In whatever form PS2 takes (PS clone, modern day, near future) how do you re-establish that base of players and hold onto them? To me the biggest advantage PS had over any other shooter was the scale of the battles, hundreds of players and vehicles all fighting over a massive area.
Is that enough though to keep people paying, month after month, even if you don't make disastrous design decisions? Maybe.
Assume for simplicity PS2 is an updated PS clone with no BFRs, no core combat. Old and new weapons and vehicles are introduced, graphics and engine updates, everything seems balanced. How do you keep people playing and grow the number of players you have?
Achievements are no brainers and they're in most shooters now anyway, so that or expanded stats tracking would be nothing revolutionary for PS2.
Can you create motivation in the game for outfits to fight and defend land? The seasaw back and forth of continent hacks eventually becomes about as meaningful as your next instanced game of BF2 or Quake..
Is there a way to make some form of an resource economy work? This doesn't have to mean gold or credits specifically. The idea being give continents or land players will fight over some value; some resource they require. Allow player factions and outfits to control territory (control over bases/towers, construction of outfit outposts) to protect those resources, and you give a sense of personal stake in fighting the opposite faction(s). Not just the sense that they're tagging along continent hopping to slip into a big battle already in progress.
Expansion of player abilities, deployables, equipment. Allow outfits to control a base, and even modify it. They can add to the defenses of the base, or once conquered, maybe they're responsible for establishing the defenses period. How those resources or land connect to a benefit to the factions/outfits would define how your economy works. I'm not sure players actually crafting/supplying equipment/weapons in the game would work; but it would be a possible missing piece in the economy circle. Hold the land, get the resources, make the equipment, to hold the land, etc etc..
While the two can't be compared equally, the one thing EVE Online does really well is politics. The game is setup for players to control area and resources that inevitably lead to some huge player created conflicts.
An economy of crafting and coins may not be feasible. Though the idea of giving a personal stake to groups of players to not only attack and run off to the next fight, but to hold territory and defend it in a permanent game setting.. That would be a huge leap forward for any FPS out there today. The FPS of an updated PS, with the metagame of EVE would be wild.
Any ideas on how to get players motivated to go to war?
2009-10-01, 03:11 PM
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