email to John Smedley

[QuantumMechanic]

To be honest this guy struck me as fishy when he started a thread the other week stating "I am a business economics major and HAVE IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO IMPART TO JOHN SMEDLEY ABOUT HOW TO PROFIT FROM A GAME. Give me SOE's address!" (something basically to that effect).

[Sabot]

Nope, he got me in one thread already today, I won't take the bait again... no sir.

[Trafalgar]

Originally Posted by Stew

whiout casual player this game will die soon and servers will all be merge in a LAG fest cluster fuck !

So most of the player base will leave, the game will die, the servers will be merged, and then anyone who didn't leave will be playing in a "LAG fest cluster fuck?" In that order?

[Stew]

Originally Posted by Trafalgar

So most of the player base will leave, the game will die, the servers will be merged, and then anyone who didn't leave will be playing in a "LAG fest cluster fuck?" In that order?

Dalek - Explain! - YouTube

pretty much lol people here need to understand that we need 6000 players in each servers to have a full 2000 players population in a continents and to have a decent level of action !

So the game need massive audiance casual hardcore softcore what so ever !

This isnt a 300 players game !

its designed around 2000 players This is hugeeeeee !

[Trafalgar]

Originally Posted by Stew

So the game need massive audiance casual hardcore softcore what so ever !

Like Game of Thrones?

[Traenor]

You are wrong. There is a couple of things you have misunderstood completely, probably because you only see it from a business perspective and not game design perspective.
1: Alienating the F2P by selling "hardcore" sidegrades. You do not think that it will trouble F2P beginners that P2P users have a larger arsenal? It will.
2: Elegance. This is game design, and means that you try to create as compelling content with as few variables and special cases. As of now, PS2 is elegant, with relatively few variables. This is good, as it makes the game easy to pick up. You will add a giant wall of entry, which will hurt beginners, believe me.
3: You say that LoL is a success contrary to its "casualness". That is wrong. It is a success because it is like facebook. Easy to pick up, and everybody else uses it. If you add your kinds of monetization, fewer wil use it.
4: Sources. I would like to see where you got your different facts, and why you think the equation work out that way.

[ChipMHazard]

I find it somewhat puzzeling that you made yourself write a letter to the president of SOE with regards to "lecturing", not ment in a negative way, him about F2P sales models and how to better design the game to convert more players. I'm rather certain SOE has a fair bit of experience when it comes to converting players to the shop.
I'm sorry but I really don't see the point of writing that letter.
Your suggestion seem like they would be more at home in a beta forum than in a letter to Mr. Smedley.

Oh and I don't think you need to explain what ARPU means in the letter. I'm pretty sure he already knows about KPIs.

[Pella]

For those that cba to read the whole email.

He is basically telling a CEO of Multi million dollar company how to do his job. Totally Based on the obvious ideas from current successful FTP game models.

And to even add to insult, This is backed up by a stupid math formula to blow his mind some more.

This guy needs some social skills first.

[Immigrant]

Ok, in a nutshell I agree that some people (myself included) will be more willing to spend cash if game has more depth (and I believe PS2 will have it), and doesn't concentrate only on instant gratification .. others like instant gratification and devs need to find a good balance. What i dont understand what do you mean by CoDifying the game? This word is thrown a lot and for everybody it means something different... I'm not against modernizing and stepping up the game pace in comparison to PS1.

[AThreatToYou]

@OP:

I am fully invested in the success in PS2, and would like to marginally agree on the point that the depth of a game has little effect on casual players. I can find safety in your math and logic.

However, you appear to be too heavily invested in the economics and not the game design. Running off of examples of titles in specific categories prays on them as total successes or total failures, which is something you do not want to do. World of Warcraft, a financially successful title, has horribly outdated design and its success was created by superior production quality, not on the fact that the game was well-designed; World of Warcraft is honestly a "failure" or "moot point" of a game. League of Legends, on the other hand, runs with intentional design where unintentional elements are squashed or ineffective. Though it is the mark of an amateur, Riot Games has forged a game wrought from iron that does what they want it to, how they want it to, with little options for deviations from what they designed to be effective or ineffective. League of Legends has also been procedurally designed to accommodate less dedicated players, so that the more dedicated players may be accommodated in the absence of less dedicated players. In short, Riot intentionally distinguishes between Casual and Hardcore players. In World of Warcraft, this (was) is not done by design; Casual and Hardcore players can and do run past each other on the way to the Stormwind auction house, and they could, conceivably, intermingle and play together with so much as a "Hello".

PlanetSide 2 is sporting a large open world where Casual and Hardcore players are going to be competing for the same reasons on the same places. It's mechanics are thus far structured to where both Casual and Hardcore players will also be competing with the same tools that express the same amount of power. They are all considered players. These players will pay for the game if they want to; and the reasons for which they would/will/may pay might just be because an Angel told them to. It is evident in the design of Planetside 2 that, when that base is taken or held, it will not matter if anyone payed a single cent. This point signals that the difference between Casual and Hardcore players is not how much money they pay, it is how much and consequently how well they play. Since they are all players, they must all be treated with the same amount of respect or attention (read: content). This is further reinforced by the point that they will all be competing in the same world, and will most definitely be shooting at or aside one another. Separating a design parameter between Casual and Hardcore is extremely redundant when you already have a bunch of players. My experience in large-scale multilayer titles as a player reinforces a truth about casual and hardcore players needing to be functionally identical.

For example, in Tribes 2, "casual" players (read: noobs) would often be relegated to defending the generator, deploying turrets, or repairing things. They do this not because it is wasteful for "hardcore" players to commit to these tasks, but because it's almost all they can successfully do. These are still players, which took up a slot on the server, and contributed to their team. However, Tribes 2 was a financial failure. It just didn't make it. The aforementioned distinguished quality of a casual players experience is why: they were restricted from certain content by player skill. The players were being disrespected by the design of the game, even though it cost absolutely nothing to switch to a Light and start chasing the flag carrier. The content was available, but they couldn't use it. The game had wasted content, and thus, it failed. Sorry, Tribes 2. You were a wonderful game, and you still are, but you made very little money.

My point is that it is absolutely absurd to point content within the existing design of PlanetSide 2 at either Casual or Hardcore players. You, the end user, and SOE, the developer, want PlanetSide 2 to design all content for the player. The player is anonymous. The player just wants to have fun. As far as I understand, you intend to be a player of PlanetSide 2, and thus, you want to have fun playing PlanetSide 2. Your opinion is surely valued regarding how the game ought to be designed toward you, but you forgot! You are just a player; you are anonymous and you just want to have fun. In a video game, content is commonly associated with fun. If the player is not skilled enough to use a particular item effectively, then it is realistically not available to the player. This is flawed design because it wastes content; it wastes fun.

[I SandRock]

Have spambots gained consciousness and are debating each other now? What is this madness?

[Grimster]

Wow, I consider myself fairly smart and no trouble reading wall of texts.

But my brain started melting halfway through that email.

Now I am reduced to a mindless zombie who will spend a eternity eating other peoples brain.

[ChipMHazard]

Originally Posted by Grimster

Wow, I consider myself fairly smart and no trouble reading wall of texts.

But my brain started melting halfway through that email.

Now I am reduced to a mindless zombie who will spend a eternity eating other peoples brain.

Could be worse. Could have ended up a Vanu

[Vanath]

Why share this with us? I might understand sharing the reply but why tell us you sent him an e-mail?

[Sledgecrushr]

That wall'o text hurt my eyes.