First and foremost: community day on Friday was a blast. The game is incredibly fun and ran really well. The vehicles are absolutely hair raisingly awesome; just wait until you take off in a galaxy for the first time. That thing is a beast.
There's been a lot of discussion lately about the metagame of PS2. I wanted to step in and give a discussion of it.
First off, you may be asking, what the hell is this metagame thing? The metagame is what differentiates planetside 1 from every other FPS and MMO out there. It is the ability for the few to influence the many, for outfits to accomplish the impossible, and for resources to actually have value. Strategy, tactics, player controlled missions, player controlled economy, outfit customization and controls- that kind of stuff. The metagame is the game within in the game, and it is what games like Battlefield and Call of Duty lacked.
The greatest idea behind an MMOFPS is that it allows the players to create the content. You give the players the tools to create the battles, the objectives, and the fun, and you can sit back and watch as they continue to do it for years and years. That's what games like World of Warcraft lack, and why Blizzard constantly has to produce large million dollar investments into new game content.
That said, my impression from when I was there Friday tells me that the PS2 team understands this. The basic game mechanics right now are absolutely solid, and SOE's focus appears to be gradually shifting into fleshing out the metagame and lifting the game to its fullest potential. It may not be immediately clear to the team what is needed, but as beta comes to fruition and as the community becomes more directly involved, I'm confident that the end result is going to be epic.
The devs are definitely listening. Keep up the positive constructive criticism and I doubt anyone here will be disappointed with the end result
2012-07-16, 12:34 AM
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