Why didnt PS make it big?

[XedoeSR]

First off Planetside was amazing before they started messing with things, starting with the magmower (and all tanks) ability to simply roll over people WITHOUT slowing down or in some cases stopping or otherwise. When they did that I all but quit the game. I stayed with it till the BFRs hit, and shortly afterwords I left for good. Mechs belong in games like Mechwarrior and Starsiege, not Planetside. My huge hope is they do the game justice and have it set in a time before the warpgate to the other worlds was cut off. This way we will never see BFRs, we will see limited future tech weaponry, and we may get a chance to use things like small battleships.

I would have personally loved to have seen a small amount of ships in the game, but that was not to be. Instead they gave us BFRs that could fly and do all sorts of things to unbalance the game hugely.

I am anti-BFR, even though I was among the first of many to use them on Konried (Emerald now).

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by XedoeSR

First off Planetside was amazing before they started messing with things, starting with the magmower (and all tanks) ability to simply roll over people WITHOUT slowing down or in some cases stopping or otherwise. When they did that I all but quit the game. I stayed with it till the BFRs hit, and shortly afterwords I left for good. Mechs belong in games like Mechwarrior and Starsiege, not Planetside. My huge hope is they do the game justice and have it set in a time before the warpgate to the other worlds was cut off. This way we will never see BFRs, we will see limited future tech weaponry, and we may get a chance to use things like small battleships.

I would have personally loved to have seen a small amount of ships in the game, but that was not to be. Instead they gave us BFRs that could fly and do all sorts of things to unbalance the game hugely.

I am anti-BFR, even though I was among the first of many to use them on Konried (Emerald now).

Lets see...fairly steep learning curve for new players, terrible CSHD, quite hefty system requirements for it's time...

I think there probably could be room for "walkers" in PSN, but they'd have to be more along the lines of tank-sized MAXs, rather than towering above everything like they do.

Edit: Wait...this thread has a first page! I thought this was Xedoe's thread.

[Baneblade]

You wrote too much. I can tell you why with three words:

Sony Online Entertainment

[XedoeSR]

Hehe, Sobekeus, I guess it has been too long for me. I nearly forgot SOE is doing Planetside until I read that last line. And as for you Vancha, good to see you around (assuming your the one I knew in-game on NC-Konried back in the day). Learning curve though wasnt very bad, but the system requirements could have been for some or alot, all I know is the game was coming out as I was building my next PC. So, given that I cannot speak for it. Also, as far as FPS games go this one has been by far (pre-caves and BFRs) the best FPS game out on the market even today. The reason, massive amounts of people and things to do. As for the quest junkies, go play WoW, plenty of quests in there. Right now im playing STO and BC2, so thats keeping me occupied till I get more information on PS2 and the new star wars mmo in the making.

[Vancha]

How far back are you going? Is it possible you're thinking of Emerald? I played 2 years+ (around 05-07 I guess), mainly a sniper and infiltrator, got 25/5 and all that lark. I never came across anyone who confused me for another Vancha before, so I'd be surprised if there was a Konried one.

Edit: I think I was playing for some of 04, having done some google searches.

[XedoeSR]

Well, Konried was renamed Emerald after the server merger. I still call it Konried because thats the one I played on when I first started up. I remember a Vancha, being guilded with them too, and im assuming the spelling is the same. I was with only two outfits during my whole time with PS on Konried/Emerald. First one was Blue Lions, but the second one that I was with escapes me at the moment. I do remember they had vent or teamspeak that we would use. I played mostly as a Maxx, BFR, and Tank driver. I did a search on my name and found that the toons still there sitting idle.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by XedoeSR

Well, Konried was renamed Emerald after the server merger. I still call it Konried because thats the one I played on when I first started up. I remember a Vancha, being guilded with them too, and im assuming the spelling is the same. I was with only two outfits during my whole time with PS on Konried/Emerald. First one was Blue Lions, but the second one that I was with escapes me at the moment. I do remember they had vent or teamspeak that we would use. I played mostly as a Maxx, BFR, and Tank driver. I did a search on my name and found that the toons still there sitting idle.

That was definitely me then, which means either "Super Troopers", "Hostility" or "Double Agents" must have been your other outfit?

[2coolforu]

Planetside made it big considering it had balls-all advertising and was far too advanced for its time.

When it was released quite a large amount of people still had dial-up and the game was a computer destroyer. However it had a huge amount of players, the estimates vary wildly but I oft see it quoted between 75,000 and 100,000 which for a totally new breed of game with horrific lag issues is insane.

Basically SOE did everything they could to not sell the game and it still turned out epic, it was the best game I've ever played - period. If its made to appeal to a larger audience then we will just get another CoD clone, by definition it must be anything but mainstream to do what Planetside did. The game won't have any appeal if it isn't the unforgivingly team-based shooter of massive scale that it was back in 2003/2004

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by 2coolforu

Planetside made it big considering it had balls-all advertising and was far too advanced for its time.

When it was released quite a large amount of people still had dial-up and the game was a computer destroyer. However it had a huge amount of players, the estimates vary wildly but I oft see it quoted between 75,000 and 100,000 which for a totally new breed of game with horrific lag issues is insane.

Basically SOE did everything they could to not sell the game and it still turned out epic, it was the best game I've ever played - period. If its made to appeal to a larger audience then we will just get another CoD clone, by definition it must be anything but mainstream to do what Planetside did. The game won't have any appeal if it isn't the unforgivingly team-based shooter of massive scale that it was back in 2003/2004

^ this

[LesserShade]

Originally Posted by 2coolforu

Planetside made it big considering it had balls-all advertising and was far too advanced for its time.

When it was released quite a large amount of people still had dial-up and the game was a computer destroyer. However it had a huge amount of players, the estimates vary wildly but I oft see it quoted between 75,000 and 100,000 which for a totally new breed of game with horrific lag issues is insane.

Basically SOE did everything they could to not sell the game and it still turned out epic, it was the best game I've ever played - period. If its made to appeal to a larger audience then we will just get another CoD clone, by definition it must be anything but mainstream to do what Planetside did. The game won't have any appeal if it isn't the unforgivingly team-based shooter of massive scale that it was back in 2003/2004

What you said, plus I think the pool of gamers in general who were willing to pay per month for a FPS, mmo or not, was small. MMOs really hit their stride in general after PS and anybody who owns an xbox is used to paying to play games online now, so I think we as consumers as a whole are more willing to buy into the pay to play model to some extent compared to 7 years ago.

All that said, I hope SOE does something different with PSN as opposed to the standard $15 a month model. I would love to see some form of freemium particularly in the form of a permanent reserves program, or something to that effect to draw big numbers.

[BlazingSun]

I don't think the game ever had 75.000+ players. 50.000 maybe. The biggest problem was, as was pointed out so often, the non existant marketing and advertising. When you have a look at the manual of Planetside, it also lists a marketing team in the credits, which makes me laugh.

I hope they don't make the same mistake twice. In times of Web 2.0 and Social Media it got alot easier to spread the word about something. Apart from that you see ad-banners on every second site advertising all kind of games these days, including those free to play browser games. SOE has to make some investment this time!

Like Warhammer Online has shown us, it is possible to create a big hype about a (crap) game with the right actions during the development stage: Monthly Newsletters including video podcasts, a chance to win a closed beta spot when signing up for said newsletter, etc. WARs marketing team was the only one, who did a proper job. (OK .. the concept Art was great also)

[Infektion]

Originally Posted by KornDemon

Like Warhammer Online has shown us, it is possible to create a big hype about a (crap) game with the right actions during the development stage: Monthly Newsletters including video podcasts, a chance to win a closed beta spot when signing up for said newsletter, etc. WARs marketing team was the only one, who did a proper job. (OK .. the concept Art was great also)

I beg to differ. On release, WAR was an outstanding game. I saw it's demise about 4 months after release. Scenarios destroyed what originally was a open world PVP game. Sadly, it just became another PvE cookie cutter. Who is to blame? I'll tell you, it's the carebear community of players who do nothing but complain, and the Dev team did what we all want... listen to the players. I'm sure the age group of all these pushy complains and suggestions to "even out" the game was. 17-20 and then 30-45. I understand why the older gen did it, lack of prostate exams.

[Robert089]

Originally Posted by 2coolforu

Planetside made it big considering it had balls-all advertising and was far too advanced for its time...

2cool you really hit the nail on the head. I heard of Planetside in an issue of PCgamer when they did a preview on it, however I didn't even realise it had been released until I spotted it in a store and remembered that preview.

Hopefully there is some sort of advertising this time around other than word of mouth. Can anyone actually remember any advertising done for Planetside?

[Hamma]

Other than the initial media blitz I don't recall anything.

[Raymac]

I didn't hear about Planetside at all until a friend told me about it. I was explaining to him how much I'd love to see a game that was a fps, but with a large persistent world and you could control vehicles and planes, etc. I'll never forget my feeling when he said "I think there already is a game like that. I think its called Planetside or something." Yeah, that was a fairly life changing moment, at least in my gamer life.

I feel like as fans, we should do what we can to get the word out. Beg the media for interviews and "first looks". Get the word out that the massive fps that people have been waiting for is on the way. I still want SOE to do a serious blitz, but there's nothing wrong with some grassroots support.