PlanetSide on the Long Game Blog

[DocBadwrench]

I didn't know that DFO did that. This kind of functionality is popping up in game a lot, now. I think it's a development for the better. Recently, I captured a match from Frozen Synapse. It was a couple of clicks to get it to render and post to YouTube.

The tools in TF2 are simply nuts. You capture the whole team's experience from the time you record. I surely don't expect that level of detail; it's an MMO, after all. But still, even the most basic tools - built upon over time - would be an excellent addition.

I recorded so much video from Planetside that I did nothing with. When I had more time, I'd spend an awful lot of it on prettying up the screenshots. I don't have that kind of time, anymore. And man, do I want to capture all the cool Planetside stuff to come.

[Hyncharas]

Is it really $15 a month to upgrade F2P? With LOTRO $60 annually on the same principle that's extortion!

I think when it comes to his first blog, his play experience with the game is pretty much the way it is for me with the CDL - mainly since the vast majority of them are in the US and they're on when I can't be, or vice versa. It's a struggle many times when you can't spawn on your squad, particularly if it takes over an hour just to reach them by other means by some miely-mouth 15 year old keeping you out constantly; equally, however, it can a total blast when we'd kick ass and take names against three other clans desperately trying to hold their own.

As for his second blog, I totally agree and actually voiced my own ideas for contests to the CDL-Officers, since a few of them also run PSU. The Battleframes were a pure disaster until they finally showed some balance, but even then, they probably weren't the most thought-out expansion to give more to the player. I think the bottom line is other developers who try to make MMOFPS's don't listen to their playerbase... in the beginning SOE didn't either, and then Planetside Idea Lab allowed some of fans ideas to be noticed and the studio later put some of them in the game. When a studio makes an MMO, they need to remember its survival is dependent on those actually paying to play it, not simply the millions on revenue they earn once it hits retail shelves.

As long as the devteam understand it's a co-operative between them and the players, PS2 will be as good as PlanetSide, and possibly maintain the standard that has worked for so many years.

[Hamma]

http://www.planetside-universe.com/n...-game-2519.htm

[Death2All]

By the time it became a fully realized, rehabilitated, balanced MMOFPS, nobody cared.

Other than that I agree with most of his points. Especially the emphasis on "resisting checking off box features". I really don't want PS2 to be a cookie cutter FPS with an MMO topping.

Most of the stuff he's on about has little to no bearing on actual gameplay, it's mostly background shit that nerds tend to get carried away with. If the game has stupid backstory the traditional FPS player will just scoff it off and then carry on not giving a shit.

[WarChimp130]

I especially agree that the game doesn't need much Lore. Since their is no possibility of peace, I am fine with my superiors just telling me to go shoot Yellow and Purple assholes and leaving it at that! Anytime they've tried to add lore it go retarded.

The Bending. The Bending is all you need to remember when it comes to PS lore. It was awful. But I didn't care, I just want to shoot bad guys. They could have told me Auraxis was chopped up by giant space Moles and that they just went a little over board with Oshur. Fine whatever, stop talking, just let me play. It's like a really beautiful woman that is incredibly dumb. "YEAH YEAH YEAH STOP TALKING BABY AND LETS FUCK!" Stop talking Planetside, just let me fuck you over and over again.

[DocBadwrench]

Thanks for the pointer, Hamma. It is most kind. I always welcome feedback.

DeeTwoEh: I covered my take on gameplay issues in part 2. Yes, I was decidedly focused on the "mostly background shit" that matters insofar as SOE sinks resources into that stuff.

Oh, and that "nobody cared" bit was obviously dramatic, but consider what SOE hoped for in PS1 versus what actually happened. Trust me, nobody cares except we die-hards, and that was the implication. I would like to see that change next time.

I come down more on the side of WarChimp130's thinking (and love the beautiful woman analogy) because, as bad as the lore/cutscene were, I just ignored them.

SOE can do - or not do - any of those things and I'll still play. I'm critical, yes, but I love Planetside. It's my favoritest game ever.

I want to see it succeed, and do not measure its success against my own opinions.

[WarChimp130]

I guess really it's more like a Prostitute. "I'm not paying you to talk, this isn't Pretty Woman, lets get down to business!" Stop pretending you're my wife Planetside, I'm paying you to get nasty.

[MasterChief096]

I agree with the third point and integrated media tools, but I don't agree with the first two points.

Your opinion is highly biased towards lore. "...ditch the bad fiction and all those videos I’m going to ignore" is a highly opinionated statement. As if the fiction is going to be bad no matter how hard they try and the cut scenes will be the same.

I for one enjoy lore, as do any others. Does that mean I won't play PlanetSide unless it has better lore than Lord of the Rings? No, it means that it would just add to the game.

I seriously doubt their are any FPS gamers out there that would not play PlanetSide based on the fact that it has a back story, whether it be generic or good. If someone is interested in finding an FPS to play, what they are going to be reading on the back of the box is:

* Massive battles with up to thousands of players participating in a single, non-instanced continent

What they might read but not care about after reading the above post is

* Continued story development

Also lore takes little development time/resources. All they have to do is have the guy in charge of it write the back story and post it on the website.

Cut-scenes on the other hand would do take a bit of development time so I am interested in how they plan to implement them. Obviously I doubt they are going to make it so you are running in the middle of combat and a cut scene pops up. My guess is just one one single bad ass cut scene when you launch the game, and maybe an introductory one for noobs that explains the nature of the PlanetSide war... not sure.

[DocBadwrench]

Your opinion is highly biased towards lore. [stuff I wrote] is a highly opinionated statement.

Ah, that'd be because it's my opinion. On my blog, no less.

Yes, I proudly admit I'm biased against story/lore in games. This is only because about 98% of every video game contains stories that make me want to carve out both my eyes and stuff a cat in each ear. It hurts less.

For the vast majority of games, the story is not why we play. Even ostensibly story-based games.

I absolutely expect the fan fiction to be bad, no - much worse, than anything SOE comes up with. That's the nature of fanfic.

But that's not the point. Fan fiction from players who love their outfit is deeply personal. Whether it's glossy and high quality is a moot point, it's another avenue for creativity. An average story by SOE is a yawn, but a lousy story from one of my outfitmates (whom I've known for years) is a treasure.

You are correct that lore is a pretty low-impact thing, SOE-side. But good lore is time consuming and requires a lot of re-writes to avoid the pit of suckitude.

I do appreciate your opinions, by the way. I learn lots from that kind of thing. All I've done is share my own. And, I've been privy to one hell of a discussion, which was the point, anyway.

/bows

[blbeta]

Planetside is the FPS I have had to most fun in, which makes it top my list of FPS games by far. Perhaps even my favorite game, but that's another debate I'll have with myself later.

Battles in any other game just do not compare. I am enjoying it once again thanks to the 45 free days due to the hacking on SOE.
SOE Welcome back program
The Sony link to "reinstall" Planetside is broken on the "Get the game" page
This is what it should be "Planetside Setup"

While I personally don't care much about lore/story I know many do. I just hope they don't try too hard like they did with the bending. Story is fine but with Planetside the game creates great stories from your own epic battles. The only story I need is my quick description of the armies.

Agreed, Nostalgia is a huge bitch. I will do my best to put it aside though. No other game that captures the feel of Planetside battles. My biggest fear is that they don't capture that feel. It's not just one thing, but many different groups of things. One thing in particular, since I have been playing recently, is power to bases. The whole dynamic is great. I hope there is more emphasis on such things.

Ehh whatever, my thoughts go all over the place when thinking about PS2.

Oh and I enjoyed the article.

Death to the NC and TR!

[Elude]

I absolutely hate it when a game has to explain something utterly retarded. A good example is in Unreal Tournament 3, for some dumb reason the developers thought they had to explain how spawning worked, and yet in the original Unreal games there was no reason for why players spawned, they just did. Truth be told this is the reason UT3 failed in comparison to it's prequels, it tried to explain too much in a type of game that didn't need explaining, it's UNREAL!

I'm pretty sure based on the games fluff(lol) competitors just died like in your typical gladiator arena and spawning was just a gameplay element that didn't require an explanation.



For the sake of Planetside 2 please focus on gameplay with visuals second in mind, I don't need to know how these three factions began fighting or why. I don't care about where each faction came from or why there are alien artifacts in areas of the planet.

Maybe spawning tubes require cheese to operate, maybe not. Either way it's a waste of time to invest in an explanation, because in the end I'll be imagining that there were no such thing as spawning tubes for fluff sake, and that people just die.

[blbeta]

Originally Posted by Elude

Maybe spawning tubes require cheese to operate, maybe not.

Good stuff!

[Shogun]

but what if cheese is one of the new resources in ps2?
then we would have to grind for cheese to operate our tubes!

and in that case i would like to know (and see) how the cheese is converted into smurfs ;-)

defend the cheesetubes!

[Hamma]