My Beta Story

[mr_luc]

Yesterday morning, I was wh0ring TW while trying to wake up at work.

And I saw that people were giving away accounts. Giving away accounts??

Well, on Tribalwar 'giving away' is too strong a phrase. There were mini-contests going on for them. Essay-writing, for instance. Anyways, I was fortunate enough to respond to Iamatree's 'who can PM me the fastest?' challenge (by about a second), and I got the email linking me to the download. The sweetness was almost too much to bear.

I was still at work, so after completing a number of flowcharts and mockups in an anticipation-fueled spree of frenzied productivity, I went to lunch at 11am and started the download over my lunch hour.

It said it would be done at 8pm.

The day seemed like it would never end. I called my little brother at 3:30 to ask him how close the download was to completed. I called him again at 5:00. I managed to get my work finished by only 5:30pm (normally I'm there until around 7:00 on Weds), and I sped home.

The projected time of completion was now 15 minutes past midnight. What is it about the ducks, Mr. Soprano?

Oh, the teeth-gnashing! Well, never fear. I knew quite well that I would be up past midnight. Instead, I focused on joining an outfit. The one that a lot of Tribalwar guys were joining was IV, and I had already been invited by a couple extremely generous gents. Sure, it's NC and not VS -- but wtf, right? VS are purple. And gay. Well, unless I decide to like them again.

I joined up, installed TS2 and joined the IV server, said hello, and logged out. I spent a couple of hours trying to find people who would send me the next few files the auto-downloader wanted (to see if I could shortcut the download) but it was no use. When I left the house at 9:30 to meet some friends, the download was est. to be completed at 1:30 am. That was getting late, and I knew that I had to get up at 6:30 this morning.

When I got back around 11:30, I saw that the download was estimated to be finished at 2:35 am. That was getting REALLY late. And by the time I went to bed, at 12:40, the est time of completion was 3:30am.

I woke up at 7:30 this morning (feeling strangely refreshed), I saw that I still had not set my clock for daylight savings' time. I made a calm mental note to do that, which is difficult when you are doing laps around the room at upwards of thirty mph. I booted up the game while carefully arranging my early-morning activities. No time must be wasted. I tossed my clean, but wrinkled, slacks and sweater into the dryer to avoid needing to iron them. I washed my hair and upper body via the sink as the game was booting up.

The icons were like aquamarine jewels, glowing faintly, capturing and reflecting dim blue sunlight a hundred feet under the ocean off the coast of the Cayman Islands.

I selected my server, and my character. As a 6'4" white guy who is often compared unflatteringly to a young Dan Akroyd, I naturally chose the avatar face that looked the most like a devious little ******. I was disappointed to learn that I could not name my avatar mr_luc, and had to settle for mrluc instead. I shaved, brushed my teeth, and carefully gelled my hair while the continent was loading. I also changed my socks. I never sleep without a clean pair of socks on . . . it's probably a neurosis of some sort, but stfu. I'm insomnia boy, and if it helps me drift off into blissful sleep faster, then I will definitely doh! Segue, sorry.

I padded into the computer room in my clean white socks just as I entered the game for the first time.

I felt a crazy kind of peace.

I opened up the options, gently, carefully. I hadn't felt this peace since the early days of Neocron, when I could still lose myself in the world, working my way up from a lowly rat-stabber into the number one wholesale reseller of Chitin in the city.

The game was running extremely slow. I took a few tentative steps around the spawn room, inverted the mouse, took a few more. Looked around. The game was running at around 10 frames per second.

I set the graphics one notch lower, and closed the game.

I downloaded the latest graphics drivers from nVidia. While they downloaded I put on my shirt and while they were installing, my pants. I restarted my computer and gathered up my wallet, 2 paychecks to deposit over my lunch break, my wallet and key ring. I neatly folded my leather gloves next to my keyboard. I was in a zone of some sort, perhaps a Zen Zone. I was the bright center of the universe. I was a beautiful and unique snowflake.

I sat down as Planetside booted up again, this time savoring the loading screens even as precious seconds of gaming time ticked by. When all was complete, I had 10 minutes.

I did not rush, but I moved with the precise efficiency of a man whose goals have never wavered, whose plans have been meticulously arranged, stopping along the way to test out features like zoom, crouching, the responsiveness of the jump ability. I was nothing but thoroughly impressed. The world felt solid, the green grass looked real and worn and the early-morning mountain haze seemed ripped directly from the cheerful mountain town of Chambo, in Ecuador.

I used a certification terminal. Despite a lack of preparation, I knew exactly what I would do with my 13 points.

Medium Assault for the Gauss rifle. I had heard that it was a very likeable weapon, very solid in what it did, precise and reliable -- a best of breed weapon. THat was my only weapon certification. I picked up a Reinforced armor cert, a Harasser cert, a Reaver cert, a Wraith cert, a MAX cert, and, hmmm, I might have picked up a hacking cert as well. Those would let me move throughout the world without hindrance, still be effective in battle, and change roles at will. I picked up the Surge implant as well.

I had some time left. Should I try and get into some action?

Nah.

I pissed the rest of my time away in the firing range and the vehicle trainers. It felt like I had all the time in the world. And, in a way, I did.

[Freiza]

bastard.... :P lol

[mikkyT]

You may aswell get rid of TeamSpeak2 !!!

Next patch has VOIP in game...

[mr_luc]

I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to Dave Georgeson and the team at SOE.

Dave, if you read this -- we're still pissed about Tribes 2. We think that no matter how valid Tribes 2's gameplay might have been after patching, you squandered a truly unique, original, and revolutionary movement model in favor of making a good, but not great, multiplayer game more suited towards large-scale, macro combat than the reality of player-hosted team-based multiplayer gaming. And based on what we've been able to glean from many former dev team members, a lot of the problems with the game are a result of your managerial approach.

Which doesn't affect Planetside in the slightest.

I have been waiting for a persistent first person shooter for my entire gaming life -- which only really got started with Tribes. Oh, sure, I moved on to many other games, and enjoyed probably hundreds of games both old and new. But just as I have never gotten bored of Tribes 1, and just as I still play Thief 1 & 2 regularly because of the unparalleled single-player immersion, so I have been waiting for something to scratch that one horribly situated itch. Sure, you can get flexible and barely reach it yourself, but it's just not the same.

I have been waiting for this for as long as I have been a gamer, and, without realizing it, probably quite a while before. This is something that has been deeply ingrained in the psyche of anyone who loves science fiction or fantasy or who simply had an active imagination as a child. The real-life limitations of player-hosted multiplayer games constrain, impinge on, limit our ability to enjoy those experiences.

It's finally here.

To the fine men and women working to provide our imaginations with a canvas and allow us to indulge them to the fullest -- thank you. A very good argument could be made that, as the world gets more and more empty and shallow, as our interests become more and more focused on intangibles, and as the reality of our lives becomes less and less firmly anchored, the most important work we can be doing is to find new ways for us to push the boundaries of imagination.

[mr_luc]

Originally posted by mikkyT
You may aswell get rid of TeamSpeak2 !!!

Next patch has VOIP in game...

I dunno.

I have to think that as time goes by and better implementations of VoIP come out, it will still be preferable to use 3rd-party implementations and turn it off in-game -- just because the 3rd-party specialists will always be one step ahead.

But we'll see.

[Airlift]

TS2 pwns. We shall see if they can impliment better channel control and such in game

[Psyklone]

I can't believe I read the whole thing...

I'm probably going to be feeling the same way when I get my beta CDs though. Nice 'thank you' note btw.

[mr_luc]

I know.

Cliff notes needed.

I posted this in the beta forums too. Just because, um, I want to make sure that a) they get my thank-you, and b) dave might read my note about T2.

[LesserShade]

TS2 pwns. We shall see if they can impliment better channel control and such in game

agreed.. the channel control of ts2 is great.

mr_luc, Excellent job word smithing. I think that sums up my feelings towards the game perfectly.

[Spinnaker]

I read half of it _mostly the dling stuff skipped a bunch and read that you got all those certs w/o BO's, ok now i know i'm dreaming cause i am in my computer class but no far man no far reading it was like looking a juicy starburst, tasting it but not eating, man you really makin me hungry

[Silo5]

DAMN YOU!!!! you make the game sound so good... ITS DRIVING ME NUTS!!!

[Sarah Jinstar]

Wait a minute 13 cert points??? You meant 3 right??? We do start at BR 1 don't we?

[Boromar]

They are at br 10 to start until the mega patch, then we start at br 1.

[Sarah Jinstar]

Ahh ok thanks for clearing that up. I had no idea exclusive started you right at 10th.

[mr_luc]

Started me with 13. Dunno what to tell you.

Probably 10 + 3 you start with.