The PS2 hype machine

[wolfkrone]

I feel the need to say something that I have been thinking for a while now. This is not really a rant, I am not frustrated with PS2 delays, or any of that. You can tell me its too early, or some other excuse for why my friends are less interested with every update rather than more interested. PlanetSide's lack of popular success was largely blamed on marketing screwups, so I think its prudent to stay on top of it this time. I just honestly believe that the PS2 hype machine/promotion/marketing, whatever, is missing the mark. Seeing reveal video and the new armour has been the highlight, but hardly makes it easier for me to recommend this game to my friends, because it doesn't explain anything about the game. It is tempting to author an essay on the subject, but I will try to keep it short and sweet. Firefall has been beating PS2 for mind share all year, http://www.tentonhammer.com/polls/most-anticipated-games-of-2012/success?sid=40909

1) PSU has needed a site redesign since about February. I know this is in the works, and I think Hamma is amazing, etc etc, but this site is the unofficial home of PlanetSide, and its currently a bit of an embarrassment. Yeah I know this site is made out of love etc etc, but my point is still true, I just think that we need a home that is as up to date as our new and awesome game.

2) The official PS2 website is also lacklustre. Its a little better than it was a few months ago, with its broken links, incorrect and unreadable font colours, broken and mis-sized frames, and no information at all.That said, today it still looks halfway between a FOXplanetsidemovie.com sort of thing and a vapourware open source engine mod. It screams of rush-job and afterthought. It needs content, and excitement. All I can say is, I hope this website is completely scrapped when beta approaches. If you are shaking your head in confusion right now just go compare it to a site like firefall or diablo 3, or pretty much any new game. This is the place we have to send our friends to...

3) The reason why Firefall grabbed so much attention, wasn't because they started the hype machine earlier than PS2 or anything like that. Its because they put out an awesome video that was about 20 mins long, with developer commentary, explaining all of the major features of the game. Pretty much every gamer I know has seen and remembers this video, and because of this they remember the game, all from 1 video. I am sure it was staged etc, but it told a narrative that was (probably) true to the gameplay experience, I could put myself in those shoes. Instead of boring me to death like all of the fiction and random pictures that appear on twitter. I loved the PS2 trailer with the music and the planes, it was awesome, but I was expecting a follow up video with some extended game play, where is it? We need to install fraps on TRays computer, plug in a microphone and join him on a base assault. I have my fingers crossed that we will get this eventually, because its really all I want to see from them before beta/launch...

TLDR : We need an extended gameplay movie showing the features of the game to get friends excited and some new webmasters. Less interview/fiction/screenshot spam.

[razor851]

tl;dr

[Zulthus]

tl;dr

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvbffvBYP31qafrh6.jpg


Also, I agree that the websites could use an overhaul. But those will come with time.

Firefall grabbed so much attention because its development is nearly done, people are sheep, and from what I can tell, is lacking in content. It looks like a mixture of BF2142, TF2 and Unreal Tournament. Once PS2 actually gets marketed *Gasp* maybe we'll start getting quite a bit of attention.

[Crazyduckling]

Also, I agree that the websites could use an overhaul. But those will come with time.

Firefall grabbed so much attention because its development is nearly done, people are sheep, and from what I can tell, is lacking in content. It looks like a mixture of BF2142, TF2 and Unreal Tournament. Once PS2 actually gets marketed *Gasp* maybe we'll start getting quite a bit of attention.

(this is more than just a response to Zulthus)

1. Overhaul on both websites please.

2. We the community have to power the hype machine.

3. To power the hype machine, we have to get well known personalities to promote, or even just mention, Planetside 2. (I tweeted at Higby and Freddiew to make a PS2 video. Hamma tweeted at me and agreed. I also emailed Smed in July who forwarded my email to the Vice Prez of Marketing.)

4. Youtube is an amazing place to promote the game. As mentioned, FreddieW is someone to get involved, but dont forget Seananners, totalbiscuit, yogscast, machinima respawn, corridor digital (if freddiew doesn't...they share a loft in LA) etc. It may take a bit of time, since the game isn't even ready for beta, but I think we should push those peeps to promote the game right before beta.

5. I want to play 2142 again. brb.

[Xyntech]

Firefall was closer to being completed when it's marketing picked up.

Obviously people here are going to go ape shit if SOE drops the ball again, but that time hasn't come yet. We haven't even seen all of the core gameplay items such as finished MAX suits or all empires HA armor yet. The reason we haven't seen it is probably mostly related to the fact that it's not all done yet.

Don't stop worrying about PS2's marketing, but relax a little for now. If your friends aren't into the information that's being released, that's fine. This is currently more of a candid look at the design process than a full on marketing campaign. People who weren't fans of the original aren't going to be as excited at getting a first glimpse at a VS infiltrator. They're just going to think "cool armor" at best and move on.

4. Youtube is an amazing place to promote the game. As mentioned, FreddieW is someone to get involved, but dont forget Seananners, totalbiscuit, yogscast, machinima respawn, corridor digital (if freddiew doesn't...they share a loft in LA) etc. It may take a bit of time, since the game isn't even ready for beta, but I think we should push those peeps to promote the game right before beta.

You are absolutely right, but the most important part of your post is that we hype this thing when it's ready to be hyped. We need more information, and for that to happen, the devs need to finish that content. There will still be time after all of the main content is finished, and balancing and tweaking is still being worked, on to promote this thing.

Start working on the hype machine now, or better yet two months ago, but remember not to try and kick it into high gear when we don't have enough to show.

[Captain1nsaneo]

PSU's front page needs to be cleaned up as most of the things up there are no longer relevant. I spend most of the time on the forums though and have no problem with its layout.

I agree about PS2's website being the barest of bones. It needs a massive overhaul so that it looks like it's actually representing a triple A title and company. This should be the case regardless of time till release.

[Xyntech]

I agree about PS2's website being the barest of bones. It needs a massive overhaul so that it looks like it's actually representing a triple A title and company. This should be the case regardless of time till release.

True that.

Higby! Get somebody on top of that shit!

[Bags]

I never saw the vid.

[Alaska]

They plan on having a big market push. In due time.

Have the team make 4 to 5 short(ish) videos and scatter them across the internet. Scavenger hunt commence! lol :p

[Marth Koopa]

Everywhere I go on the internet to herald PlanetSide 2, I am always met with an overwhelmingly negative response.

I've given up.

[Raymac]

Worry after some actual video is released. It's obviously still a bit early.

For example, nobody gets excited about a movie until the trailer comes out. People need to see things.

We have a different perspective because we are following the development much closer, but when people actually get a look at this thing, (a real look, not that lame 5v5v5 pre-alpha announcement trailer) they are going to flip out over this game.

tl;dr Don't Panic

[xSlideShow]

4. Youtube is an amazing place to promote the game. As mentioned, FreddieW is someone to get involved, but dont forget Seananners, totalbiscuit, yogscast, machinima respawn, corridor digital (if freddiew doesn't...they share a loft in LA) etc. It may take a bit of time, since the game isn't even ready for beta, but I think we should push those peeps to promote the game right before beta.


You forgot about Athene, you have to get Athene.

I never saw the vid.

Dude... Me either

[Hamma]

I've posted on this before.. but I will post on it one more time since people seem to not be getting it. :lol:

The site is in development, the new forums have been essentially completed and the main site is under construction. Our goal right now is January/February 2012 for release.

The reason it is taking so long is because Gryphon is only one man. Just as a little background, I administer the sites, servers and community. Gryphon is our lone coder, he is the one who essentially is building the new site. There is allot of work that has to be done on it and we don't just want to release it with the same broken features, we want to fix things along the way.

We work for free, nobody here gets paid. That means things take longer to get done (especially a complete redesign)

Our goal for the redesign is more of a Community Focused Portal. - The current site has EVERYTHING on it. This is how it had to be when we designed it. The new site will be focused on Community and News, less links on the front page and the "Information" pages pushed to the wiki.

The site will be more community driven than ever before with this, we will retain many of the unique features we have had throughout the years such as the Quote Database, Outfit Database and top notch news posting.

We have been working on this for some time now, but since "February" is a rather bold statement. We had no idea what was going on with PlanetSide 2 and we had not nearly as much community involvement. At the time, it was not worth the time and effort to build a new site.. now it is.

I also think calling it an "embarrassment" is a bit rash and to be honest, it is personally insulting to me and my staff who work hard everyday to bring this site to you for free. There are much more "embarrassing" fan sites out there on the internet.

[NewSith]

Why is tl;dr different from the post consistency.

[Bravix]

Hamma, I think the site is beautiful. Sure. it might not be the newest kid on the block, but it's just as sexy as it was when it was first made. Just like a '69 Chevy Camaro Z28 <3

[TacosWLove]

Worry after some actual video is released. It's obviously still a bit early.

For example, nobody gets excited about a movie until the trailer comes out. People need to see things.

We have a different perspective because we are following the development much closer, but when people actually get a look at this thing, (a real look, not that lame 5v5v5 pre-alpha announcement trailer) they are going to flip out over this game.

tl;dr Don't Panic

Totally Agree. However the first PS didnt even have a trailer that showed more then 10 measly people fighting. If this is suppose to a massive battle with thousands of player, then show me one! Use bots, gief us all betta invites, w/e. But as Ray says, this is something we will need inorder to get ppl jucied about this massive FPS. People need to a a front line of war with some no mans land in the middle where cloakers go to die!

[Canaris]

also I think hype machine is a bit aggressive and macho, let's change it to the

PS2 - Love machine! bow chicka wow wow :D

Honestly wanting/demanding video and whole website overhauls is a bit premature, let the Dev's do there magic and make an awesome game, graphics and videos that then can be used for sites and fansites will be better for it.
Patience my friend, a lil patience :)

[Mirror]

:ban:

Where is the hammer???

[Xyntech]

I also think calling it an "embarrassment" is a bit rash and to be honest, it is personally insulting to me and my staff who work hard everyday to bring this site to you for free. There are much more "embarrassing" fan sites out there on the internet.

Meh, fuck that guy. Haters gonna hate.

I'd still like to see Planetside 2 spruced up ASAP, just so we make sure that SOE puts it's best foot forward on this thing. Maybe with some links to PSU :D

But they are getting paid. You guys are doing awesome as a fan based organization. I look forward to seeing Gryphons new design.

Again though, we don't even have a beta date. Once we do and we start to have a better understanding of what kind of time table we're on, then we will all be in a better position to assess how quickly what needs to be done where.

Until then, just do what you can with what we have. PSU and the PS2 devs are doing their part and more. The rest is all on us for now.

[wolfkrone]

Meh, fuck that guy. Haters gonna hate.

This will be a shock for you so brace yourself. A good community isn't actually a place where everyone is constantly in agreement, but feel free to rally around some virtual flag restating my points as your own.

Hamma I am sorry that I struck a nerve. I used embarrassment in the context of PS2 failing to have a modern dedicated site to sing its praises generally, not that I was embarrassed with your efforts. PSU has been amazing, but I guess I am quite excited to see all the irrelevant content flushed away and the brand new look.

As for straight up demanding a video, that is quite unfair. I was trying to give some feedback on their marketing strategy that I thought they might find useful.

[Xyntech]

This will be a shock for you so brace yourself. A good community isn't actually a place where everyone is constantly in agreement, but feel free to rally around some virtual flag restating my points as your own.

Who said we can't disagree? I reserve the right to say 'fuck you' to anyone in the context of supporting the work that the PSU staff is doing. Just choose your words better next time if offense isn't your intent.

I've agreed with some of your points in both of my other posts in this thread. I'm not trying undermine you or whatever. Good communities are full of agreements, disagreements, and often a little of both at the same time. As long as we're all excited about PS2, I see no problems.

[Missundaztood]

Given the obvious amount of resource SOE has put into this release it would be silly not to spend appropriately on marketing.

Ok, no commercial/advertisement campaign on TV but plenty of exposure in magazines (which it has) on the web (which it has) and word of mouth which it sort of has.

[Crator]

Really surprised the current PS2 website from SOE doesn't have more on it, especially a forum. Perhaps they are still working on it though. You would think this would be something a company would have up though. Especially for a game that they are calling their flagship product. But, that's how SOE rolls it seems. They are using PSU to communicate with PS fans which is good to keep the info semi-secret to the rest of the world. But there should be some place that everyone can go to discuss things.

[BuzzCutPsycho]

Am I the only one who thinks this craze of doing updates via twitter is utterly retarded? What happened to the days when companies would post all current information on a well designed website which could be easily checked and referenced at any given time?

One of the major reasons why I'm still out of the loop when it comes to PlanetSide 2 information is because I can't stomach scouring some nerds twitter page for important information especially while their main page is practically empty.

[Hamma]

That is why many people have taken the time to do it for you (http://www.planetside-universe.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37350). We also post all the major relevant stuff to PSU.

Is it utterly retarded? No. Different than anything we have seen before? Yes. It's the developers interacting directly with the fans. If we did not have this outlet we would have nothing but to wait between Marketing pushes to sites like PC Gamer among others.

[BuzzCutPsycho]

That is why many people have taken the time to do it for you. We also post all the major relevant stuff to PSU.

Great. Fine. I appreciate that you take the time to do it for me. I still think it looks cheap to have a game's homepage sitting barren and empty for the most part.

Is it utterly retarded? No. Different than anything we have seen before? Yes. It's the developers interacting directly with the fans. If we did not have this outlet we would have nothing but to wait between Marketing pushes to sites like PC Gamer among others.

I don't know about that. I'm more fanciful of using forums to interact with my developers or communities as opposed to this twitter nonsense. If I recall correctly PS2 had plenty of relevant information back in 03' before twitter even existed and PS1 actually had a functioning and updated homepage.

My opinion remains that it is retarded. Just like F2P is retarded but both are the way of the future and in time I'll learn to accept both.

Thanks for doing the legwork btw - Saves me from making a twitter account. Which much like everything else I'd only eventually end up getting banned from anyway.

[Captain1nsaneo]

Great. Fine. I appreciate that you take the time to do it for me. I still think it looks cheap to have a game's homepage sitting barren and empty for the most part.

So... you're saying that the PS2 website should be a giant link to PSU?
I'm for it.

Buzz, while I accept that yelling at children to get off the lawn is an enjoyable pass time which many of us are guilty of, sometimes it's better to steeple your fingers and watch the tykes trip over their own feet. I agree with you on social media being vaguely silly but I'm more an enemy of the loss of privacy it brings. If the devs are willing to give up some privacy and give us goodies then sit back and enjoy it. All the good info will eventually trickle down the grapevine and will show up here in some form.

[Alaska]

I don't know if anyone out there watches G4tv, but I just got done watching the latest episode of Feedback and they had Ted Price(CEO of Insomniac Games) along with Cliff Bleszinski(Design Director at Epic Games)..and this may not sound like such a crazy thing, but Cliff mentioned Planetside and Planetside 2 during one of their conversations. It wasn't a long drawn out conversation about the 2 games, but I believe in the very short amount of time Cliff mentioned the game..it shows that even big time developers and CEO's of companies may have a special place for Planetside in their heart. :P

Ted did say Planetside was ahead of it's time. I think we can all agree on that. ^-^

I guess the reason I posted in this thread was because after watching the episode it got me thinking about ways to get PS2 hype and I think having Higby or TRay on a future episode would be fucking epic! Hell, ..it could be any one of the developers that have spent time talking to the community and such.

If you're interested in watching the latest episode, Click here (http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/719092/a-very-special-feedback-with-ted-price-and-cliff-bleszinski/). This episode is very short, normal episodes being around 40 minutes to an hour. Cliff mentions Planetside around 12:50.

It may not seem like much, but it'd definitely worth looking into. =]

[Hamma]

That's pretty cool :D

[Senyu]

Before PS2 is released, before this website changes, I will remember the highly anticipated times of waiting for every letter to come out of SOE's mouth of PS2 on this forum. And all the crazy speculation that was made. Good times to remember.

Here's to more good times ahead for this game, the devs, and the fans. Cheers.

[Tasorin]

Am I the only one who thinks this craze of doing updates via twitter is utterly retarded? What happened to the days when companies would post all current information on a well designed website which could be easily checked and referenced at any given time?

One of the major reasons why I'm still out of the loop when it comes to PlanetSide 2 information is because I can't stomach scouring some nerds twitter page for important information especially while their main page is practically empty.

This.

Secondly, I don't have to hype PS2 to our people. All we had to say is: "KGB Announces State Faction for PS2." and push the feed to our members and half the work was done.

Look at the Sony Entertainment financials and then go look at Sony Online Entertainment rolled up under SE, and look at the damn big $$'s for Marketing. While it's not all for PS2, remind me again how many AAA titles they have in the bullpen ready to be marketed? Yeah, that was a rhetorical question, the answer is really 3 titles to my knowledge. PS2, EQ:Next, and a yet unnamed "X" project. The money is there, the question now is the plan worthy of the focus PS2 deserves and can the PS2 Marketing team execute.

Personally I hope the answer to the last two questions is "Relax Ninja, Mr. Wolf is on the way."