Internet Stars Ruining or helping PS2?

Colindapieman · 2013-01-02, 03:03 PM

I'm sure you all are aware of the Ultimate Empire showdown, SOE's publicity event. Three extremely popular youtubers are participating. A lot of you hate it, but I don't know for sure.

If you haven't noticed the faction population on their respective servers skyrocketing. Toby plays Helios as VS and the population of VS is twice the others. This also applies to TR on Watterson. This might be a bunch of stupid fanboys/girls running around. I play on Helios and about 30% of players have "Buscus" in their names.

Do you guys think that the Showdown is good for the game or is it ruining it for the experienced players. Personally I joined because of Tobuscus but I put 16 hours on the game in two days and now I don't care about the showdown I just love PS2.

Mox · 2013-01-02, 03:10 PM

It is just sad. The audience which is attracted by these celebrities wont help ps2. They will play for free till january 25 and ruining the faction balance even more. Afterward they will leave again.

Whiteagle · 2013-01-02, 03:15 PM

Well it would help if two thirds of the Celebs knew what they were doing...

It's just sad for Toby to go "Oh cool, where did you get a Jetpack!" when he was just Light Assault...

Stanis · 2013-01-02, 03:24 PM

Something I did not understand about PS1 was the complete lack of promotion of the game.
It remains a ground breaking game that was technically ahead of its time and demanded computer hardware and internet connections many simply did not have.

There were no articles. There was no gaming magazine reviews. There were no adverts. No blogs.

While I disagree with my 12 year old who thinks Tobuscus is bother incredibly cool and funny, I can admire the guy for generating revenue streams from a public willing to consume media.

I have to concede that with the MMO awards and constant PC reviews Sony are advertising the game.

While it doesn't run on an old toaster the game runs fairly well on a modern PC.

I believe the adage goes "there's no such thing as bad publicitity".
I may not make the best MMO pixels for 12 year olds that think tobuscus is cool to shoot at. They will probably find me incredibly boring and my ideas about taking and holding terrain boring compared to their KD ratios at The Crown.

However - they are the gamers of tomorrow and I'd rather have canon fodder than empty servers.

SeraphC · 2013-01-02, 03:32 PM

Anyone who cares about someone who is "famous" on youtube seriously needs to re-evaluate his or her life.

ringring · 2013-01-02, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by SeraphC

Anyone who cares about someone who is "famous" on youtube seriously needs to re-evaluate his or her life.

Why?

Is it different in principle to people who are famous on TV? I'd say not.

Personally I don't know these people apart from TB who I only knew through his contributions on the old PS forums but if the SOE marketing people think that it will help things along then thats fine by me.

psijaka · 2013-01-03, 02:13 PM

Originally Posted by Stanis

I believe the adage goes "there's no such thing as bad publicitity".

^This. Can't see any harm in getting more people interested in the game; sure, some will leave but others will stay.

And I never care about being outnumbered on a server; if the enemy are at our gates, time to break out the sniper rifle and go hunting!

EightEightEight · 2013-01-02, 03:21 PM

How do you have a showdown when all the Internet "Celebs" Play on different servers. I honestly do not think they thought this through.

Ailos · 2013-01-04, 02:40 AM

Originally Posted by EightEightEight

How do you have a showdown when all the Internet "Celebs" Play on different servers. I honestly do not think they thought this through.

This.

Rockit · 2013-01-02, 03:33 PM

I don't see a problem with it. I understand where others are seeing it as maybe making a mockery of the game by having total noob celebs bringing their hordes or even more noobs but hell it's just a game, try and have fun with it. Who knows maybe a few of those youtube followers stick around and become the next legends of the game. You can never tell and the more exposure this game gets the better right now. We all started somewhere right? Believe it or not we were all total noobs once upon a time too.

Neurotoxin · 2013-01-02, 03:39 PM

TB isn't making much more TR on Watterson. I was just there yesterday getting up an alt for Friday's battle, and honestly TR number didn't seem to be a huge problem.

Other than TB (because he's pretty knowledgeable with the game after all the time spent since beta), I really don't like the selections for the internet personalities they chose. I made a post on the official forums requesting a new VS leader...

Colindapieman · 2013-01-02, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by Neurotoxin

TB isn't making much more TR on Watterson. I was just there yesterday getting up an alt for Friday's battle, and honestly TR number didn't seem to be a huge problem.

Yeah actually the 20% population difference on Helios for VS hasn't affected us at all. We actually had no land on Esamir for a bit yesterday. I guess that goes to show how little the fan bases can affect territory gain. Also the noobs don't really bother checking the continents, they mostly seem to be Zerging COD style and get mowed down

ziegler · 2013-01-02, 04:02 PM

I started watching seananners video and he jumps on a flash and keeps running into a sundy on purpose until he blew up....and all I could think was....I bet that sundy driver just got a teamkill.....*close video*

This weekend my 11 year old was watching some minecraft videos and who should I hear...that same annoying voice and I looked over and seen who it was and just shook my head, finally understanding.

It certainly would have been better if they had actually gotten some FPS celebs who were...I dunno...actually interested in the game, cause thier little fan boys will leave with them just as quickly as they came and problaby without spending very much cash.

RykerStruvian · 2013-01-02, 04:27 PM

I don't know who any of those people are except the Biscuit guy. And even then I only watched his beta footage...and even then I watched them without sound because he kept saying 'this is a beta' about a thousand times. :l

I don't think these 'celebs' are hurting anything. Seems like an overly exaggerated gimmick.

Zet · 2013-01-02, 04:33 PM

The only negative effect that seems to be occuring is the imbalance on the servers these guys play on. I'm also not as hyped up about their choice for celebrities. They should've gone with people who at least know a bit about the game and have done videos on it. TB was in there from the start and Seananners recently did a live stream on PS2, but I'm still disappointed about Tobuscus's input into all of this.