Why didnt PS make it big?

[Vancha]

How far back are you going? Is it possible you're thinking of Emerald? I played 2 years+ (around 05-07 I guess), mainly a sniper and infiltrator, got 25/5 and all that lark. I never came across anyone who confused me for another Vancha before, so I'd be surprised if there was a Konried one.

Edit: I think I was playing for some of 04, having done some google searches.

[XedoeSR]

Well, Konried was renamed Emerald after the server merger. I still call it Konried because thats the one I played on when I first started up. I remember a Vancha, being guilded with them too, and im assuming the spelling is the same. I was with only two outfits during my whole time with PS on Konried/Emerald. First one was Blue Lions, but the second one that I was with escapes me at the moment. I do remember they had vent or teamspeak that we would use. I played mostly as a Maxx, BFR, and Tank driver. I did a search on my name and found that the toons still there sitting idle.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by XedoeSR

Well, Konried was renamed Emerald after the server merger. I still call it Konried because thats the one I played on when I first started up. I remember a Vancha, being guilded with them too, and im assuming the spelling is the same. I was with only two outfits during my whole time with PS on Konried/Emerald. First one was Blue Lions, but the second one that I was with escapes me at the moment. I do remember they had vent or teamspeak that we would use. I played mostly as a Maxx, BFR, and Tank driver. I did a search on my name and found that the toons still there sitting idle.

That was definitely me then, which means either "Super Troopers", "Hostility" or "Double Agents" must have been your other outfit?

[2coolforu]

Planetside made it big considering it had balls-all advertising and was far too advanced for its time.

When it was released quite a large amount of people still had dial-up and the game was a computer destroyer. However it had a huge amount of players, the estimates vary wildly but I oft see it quoted between 75,000 and 100,000 which for a totally new breed of game with horrific lag issues is insane.

Basically SOE did everything they could to not sell the game and it still turned out epic, it was the best game I've ever played - period. If its made to appeal to a larger audience then we will just get another CoD clone, by definition it must be anything but mainstream to do what Planetside did. The game won't have any appeal if it isn't the unforgivingly team-based shooter of massive scale that it was back in 2003/2004

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by 2coolforu

Planetside made it big considering it had balls-all advertising and was far too advanced for its time.

When it was released quite a large amount of people still had dial-up and the game was a computer destroyer. However it had a huge amount of players, the estimates vary wildly but I oft see it quoted between 75,000 and 100,000 which for a totally new breed of game with horrific lag issues is insane.

Basically SOE did everything they could to not sell the game and it still turned out epic, it was the best game I've ever played - period. If its made to appeal to a larger audience then we will just get another CoD clone, by definition it must be anything but mainstream to do what Planetside did. The game won't have any appeal if it isn't the unforgivingly team-based shooter of massive scale that it was back in 2003/2004

^ this

[LesserShade]

Originally Posted by 2coolforu

Planetside made it big considering it had balls-all advertising and was far too advanced for its time.

When it was released quite a large amount of people still had dial-up and the game was a computer destroyer. However it had a huge amount of players, the estimates vary wildly but I oft see it quoted between 75,000 and 100,000 which for a totally new breed of game with horrific lag issues is insane.

Basically SOE did everything they could to not sell the game and it still turned out epic, it was the best game I've ever played - period. If its made to appeal to a larger audience then we will just get another CoD clone, by definition it must be anything but mainstream to do what Planetside did. The game won't have any appeal if it isn't the unforgivingly team-based shooter of massive scale that it was back in 2003/2004

What you said, plus I think the pool of gamers in general who were willing to pay per month for a FPS, mmo or not, was small. MMOs really hit their stride in general after PS and anybody who owns an xbox is used to paying to play games online now, so I think we as consumers as a whole are more willing to buy into the pay to play model to some extent compared to 7 years ago.

All that said, I hope SOE does something different with PSN as opposed to the standard $15 a month model. I would love to see some form of freemium particularly in the form of a permanent reserves program, or something to that effect to draw big numbers.

[BlazingSun]

I don't think the game ever had 75.000+ players. 50.000 maybe. The biggest problem was, as was pointed out so often, the non existant marketing and advertising. When you have a look at the manual of Planetside, it also lists a marketing team in the credits, which makes me laugh.

I hope they don't make the same mistake twice. In times of Web 2.0 and Social Media it got alot easier to spread the word about something. Apart from that you see ad-banners on every second site advertising all kind of games these days, including those free to play browser games. SOE has to make some investment this time!

Like Warhammer Online has shown us, it is possible to create a big hype about a (crap) game with the right actions during the development stage: Monthly Newsletters including video podcasts, a chance to win a closed beta spot when signing up for said newsletter, etc. WARs marketing team was the only one, who did a proper job. (OK .. the concept Art was great also)

[Infektion]

Originally Posted by KornDemon

Like Warhammer Online has shown us, it is possible to create a big hype about a (crap) game with the right actions during the development stage: Monthly Newsletters including video podcasts, a chance to win a closed beta spot when signing up for said newsletter, etc. WARs marketing team was the only one, who did a proper job. (OK .. the concept Art was great also)

I beg to differ. On release, WAR was an outstanding game. I saw it's demise about 4 months after release. Scenarios destroyed what originally was a open world PVP game. Sadly, it just became another PvE cookie cutter. Who is to blame? I'll tell you, it's the carebear community of players who do nothing but complain, and the Dev team did what we all want... listen to the players. I'm sure the age group of all these pushy complains and suggestions to "even out" the game was. 17-20 and then 30-45. I understand why the older gen did it, lack of prostate exams.

[Robert089]

Originally Posted by 2coolforu

Planetside made it big considering it had balls-all advertising and was far too advanced for its time...

2cool you really hit the nail on the head. I heard of Planetside in an issue of PCgamer when they did a preview on it, however I didn't even realise it had been released until I spotted it in a store and remembered that preview.

Hopefully there is some sort of advertising this time around other than word of mouth. Can anyone actually remember any advertising done for Planetside?

[Hamma]

Other than the initial media blitz I don't recall anything.

[Raymac]

I didn't hear about Planetside at all until a friend told me about it. I was explaining to him how much I'd love to see a game that was a fps, but with a large persistent world and you could control vehicles and planes, etc. I'll never forget my feeling when he said "I think there already is a game like that. I think its called Planetside or something." Yeah, that was a fairly life changing moment, at least in my gamer life.

I feel like as fans, we should do what we can to get the word out. Beg the media for interviews and "first looks". Get the word out that the massive fps that people have been waiting for is on the way. I still want SOE to do a serious blitz, but there's nothing wrong with some grassroots support.

[Bags]

Lack of advertisement. Pure and simple.

[Gogita]

One of the arguments that people often give why it didn't become big is that Planetside is too repetitive. Can anyone explain that to me? How is Planetside repetitive? If people say that the only thing you do is capturing a base and that there is no real end to the game as in winning; is there something like that in any shooter?

In other shooters, you play a match, it ends, and then you play the next match. In what way is that not as repetitive or more repetitive as Planetside for those people? Do they really need the game to say "YOU WIN" or "YOU LOSE" for it to have an 'end'? Can't they see that managing to take over a well defended base or keeping enemies from taking over your base is also a win or lose situation. The only thing that is different is that instead of going to the next match, you move to the next area to attack or defend.

Sorry that in the end it was more a rant than an argument... I just cannot stand people talking bad about Planetside

[Bags]

Repetition is the worse argument against games because I have never played a non-repetitive game.

Recently:

TF2 -> Repetitive
WoW -> Repetitive
ACII:BH -> Repetitive
NFS:HP -> Repetitive.

etc

[SgtSnarf]

Planetside was far ahead of its time in terms of massive game play and a near perfect blend of FPS and RTS elements. Despite having poor marketing and advertisement, it thrived on word of mouth and the first three months of the game were probably some of the most fun I've ever had in a game, period.

The main features of Planetside that set it apart from the other FPS games out there, and made it infinitely playable, were:

1. Massive Scope

This wasn't 5v5 or 10v10 or 20v20, which was about the most you'd ever find in any other kind of FPS online game, it was 200v200. It was entire squadrons of air support, heavy tank columns, specialized tactical units, defensive support teams, and every step in between. It was unlike anything you'd ever experienced before or would experience again.

2. Perfect Balance of FPS and RTS

Unlike traditional FPS games, where you might have use of a few vehicles and weapons, Planetside had several options for a variety of game play to suit nearly any type of player.

> Want to be on the front lines, blasting away enemies up close and personal? No problem.

> Want to skirt about the edges of the battlefield, infiltrating bases, relaying intelligence and sabotaging the enemy defenses? No problem.

> Want to dedicate efforts to managing and driving support vehicles aimed at supporting the fighting force, healing your fellow soldiers, ensuring a steady support infrastructure for the battle? No problem.

No game to date has done as good a job as Planetside in making room for nearly every type of player and blending aspects of both FPS and RTS elements to make it entertaining and fun, no matter what role you decided to pick up. The bases might be static, but every attack was different. The points of attack, the flow of the battle, the outfits involved, all required different defensive techniques and preparation, and the battles were some of the most epic moments I remember having in my 25 years of gaming.

3. Outfit and Faction Integration

One of the biggest things missing from today's online FPS games, such as Battlefield and Call of Duty is the persistent game world. When I log into one of those games, I get randomly matched up with 10-20 other players from who knows where. Even when you're able to have guilds vs. guilds PvP on the same map, it's limited to 10 or 20 people. There's a distinct lack of roles, and a lack of feeling that this map matters for anything.

Planetside's persistent game world and outfits made the game more exciting. You might play for 12 hours, locked in a massive three-way fight over a single continent and finally give way to sleep, only to login the next morning and discover that the battle is still raging. You get to see the same people, both from your side and from the enemy outfits, on the battlefield, learn to appreciate their tactics or their game play. When you see that certain name pop up killing people downstairs in your tower, you know his 5 other good friends are likely close by and shit is about to hit the fan.

So, why did Planetside Fail?

1. Lack of marketing/advertisement

People had no idea how awesome this game was or could be, and by the time word was out -- the bad changes were in.

2. BFR's

BFR's and many of the changes completely disrupted the balanced harmony of the previous game. Yes, there were months that Magmowers or JackHammers or Lashers or Chain Guns were flavors of the month and overpowered, but it largely only impacted encounters. BFR's dominated base fights and destroyed the delicate and near-perfect balance of support/attack vehicles and combat abilities the initial game had created.

3. Caves

Feeling that people needed a change of scenery, the developers made a critical error in bleeding the already small player base by diluting them into even more area. When concentrated big battles are your niche, spreading people out between Caves and Battle Islands is probably one of the worst decisions they ever made.

4. Consolidated Cert-Packages

One of the best moments of the game for me was specializing in a particular skill set and being wanted and needed by someone. Being good at a particular skill set, with just enough left over to obtain a vehicle or two allowed you to feel special and necessary on the battlefield. People would be looking for you specifically, and that magic dissipated when they started creating 5-cert point "packages" that gave you 5 different vehicle slots or multiple abilities.

I realize that some people wanted to be able to do everything, but being completely self-sufficient took away a lot of the really nice dependencies that helped make the game so awesome.

5. Game Performance Issues

I never understood how the game began so awesome, capable of handling 200 vs. 200 fights raging all over the continent and then, suddenly, I had a hard time flying around the Sanctuary by myself without lagging. And this was on a better machine than when I'd started the game.

Poor frame rates, lag, and other technical issues really killed the game experience for me and made it difficult to enjoy it in the way I had before. It wasn't that it stopped being fun, but compared to what you knew it -could- be, the limited game just ceased to sparkle quite as brightly.

Anyhow, those are my observations. I got this game on Day 1 and played the holy living crap out of it for months. I loved it then, and I love the idea of it now. If it could return today with simply a few graphical updates and all of the original pieces, I'd be pleased as punch.

-SgtSnarf (3rd CR5 on Emerald)