Matt Higby on F2P and Realtime Data

Shacknews has posted two new articles on PlanetSide 2, both interviews were done last week at GDC. The first article covers the Free to Play Model with Matt Higby.

Microtransactions, of course! However, creative director Matt Higby reassured us that the game won't be "pay-to-win." At Game Developers Conference last week, Higby promised that "anything that affects gameplay, such as grenades or medkits or implants that give you additional power within the game, will be exclusively unlocked via [in-game] resources."

The second interview talks about realtime data feeds for application developers.

While most multiplayer communities offer web-based stat tracking, SOE promises to take it "a step further" with PlanetSide 2. Creative director Matt Higby told us at Game Developers Conference about their plans to open up the real-time data of the game. "We're real interested in seeing the state of battles that are occurring on the map at any given time, seeing their friends that are online and fighting, being able to see what region they're fighting in."

"You'll be able to get access to all the weapon stats you want to see, all the world stats that are real-time, things like character stats," Higby explained.

Forum user shinything sent a Tweet to Higby asking about what sort of data feeds we will see.

it'll be JSON and XML. Most people will probably work in JSON. Data feeds will be live along with the game's beta.

There are endless ways that application developers, website developers, and even players themselves will be able to utilize this data. Here at PSU we intend to integrate the realtime feeds into our existing features as well as new features in the future.

35 comments

2012-03-15 08:13 PM

Source: Shacknews

Latest Comments

2012-03-15 02:39 PM

Coreldan

Re: New F2P Interview

Originally Posted by basti

1. Has nothing to do with the in game cash shop at all. IN fact, they give you cash for the cash shop.
2. Has nothing to do with the in game cash shop. You may use Station cash for this stuff, but it still doesnt remotly affect the game.
3. No. Just no. All weapons should be obtainable ingame, and only ingame. Sidegrades for said weapons may be obtained faster via the shop, but should still be obtainable via ressources. Otherwise you sell power.

I guess it just comes down to a bit different views on the cash shop then. I havnt played SOE games with cash shop (well, DCUO shortly, but didnt pay anything for the few days I tried it), so I guess with SOE games it's handled differently.

In APB all the things I listed are exactly in game cash shop sales articles. I guess it's just a different way of doing the same thing.

2012-03-15 03:33 PM

Vancha

Re: F2P aspect explained a bit more. Not much but something.

Originally Posted by Fenrys

You're right, it's not clear. It could be either.

The point is, the only things available exclusively for cash will be cosmetic.

That's not to say that some cosmetic stuff won't be available for in-game resources.

It's just saying that everything that effects gameplay is available for in-game resources.

No. That's not the point. We already knew that. That's why I commented on something different, because it brought up a new issue that we might not already know about.

2012-03-15 04:33 PM

Infektion

Re: New F2P Interview

I'll pay for a jackhammer that has twice the effective range with no damage drop off, unlimited ammo (meaning no reload) and 50% faster triple shot "cool down". Not to mention my bunny slippers and bib. Oh yea, I want my armor to have 50% less damage from enemy with a 25% bonus to damage has healing effect and 25% stamina refresh.

2012-03-15 08:14 PM

Hamma

Re: New F2P Interview

Made this comment thread for:
http://www.planetside-universe.com/n...-data-2714.htm

2012-03-15 08:29 PM

Bags

Re: New F2P Interview

Originally Posted by IDukeNukeml

I honestly don't understand how a faster respawn could be selling power, maybe if they spawned twice as fast sure, but 3 seconds off a spawn time is not going to make that much of a difference, especially if all empires have the access... They die at the same rate, just more often.
.

using that logic selling a gun to all three empires that one shots an entire continent is not selling power because everyone can buy it.

2012-03-15 08:54 PM

NCLynx

Re: New F2P Interview

Originally Posted by Bags

using that logic selling a gun to all three empires that one shots an entire continent is not selling power because everyone can buy it.

I'd buy that.

2012-03-15 08:58 PM

NivexQ

Re: New F2P Interview

I think the data access throughout beta is good news. That means that the fan made stat tracking apps and websites will get most of the bugs out before launch.

2012-03-15 09:38 PM

Hamma

Yep and can work to perfect our systems with some cool features for launch.

2012-03-15 09:40 PM

Korova

Re: New F2P Interview

This may have be covered before so pardon the ignorance but; will the core game be bought and then have no subscription, or say like League of Legends were the game itself is free along with no subscriptions?

2012-03-15 09:45 PM

megamold

Re: New F2P Interview

Originally Posted by Korova

the game is completly free, but you can buy a subscription to get benefits ( faster xp for ex )

2012-03-15 10:35 PM

IceyCold

Re: New F2P Interview

Look at League of Legends. Honestly. Take a look.

Massively successful on selling specifically Vanity items. The characters you can buy with real money you can also aquire with ingame resources. The ONLY thing you can buy with only real money is vanity items and exp boosts.

And after playing it for a while I can tell you I have rarely ever played a match without at least 1, more commonly 3-5, custom skins on display.

Do not underestimate vanity, that shit sells.

2012-03-15 11:00 PM

cellinaire

Re: New F2P Interview

With 1,000,000 fans / 1,000,000 criteria on this. Plz, let's try to reach a reasonable consensus. Shall we =)

(I know it'll be forever on-going effort, but)

2012-03-16 12:58 AM

Hoodlum

Re: New F2P Interview

Originally Posted by basti

To both just no.

To put it simple, the cash shop should sell this, and ONLY this:

Vanity, like hats and whatever. Stuff that makes you look different.

Sidegrades. Those should be in the shop, but ALSO possible to obtain via ressources. Means instead of saving ressources, you would get a sidegrade right away.

XP boosts. Just make you level faster.

And thats it. Nothing else should be there.

Agreed!

2012-03-16 01:53 AM

Hydra

Re: New F2P Interview

Do we have any information on CR upgrades? I mean the things that made you look different when you leveled up like backpacks and shoulderpads, I seriously hope we don't have to pay for that, it should be there to separate a low level solider from a commander like it did in the first one.

I don't know if this already been touched on.

2012-03-16 05:31 AM

stordito

Re: New F2P Interview

cool
i already used JSON on my websites...neat stuff.
i've already an idea for a web based utility for my outfit.
we choose one or more footholds (hexes) and our web server will constantly check it 24/7 with a cronjob-called php script and send prompts via email/twitter etc when our foothold become occupied or spawn fights, so we can group for immediate response and secure it back.

I'm not sure if you will be able to get your soldier last position,life,inventary and with what accuracy.
If me or anyone else share their position and store it on a db we could track the battle progress, see the trends and making projection (will 50 NC be able to capture XXX VS biolab based on 3 months of data collection?).
we could also implement an auraxis on-the-field network with sharing of info between the community like if i need air cav i can send via "our" webserver a distress call to all logged users (sharing their status) wich happen to be on that cont and with air cav.

I'm not sure they will allow soldier data to be pulled down, else as you can see it's not too complex to develop such a web based services, wich would be cool but a real advantage...
Imagine everybody asking the web statistic app if "operation xxx [parameters] will be successful?"
I think data accuracy should be as narrow as possible regarding intel.