Article discussing SOE & MLG's partnership, and PlanetSide 2 as an eSport

[Kerrec]

Maybe, maybe not.

The whole thing depends on how viewer friendly it can be made. THAT is where I think the potential for failure is the highest.

[bpostal]

Being viewer friendly shouldn't be that hard. Take the strategy that comes from SC2, filter that through (or add it on to) the fps element like CS and there's your starting point. The FPS portion shows the HOW and the RTS portion shows WHY.

The big issue, as has been stated, is scalability. PS2 isn't going to separate itself from any other FPS out there with 12v12v12 or even 64v64v64. 100s vs 100s vs 100s is what we need. The only way I can see to get the numbers we need is to fill slots from multiple outfits per faction.

And what about outfit drama?
My outfit can field over 100 people, but the number of players who would be interested in eSports is somewhere around a dozen (if that). Does that dozen now become the 'elite' of my outfit? I doubt it, they'll get kicked out to keep the 'real' players happy. (and keep drama down)

What about servers? If eSports happens on a live server it's going to get the shit trolled out of it. If it's on an instanced server then we can kiss those earlier promises SOE gave us about instances goodbye.
Instances to me = raid teams from an MMORPG. Is that really what we want? A fractured player base between raiders and non-raiders? Sooner or later SOE will have to start catering to one of the two groups (at the others expense) so who takes precedence?

In the end, I wouldn't mind watching PS2 eSports, provided it doesn't fuck up my playing experience. Especially with the game in it's current state.

[Rockit]

I tell you what though. If this game keeps losing pop, the only viable thing they will have left is small eSports matches. I can see that medium pop roughly translates into a decent fight on Indar every single night.

[Chewy]

Originally Posted by Kerrec

Maybe, maybe not.

The whole thing depends on how viewer friendly it can be made. THAT is where I think the potential for failure is the highest.

If that god/observer cam is made public then PS2 can be very fun to watch. It'll be better if you could spectate someone at will, but just the overall views of battle it could even make for a decent YT channel for the normal battles that happen.

Come to think of it. That observer cam may be a thing that needs limited. Other competitive games have problems with people giving details by spying as a spectator. Wonder how it going to work, if the public gets the thing at all.

[Blynd]

Originally Posted by Hydro

Hello PSU community,

My name is Hydrolis, and I am an old PlanetSide 1 player (TR Markov, represent)! Over the years I've also been heavily involved in the world of 'electronic sports' (eSports). I'm sure most of you are aware that recently SOE has joined forces with Major League Gaming (MLG) in an attempt to turn PS2 into a competitive title.

I recently put out an article on the subject over at a competitive gaming news website I work for:

http://news.esea.net/index.php?s=new...ments&id=12315

I figure because PSU is the PlanetSide (2) fan-site, I would share the link here.

I would be interested to hear what everyone thinks about this subject!

I disagree with your article for one major reason there are titles that already give esports 6v6 12v12 etc what ps2 could provide if done right is massive fights large scale battles etc.

As for coverage its simple have 3 people covering 1 per empire and the stream runs 5-10 minutes behind the action giving editing of the footage and swithing between streams etc.

The leaderboard plan soe have explained will determin who will make the battles so if there are 5 outfits with a full squad on each side that would give you a decent sized fight to pick footage from. Yes it will be hard at first but with practice I think you could get some great shows from it.

I do however think that this esports thing is premature as the game needs a lot more tweeks to defensable bases and a real goal for the empires added to that way to deny benefits from another empire would also add a dynamic to esports never seen before along with giving small outfits the ability to work with a large outfit to carry out spec ops.

I think this is a good thing for ps2 but in 12 - 18 months time not yet.

[Sardus]

Originally Posted by Hydro

Hello PSU community,

My name is Hydrolis, and I am an old PlanetSide 1 player (TR Markov, represent)! Over the years I've also been heavily involved in the world of 'electronic sports' (eSports). I'm sure most of you are aware that recently SOE has joined forces with Major League Gaming (MLG) in an attempt to turn PS2 into a competitive title.

I recently put out an article on the subject over at a competitive gaming news website I work for:

http://news.esea.net/index.php?s=new...ments&id=12315

I figure because PSU is the PlanetSide (2) fan-site, I would share the link here.

I would be interested to hear what everyone thinks about this subject!

I remember you, noob

[igster]

Another video / post regarding this from GD Studio. Pretty much sums up what insiders think about the whole thing pretty much.

These guys are very heavily involved in e-sports and around TwitchTV / dreamhack.

GD Studio #28

Whole Schedule

Same thoughts as me on the subject really... not a clue how this is going to work, but I know one thing - you can't just take any fps and make it an e-sports title. IMO it has to be built in from the ground up to be an e-sports and I really don't think Planetside suits the format at all.

Semmler is a cat murdering utter noob mind you and really has no clue, however I do have the same sentiment about PS2 fitting into an e-sports genre. I enjoy e-sports and play planetside.

I don't see competitive ladders and tournaments in Planetside really being very interesting content for an observer. I don't think the gameplay supports small teams going head to head in a meaningful format.

I really enjoy e-sports same as a lot of people but I don't enjoy watching round pegs being squeezed into square holes.

Nextup: Everquest as an e-sport! *Yawn - no thanks I think I have some paperwork to catch up on*