A proper fan site's task is to be critical but foremost to channel all the worthwhile community and development stuff into a nice overview. Internet and social media are evolving but
not everyone can keep tabs on what the devs said on Twitter, FNO, the Something Awful forum, SOE Live, Command Center, the official forums, Reddit and even here. Someone has to filter the relevant stuff and put it in one place.
Imo it's your "job" to compile that information because whether a visitor to PSU is a PS1 veteran or a PS newbie doesn't matter:
we're all absolutely starved for new information, PlanetSide 2 is in a development stage all the time and that's what makes it so exciting (even more so than with PS1 imo). And if you ask me, PSU is doing a great job already but
compiling what has been said could still use some work as certain details still slip through (I've tried to do
similar things for
other games under
other aliases in the past but you have to maintain such compilation threads). It's not easy since words sometimes get retracted by devs and the game is in a constant flux. And SOE is really talking all the time which is good but it's harder for its fans that way
. For example: with all due respect for FNO, it's an awesome concept, but seeing 2 hours of video each week to extract the worthy dev quotes/answers and new content footage there is something I can't bring myself to every time.
PSU should post such things alongside with what the community comes up with; launching valued feedback and suggestion forum threads for the developers, akin to what Reddit has consistently (and remarkably) been very good at for PS2. Youtube-flicks with great tips and tricks also belong here. All the while there still needs to be a civil behaviour towards everyone (not easy to enforce either).
A random gameplay stream of a big outfit leader with often
questionable ethics for example is the "other" end of the community, PSU shouldn't go there. That's the part of social media I don't think you have to be jealous about, a regular fan site just can't cope with that. It's also understandable though that people follow those streams because if they're not getting their info fix of developers then they'll want to see feedback from people playing the game and also watch more tricks of how to become a more effective XP whore. In the end the folks who are looking at those streams will still come back here if you provide them with new information about the game or something that will enhance their playing experience (the stats API for example).
I think the best proof that PSU isn't doing bad at all is that with each GU more visitors flock to the site to see the reactions about how the game is.
You're the diablo.incgamers.com of the PlanetSide 2 community because you're the oldest fan site and you still remain critical of the game too. And we all have to stay critical since PS2 could be so much more. We'll get there though, I am sure of that.
EDIT: as for big PC gaming sites not linking many stories anymore; they aren't used to the F2P model and the constant stream of new information bits. They won't dig as deep as PSU because what they'll find of new details is something that doesn't warrant a newspost for the general audience. Only with big updates will they get into action and that info is available to everyone, not just PSU. It's hard to get exclusive info yes, still, when you're at a live event I think that's a chance to make a stand. Keep up those interviews with hard questions, sites will pick those up eventually.
2013-02-27, 03:21 AM
Linear Mode
