This Game Needs a Competitive Mode

[SoUnreal]

PlanetSide 2 really needs a separate and distinct mode/server strictly for competitive play. So first, for those not interested in competitive gaming, nothing at all changes for them and the game will continue on without them ever noticing. So it won't affect the core game or metagame one bit.

For those who want to see actual outfit vs outfit fights take place, bring more meaning to the battles, and tougher competition in general then this type of mode is really the only option. Just about every FPS out there is taking into account competitive play and e-sport given its huge popularity. Even CoD has made it a focus of their MP. PS2 can really bring something unique and brilliant to the competitive genre, as we've never seen massive battles take place between two competing teams. The scale and type of strategy involved would be absolutely unrivaled by any other game and it would be more enjoyable to watch than other title.

But, this can only happen with dev support. Is this something they've ever talked about or considered? Scheduled matches, ladders, tournaments, etc.. or simply outfit controlled territory with an end-game?

[Mox]

Maybe you should just play another game. Probably counter strike would be your thing.

[Chewy]

I see outfit v outfit all the time. It's called defending a base before it's taken. Tonight (before my net tanked and I had to bail) DVS defended a tower right outside of the VSes WG for at least an hour before pulling back to undo ghost caps the TR did (thank you, idiots holding the Crown). In that fight alone we held back what seemed like the entire of VS forces on Indar. It wasn't but damn near a 3rd if not more.

Im certain that there was an outfit making that push. It was one hell of a fight to keep that tower after losing the outposts next to that WG. Nearly lost it a few times. One HELL of a fight and Im certain that it was mainly outfit v outfit in that one and not the normal zerg rush out of spawn.

[Zulthus]

No. There is absolutely no valid reason to further stretch out the already thin population across the servers. Besides, this game already IS competitive by default. Massive battles are already taking place between two teams, hell, even three often enough. You already have what you want.

You guys will get your E-Sports fix once every couple of months as an event, as far as I remember the devs saying.

[Sonny]

Hi SoUnreal,
As you can see from the replies to your post, this is quite a heated subject! Outfit tournaments was an idea recently suggested by the Devs as part of their 6-month plan - you can see the idea and join in the debate here (http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/june-outfit-tournaments.83021/).

Personally, I think that Outfit tournaments and competitions would add another layer of depth to the game and would be a great way to advertise the game to new players who haven't heard of it before. That only applies if the competitions happen infrequently enough so that they don't affect the population of the main server.

That's just my opinion. I think you'll find on this forum that more people are against the idea than for it!

Sonny

[Blynd]

well the fact that its going to be a MLG esport shows there will be this in the game so why your posting about it as its been discussed in numberous topics by many people both for and against it and while i think it will be good if its done right this is SOE and smedly does love to screw the community over from time to time :D (BFR's anyone :D )

so yes its going to happen goodbye

[Dougnifico]

-1

Keep population united, not divided.

[ChipMHazard]

Any kind of competetive mode won't further divide the player population. According to the devs such events won't be held very often.
It remains to be seen what their plans are when it comes to how such events are going to be played. Will it just be an invite only server that is a copy of the actual servers? Will it be a server with a continent designed for different game types?

[Sturmhardt]

Uhm... just play BF3 or CoD, you can have your 10 on 10 there. Why do you play Planetside if you are not interested in the big battles with hundreds of players?

[Ghoest9]

No. There is absolutely no valid reason to further stretch out the already thin population across the servers. Besides, this game already IS competitive by default. Massive battles are already taking place between two teams, hell, even three often enough. You already have what you want.

You guys will get your E-Sports fix once every couple of months as an event, as far as I remember the devs saying.

Actualy there is a valid reason - it could bring in more players.

[SoUnreal]

Maybe you should just play another game. Probably counter strike would be your thing.

I play CS, but I'm not a huge fan of the gameplay. It is worth noting though that they have done a great job in appeasing both casual and competitive players.. For the most part at least..

I see outfit v outfit all the time. It's called defending a base before it's taken. Tonight (before my net tanked and I had to bail) DVS defended a tower right outside of the VSes WG for at least an hour before pulling back to undo ghost caps the TR did (thank you, idiots holding the Crown). In that fight alone we held back what seemed like the entire of VS forces on Indar. It wasn't but damn near a 3rd if not more.

Im certain that there was an outfit making that push. It was one hell of a fight to keep that tower after losing the outposts next to that WG. Nearly lost it a few times. One HELL of a fight and Im certain that it was mainly outfit v outfit in that one and not the normal zerg rush out of spawn.

There's nothing at all competitive about uncontested caps and having to pull from a good battle to recap those. Plus, that tower you fought tooth and nail for, more than likely will be capped uncontested at some point. So what does that great battle really mean? From a pure fun and enjoyment perspective a lot, from a competitive standpoint it doesn't remotely touch on anything. But again, it's great that people enjoy that and there's nothing wrong with it, but we can also have the best of both worlds.

No. There is absolutely no valid reason to further stretch out the already thin population across the servers. Besides, this game already IS competitive by default. Massive battles are already taking place between two teams, hell, even three often enough. You already have what you want.

You guys will get your E-Sports fix once every couple of months as an event, as far as I remember the devs saying.

Pubs aren't competitive by default, never are and never will be which is what the game is right now. A massive pub, which is well and good for the intended purpose of the game, I'm just suggesting that they add another element to that. Pulling away less than 100 players at a time for a scheduled match really isn't going to make any significant difference in pop. Has a competitive scene split any other community?

Hi SoUnreal,
As you can see from the replies to your post, this is quite a heated subject! Outfit tournaments was an idea recently suggested by the Devs as part of their 6-month plan - you can see the idea and join in the debate here (http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/june-outfit-tournaments.83021/).

Personally, I think that Outfit tournaments and competitions would add another layer of depth to the game and would be a great way to advertise the game to new players who haven't heard of it before. That only applies if the competitions happen infrequently enough so that they don't affect the population of the main server.

That's just my opinion. I think you'll find on this forum that more people are against the idea than for it!

Sonny

Thanks for the heads up, I'll check that out.

well the fact that its going to be a MLG esport shows there will be this in the game so why your posting about it as its been discussed in numberous topics by many people both for and against it and while i think it will be good if its done right this is SOE and smedly does love to screw the community over from time to time :D (BFR's anyone :D )

so yes its going to happen goodbye

I haven't been following this game, but I guess a search would have been in order.

-1

Keep population united, not divided.

It won't divide anything, instead it'll bring in more players.

Uhm... just play BF3 or CoD, you can have your 10 on 10 there. Why do you play Planetside if you are not interested in the big battles with hundreds of players?

Well BF3 and CoD are terrible games :p
Besides that I definitely do not want to see 10v10 matches on PS2. I want to see 30v30 or more. I want to see massive outfit battles, that's why I want so badly for this game to be on the competitive scene as it can bring something never seen before and it would really be fascinating to watch or be apart of.

& make no doubt there's a huge difference in the intensity and skill level of what we see now vs what would occur if there were organized outfit vs outfit matches.

[Hamma]

SoUnreal,

Take a look at the recent MLG announcement and the various interviews surrounding it. There's lots of info on how they plan to implement competitive play.

[shamE]

Uhm... just play BF3 or CoD, you can have your 10 on 10 there. Why do you play Planetside if you are not interested in the big battles with hundreds of players?

Both of those games are dead and have been for a matter of years for big competition. Having a comp mode in planetside wont hurt the game at all and if anything will make it more popular.

[Emperor Newt]

Besides that I definitely do not want to see 10v10 matches on PS2. I want to see 30v30 or more. I want to see massive outfit battles, that's why I want so badly for this game to be on the competitive scene as it can bring something never seen before and it would really be fascinating to watch or be apart of.
Any regular competetive mode based on 30vs30 fights will be dead within a few months. No clan or outfit could keep that amount of organization and training for competetive level up and running.
Anyone who ever either was a clanleader in competetive esports or had administrative positions in tournaments and/or ladders will assure you that.
It's just not possible.

It's possible as an event now and then, but not as a regular mode.

[SoUnreal]

Any regular competetive mode based on 30vs30 fights will be dead within a few months. No clan or outfit could keep that amount of organization and training for competetive level up and running.
Anyone who ever either was a clanleader in competetive esports or had administrative positions in tournaments and/or ladders will assure you that.
It's just not possible.

It's possible as an event now and then, but not as a regular mode.

I've played GA where certain clans would field 2-3 SF's on a nightly basis, which is 20-30 people total...nightly.. PS2 is far more popular, not even comparable actually, so it's definitely possible on a weekly or monthly basis to see something like that.

[Rolfski]

It's the double edged sword people will never agree on. Hamma made good video on this actually.

AGN PlanetSide 2 Instant Action: E-Sports and PlanetSide 2 - YouTube

[Sifer2]

Honestly I don't play PS2 cause I want a very boring competitive match. I play it cause I want to be a part of a large persistent war metagame. Something no other FPS in the world is really delivering. So no I think wasting dev time on competitive mode instead of bringing the metagame up to at least PS1 level is the wrong way to go.

The only thing I could maybe see them doing is designing one of the future continents to be symmetrical. So that when they do have stuff like UES they can have it on there. Something like a continent built an shaped by the ancient Vanu with their ruins all over the place so it make sense for it have uniform design.

[Vashyo]

even less people on the servers...

Makes me sad some people want PS2 to become less and less like PS1 and more like CS/CoD/BF/UT, don't some of you people allready have enough of those arena shooters, why must every game be like that?

Anyways they're adding some MLG support or something allready so meh...

[OCNSethy]

Everytime I play... its competitive :)

[Babyfark McGeez]

As it has been stated countless times, there are enough (and better) "competitive" shooters out there for people who are in it for the "sportsmanship".
For people seeking to be part of a more warlike experience on the other hand there is only this, or WW2Online. So catering to the "competitive players" would end up removing (or aleast diminishing) the unique selling-point of this game.

So regardless of how suitable "e-sports" is for PS2, trying to push it into the game to whatever degree is undermining the very nature of the game (or atleast resources better spent elsewhere).

Seriously, why must every game these days include "e-sports" and "competitive play" even when the game itself is clearly not made for it?

[shamE]

even less people on the servers...

Makes me sad some people want PS2 to become less and less like PS1 and more like CS/CoD/BF/UT, don't some of you people allready have enough of those arena shooters, why must every game be like that?

Anyways they're adding some MLG support or something allready so meh...
As it has been stated countless times, there are enough (and better) "competitive" shooters out there for people who are in it for the "sportsmanship".
For people seeking to be part of a more warlike experience on the other hand there is only this, or WW2Online. So catering to the "competitive players" would end up removing (or aleast diminishing) the unique selling-point of this game.

So regardless of how suitable "e-sports" is for PS2, trying to push it into the game to whatever degree is undermining the very nature of the game (or atleast resources better spent elsewhere).

Seriously, why must every game these days include "e-sports" and "competitive play" even when the game itself is clearly not made for it?
You clearly have no idea how dead competitive pc gaming is out side of LoL, Star craft, and CS. Most game devs don't give a shit about the competition communities of franchises and build their game around their target audience for maximum profit with putting in as little time and effort into the game as possible. The devs that do actually care about competitive gaming 7/10 make horrible games.

SOE is trying to do something that will both boost the popularity of their game and push forward another community that most of the time gets ignored. The people that want competition in planetside want to play planetside, if they want to play one of those other shitty and for the most part dead games they would.

[Babyfark McGeez]

You clearly have no idea how dead competitive pc gaming is out side of LoL, Star craft, and CS.

Quite possible, it's been ten years since i have played in a clan competitively (return to castle wolfenstein that was).

But still, the basic premise of planetside and the premise of "e-sports" contradict each other in my opinion. The most defining part of the "War" experience that is the basic idea of this game is the "uncontrolled" nature of war. As opposed to a controlled sportsmatch with clear defined rules, shakehands at the beginning and a clearly defined timeframe after which the game ends and the results affect some virtual leaderboard.

Supporting that "competitive" mindset might ultimately lead to outfits only caring about their "outfit performance", or individuals only caring about their "personal performance". And let's be honest, that attitude is allready horribly prevalent as it is.

[Pella]

This is "Happening" If people like it or not. Its not going to effect the overall game experience of massive warfare.

But i am all for it as my outfit will benefit massively. As we play online games for this reason.

I have my reservation of PS2 being a Esports. But with some big changes it can.

[raw]

I think the game will survive a couple of outfits duking it out in competitive mode.
Besides, it probably won't even be whole outfits. Try pitching something above 7v7 to MLG or other ESPORTS leagues. They'll show you the door.

So in essence what competitive mode boils down to is that every day there will be a handful of people removed from the persistent world fighting against each other in an instance for maybe a few hours top. Big deal.

On the other hand, the e-sports factor can not be overestimated when it comes to attracting new players. A commitment to e-sports also means that SOE has to take this game at least somewhat serious, something from which everyone would benefit.

[PredatorFour]

This game doesn't need a competitive mode. People forget that once there are alot more continents in the game the 'competitive mode' will be between the outfits doing resecures/captures, like the old game. A competitive mode is only for stroking epeens which will happen enough in game already :groovy:

But it's going to happen. I can think of many things they could do to improve the game rather than waste rescources this.

[raw]

You clearly have no idea how dead competitive pc gaming is out side of LoL, Star craft, and CS.

That's because most games are shit. Tribes Ascend trying to go ESPORTS without proper spectator mode and demoing to bring just one recent example.

Why would anyone even bother e-sporting their title without demos?

[raw]

This game doesn't need a competitive mode. People forget that once there are alot more continents in the game the 'competitive mode' will be between the outfits doing resecures/captures, like the old game. A competitive mode is only for stroking epeens which will happen enough in game already :groovy:

But it's going to happen. I can think of many things they could do to improve the game rather than waste rescources this.

I too think that resources should be spend bringing the game up to a playable standard first and foremost, but I don't think that there's anything actively preventing the title going esport, except SOEs ability to do so.

[SoUnreal]

Honestly I don't play PS2 cause I want a very boring competitive match. I play it cause I want to be a part of a large persistent war metagame. Something no other FPS in the world is really delivering. So no I think wasting dev time on competitive mode instead of bringing the metagame up to at least PS1 level is the wrong way to go.

The only thing I could maybe see them doing is designing one of the future continents to be symmetrical. So that when they do have stuff like UES they can have it on there. Something like a continent built an shaped by the ancient Vanu with their ruins all over the place so it make sense for it have uniform design.

As it has been stated countless times, there are enough (and better) "competitive" shooters out there for people who are in it for the "sportsmanship".
For people seeking to be part of a more warlike experience on the other hand there is only this, or WW2Online. So catering to the "competitive players" would end up removing (or aleast diminishing) the unique selling-point of this game.

So regardless of how suitable "e-sports" is for PS2, trying to push it into the game to whatever degree is undermining the very nature of the game (or atleast resources better spent elsewhere).

Seriously, why must every game these days include "e-sports" and "competitive play" even when the game itself is clearly not made for it?

I'm all about the warlike experience which is why I really want this game to go competitive... It's not a skill-based game, so it's not about "epeen" as some others have said, for me, just speaking for myself I want to see it go this route to enhance the war atmosphere of the game and make the war more plausible and so much more meaningful.

So for me in an indirect way it can actually enhance the meta game. Forging rivalries that will definitely boil over into the persistent battlefield. Bragging rights for factions, and more importantly a victor. After-all all wars are eventually won or cease at some point. Anything different is not a war.

With that said it really depends on how you want to look at it, because I can argue that the current metagame is extremely unrealistic and not remotely representative of an actual war. Sure the combat is fun, exciting, and it has the size required to represent a futuristic battlefield. However, since when has a war been fought with infinite human resources? Add the ability to far too often capture important facilities relatively uncontested, and the biggest factor being that no one can win, ever. Making the current metagame nothing but a time kill IMO and not realistic. You don't fight wars to never gain anything, you fight wars to win.

So depending on how they setup competitive it can actually bring a more appropriate and realistic feel to the battles. Assuming that squads will have to account for the fact that they can't send endless zergs at a base and continue to attack until the opposing force decides to logoff in greater numbers than their own. Leaving the door open for battle tactics and soldier skill to play a greater role than it currently does. Battles shouldn't start and end at a set time (at least not in this fashion), but they also shouldn't be won because more Terran had to logoff than NC. Plus, as alluded to earlier after capturing a facility, how "warlike" is it for someone to be able to cap it uncontested one hour after your massive and hard fought battle? Creating a system that better replicates what it actually means to gain and lose territory or soldiers can definitely be a huge benefit in bringing this war to life so to speak. But, again it all comes down to how they set it up. I think something more in-depth than a ladder is definitely required.

If you disagree with me, that's fine. I definitely understand and appreciate the heart of this game. The good thing is, bringing this game to the esport scene won't change what you love about PS one bit as the core metagame and persistent world is still there.

[SoUnreal]

even less people on the servers...

Makes me sad some people want PS2 to become less and less like PS1 and more like CS/CoD/BF/UT, don't some of you people allready have enough of those arena shooters, why must every game be like that?

Anyways they're adding some MLG support or something allready so meh...

Going competitive makes PS2 an arena shooter? How? Like I said before the game is nothing like CS, UT, etc which is all the more reason for it to go competitive.

Right now the only options for competitive gamers are Warsow (small community not much happening), Quake Live (terrible community tbh), and CS. Maybe shootmania now.. Two of those games are old, so no there's not much there as far as new and competitive shooters goes.

[Helwyr]

PlanetSide 2 really needs a separate and distinct mode/server strictly for competitive play. So first, for those not interested in competitive gaming, nothing at all changes for them and the game will continue on without them ever noticing. So it won't affect the core game or metagame one bit.

Couple of points:

Planetside isn't just an FPS it's also an MMO set in a persistent game environment.

That your idea would have 0 affect on the core game and players not interested in E-Sports is doubtful. SOE's interest in E-Sports already influences their design on the game. There's also development time and in the case of a mode rather than a separate server it could also impact regular gameplay.

However, in saying all that and being anti E-Sports in PS2 myself, I would still consider support for your idea for a separate server. In terms of design philosophy for MMOs I've always thought it to be better to have various rulesets on different servers, rather than try to accommodate on a single ruleset groups of players who often have diametrically opposed views on what's good gameplay. This way players like you can have your E-Sports that you love, without ruining the game for the rest of us, as our servers can then have no E-Sport stuff at all.