News: Matt Higby Gamespot Interview

[Bruttal]

Poor mat, keep up the good work bud. and go get some SLEEP!.

[TheHalekTheory]

WE WANT THE GAME SOON HIGBY!!! OR ALL YOUR RED BULL ARE BELONG TO US!!!

[Straws]

Originally Posted by Mastachief

I see what you are saying but surely to be "on a scale never seen before" they need to eclipse cyssor a few times over. Also as you say with this whole foothold base thing the maps are going to need to be epically huge.

Be careful with that thinking.

First, Smedly has the tendancy to shoot into hyperbole. No idea if he does it intentionally to get attention or his personal excitement gets the better of him, but I have really learnt to take what he says with a huge grain of salt.

The size of the maps, and the statement "on a scale you've never seen before" or not necessarily linked. That phrase is being used in regards to the scale of the battles, the amount of players involved and the spread of those players. The selling point for PS1 (other than "what side are you on?" of course) was it's "unpresidented scale", and even at that time, those maps were small for an MMO.

Also, in regards to the size of the maps needing to be larger than PS1, I understand that desire, but remember that even though PS1 maps were 16km², we didn't use 16km² of land. On a regular basis, we probably use about 4km² for active battles on each map. Occasionally we use a bit more, but not often. The territory system, even when applied to the PS1 maps, would automatically result in "larger gameplay" as you battle on more of the terrain.

We don't need all the maps to be larger than Cyssor, but it wouldn't hurt for a couple to be exceptionally large, but we'll need some small ones with a lot of height like Searhus and Ceryshen too.

[Higby]

That was relatively early on the last day of the show, so I was dragging a little bit. It's a combination of several factors: jetlag, early mornings, late nights and delicious, delicious german beer.

[Straws]

How long have you been working on the PS2 project now Matt? Or rather, how long without a significant personal holiday?

[Higby]

Originally Posted by Straws

How long have you been working on the PS2 project now Matt? Or rather, how long without a significant personal holiday?

I had a couple weeks off in February for my 2nd wedding (with my wife's family in Malaysia), so, not too long. I do have a nice long vacation scheduled for *censored*, so I'm looking forward to that.

[Straws]

That's good then. I recall when MMOs was a relatively new concept for design houses. They would work the same way they would for normal offline games (i.e. to the hilt until release), then suddenly realising that the release of a MMO isn't the end of things.

So they would drill themselves into the ground up to release, then either have that time off, which results in "issues" with the game for too long after release (see WoW issues at release) or the developers ended up almost catatonic as they struggle to find their post release second wind.

I'm sure deadline day will still lead to some insane hours, but hopefully SOE has learnt to be a bit more leanient now considering the nature of MMO development.

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by Higby

I had a couple weeks off in February for my 2nd wedding (with my wife's family in Malaysia), so, not too long. I do have a nice long vacation scheduled for *censored*, so I'm looking forward to that.

You are such a tease dude.

The beginning of that interview totally reminded me of John Belushi in Animal House. "Thanks, I needed that."

[Zulthus]

Originally Posted by Higby

I had a couple weeks off in February for my 2nd wedding (with my wife's family in Malaysia), so, not too long. I do have a nice long vacation scheduled for *censored*, so I'm looking forward to that.

I imagine you'll deserve it. Around what time will you be back?

[TheHalekTheory]

@Higby Ok, so my only concern is with the "Flashy" kill streak messages. Combat Arms has it and its annoying when it pops up in the middle of a fight. How is this going to go down in the next release? Will it be in a corner, or will it flash across the middle of the screen? And was this a Sony design option, or is it being incorporated due to player feedback?

[basti]

Originally Posted by Higby

That was relatively early on the last day of the show, so I was dragging a little bit. It's a combination of several factors: jetlag, early mornings, late nights and delicious, delicious german beer.

What beer exactly?

[Baron]

Originally Posted by Higby

I had a couple weeks off in February for my 2nd wedding (with my wife's family in Malaysia), so, not too long. I do have a nice long vacation scheduled for *censored*, so I'm looking forward to that.

Where in Malaysia Matt? The company I work for has an office in Kuala Lumpur, I've already been twice this year! Pretty cool place, gotta watch out for the Beach Club tho

[Xaine]

Originally Posted by Zulthus

I imagine you'll deserve it. Around what time will you be back?

I see what you're doing there. You crafty bastard you. :P

You're not the only one looking forward to your vacation Mr Higby, we're all eagerly awaiting your departure :P.

Tell us where you're going and we can all buy you several kegs of German beer.

[Tikuto]

When i first heard of PlanetSide years ago, i didnt see all these interviews and dev tracks, keeping up-to-date with development and all the rest. The bomb of it landing on me was so significant to my start of planetside. i first heard througha friend, and it sounded awesome. i played and loved since. this, however, is like stimulating expectation for the worse to happen. i not particularly keen on the thought of sumbitting to demands to 'see more' about PS2... It's like giving-in to a problem-child.

[Grimster]

Yeah got to say that the coverage around Planetside 2 seems a lot different from at least what I can remember from Planetside.

Of course back in 2003 there weren't as many gaming new sites and etc around but still.