PA on planetside

[�io]

Continuity Schmontinuity, that's my motto - we're switching it up. What are we doing these days to dull the horror of sentience? I'll tell you this much: there's a very special game we aren't playing. As I'm sure you can imagine, Gabe doesn't play it more than I do.

I always knew that the fundamentals of Planetside were good, but until last weekend I'd never seen it all come together - hackers supported by MAXes, delivered via Galaxy transport to areas already softened by friendly armor. Player-directed objectives on an unprecedented scale. The simple joy of piloting an Advanced Nanite Transport to resupply captured installations. And the recently added Lattice - which allows you to capture bases only when they are connected to a friendly installation - means that rather than a couple guys running around nabbing undefended bases, there are active fronts that span whole continents, each side visibly making gains and taking losses on the dynamic map. It is a comforting thing to know that a game you have had faith in from the first shaped up so well - indeed, I have but two concerns.


The game has come a million miles, technically, since I've begun playing it. Stability on the client has improved a very good deal, but it would be difficult to say how stability is on the servers themselves at this point, because they are no doubt under a constant state of digital manipulation. I'm trying to say they aren't up a lot. I'm also saying that the twentieth of May is a little too close to comfortably give the game a clean bill of health.

It's shipping in thirteen days, and they still haven't said what the monthly charge is? Unacceptable. I can appreciate their position, they are attempting to associate a price with a style of game that has not heretofore been offered. They need to cowboy up and make shit happen. Here's something for them to think about: their game is not worth the criminal 13 dollars a month that the standard fee in the genre has risen to. The game is awesome, but thirteen dollars is not a good fit for the people they're trying to snare. You're looking at five or six dollars a month, tops. You'll get people in, and you'll keep them longer - gamers who crave the persistence of the genre might consider adding a small fee to the others they already pay. Not nine, and under no circumstances ten. I mean, seriously, Verant: don't you want people to call you the good guys, at least once?