A cautionary thread

[CidHighwind]

Maybe this is unnecessary, or maybe it is imperative. Either way, I thought it should be done given that it seems that Beta is coming up in either 1 week or 6 months... somewhere in between likely.

/rant/

In recent days and weeks I have seen a very distinct shift in attitude on the forums from one of passive suggestion/constructive conversation to an environment of hostility, nostalgia, and impatience with others and development.

Trying to get off my high-horse and stay on it at the same time: Please, do not take that kind of attitude into beta. Having participated in a number of big name betas, including Diablo 3 and SWTOR recently, I know from experience that the first wave of beta testers has a knee-jerk reaction when they see that the game is NOTHING like they had imagined. Its bare, its minimum, and it can be about as exciting as a girl with a crazy monkey curse.

I'm worried that people will react harshly, saying that it looks underdeveloped, unpolished, and not nearly what they thought it was. NO S***. It's beta.

TL/DR: Don't go batty when first beta release isn't the full game as the devs have had us envision it. Its intended purpose is not play the game for fun! - beta is an honor of directly helping devs put finishing touches on, finding bugs, and stress-testing both software and hardware. It's also the time to flesh things out and actually giving body to the game with player personality the magic ingredient. Beta is like Jurrasic Park: You will be handed a skeleton. Don't walk away saying you were looking for a magnificent dinosaur. Velociraptors can smell your malignant dissatisfaction.

/rant/

Anyway - I'm not calling anyone out specifically, just voicing a concern.

:groovy:

[Forsaken One]

If anyone goes batty for any reason it will probably be because of the adhd kiddy crowd that most of the changes are geared to.

We vets play PS1, surely even as a beta the vets won't be getting mad over its "maybe half doneness"

[inigma]

beta is where speculation ends and real community work begins. i think ull see a shift back to the positive/constructive side of things real quick. most of us vets are older adults now. makes for a good mature group.

[Zhane]

People are being a bit quick to snap at each other over speculation because they are very passionate about the game, and there's not much else to do right now. Beta will change that, whenever it arrives. Until then everyone does need to take things down a notch or three, but hey... at least they care. The alternative is a dead forum and a game no one gives a damn about.

[Lonehunter]

The mood here changes with the wind, assuming it will be the same in a week or month is just a bad observation.

It's pretty simple really. This is the one group full of the most anticipation for PS2, we're excited and impatient. These Weekly Themes are getting stale, we all ready know the next one will be VS weapons, and we all ready know it will be nothing more then screenshots and a few sentences, if we're lucky we'll get a detail relating to game mechanics like the Repeater having a 3round burst.

The Tweet screens are great but also getting old.

There's just not enough new things to discuss. Virtually all aspects/concepts of the game have been talked about and if you start a new thread about it you're linked to the previous discussion.

[Whalenator]

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Nuff said

[Atheosim]

OP

QFfuckingTRUTH.

I hope the beta testers will take their jobs very seriously. I want this beast to be unleashed upon the public in a very fucking shiny state, and for that to happen the beta testers have to be diligent.

[SKYeXile]

The forums will only get worse until there is official forums, at which point most people will go there, these forums will likly then improve but the official ones, they will then get worse as they lead up to release, until the inevitable launch of server forums, at which point they will implode.

[Whalenator]

The forums will only get worse until there is official forums, at which point most people will go there, these forums will likly then improve but the official ones, they will then get worse as they lead up to release, until the inevitable launch of server forums, at which point they will implode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U85ujwW26ak

[Forsaken One]

It's pretty simple really. This is the one group full of the most anticipation for PS2, we're excited and impatient.

While this is a factor it isn't really the case as to the mood of the forum. Its the fact that the word got out and so we have the ps1 vets who like the game Planetside as more then just "A mass of players fighting" then we have the CoD/BF/Doom/Quake/etc twitch gamers that bounce to pretty much every game and try to turn it into the next shooter they can win by popping lots of Ritalin then they get bored and go into a new beta or to whoever the new fps is.

The vets want thinking and true depth beyond "point at head and win". The Twitcher crowd want to win with no real thinking or tactics involved beyond forming outfits to twitch fight other outfits.

Those are two very drastic views, and hardly any game has ever blended both without it sucking in some way. ether Twitch rules and the thinkers get pissed off by being beaten by the adhd kids or the twitchers get pissed off that their 1337 skillz can't beat some guy who planted a mine on a wall that they ran into blind then rage quit because it wasn't some heavily induced reflex kill.

[Sirisian]

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Nuff said
This guy read the thread. You can tell because he has his talking points lined up.

I think this probably demonstrates the biggest problem I see in the community. Lack of explanation or an implied understanding that doesn't really exist and can be beaten by simple debate. I think that's why posters jump behind buzzwords and "COD" and "BF" as umbrella titles when they lack a valid defense. It's gotten really interesting in some threads where you see people don't even try to have a real debate when valid points are raised refuting their buzzwords and umbrella titles. Not hard to be specific on a forum about an idea. If you've played COD or BF and see a similarity imagine how it will be implemented in PS2. Does it match your preconceived implementation concern? If so by all means voice that viewpoint, but do it with a clear explanation so it can be tackled. I think some posters lack the ability to realize there are fixes for problems in ideas that others can bring to the table. Or they fear that fact and want to make it difficult to find flaws so they become overly vague in their complaints. Remember it's good to be logical. Pros and cons. I personally create lists in notepad after reading things so that I can look at topics from everyone's viewpoint.

[Crazyduckling]

there are many of you whom i enjoy reading your opinions, BUT lets keep in mind, Planetside 2 is not just for those who played Planetside 1.

Honestly, I feel that this is a huge issue. Iron Sights, Don Ferrone, etc. We need to let some things go in order to progress and have a huge fan base. Notch (Minecraft) and Lewis from the Yogscast are on our side, but we have to keep in mind, WE ARENT THE ONLY ONES THAT ARE GOING TO PLAY THE GAME!

Side note: Don Ferrone can stay as long as he progresses to a more modern orchestration feel with music. I think too many of you are just clinging to nostalgia. Our old memories are great, but those are in the past. This is a new game.

[Roy Awesome]

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Nuff said

Nuff said that you look like a total tool.

[Hamma]

People are being a bit quick to snap at each other over speculation because they are very passionate about the game, and there's not much else to do right now. Beta will change that, whenever it arrives. Until then everyone does need to take things down a notch or three, but hey... at least they care. The alternative is a dead forum and a game no one gives a damn about.

Indeed! Passion runs strong in the PlanetSide community.

The forums will only get worse until there is official forums, at which point most people will go there, these forums will likly then improve but the official ones, they will then get worse as they lead up to release, until the inevitable launch of server forums, at which point they will implode.


Our traffic numbers and active forum users have been steadily increasing day after day for a while now. With more people always comes more opinions and more strife. You are somewhat correct here because there is no question many folks will flock to the official forums. Once that happens we will settle back into our normal groove and those folks will occasionally visit for news and comments.

It's important if you guys feel someone is out of line to report them. At this point it's close to impossible for the moderators to monitor everything going on in every thread. If you believe someone is consistently out of line please report them and detail your reasons for doing so.

[Hermes]

A fair point. :)

I think a certain amount of strong opinions, expectations and clashes are probably par for the course here. For a good portion of us who've only resubbed briefly between PS1's heyday and now, there's been many years rehashing and exchanging rose coloured stories about the game we all loved.

That exchange is going to polarize our memories a bit. Overall things may settle down in Beta as we have something more concrete to work from in our debates.

...it can be about as exciting as a girl with a crazy monkey curse.

Anyone else excited by this? :)

[Hmr85]

WE ARENT THE ONLY ONES THAT ARE GOING TO PLAY THE GAME!

But we are the only ones that matter.:D

With that said, I agree, hostility's have gone up slightly but its due to everybody's love of Planetside. I think its a good thing we have people so passionate about the game.

[NewSith]

Yeah, that's exactly what I was saying in that small flamebait Hamma rebuked me for, for what else I got called elitist. I'm not against new people. I'm against people who hop in and behave themselves inadequately, thinking that only their opinion matters. Even trolling is fine compared to that, because troll rarely says something he really thinks.


Also this "Switch" you're talking about was idd very quick. As if somebody from some other forum said, "OK, people, this forum is now boring, let's head to PSU".

Any chance that there was a sudden jump in forum pop one day, Hamma?


But we are the only ones that matter.:D

With that said, I agree, hostility's have gone up slightly but its due to everybody's love of Planetside. I think its a good thing we have people so passionate about the game.

Slightly is not the word. We almost have direct abuses in some threads, not to even mention the amount of sarcasm...

[Hamma]

I don't see any evidence of a mass move of any kind the traffic appears to be a steady increase. Honestly our traffic overall increases just a bit day by day but forum activity increases moreso. It appears quite a few lurkers are now taking part in the forums.

Yesterday there was a big spike due to the beta reg thing showing up. Weekends tend to be low traffic times as well.

Also I called you both out for arguing more than anything :p

[Tasorin]

If anyone goes batty for any reason it will probably be because of the adhd kiddy crowd that most of the changes are geared to.

We vets play PS1, surely even as a beta the vets won't be getting mad over its "maybe half doneness"

This.

+9001

[Hmr85]

Slightly is not the word. We almost have direct abuses in some threads, not to even mention the amount of sarcasm...

That's a little bit of a exaggeration. I feel slightly was pretty much spot on. Sure we have some of what you mention but honestly nothing more than usual. Besides who did not expect to see some increase in tensions as we got closer to beta/release.

[Raymac]

And I'm sure tensions will go up even more once beta happens because that's when shit will really start to get real. So when Planetside 2 doesn't line up perfectly with someone's own vision of what it "should" be, then that will cause friction. Right now for many of us, Planetside 2 represents an ideal game, so any feature that doesn't fit into that ideal will be resisted. And all that is perfectly natural. Personally, I think people can get overly alarmist just as I have a tendency to be overly optimistic.

[Graywolves]

There's always that time shortly before beta where the community runs out of things to talk about so we start criticizing everything we can.


Planetside's community is very passionate and more than anything else we all just want this game to work.

[EZShot]

As a lurker that's just started participating I find it really nice to come to a forum where the general populace is a little bit older/wiser, passionate and rational.

I haven't really disagreed with anything that has been said, a lot of it is argued with good logic and a real love for the game.

In short. Don't worry too much, you guys are awesome and I reckon we'll bring a lot to the game with the developers this eager to listen to a great community :D

Some people might need to take a minute to cool down before clicking "reply"....

^ Universal forum behaviour