there). BFR's added some intensity to the game...but too many on the battle field would pretty much decimate some roles of infanty..or make the battle field even more dangerous to get around while not firing a single shot.

The lack of advertising tells me someone over there really didn't care about this game and just wanted it dead and off there hands.

But on the plus side, this game is the first of its kind in scale. It proved that it can be done and many lessons were learned from the mistakes that were made. If they put out another genre, they know that tough terrains should have larger rewards vs. easier terrains. Its all about incentive. Also, they need to compete head to head against other FPS and show just why its a better game and why it justifies the montly fee....nuff of my rant.

[Jeffey]

It really isn't too late, however, has SoE commented on another expansion? EQ1 has overcome several horrendous expansions, and redelivered with incredible ones.

[Lartnev]

I think AcidCat's post made a lot of sense however I don't think it was lack of developer effort, more lack of developers :D. The fact that they needed to add content through an expansion early on shows that.

All developers care about the games they make, it's the reason they became developers in the first place. Management however, well... they care about other things. I don't think SOE hate PlanetSide, they just preferred to have resources elsewhere. Perhaps with their next MMOFPS they will give it more attention (if one ever comes to fruition). :)

P.S. PS was not the first one of its kind, World War II Online was.

[Rhemuss]

That's funny... because Planetside (im pretty sure) said they were the first of its kind.

[MrVicchio]

Planetsides failures are simple.

Let's look at CS. I have been playing CS since the early beta days. I currently play CS:Source.

What is so great about a game with simple objectives, no continuity (Oh look, map change!) and the same basic gameplay round after round after round?

It's personal. You get to know the people on your server. You get to know your clan, you can compete in sanctioned events if you want too. PS offered none of this really. You never got to "know your enemies". It was killing another colored enemy, or tank.

CS you have an objective, Bomb one of two bomb sites. Period. So your team tends to go for the bomb site. In PS it was often a case of "Man, lets go to continent X and take those bases" and there was really very little direction. I remember the first weeks of PS, flying my reaper over a nasty battlefield, I had high hopes. After CC came out, you didn't have those.. it was hard to find a good battle....

Planetside has lot so of potential, but poor management, weak advertising, and little support coupled wth one of the worst add-ons lead to a decline in gameplay. That's fatal.

If someone were to make another MMFPS, they would have to fix these problems, two sides, not three, more reason to take and defend points, better objectives, more structure. In game competitions and hosted events would be outstanding.

Imagine if oyu will, every weekend, say at 3pm CST you could enter you clan into into a competition, three rounds against another team. The "home team" would hold a single base and the "vistitors" would have to take it. On a seperate server and logging in you're regular game stats would carry over for the battle. The Home/visitor would be determined by which side took the most land over hte course of the week.

People would be clamouring to play in such. PS had that potential.

For me personally, it was the Air Combat that made me bail. I LOVED flying my reaper, yet it bothered me to no end that in Air-to-Air combat I had a gun, and dumb fire rockets.. while the ground units had guided weapons. Why didn't we have heat seekers? Or something to that effect... lame.

[internetn]

I do miss planetside though..

Im crossing my fingers and praying that SOE will pour some money into something like PS2 (Like there ever gonna run out of money)

I miss my old clan mates...

[FatalLight]

What did it most for me was too many promises that either never happened or dissapointed me

[Real Mulambo]

I think the incessant whining from forum contributors doesn't help the game much.

[Jeffey]

It's alot worse in EQ

[AcidCat]

CS you have an objective, Bomb one of two bomb sites. Period. So your team tends to go for the bomb site. In PS it was often a case of "Man, lets go to continent X and take those bases" and there was really very little direction.

Imagine if oyu will, every weekend, say at 3pm CST you could enter you clan into into a competition, three rounds against another team. The "home team" would hold a single base and the "vistitors" would have to take it. .

Well, I happen to think the freedom and lack of simplistic objectives was one of PlanetSide's strengths - far better and more satisfying than "bomb or defuse the bomb."

Also your "three rounds, home team, visitor" idea would be, in fact, the last thing a game like PlanetSide would need. What it needed to do was differentiate itself more from existing FPS game structure, not become more like them with "rounds against another team" clan matches - any ol' free-to-play FPS can deliver that experience.

[juggalokilla]

Well, I happen to think the freedom and lack of simplistic objectives was one of PlanetSide's strengths - far better and more satisfying than "bomb or defuse the bomb."

Also your "three rounds, home team, visitor" idea would be, in fact, the last thing a game like PlanetSide would need. What it needed to do was differentiate itself more from existing FPS game structure, not become more like them with "rounds against another team" clan matches - any ol' free-to-play FPS can deliver that experience.

I agree with this man whole-heartedly. a large majority of planetside players play it because its not like any other first person shooter. If they want CS, they play cs, planetside is fps in the sense of having a gun and shooting the guy in front of you, thats all it has to directly connect it. everthing else is in its own land.

I play BF2, and love it. I played CS and didnt like it. I dont like changing maps every 5 minutes. I like being able to say "this base/tower" is mine, come take it. I play to level up and earn medals, bf2 has this and I have plenty there. But noone wants PS to be like the other games, especially due to the sub price. I better get much more that a CS/BF2 clone before I am willing to pay for it.

You guys that quit didnt like the way the game played. There are others that are made to cater to that playstyle. PS will never change its core mechanics and veteran players and many newcomers alike will like what PS has to offer. I will be here long into the future of this game as well as so many of my friends that I made here.

Maybe PS2 will have more options that appeal to your type, if so, I'll see you on the feild then. If you do grow to miss your buddies that you made here, then come back, your always welcome.

[internetn]

Well, to bad my buddies dont play anymore

*sniffles* them damn biffers killed dem all

[Neoseeker]

i love this game, still do, they should add on a gun or two each month, i mean com'on soe
eq and eq2 are just lame, ps in my view is a better game. and ps has a plot i would love for them to advance as well