News: Jimmy Whisenhunt Joins PlanetSide 2 Team - Page 12

MaestroTV · 2012-06-23, 08:12 AM

As a competitive player at heart, (with a background in many different FPSes, CS 1.6, Tribes, PS1, Quake, etc) believe me when I tell you that the PS2 team needs someone like Whisenhunt on their team. This dude spent a good portion of his life playing FPSes, and with that he's obviously gained quite a bit of knowledge as to what makes a good FPS.

It's an incredibly sound decision, and it further reinforces the great job the PS2 devs are doing to reach out to the community and communicate effectively with us (remember, not many devs do this!). They're hiring on a competitive player who is familiar with good game development and can provide accurate, meaningful input from a player's perspective.

To those worried about his background in CS somehow drastically changing the entire development of PS2, a product literally weeks away from beta, I'm pretty sure that wasn't the goal of his hiring. From what I understand, his position is to help fine-tune the weapons in PS2.

I honestly couldn't have asked for anyone better for this position, as he's already given a lot of meaningful input into the development of CS:GO (that has actually made it into the current build of the game) through VODs alone.

And to Whisenhunt, sorry about the rabid fans trying to get your goat. They kinda go into witchhunt mode when they smell new blood. Welcome to the community, and I'm glad you got on board!

SniperSteve · 2012-06-23, 08:45 AM

Welcome.

Stew · 2012-06-23, 08:56 AM

ive lisent to some of his video and he seams to Be Ok for me i respect the guys he seams to not be for stagnant gameplay and people and seams to like to see much more variety in the tactics and way to play in pro gamers league so if the guys is really like a saw him in these few video ! he have my seal of aproovement for sure

Its a good thing they hire him as long as creativity is on the developpement process and not restrictive (( pro gaming lazyness)) mentality but i think the guys is cool (Y)

AzK · 2012-06-23, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by Krishtov

I love PS2 and the dev team...but...

Seriously? You are going to bring in competitive CS players? Counter Strike plays NOTHING like Planetside 1 or 2. You at least could of brought in the top tier Battlefield players or something.

Or, you know, hire on some well known PS community members...

I rarely complain, this is a time I am doing so.

That.

SergeantNubins · 2012-06-23, 09:08 AM

Throw in my 2 cents.. i think this is a good thing. I watched the video about cs 1.6 vs cs:go and he is bang on. CS is, on balance, i think the best shooter i ever played, going back to quake 2. The reason for that is that the gameplay just worked very very well and the guns felt right. The audio and the recoil and feedback was fantastic and so if he can bring experience to ps2 that integrates that into its shooter mechanics then im all for it. The last thing i want from ps2 is to have the same clunky shooter mechanics from ps1.

As for the esports stuff.. well they tried outfit wars on ps1 and actually i think that would be a lot of fun to watch, tons of strategy, tactics, skill and loads of different ways to achieve the outcome, regular 20 v 20 outfit battles on special maps away from the main battles could well be a big thing for the game. Im not sure the players will make much money from it due to the numbers needed, but would help teh game and most players would probably be happy just for the bragging rights.

With regards to some comments a few posts back about audio.. wow... audio is one of the most important pats of designing weapons. COmpare games like Battlefield 3, Battlefield Bad Company 2 or Rainbow Six Vegas against and CoD, PS1 and pretty much any other fps and there is a huge difference in how the guns feel, because of audio. Guns should be loud, they should feel powerful.. i was particularly put off with recent versions of COD where some of the guns sound like wet farts. If in PS2 they can have assault rifles sounding like.. assault rifles, heavy sniper rifles sounding like a thunderclap and shotgun being a bassy thump followed by a heavy slap as the pellets hit.. these sorts of things, then that would be awesome.

Anyway, welcome to the team and i hoe you can make a difference here

Ale · 2012-06-23, 09:12 AM

Welcome, Jimmy. Don't let the clowns get you rustled.

Dear SOE: Hire Hayoo...

Miir · 2012-06-23, 09:15 AM

Welcome to the team sir.

Hiring someone to come in and give feedback on the feel of the weapons is a great idea but I have to ask. Why "weeks" before beta is to begin? Why not earlier in development? Does this mean they are not happy with the current state of the game? Did they get feedback from E3 and decide to change it?

Every article I read from people that have played the game said the game was tight and felt like a modern FPS game. So this just seems like bad timing to me and is nothing personal to Whisenhunt. His videos are great and he seems like he will be a great addition to the dev team.

**Higby** · 2012-06-23, 09:22 AM

Good question Miir. We have pretty solid feeling base mechanics right now, and all the tools necessary to create great feeling gunplay. We also have several of types of weapons with dozens of variants each to differentiate, tune and balance, throw on top of that the customizations that affect weapon feeling and you're talking about a tremendous amount of work, so 1) we needed the additional manpower, and 2) we wanted to have someone with a lot of experience with gunplay in a variety of games to help us get them feeling better faster.

AzK · 2012-06-23, 09:27 AM

It's a good thing anyway, the guy says and agrees with, the same exact things i've been saying for the past decade, especially about the "random" factor which is a plague in games like cod or bf, if he keeps that sort of crap away from ps i'm happy with that, i don't care if he liked/played cs which i couldn't stand. He played ut and quake competitively as well, which i also did so i can see where he's coming from, the cs part is just a matter of taste or circumstances.

I still think you should, maybe not hire, but at least get some of the best players ps1 had to offer playing ps2 right away though, to give additional feedback nobody else can. A select group of those players would light up right away for the dev team op stuff / exploits / mechanics, nobody else would even think of.

demonicale · 2012-06-23, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by AzK

It's a good thing anyway, the guy says and agrees with, the same exact things i've been saying for the past decade, especially about the "random" factor which is a plague in games like cod of bf, if he keeps that sort of shit away from ps it's fine by me, i don't care if he liked/played cs which i couldn't stand. He played ut and quake competitively as well, which i also did so i can see where he's coming from, the cs part is just a matter of taste or circumstances.

I still think you should, maybe not hire, but at least get some of the best players ps1 had to offer playing ps2 right away to give additional feedback nobody else can. A select group of those players would light up right away for the dev team op stuff / exploits / mechanics, nobody else would think of.

That's called "Beta"

AzK · 2012-06-23, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by demonicale

That's called "Beta"

No it's not, cause in beta you get LOADS of feedback and you actually need to sift through it because like 80% of it is going to be whines or complaints/questions from people who aren't really thinking things through.

Choosing a select number of people you KNOW you can rely on when you're reading their feedback is different and makes your job easier.

Maybe the dev team could just flag said people internally so their feedback is highlighted or something, it doesn't really have to be anything official. But it would certainly make their job easier/more efficient.

zomg · 2012-06-23, 09:38 AM

Originally Posted by demonicale

That's called "Beta"

Pretty much what I was going to post.

If you're a PS1 vet and unhappy about the decision to not get someone from the PS1 community, your chance to prove yourself comes with beta.

This thread just shows the sort of envy you'd expect in a workplace where they bring an outside contractor or a new hire instead of promoting you

Originally Posted by AzK

Maybe the dev team could just flag said people internally so their feedback is highlighted or something, it doesn't really have to be anything official. But it would certainly make their job easier/more efficient.

This is a good idea and I'm sure they do this.

Instead of complaining on forums like this you could try doing what Whisenhunt is doing... Actually creating something which is easy to follow to understand what his criticism is based on, and thus you easily get much more visibility. If you post in a thread on forums with 13 pages, even with good criticism, it will easily get lost in the mass. Especially if the criticism is on the level you see here (OMG THIS IS NOT RIGHT WTF GUISE)

Hiring someone to give feedback is not only based on his experience. It's also based on his ability to communicate the why's and how's in a meaningful way.

Aaron · 2012-06-23, 09:45 AM

He sounds like he knows what he's talking about. I can relate to what he's saying. He understands skill play.

Notser · 2012-06-23, 09:46 AM

Originally Posted by Higby

Good question Miir. We have pretty solid feeling base mechanics right now, and all the tools necessary to create great feeling gunplay. We also have several of types of weapons with dozens of variants each to differentiate, tune and balance, throw on top of that the customizations that affect weapon feeling and you're talking about a tremendous amount of work, so 1) we needed the additional manpower, and 2) we wanted to have someone with a lot of experience with gunplay in a variety of games to help us get them feeling better faster.

Why are you up at 6 in the morning on a saturday!?

AzK · 2012-06-23, 09:46 AM

Higby arrived and replied on the 13th page so i have faith!