John Smedley talks PlanetSide

Hamma · 2009-10-11, 11:26 AM

http://www.planetside-universe.com/n...tside-2342.htm

Mag-Mower · 2009-10-11, 11:45 AM

Awesome, its really real! I know the survey pretty much gave it away, put to hear "Planetside Next" from the guy who runs SOE pretty much confirms it without a doubt!

Hamma · 2009-10-11, 11:56 AM

w00t indeed!

I also just updated the news post:

With respect to Core Combat, I completely agree. It was the wrong direction. At that time we were dealing with a new game and we thought we had the direction right. In hindsight, we didn't at all.

BFR's are another story and I think more debateable. They were in our heads for a long time. Friggin Giant Robots

The 20/20 vision that comes with hindsight is often the best prism to plan for the next thing. Hopefully we get it more right this time, but I'm still pretty happy overall.

Firefly · 2009-10-11, 12:33 PM

I call bullshit.

Hamma · 2009-10-11, 01:34 PM

On what?

Firefly · 2009-10-11, 01:44 PM

Smedley and his emo man-love fest for Planetside. If that were true, if he really loved the game, he would have ensured that Sells Only Everquest (SOE) did a better job of marketing and promoting the game instead of stealing away resources from Planetside and sending them to EQ.

Hamma · 2009-10-11, 01:55 PM

Don't be diplomatic about it or anything.

I would delete that post haha

EDIT: I agree with your marketing comments though don't get me wrong. SOE really failed us in PlanetSide with that.

Marsman · 2009-10-11, 03:18 PM

With regard to marketing and the general attention to PS, it was painfully obvious that SOE made PS take a back seat to other projects at the time. I know we at PSU were aware, the community certainly sensed it, and although it was never officially stated, I personally felt the dev team was frustrated and felt their hands were tied. When the revolving door syndrome hit the dev team, especially after smokejumper started his exodus, no doubt was left that there was trouble in paradise. Being a little on the inside at PSU, we got a sense of this before it was common knowledge but I always felt that the dev team wished much more from PS and felt it could be much greater than it was allowed to be.

Now 6 years down the line, longevity has proven PS's initial concept was solid and has even managed to hang on to a customer base, subdued as it has been. What's truly amazing is the communities fond memories of early PS and it's expectations have continued for a game now SIX years old! Perhaps SOE's finally "woken up and smelled the coffee" and has realized they let something, that could have been truly great, wilt and almost die on the vine.

It remains to be seen if they have to fortitude to devote to PS Next the resources that should have been given to PS and the insight to instill into PS Next everything that made early PS what it was and create the love and loyalty for a product that has the potential PS once did and still does. A half-assed attempt isn't going to cut it this time. If they have any hope of making this a success, they need to pull out all the stops and put the same or better effort into this that they did for all those other SOE projects at the time. (most of which now have less community attention than PS still does) And I mean from marketing & promotion all the way down to the dev team's resources. PS Next could be amazing - we'll just have to wait and see how well SOE executes. Time will tell...

Hamma · 2009-10-11, 05:14 PM

Well said Mars

Firefly · 2009-10-11, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by Hamma

Don't be diplomatic about it or anything.

I would delete that post haha

EDIT: I agree with your marketing comments though don't get me wrong. SOE really failed us in PlanetSide with that.

I screenshotted it. I'll be reposting it every time he deletes it, if he does.

I'd like to see him man the fuck up and have a Come-To-Jesus meeting about SOE's marketing.

**Smed** · 2009-10-11, 11:22 PM

Originally Posted by Firefly

I screenshotted it. I'll be reposting it every time he deletes it, if he does.

I'd like to see him man the fuck up and have a Come-To-Jesus meeting about SOE's marketing.

Nope. not going to delete them. The only stuff I plan on deleting on my blog is any kind of hateful stuff. My son is old enough to play these games and to read blogs, so that's about the only stuff I'll delete. Not passionate opinions.

I won't disagree with anything you said except to say that at different points when running these games we have to make business decisions we aren't always happy with. I think we learned a lot from Planetside and I think you'll like the next one even better and we'll be able to make a believer out of you.

If you want me to comment on the marketing, have at it. I'm here.

And yes Hamma - this is me.. feel free to ping my email address at work if you want.

Smed

Firefly · 2009-10-11, 11:55 PM

I'd like you to comment on the marketing. And in spite of my vitriolic statements, I want to make it clear that I do appreciate you taking the time to address these concerns on a personal, individual level.

If you browse this thread as I am sure you already have, and if you check out the thread regarding the PS2 announcement which is also in this forum, you'll see several mentions of marketing foibles. Since you've stated that you don't disagree, I won't continue to hammer that fact in.

I will be frank with you, Smed. It killed me to cancel my subscription. This was my first MMO, and it was the only FPS that consistently held my attention. BF1942, BF2, TF2, DFLW, RtCW... decent games, but nothing special like Planetside was. My Planetside subscription is currently active only because I reactivated some months back, and it's been off and on since about 2006. Prior to that it never lapsed. After the whole "Outfit Wars" thing, I stopped playing because it just made me sick to think of how things were done to this game. This game was something special to a lot of us.

You say there were business decisions made that you weren't happy with. That's fair - I understand that, because I work for one of your competitors and I've seen a lot of decisions made that no one was happy with. I further understand that some of those decisions remain behind closed doors for proprietary and confidential reasons, examples being lay-offs and restaffing.

If you ask a hundred players to give you one reason why they quit, you'll get ninety reasons. For me, it was the constant turn-over that created a lack of content and lack of mission for Planetside. It was the lack of marketing support - we players can only take word of mouth so far, or at least... back in the day we could. I got tired of hackers. I got tired of the fucking Vanu and their stupid Lasher. I got tired of people using a BFR to camp a door. I got tired of waiting years for content. But mostly, I was tired of not seeing any support for Planetside.

And again, having worked in video games now for a while - if there are reasons why developers get pulled off games, one of them is because of failing subscriptions. Failing subs falls on lack of development, lack of content, cheaters (thank G-d we didn't ever have to deal with gold farmers), and marketing. I've seen subs fall in an MMO and the result was layoffs, restructuring of departments and reassignments. Other projects come along and you want experienced talent there.

But let's be honest here Smed. Planetside... there ain't a game out there like it. I wondered WTF you guys were smoking - you have the market on MMO-FPSes. Huxley? GTFO - that game has been in development for four years. Tabula Rasa? Not even close (was that even an MMO?). Global Agenda - instanced combat with a lobby, which is lame. You guys have a viable product with Planetside.

Seriously. Help me understand, why this game appears to have been left on the back burner. If there are confidential reasons, I can accept that (if they're actually confidential).

I've seen SOE's track record and I feel like you stabbed my baby and then tossed it in the garbage. Planetside was something special for a great many of us. You want my trust in Planetside 2, I'm willing to give it - but it's gotta be earned. It killed me to cancel my sub for the first time. And I know at least three hundred other people from my guild that will tell you the exact same. You have a loyal fanbase for Planetside.

Can you woo them again?

**Smed** · 2009-10-12, 12:21 AM

Originally Posted by Firefly

I'd like you to comment on the marketing. And in spite of my vitriolic statements, I want to make it clear that I do appreciate you taking the time to address these concerns on a personal, individual level.

If you browse this thread as I am sure you already have, and if you check out the thread regarding the PS2 announcement which is also in this forum, you'll see several mentions of marketing foibles. Since you've stated that you don't disagree, I won't continue to hammer that fact in.

I will be frank with you, Smed. It killed me to cancel my subscription. This was my first MMO, and it was the only FPS that consistently held my attention. BF1942, BF2, TF2, DFLW, RtCW... decent games, but nothing special like Planetside was. My Planetside subscription is currently active only because I reactivated some months back, and it's been off and on since about 2006. Prior to that it never lapsed. After the whole "Outfit Wars" thing, I stopped playing because it just made me sick to think of how things were done to this game. This game was something special to a lot of us.

You say there were business decisions made that you weren't happy with. That's fair - I understand that, because I work for one of your competitors and I've seen a lot of decisions made that no one was happy with. I further understand that some of those decisions remain behind closed doors for proprietary and confidential reasons, examples being lay-offs and restaffing.

If you ask a hundred players to give you one reason why they quit, you'll get ninety reasons. For me, it was the constant turn-over that created a lack of content and lack of mission for Planetside. It was the lack of marketing support - we players can only take word of mouth so far, or at least... back in the day we could. I got tired of hackers. I got tired of the fucking Vanu and their stupid Lasher. I got tired of people using a BFR to camp a door. I got tired of waiting years for content. But mostly, I was tired of not seeing any support for Planetside.

And again, having worked in video games now for a while - if there are reasons why developers get pulled off games, one of them is because of failing subscriptions. Failing subs falls on lack of development, lack of content, cheaters (thank G-d we didn't ever have to deal with gold farmers), and marketing. I've seen subs fall in an MMO and the result was layoffs, restructuring of departments and reassignments. Other projects come along and you want experienced talent there.

But let's be honest here Smed. Planetside... there ain't a game out there like it. I wondered WTF you guys were smoking - you have the market on MMO-FPSes. Huxley? GTFO - that game has been in development for four years. Tabula Rasa? Not even close (was that even an MMO?). Global Agenda - instanced combat with a lobby, which is lame. You guys have a viable product with Planetside.

Seriously. Help me understand, why this game appears to have been left on the back burner. If there are confidential reasons, I can accept that (if they're actually confidential).

I've seen SOE's track record and I feel like you stabbed my baby and then tossed it in the garbage. Planetside was something special for a great many of us. You want my trust in Planetside 2, I'm willing to give it - but it's gotta be earned. It killed me to cancel my sub for the first time. And I know at least three hundred other people from my guild that will tell you the exact same. You have a loyal fanbase for Planetside.

Can you woo them again?

When Planetside launched, it actually had quite a big marketing campaign for it's time. Keep in mind this was our first big game post EverQuest. We launched it at retail and we had a very strong launch campaign.

Over the years we've continued to advertise it, but most of the members of the core development team no longer work at SOE for a lot of reasons. At some point we've had to make choices about where to put additional resources in the company, but we absolutely never walked away from Planetside. I think it is fair to say it didn't get the attention it deserved, but I also think the market is a whole lot different today than it was when we launched Planetside.

Just to put it simply - I think we launched Planetside a bit before the really large wave of online games that we see today. That makes it an entirely different economic equation. So here we are right back into the breach.

I'm sorry if you feel that we undersupported Planetside. That certainly was never the intent... it was just about doing as much as we were able with the fixed amount of resources we have available to us.

Smed

Espion · 2009-10-13, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by Smed

I think we learned a lot from Planetside and I think you'll like the next one even better and we'll be able to make a believer out of you.

Can you give us any indication of how far along PlanetSide Next is in the development process, and what they're doing to improve upon the mistakes that are still present in PlanetSide?

Speaking of the mistakes still present in PlanetSide, nothing has been mentioned about its future development other than your initial statement to PSU. Could you perhaps pass it down the chain to keep us informed? If you're intent is to improve this planetside before the next game comes out, I think now would be a good time to involve the players more in decision making. We certainly haven't been listened to over the past 6 years, and look where the game is now.

Navaron · 2009-10-14, 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by Espion

If you're intent is to improve this planetside before the next game comes out, I think now would be a good time to involve the players more in decision making.

I sincerely hope SOE is not expending any resources on PS1.