Your thoughts on PS2 story decision.

IceyCold · 2011-07-21, 08:07 PM

I have not seen anything talking about this and yet it is something that I probably would rate as a major up for Planetside 2. And what is that you ask?

Making the sequel a revisit to the original story.

Basically I always liked the story for Planetside but always felt it didn't really get fleshed out very well, the devs put some thought into it and you can tell with how they explain everything from respawning to vehicle husks despawning. But I felt that we never really got a feel for the people and ideologies behind the different factions; or even the exact events that led to the Auraxian War. And once the bending happened I felt they kind of abandoned that attention to detail for more absurd story elements.

With Planetside 2 it seems the devs are retconing all of the silly Bending crap and making a game that once again tries to give us a solid understanding of the world we are fighting on; even more so it seems they are trying to etell the original story, only better. And I really hope they keep with that, and give us some interesting lore to look at and read to give the new Auraxian War a sense of scale and magnitude besides just the scale of the actual game.

It might just be me, and I might be alone on my own little lore island here, but I would really like to see more of the lore of Planetside and it's universe.

So how about you guys (and gals), what are your thoughts on the lore of Planetside?

Death2All · 2011-07-21, 08:13 PM

Apparently the story was actually ripped from another game

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Fatigue

There are some similarities. I haven't played the game but apparently they copied it down to the very three empires, colors and everything.

Personally, the story was alright. It was there, and that's all it really meant to me. The game came first, story wasn't all that important.

PsychoXR-20 · 2011-07-22, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by DeeTwoEh

Apparently the story was actually ripped from another game

According to that wiki page, that game came out in 2000, I first read about planetSide in early '99, and at that point the story was already in place (despite knowing nothing about the Vanu, or even of their existence) so I find it highly unlikely that PlanetSide ripped off the storyline of that game.

Besides, reading that page the only thing the two stories have in common is that both games have 3 sides, and it takes place in a scifi setting.

Alduron · 2011-07-22, 04:06 PM

With as much love and respect for PS1 I can muster: I barely knew there was a story, or "point" to the game.

To learn anything decent about the lore I had to turn to online sources (which there still isn't a large amount of information). They basically got enough story to cover some of the technology and reasons to fight then fired their writers.

The funny part is, I like it like that. The one paragraph faction descriptions were enough for me to understand why VS and TR need to die, and allowed me to carry out countless battles with no remorse. It also frees me from sitting back and going "well, that's very uncharacteristic of the NC." when I see one with a lasher.

It's not like they're going to have narrative NPCs in PS2, so it really doesn't matter what they put in the booklet for you to read while you install it.

This game has never been about the story.

MgFalcon · 2011-07-22, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by Alduron

With as much love and respect for PS1 I can muster: I barely knew there was a story, or "point" to the game.

This game has never been about the story.

Very true, as soon as bullets started flying over my head I was like "Shoot anything that's blue or red!"

Clearly ended up shooting purple as well but that was for shits and giggles, by which I mean grief-lock.

Desoxy · 2011-07-22, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by Alduron

This game has never been about the story.

True, but considering they have long term plans with this game it could add another layer of immersion; at some point you might want to read up on it and then find hints cluttered all over Auraxis here and there..
Or have events that last for a few days/weeks (tops) that each explore different aspects of the story.

There is only one crucial thing: Make it entirely optional!
Some people will never care and no one should be forced to sit through it..

Vancha · 2011-07-22, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by Alduron

This game has never been about the story.

I think you mean the last game.

PS2 could probably benefit from a little additional lore. Stories don't need words to be told.

I'm fairly sure Extra Credits did a video about telling narrative through the environment and other non-textual methods. I'm not sure this was the exact one, but it certainly enters that territory.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...es-Bad-Writing

Talek Krell · 2011-07-22, 10:01 PM

Originally Posted by Alduron

This game has never been about the story.

I don't think that's quite true though. I think it's important to have the story for the sake of guiding the design in a coherent way.

Like Desoxy said though, it needs to be optional. Just because it's there doesn't mean we should be expected to pay attention to it.

boblikesoup · 2011-07-22, 11:51 PM

A storyline will actually give outfits something to work with if they want to flush out their background.

Bags · 2011-07-21, 08:16 PM

Wait, Planetside had a story? I thought this was a shooter.

MgFalcon · 2011-07-21, 08:31 PM

I've always loved back stories to games, hopefully in PS2 they'll nail it. And for once I feel that this lore will be good for a change. None of the WoW crap!

Death2All · 2011-07-21, 08:34 PM

Originally Posted by MgFalcon

I've always loved back stories to games, hopefully in PS2 they'll nail it. And for once I feel that this lore will be good for a change. None of the WoW crap!

I'd be so thrilled to find out that the ancient Vanu aliens are actually Night Elves.

Bags · 2011-07-21, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by DeeTwoEh

I'd be so thrilled to find out that the ancient Vanu aliens are actually Night Elves.

Reminds me of that one Radant video.

stylus · 2011-07-21, 09:40 PM

The story line that I noticed most were the stories that we made every time we loaded the game up. Sure, there was a setting - but the game play was so open ended that we just made our own story lines in that setting without even knowing it... and I'm not talking about role playing.

This was made apparent to me when I reviewed some of my old videos.

Desoxy · 2011-07-21, 09:52 PM

I usually like to dig a little into the backstory and for PlanetSide 1 it was alright at launch. I am very glad that PlanetSide 2 is a reimagining of PlanetSide 1 rather than a continuation of the story.

Since this is a shooter I acknowledge that we won't be going on epic quests and read a lot of backstory. But I would like it if there were clues to Auraxis' backstory in the environment that you see (or ignore) while playing. In addition to that the story could be further expanded via special events etc down the line.