News: MMORPG.com VS Interview

[Ieyasu]

Gump you appear to not care for BF3 or MW3 which is perfectly fine. The problem however is that BF3 for example has sold roughly 15 million copies and PS2 is trying to tap into that market. by comparison at its peak I think the original Planetside had 70-80k active subscribers. Its clear from the scope and scale of this game that the goal is to blow those numbers out of the water.

In all honesty from what little Ive seen so far Planetside 2 has more in common with being a BF3 Online than it does being a true successor to the original Planetside, but that doesnt mean im not excited to play PS2. as has been mentioned before modern gamers wouldnt play a game like the original Planetside now because its too slow paced (for reference I played from open beta to summer of 2010 off and on). Its this same reason that I chuckle when I see people complaining about vehicles health regenerating or the faster ttk times because thats what modern gamers want. they want to spend the bulk of their ingame time engaged in combat and not running to repair or heal more than they are killing. its nice to talk about it on forums and see people state their often times well throught up arguments in favor or against this or that, but at the end of the day the experiment with regards to whats popular has been run already by games like MW3 and BF3 that have sold tens of millions of copies. Higby himself has said that people should expect all the things theyve come to expect from a modern fps with regards to planetside. they way they deliver that is by taking those aspects from other games cause they sure as hell arent pulling them from the original Planetside.

We're dealing with Sony afterall and their corporate mission objective isnt to make people happy at their expense. its to turn a profit by giving people a quality product. That profit is going to come by luring people to play planetside 2 and then make microtransactions. the way they lure them is by making an awesome game that will appeal to the masses. which they are in the process of doing now.

[RNFB]

Originally Posted by Higby

I think theres may be a subtle difference between "this is a bf3 clone" and "some of the UI elements are in the same place in PS2 and BF3" but that may just be personal bias.

Warping in to/out of vehicles
First-person run animation, complete with sprinting
Gun mechanics
Aiming down sights
Restricted at 90fov
Blue minimap
Dropping ammo boxes
Classes
Capture A, B, C, D, Etc

Lots of little things can add up to one big thing

[xXGumpXX]

Originally Posted by Ieyasu

Gump you appear to not care for BF3 or MW3 which is perfectly fine. The problem however is that BF3 for example has sold roughly 15 million copies and PS2 is trying to tap into that market. by comparison at its peak I think the original Planetside had 70-80k active subscribers. Its clear from the scope and scale of this game that the goal is to blow those numbers out of the water.

In all honesty from what little Ive seen so far Planetside 2 has more in common with being a BF3 Online than it does being a true successor to the original Planetside, but that doesnt mean im not excited to play PS2. as has been mentioned before modern gamers wouldnt play a game like the original Planetside now because its too slow paced (for reference I played from open beta to summer of 2010 off and on). Its this same reason that I chuckle when I see people complaining about vehicles health regenerating or the faster ttk times because thats what modern gamers want. they want to spend the bulk of their ingame time engaged in combat and not running to repair or heal more than they are killing. its nice to talk about it on forums and see people state their often times well throught up arguments in favor or against this or that, but at the end of the day the experiment with regards to whats popular has been run already by games like MW3 and BF3 that have sold tens of millions of copies. Higby himself has said that people should expect all the things theyve come to expect from a modern fps with regards to planetside. they way they deliver that is by taking those aspects from other games cause they sure as hell arent pulling them from the original Planetside.

We're dealing with Sony afterall and their corporate mission objective isnt to make people happy at their expense. its to turn a profit by giving people a quality product. That profit is going to come by luring people to play planetside 2 and then make microtransactions. the way they lure them is by making an awesome game that will appeal to the masses. which they are in the process of doing now.

yes i appreciate what your saying , the reason the original game did not sell well and attract a lot of gamers was due to no advertising , i have so much love for this game , i wan't it kept original and i don't wan't to see a sequel that is like every other fps game out there , after all that is what is unique about planetside . now do you guys understand what I'm saying ?

[Ieyasu]

Originally Posted by Aaron

P.S. The dev team definitely values us and cares about our opinions. Sure, they want more people from the main stream group, but it's not like they don't care about us. Why would Higby check this place every morning if we didn't matter?

why not check it? for the time he puts in he has a prepaid forum to communicate with the early adhearants and get more views for their artwork and interviews. I know Ive certainly told more than a couple friends about Planetside 2 and directed them here to PSU to get more info. the planetside2 official site is the last place to find the latest news.

I think its cool that Hamma and Jenny went out to check out the offices and play the game for a bit, but what kind of input did hamma give them that they are going to act on? they arent going to make game changes based off what people here call for. they just have them come see what theyre doing anyway then make a couple posts about Hamma and Jenny crapping themselves and having their jaws dropped. so far I have gotten as much info as they have shared from trays twitter feed on a random good day.

look at the killcams for example. people whined and moaned about them after seeing gdc footage and higby immediately said something to the effect of "they arent going to be in the game the way they were shown at gdc, we almost didnt even put them in before the demo" now thats not verbatim, but Im sure I can go find the exact quote. Well 2 months later I see total biscits video and... same exact killcams still very much in the game. Granted I dont know what the final product will be, but from what ive seen they dont seem to respond to what the community here calls for as so many people here like to think. if you can show me a case where the PS2 team has changed something in game from complaints or concerns voiced by the community please share it. Im not saying that sarcasticly I just dont have infinite time to browse through the forums and have yet to read about an example of this.

If we changed the color schemes of the factions and changed the names to derpy doo, derpy dee, and derpy dah theres alot of old planetside vets whos only resemblence to the original planetside they would see would be the large scale combat. to name a few things gunplay, class system, vehicle combat, health and vehicle regen, ttk times for vehicles and infantry, hitboxes, 3D spotting all are straight out of mw3 and bf3 playbooks. the names and colors are only thing this game has in common with original planetside aside from the large scale combat.

im not trying to be a debbie downer, im just being a realist. Im just as excited for Planetside 2 as anyone, but that doesnt mean Im blind to the obvious. from the gameplay footage I have seen this game strikes me more as BF3 than Planetside. Maybe if they would ever show MAX Units in combat or larger scale battles it would be different. Kinda hard to not see BF3 when the majority of footage we have seen has supposedly been with 60 or fewer players active on a server (or region) at any given time.

[xXGumpXX]

keep it original and keep planetside unique , don't make this game like bf3 or cod , i think this game will be just another fps game thats like all the others out there , i have played planetside for almost 10 yrs and thats one thing i love about this game ( its different ) it has its own style and it has character and the community is one of the best features to this game which you don't get that in bf , now do you understand why I'm saying why are you copying bf and cod ? i have so much love for this game but the more i watch and read the more i'm not looking forward to it , thats my opinion and i'm entitled to that , don't bother replying back if you don't have anything decent to say , as i don't wan't to hear it

[Ieyasu]

Originally Posted by xXGumpXX

yes i appreciate what your saying , the reason the original game did not sell well and attract a lot of gamers was due to no advertising , i have so much love for this game , i wan't it kept original and i don't wan't to see a sequel that is like every other fps game out there , after all that is what is unique about planetside . now do you guys understand what I'm saying ?

Ill agree with you about the lack of advertising not helping the original planetside but it had quite a few of its own problems advertising aside. they were selling the game and later the core combat expansion in retail brick and mortar stores all over the US. People just didnt get juiced for the idea of paying monthly sub for fps because that had never been done before and there were already some popular free online fps games on the market.

in the end we will never see another game exactly like the original planetside and while this game does borrow quite heavily from the BF series its also being done with the utmost profesionalism and the quality so far looks amazing even in the alpha stage its in now. I know I for one am excited and dont mind the direction that the devs have taken with it. I think there are going to be alot of people who played the original planetside for years who are going to start playing planetside 2 and realize they just dont care for its gameplay. I also think there are going to be a great many more people who played planetside and didnt like it or never played planetside at all and love Planetside 2 like no other game before it.

[Hamma]

Originally Posted by xXGumpXX

keep it original and keep planetside unique , don't make this game like bf3 or cod , i think this game will be just another fps game thats like all the others out there , i have played planetside for almost 10 yrs and thats one thing i love about this game ( its different ) it has its own style and it has character and the community is one of the best features to this game which you don't get that in bf , now do you understand why I'm saying why are you copying bf and cod ? i have so much love for this game but the more i watch and read the more i'm not looking forward to it , thats my opinion and i'm entitled to that , don't bother replying back if you don't have anything decent to say , as i don't wan't to hear it

So what you are saying is keep it the same as a game that was made 9 years ago in every way when Broadband was not readily available and PC gaming was a bear.

PlanetSide 2 will be a re-imagining of the franchise with MODERN FPS COMPONENTS intertwined within what we know and love as PlanetSide. Massive battles, tactical play and teamwork on the scale of which cannot be offered in any "insert shooter game here" other than PlanetSide 2.

[xXGumpXX]

Originally Posted by Hamma

So what you are saying is keep it the same as a game that was made 9 years ago in every way when Broadband was not readily available and PC gaming was a bear.

PlanetSide 2 will be a re-imagining of the franchise with MODERN FPS COMPONENTS intertwined within what we know and love as PlanetSide. Massive battles, tactical play and teamwork on the scale of which cannot be offered in any "insert shooter game here" other than PlanetSide 2.

yes this sequel will offer big battles with loads of players working as a team , but you are not reading and taking in what it is that i'm saying , its not unique like the original game , it lacks character like in the original and it is just another same old same old fps game and i can guarantee after players playing for like a few mths maybe more a lot of players will be bored and play something else

[xXGumpXX]

infact i know what , why do we need this game when we have bf3 and cod , the only thing this game has going for it is the large scale battles , but other than that its a been there played that , got the T-shirt , now i'm bored because there is too many games out there that are just like this . And now its time to go play another game

[Hamma]

So what would you do then to make it a totally original game. In the end remember all we are doing is pointing our guns at people and shooting them.

[Ieyasu]

Originally Posted by xXGumpXX

yes this sequel will offer big battles with loads of players working as a team , but you are not reading and taking in what it is that i'm saying , its not unique like the original game , it lacks character like in the original and it is just another same old same old fps game and i can guarantee after players playing for like a few mths maybe more a lot of players will be bored and play something else

again try to remember that we have yet to see footage of large scale battles or MAX Units there is still quite a bit thats still going into the game that we havent seen as of yet.

I get what youre saying about the originality of Planetside when compared to PS2. I can see a great many people who currently play BF3 or MW3 saying something similar to many WoW players when their friends pick up a copy of The Old Republic or any mmo released since WoW launched "why should I go play that game which is basicly just a clone of this game which I already play with my friends?" theres been a great many MMO that has, in an attempt to copy and repeat the success of WoW, copied the formula that WoW used and found themselves failing miserably. the problem supposedly happens when the new game, we'll say game Y, is so similar to the old game why should people leave to check out game Y when all their already established friends are playing game X and theyre almost identical.

now I know many people will come and spam out LARGE BATTLES LARGE BATTLES which is partly true. if you look at the map and all the facilities and other smaller capture points available there isnt going to be 400v400v200 facility battles in all likelyhood. theres going to be multiple smaller battles raging across the map. I havent played any PS2 as of yet, but I have a feeling that the battles are going to feel alot like a map on bf3 does for the most part and not as easy to draw people away from games like that with the large battle claims. For example Sony released a game for the Playstation 3 called MAG which touted 256 players fighting on a single map which is impressive for a console. The problem is that the battles werent 128v128 battling over an objective it was 256 people fighting over objectives a,b,c,d,e,f,g and h which pretty much turned it into a bunch of 16 vs 16 battles. Planetside 2 appears to be setup in a similar way in an effort to control how many people are going to be fighting over or for a particular area. there is no 1 generator or 1 command console to focus upon, its all spread out which in turn will spread out the population which in turn could make the game not feel as big as its billing itself to be. which would then make for a harder draw on the mw3 and bf3 crowds.

I think that combined with strong marketing the overall quality of the game and free to play and no cost to buy the game initially will be the things that helps planetside 2 out with regards to cutting into the bf3 and mw3 markets. The forgelight engine looks to be incredibly powerful and I know im not alone when I say im giddy with excitement to see just what the guys working with it can create for us now and in the future.

[xXGumpXX]

Originally Posted by Hamma

So what would you do then to make it a totally original game. In the end remember all we are doing is pointing our guns at people and shooting them.

I would keep planetside unique , I would also keep the character in and charm that i love about planetside , and i would not add in classes like in bf3 as that is one feature i like about planetside , being able to mix up my load out without being restricted as to what i can use with what , also i would keep the sanctuary as i think it was a really good feature where you can go chill without worrying that oh shit , I might get killed here if i go afk , it was also good for recalling your empire and preparing a raid with a massive army

[ArmedZealot]

Originally Posted by xXGumpXX

I would keep planetside unique , I would also keep the character in and charm that i love about planetside , and i would not add in classes like in bf3 as that is one feature i like about planetside , being able to mix up my load out without being restricted as to what i can use with what , also i would keep the sanctuary as i think it was a really good feature where you can go chill without worrying that oh shit , I might get killed here if i go afk , it was also good for recalling your empire and preparing a raid with a massive army

...

[xXGumpXX]

keep the sanctuary , can we pls have a vote , who would like to to see the sanctuary remain in planetside 2 and who doesn't ??

[Ieyasu]

Originally Posted by xXGumpXX

I would keep planetside unique , I would also keep the character in and charm that i love about planetside , and i would not add in classes like in bf3 as that is one feature i like about planetside , being able to mix up my load out without being restricted as to what i can use with what , also i would keep the sanctuary as i think it was a really good feature where you can go chill without worrying that oh shit , I might get killed here if i go afk , it was also good for recalling your empire and preparing a raid with a massive army

you seem to have several ideas on how to have made Planetside 2 better than the current team is doing. Sadly I have to inform you that your chance to have approached the higher ups at SOE with your plan for producing the games sequel has now passed you by. Since you didnt step up in time with financial backing to push the sequel forward Sony has gone ahead on its own with its own money and ideas on how the game should be made. If you love the exact way the original Planetside game played you are in luck as it is still able to be played. the new Planetside however looks to have quite different gameplay than the original does.

its one thing to comment on the differences or offer a slight critique, but who are you to make demands on how they should carry forward with this game? it is not the original planetside and has never made the claim to be so. I see the similarities to bf3 that are there, but that doesnt mean that they are sent from satan to spite you or me. when the beta hits try the game out. still dont like it after that... try it again a few months later or when it officially launches, still dont like it after that... feel free not to play it. nobodys forcing you to play Planetside 2 and the Devs sure as hell arent obligated to satiate your gaming desires at the expense of the majority of fps players who prefer these mechanics and playstyle.