News: SOE Announces Partnership with MLG

[kidriot]

I believe you are all shortsighted.

MLG will be a good thing for Planetside 2. Why?

Because it will give it a face, or faces that people can recognize with the game. As it currently stands we have very few characters that stand out - only outfits. I see Planetside 2 as more than a game that is epic or massive or numbers based - I see it as a competitive, team oriented, highly rewarding game.

I plan to form a team for MLG pending the full details and I'm going to tell you why and what I believe the rules for MLG should be regarding PS2.

The competition should be two teams from whichever faction and the max amount of people is a full squad. You can even make it 10v10, but 12v12 allows commentators to talk about the squad dynamic and how it fits into the bigger picture of Planetside 2. It also allows commentators to make notes of the different features of each respective faction and outfit in a way that adds drama and that's the key to making Planetside 2 successful in MLG: drama.

I don't mean the kind of "he said she said" drama I mean the kind of drama that has you biting your nails as people make clutch moves and saves or a risky tactic working out. The kind of drama that makes you want to watch more. Planetside 2 MLG can achieve this by 12v12 play over a redesigned base.

I envision 2 hard spawns apart from the center and at the center you have an LLU (or flag, or whatever) that functions like the old LLU did in Planetside 1 - meaning you can't drive and it slows you and whatever vehicle you're in. Points are rewarded for ownership and bonus points are rewarded if you can plant it in your home turfs LLU capture point. So envision a large X and each corner represents spawn, capture point and the center of the X is the starting spawn for the LLU. Add in natural features, buildings or whatever and you can even reskin it so that each "map" represents one of the existing continents. This also allows commentators to make notes to new viewers about the different continents available in game. Basically everything you add in the competition you want to tie into the real game somehow so that people get educated on the game and you get new players. A win for MLG and a win for SOE.

Why 12v12 and not outfit vs outfit? Because outfits are faceless. Sure you can say, "Representing the New Conglomerate you have Hostile Takeover and representing the Vanu Sovereignty you have Future Crew" but those are just words. You want characters you want personalities that the viewers can relate to that way you make it that much more exciting to watch.

12v12 represents the basic organizational unit in Planetside 2: the squad. Squads as you all know make up Platoons and if your outfit is big enough, multiple platoons make up your outfit. 12v12 leaves enough room for multi vehicle warfare, infantry combat and all kinds of possibilities to show off what Planetside 2 has to offer: competitive, team oriented and highly rewarding gameplay. See what I did there? You don't need massive numbers in an orgy of explosions. That would be hell for commentators to describe and make intelligible to new viewers.

12v12 gives you everything Planetside 2 has to offer and it makes it watchable. It also makes it somewhat easier on staffing to have 24 computers instead of the bigger numbers.

You want only squad vs squad because you don't want to run into situations where 2 squads (teams) gang up on the third to take advantage of something. That makes it uninteresting. You can even use sports analogies to describe the various positions people would take in a straight up 12v12 slugfest.

As you can tell I'm very excited at the idea of MLG taking PS2 to Dallas and I for one plan to be a part of it. Here's hoping that they do make it squad vs squad and not some insane faceless zergfest.

I know we all have different ideas on what makes Planetside 2 tick, but for me and my outfit (if you know our Planetside 1 history) the small squad stuff has always been the highlight of my time playing the game.

I invite you to disagree with me so I can prove to you how I'm right.