Casual gamers?

Magpie · 2012-01-23, 06:23 AM

As life gets busy how easy is it gonna be for a causal gamer to join log in for 30min or 1 hour to have a good time playing ps2, most FPS you can play a few20min games an log off again but planetside is no normal FPS.

What do u planetsiders think?

Vash02 · 2012-01-23, 06:36 AM

It was easy to get into the action in PS1 within a few minutes of logging in, providing that instant action wasnt playing up. So I expect it will be just as easy to get into the action in PS2.

Tikuto · 2012-01-23, 06:46 AM

Well...

There's going to be tighter focus on frontline battle hotspots and getting players into battle...
Huge fan-base with growing populations.
Free2Play - so peak-times likely to be epic all the time.

and general overly-awesomenesses.

Coreldan · 2012-01-23, 06:47 AM

Agree with above, Im sure they will make getting into the action pretty much as easy as PS was (except when u are send to a cont with 1% pop by instant action)

That said, as a very much a casual PS player, playing 30 min to 1 hour left a shallow feeling, as usualky your contribution was a drop in the sea and with some luck like.. 20% of taking over just a single base. That said, the length of battles is what makes PS into what it is and I wouldnt change that

Shogun · 2012-01-23, 06:51 AM

the casual gamer will likely be limited to rush with the zerg. he will have fun, fighting in a massive battle, but i guess if he can only play for 20 minutes or so, he will not get the full experience ps2 can deliver.

he will lack the feeling of having won a battle over a base that has raged for hours or sometimes days.

so i think casual gamers can join in for a quick skirmish and will be able to get into the action fast, but they are not the target group of this game.

compare to other mmo games! if you want to complete a raid you need time.

Princess Frosty · 2012-01-23, 08:40 AM

Getting in to battle isn't so much my worry here, there are systems you can build to manage that and PS1 had just that.

I'm more concerned with the quality of game they're going to see, with the class system it means tighter roles and that in turn means that you have to rely more on others around you to do their specific job properly.

That in turn means tighter squads with better coordination and that is going to be hard, near impossible to generate among casuals. So the problem becomes balancing the game when you have Ostekake and his 1337 squad of death all on teamspeak rolling in tank divisions and precision drops really beating 7 shades of shite out unorganised squads.

back in PS1 that was mitigated somewhat because good solo players who were jack of all trades could multi-task and prop up bad squads to be at least mildly effective, but if PS2 locks out all these abilities then individual skill becomes more or less meaningless and those who are willing to coordinate are going to dominate.

Good teamwork almost never exists on pug servers, games like TF2 are perfect examples where getting even 1 good medic/assault combo is near impossible, people camp to detrimental effects or overload the team with snipers, because if you're getting your ass kicked peoples response is to cower and fall back to "safe" areas.

It used to happen in BFBC2 conquest a LOT, one team better than the other would dominate the entire map and push the enemy team back and they would stop spawning as engineers and medics and helpful things and just sit back and snipe where its safe which ruined the game, they abandoned this idea of winning the map and were simply happy to frag a few people. Casuals just don't care about the outcome they want some cool set pieces, a few good vistas, some pretty explosions and excitement for 30 mins and then log off and go away, it's highly corrosive to meaningful, more competitive game play.

Tikuto · 2012-01-23, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by Princess Frosty

So the problem becomes balancing the game when you have Ostekake and his 1337 squad of death all on teamspeak rolling in tank divisions and precision drops really beating 7 shades of shite out unorganised squads.

PlanetSide 2 + Vivox = win.

Crazyduckling · 2012-01-23, 09:58 AM

one of their main objectives was to make getting into battles faster, which would help increase the casual gamer base. this is why they got rid of the hart and sanc.

i dont think casual gamer will have a problem with ps2.

Vancha · 2012-01-23, 10:17 AM

What's FFs?

Originally Posted by Princess Frosty

Good teamwork almost never exists on pug servers, games like TF2 are perfect examples where getting even 1 good medic/assault combo is near impossible, people camp to detrimental effects or overload the team with snipers, because if you're getting your ass kicked peoples response is to cower and fall back to "safe" areas.

It used to happen in BFBC2 conquest a LOT, one team better than the other would dominate the entire map and push the enemy team back and they would stop spawning as engineers and medics and helpful things and just sit back and snipe where its safe which ruined the game, they abandoned this idea of winning the map and were simply happy to frag a few people. Casuals just don't care about the outcome they want some cool set pieces, a few good vistas, some pretty explosions and excitement for 30 mins and then log off and go away, it's highly corrosive to meaningful, more competitive game play.

Keep in mind, it's far harder to remain impersonal in Planetside. I occasionally played in organized groups, but most of the time I was solo, yet still you form empire loyalties because you're playing in a consistent world, typically with the same empire. You see the same faces, kill the same people and die to the same people. Granted, there probably will still be people who play half an hour a day and manage not to make any ties at all, but I don't think you can compare it to random PUB servers because it's simply not as impersonal an environment as that.

Magpie · 2012-01-23, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by Vancha

What's FFs?

Keep in mind, it's far harder to remain impersonal in Planetside. I occasionally played in organized groups, but most of the time I was solo, yet still you form empire loyalties because you're playing in a consistent world, typically with the same empire. You see the same faces, kill the same people and die to the same people. Granted, there probably will still be people who play half an hour a day and manage not to make any ties at all, but I don't think you can compare it to random PUB servers because it's simply not as impersonal an environment as that.

First person shooter, sorry was on my iphone auto spell

DxC · 2012-01-23, 10:44 AM

I did often wonder myself from time to time as I grew up i started playing Planetside1 back in 2003 when i was but a Teenager so having a job and collage would of been important to me (kinda who am i kidding)

didnt have a good pc to play on either so that was also a bummer but playing casual was to me a good thing Logging in for a few hours before dinner and such Did have some pritty decent fights and in a short time of 2 hours I rember once leaving it running thinking I could be afk in the basement the TR wont come attacking.... Suddenly at the dinner table Dad suddenly chimed in with what the hell is that noise (sounds of Minichaingun fire)

Now im older and can do things with a bit more freedom aka what i want and when so i can if wanted be a bit more hardcore in terms of Planetside playing I'm hoping very much that Prime time will be what it was in Planetside1 Epic easy to find and jump straight in and no real commitments

Long as Instant Action wasn't playing up

EASyEightyEight · 2012-01-23, 11:29 AM

Without harts and sancs, I imagine upon logging in we'll be capable of picking which continent we want to spawn on. Ergo, spawning at least on the right continent to find a fight shouldn't be a problem. Couple that with everyone having quads to get around quickly, among any other possible "quick to battle" options available, I don't think anyone will be waiting too long to get into a good fight.

Grognard · 2012-01-23, 11:41 AM

The casual hop in, hop out, is one of my favorite things about PS1, and I think its one of the things that will carry over to PS2.

As was mentioned above, there are the huge battles (aka bridge battles in PS1) that will take some time, and you may not have time to see it through. However, there are just so many things you can do with limited time... At least for me...

1 CEing a choke point.
2 Starting a back hack.
3 Flying some interdiction sorties (attack avenues of approach).
4 Attempting to take out an enemy grounded Galaxy.
5 Independent Scouting.
6 Mindless Zerging.
7 Casual sniping.
8 Suicide MAX runs.
9 Optimizing loadouts.
10 Independent diversions...

Thats 10 I can think of off the top of my head, that take little time, and some could really change the course of a battle, if successful.

JimmyJazz · 2012-01-23, 01:43 PM

Planetside is epic for any amount of time you play it.

/ia

Graywolves · 2012-01-23, 01:51 PM

Casuals are just extra kills.