News: Jimmy Whisenhunt Joins PlanetSide 2 Team

[Stardouser]

http://www.hltv.org/blog/5155-interv...unt-whisenhunt
As you are one of the most knowledgeable esports experts in the U.S., do you have any specific "road map" for the development of an esports game or community?

I wouldn't say I'm by any means an expert, but I'm definitely flattered! As far as a road map goes, I'd say there's a path for success, and it's very simple. For any competition to succeed it MUST have a high skill ceiling, and since we're talking esports it MUST have some sort of way to engage spectators, similar to how the CS franchise has done with HLTV and commentators such as myself. There are a million factors that contribute to a successful esports community or game, I would probably spend the next 173 pages ranting about the perfect scenario... So I'll just leave it at those quick points.

Whisenhunt, since you talk about high skill ceiling, positional killcam is out, but are you also going to make sure that PS2 doesn't have other skill gap compensators like 3D spotting?

Originally Posted by Bags

After playing a game like BF3 bad gun sounds stand out, unfrtounately.

BF3 gun sounds are great.

Provided, of course, that you just want to be cinematically immersed as if you were watching a movie, and aren't trying to judge direction of a sniper by their shot noise. You could do that in BF2. Nowadays games seem to just drown the sound out with immersion sounds and replace shot direction judgement with jumbo jet contrail sized tracers and audio spotting.

[Notser]

Originally Posted by Stardouser

BF3 gun sounds are great.

Provided, of course, that you just want to be cinematically immersed as if you were watching a movie, and aren't trying to judge direction of a sniper by their shot noise. You could do that in BF2. Nowadays games seem to just drown the sound out with immersion sounds and replace shot direction judgement with jumbo jet contrail sized tracers and audio spotting.

Bags just missed a comma there to signify he really likes BF3's sound design for guns. BF3 has a amazing sound team, every developer should strive to be half of what DICE's sound team is when it comes to their games.

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by Notser

Bags just missed a comma there to signify he really likes BF3's sound design for guns. BF3 has a amazing sound team, every developer should strive to be half of what DICE's sound team is when it comes to their games.

As I say they definitely made great sounding sounds. The question is, are the little things like ability to judge shot direction by sound, is that something that anyone, even the absolute best sound team ever, would have had to trade off for the immersive sound, or did they simply miss that one? In other words, does having a living, breathing sound environment simply drown that kind of thing out and make the tracers and audio spotting necessary regardless of the skill of the team?

[bigcracker]

I know everyone is in titled to there own opinion but wow some of you people are sad and need to step away from the computer. Put the pitch forks down and show some patience,Higby as always is trying to make you guys happy and Whisenhunt even now is posting on PSU to try to make you guys happy and i still see a lot of flame post. Calling him Counter strike biased is ridiculous, most of everyone here is biased to PS1 and can't accept change and even when they tried to have a new motto for ps2 we had 10 page whine thread about how ps1 motto is better, this community is more like CS 1.6 fanboys then it wants to admit.

[Pyreal]

I just watched the first video and he seems like a pretty cool fellow.

I think that the feel of a game is very important but usually unidentifiable.
What do I mean?

You ever play a sequel or another game in a genre and it just doesn't 'feel' right? It's just 'not as good' but you can't specify what it is but there is 'something off'. Those elements are the 'backbrain elements' as I think of them because they are not your focal point during a game. They are peripheral, they are simple, and they have a large impact on your overall gaming experience.

It's a good move to have someone on their team who is aware of these peripheral game elements and can specify them.

[outsider]

Oh man what a wasted opportunity on the new guy.

Instead of hating on him and getting his back up, you should have been welcoming and warm; and while he’s ingratiating himself in the praises of so many new friends we coulda gotten the bloody Beta dates off of him!!

/sigh no wonder I got so many kills in the original.

PS: btw this works in most first dates. If she likes the post Dali Expressionist Landscape ( and you want sex ) then you find post Dali Expressionism interesting. If you start hatting in on Dali for 4 hours don’t expect so much as a HJ after.

For instance:
“Hi Jimmy, glad you’re onboard, I found some of your comments about CS:GO interesting. So… what are your ideas for Planetside 2 and when do you think we’ll be trying them out ?” would have been the smarter strategy, because at least there would have been some strategy to it.

[Noivad]

Welcome to the Planetside Community and to a real MMO FPS Game.

[zomg]

Originally Posted by BillyBob

1. He knows what he's talking about when it comes to CS.

2. He knows about rewarding skillful play in CS.

3. He's extremely CS-biased.

4. He's under the impression that CS skill is the very definition of FPS skill.

That is an interesting point of view.

1 and 2, perhaps true.

I'm not going to comment on 3 and 4, because I don't think we can really say whether or not he thinks that based on what we know

Originally Posted by BillyBob

Ironically, to some of us CS is considered to be one of the most dumbed-down FPS games out there.

I'm not sure if "dumbed down" is a good expession I would say that CS is perhaps "reduced" in the fashion that it does not have all sorts of extra that distracts from its core gameplay, that is shooting people.

However we feel about CS, I think we can agree that it rewards a player for a) having good aim b) good movement c) "soundwhoring" and stealth d) knowledge of each weapon and item and their usage

I think that no matter what kind of shooter you are playing, these 4 cases are a part of what makes the shooter fun and rewarding. There may be other aspects involved as well, and not all may apply (mainly case c), but if you can make these feel "nice" in a shooter it makes the game better.

Originally Posted by BillyBob

In other words: Just because you can't handle not being able to move with surgical precision (as you obviously can't IRL, let alone with equipment and weapon) or not be able to cope with some random elements (which also occur IRL), does not mean there aren't people who have the proper SKILLS required to do so.

See what I did there?

Skill. Is. Relative.

If randomness is involved to the point where having very accurate aiming (as an example) becomes irrelevant, can it be called "skill" anymore?

Sure, you could have a "tactic" of bringing 2:1 ratio of people into each fight to win them. Sure, that would be a skill in the sense of planning it so you have the edge.

However, reducing the mechanics of gunplay of an individual soldier to depend more on luck than skill would mean that the effort of an individual player is much reduced, and I believe it will also lead to frustration much more easily if (again for example) someone who has just started playing will have a 50-50 chance every time due to luck against someone with hundreds of hours.

If individual players become mere cannon fodder, is it fun for them to play?

Obviously I'm exaggerating here to help make a point, but you can see how improving an individual player's ability to affect the situation will also improve their enjoyment of the game.

[FuzzyandBlue]

I for one am really excited that they brought a competitive player into the dev team. Early on I saw a lot of whining about the games he chooses to play. Many people were worried that he would try to influence the game towards CS. This to me shows a real lack of understanding of the competitive mindset.

I follow two competitive scenes right now, League of Legends and Starcraft 2. For the longest time I could not figure out what separated the pros from noobs like me (in LoL more that SC2). After watching hours of streams and videos I realized that these players spend hours understanding every facet of the game on a fundamental level.

Whisenhunt isn't going to approach this game like CS, He is going to spend hours upon hours learning about PS2. He will focus on movement, aiming, recoil, TTk and many other things. Once he has a good frame of reference he will start saying "this is good, this is bad, this needs tweaking."

Honestly they could have brought a competitive player from SC2 and he would have done the same thing.

Congratulations Whisenhunt. I hope your input can make this game even better.

[Pyreal]

Originally Posted by Stardouser

Whisenhunt, since you talk about high skill ceiling, positional killcam is out, but are you also going to make sure that PS2 doesn't have other skill gap compensators like 3D spotting?

He's on the weapon design team. 3D spotting isn't a projectile.

[Poser]

Smart move. If they can get the shooting right, and the F2P stuff isn't game breaking, there is no stopping this game!

[TerranTitan]

I think Miss Krohn is doing a great job on weapon design, and doesn't need this weirdo's help.

[T MAN]

Yea, i thought the gun mechanics were spot on from what i've seen, its came a long way from the first trailer weve seen.

He'd have to have expeirence with battlefield 2142, BF3, to really justify anything in PS2 cause thats the next to the closest thing to PS2.

I say hire Tigersmith lol

heres Jimmy whisenhunt battlelog for BF3 LOL

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3...whisenhunt_ad/

no wonder higby beat him in the playtest they did, heres higby's battlelog

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3...3/user/mhigby/

[Gonefshn]

Maybe I will be crucified for saying this but Planetside was always in ways a "casual" FPS.

Before you freak what I mean is the actual gunplay and shooting itself. The game was IMMENSE and far from casual in the meta game. You had a lot of options to run away, find cover, heal up and rejoin the fight. It was never a game where you could make one simple mistake and die. Yes, skill was there but it had a huge cushion of risk/reward making the gunplay much more casual and random. Hell, even the COF system made bullets fly in random directions so how unprecise can you get.

What made Planetside 1 competitive and not casual was not the gunplay it was the meta game. I played because I felt like I was part of a war machine, not because of solid shooter mechanics and twitchy I own you gamplay.
I am beyond stoked to see Planetside 2 tighten up the gunplay and make it a little more skill based and precise but I hope they don't lose sight of the main vision of PS1.

I hope this new guy understands that the main competition of this game is about the Meta game and the strategy of warfare, not necessarily the one on one moment to moment exchange of bullets.

Don't make this a game where pro FPS players can lone wolf and be "Just so good" at the gunplay that they can fly solo and defeat people who put in the time to organize and use tactics. THE META GAME MAKES PLANETSIDE COMPETITIVE. Remember that.

[Papscal]

The guy will need a serious hazing. and i cant think of much worse than making him play Vanu.