Free-To-Play

[Mr DeCastellac]

I really felt like it being free to play is going to diminish the quality, but (I quote my introduction) "after seeing the recent gameplay video, all my worries are washed away".

I love the idea that they're doing this, in fact. It gives everyone a chance to play, whether they have money or not. I can send my friends the link and say "Hey, check out this game." They can install it quickly, and jump right in without having to worry about buying the game and paying monthly fees.

I play Tribes: Ascend right now, mainly because it keeps me from flying out to SOE HQ and shooting everyone for taking so long with PS2 (don't get me wrong, I love the fact that they're taking a long time. It means it will be a better game). The one thing that bugs me about it is that they too do microtransactions, but they have it so you can buy better guns and classes. Some describe it as "Pay2Win".
It makes me really happy that PS2 is going to have aesthetic-only items to buy in the cash shop... and I definitely will be buying decals and paint jobs and the like. As I also said in my intro, I would feel guilty playing PS2 without giving SOE money.

Planetside has always boasted the quality that the lowest ranking player can easily still kill the highest ranking player, and the aesthetic-only cash shop ensures that the player who plays the game for free can easily beat a player who has bought every single item possible.

[Shanesan]

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

You say the max level character doesn't have any significant advantage, only more options. Then you say it would be buying power to buy all those things. Which is it? Either its buying power or it isn't. And if it isn't, if they are all just sidegrades, then what would be wrong with me buying them rather than unlocking them?

Notice I never actually said it was "buying power". I said that you could invest in getting ranks faster with XP boosters and thusly get the OPTIONS faster. Side grades do not equal power. Side grades equal customizability to cater to your specific play style.

[Skitrel]

League of Legends is the third most played game out there with 4million DAILY users. No, F2P does not hurt a game, in fact it's phenomenally good for a game.

If the game is good people will play it. If it's free, more people will play it. Provided they don't mess the balance up and stay away from pay 2 win then it's potential is massive.

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by Shanesan

Notice I never actually said it was "buying power". I said that you could invest in getting ranks faster with XP boosters and thusly get the OPTIONS faster. Side grades do not equal power. Side grades equal customizability to cater to your specific play style.

K. Then can I spend more money and get them instantly?

[Therion I]

The brief glimpse of the cash shop did suggest that yes, you can buy all the weapons with real world cash from the start, but you can also spend XP to unlock them instead.

Personally I don't see why anyone would want to spend money to unlock them if you can do so by just playing the game but each to their own.

At the moment aesthetics are the only thing that cannot be unlocked by XP.

[Shogun]

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

K. Then can I spend more money and get them instantly?

shut up already... you can!

we got some info about what will most certainly be in the shop.

weapon sidegrades of all kind will be obtainable in the shop. the shop will be the only place to get them, but you can choose to buy them for ingame ressources or for real money.

so throw some money at soe and you can buy them all at once.
we don´t know if there is any battlerank involved being able to use them all or if it´s ll just a matter of money/ressources)

there will also be cosmetic stuff in the store that will be realmoney exclusive.
putting sidegrades in that category would be considered selling power because if the sidegrade gun matches your playstyle best, you would have to pay money. but that will not be the case as matt said, the exclusive realcash items would be cosmetic only.

also there will be xp bonus modifier in the shop, available for cash exclusively. that´s for the guys who want to get more xp per kill. that´s also fine because it gives no direct advantage during battle.
just being able to buy the highest rank or whatever would suck because having something to level up is a big ingredience to make any game addictive.

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by Shogun

just being able to buy the highest rank or whatever would suck because having something to level up is a big ingredience to make any game addictive.

Odd. I thought it was good gameplay that did that.

[Coreldan]

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

Odd. I thought it was good gameplay that did that.

Yeah, well thats for our generation. I'm sure you and many others remember back when people kept playing and playing the same games just for the sake of it, not cos they had unlocks and whatever to chase.

The new generation of energy drink drinking and Ritalin popping kids need a carrot on a stick or the game has no content lolz!

[Furber]

Originally Posted by DeeTwoEh

I hope the game doesn't denerate into a mindless twitch shooter where the person with the best connection or whoever gets the jump first wins. That's lame.

/agree, I don't mind it being quicker paced than Planetside1, I saw that coming. But when a game is pretty much 'who ever sees the other person first wins 100%', that's not very fun.

[wasdie]

The game would suffer the same major problem as it did on launch. Most people would ask why they had to pay a monthly fee when they could play a lot of other shooters for no monthly fee.

Sure this game offers much bigger battles, but PS1 showed that isn't enough for most gamers.

[RadarX]

The Free to Play model is still fairly new to the Western markets but it's been hugely successful for a decade in Asia. Those folks live in a world where paying for things upfront is still a very foreign concept for an online game. Of course we recognize these are completely different markets which is why we will not use J Pop for music.

Free to Play offers a few advantages that are not available in a retail game:

• Low Entry Barrier - People who would ordinarily shy away from a box purchase or full subscription models can try the game with no commitment. This means more people in game.
• Flexible Spending - We use the phrase "Free to Play. Your Way." in regards to our products but it's honestly true. As a consumer this is about giving you choices. I know someone who has probably spent more than $1000 in Team Fortress 2 on boxes. Personally I've spent less than $25 but we both enjoy the game.

Some of the common misconceptions I've seen are first the quality of player in free to play games. There are going to be people you don't want to play with in every game. Having a target rich environment is something that I personally appreciate.

There also seems to be a misconception about the quality of content in Free to Play games. It's true that there are companies who churn out low cost games to the Free to Play market. That is not PlanetSide 2. This is being developed as a full AAA title with all the stops.

The last one I see all the time is "There are more cheaters! There is no consequence!" Statistically with more players, you will get more cheaters. This allows us to improve our detection process and honestly we've found in our other products that the folks who go this route are usually very very minor. We catch them quickly and nuke their account. Can they start over? At times yes they can. How long does that stay fun though?

[Coreldan]

Originally Posted by RadarX

which is why we will not use J Pop for music.

I see great future for this game!

[Forsaken One]

Originally Posted by RadarX

Of course we recognize these are completely different markets which is why we will not use J Pop for music.

But.... doesn't this song perfectly symbolize the new target audience that PS2 seems to be trying attracting with all the new twitch over teamwork stuff?


Edit: By twitch I mean stuff like headshots and OSOK snipers not TTK as a whole. But I vote for this song to play everytime someone gets a headshot just because that's pretty much what such things are meant for.

Edit 2: This needs to play non stop while someone has a "Killstreak"

[Coreldan]

I fail to see how non-twitchy "keep your crosshair over your target for 2s to win" kind of gameplay encourages any more teamplay.

Quite the contrary, with low TTK, you are gonna need your friends to cover you or you will not make it out alive when crossing an open area.

I'm not saying that high TTK games wouldn't require teamwork, but it's equally retarded to claim that low TTK games wouldnt require that.

[basti]

Originally Posted by Coreldan

I fail to see how non-twitchy "keep your crosshair over your target for 2s to win" kind of gameplay encourages any more teamplay.

Quite the contrary, with low TTK, you are gonna need your friends to cover you or you will not make it out alive when crossing an open area.

I'm not saying that high TTK games wouldn't require teamwork, but it's equally retarded to claim that low TTK games wouldnt require that.

Exactly.

Those who say that a faster game with stuff like hitboxes (HITBOXES, NOT OSOK HEADSHOTS! GET THAT ALREADY!) kills teamwork just have no clue.

Ive played Counter-Strike for years, somewhat succesful. I also played COD, battlefield etc. There was more teamwork nessesary in those games than in Planetside, for the basic shooting stuff. What made teamplay in Planetside useful is the fact that you have much more to do than just killing the enemy. And that stuff is coming back, means this time you dont just need your crew to hold a gen down or Maxcrash the living fuck out of the enemy, no, you also need you team to simply gun your way from point A to point B.
And that will be brilliant.