It's 2011.. - Page 20

Raymac · 2011-03-29, 03:35 PM

Originally Posted by Madcow

How can you have played Planetside for any period of time and be at all surprised by this?

Surprised? Not really, no. But definitely disappointed.

From what I've read and heard from Smed, he seems like he is a genuine fan of Planetside. It's almost as if he is one of us. So having the CEO of the company in your corner certainly builds alot of optimism.

After, what, like over a month of dead silence, that optimism is starting to fade quickly. I don't think its vaproware, but it wouldn't take much to please us at this point, and we still are getting nothing.

I'm finding myself gravitating back to the upcoming games I was excited about before that Vanguard picture, like SW:TOR and FireFall. Niether is PS:N, but then again PS:N isn't PS:N yet either.

Tikuto · 2011-03-29, 04:40 PM

Originally Posted by GrimReaper

It's an April 1st joke, you'll see.

Nephilimuk · 2011-03-29, 04:57 PM

About The9 Limited

The9 Limited is an online game operator and developer in China. The9 directly, or through affiliates, operates licensed MMORPGs and advanced casual games including Soul of The Ultimate Nation™, Atlantica and Kingdom Heroes 2 Online, as well as its proprietary games World of Fighter and Winning Goal, in mainland China. It has also obtained exclusive licenses to operate other games in mainland China, including Free Realms, Planetside Next and others. In addition, The9 is developing various proprietary games, including Shen Xian Zhuan, FireFall and other MMORPGs and advanced causal games. In 2010, The9 established its Mobile Internet Unit to focus on mobile internet business.

Its in a companies Q3 and Q4 financial report statements - I would say this is a go even if it is not in timelines we like.

Canaris · 2011-03-29, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by Raymac

Surprised? Not really, no. But definitely disappointed.

From what I've read and heard from Smed, he seems like he is a genuine fan of Planetside. It's almost as if he is one of us. So having the CEO of the company in your corner certainly builds alot of optimism.

After, what, like over a month of dead silence, that optimism is starting to fade quickly. I don't think its vaproware, but it wouldn't take much to please us at this point, and we still are getting nothing.

I'm finding myself gravitating back to the upcoming games I was excited about before that Vanguard picture, like SW:TOR and FireFall. Niether is PS:N, but then again PS:N isn't PS:N yet either.

maybe the legal and marketing team told him to hush till they were ready

DviddLeff · 2011-03-29, 05:24 PM

I always wonder about PS and what might have been...

...what if they had a one time payment system like Guild Wars...

...what if the caverns had been a run away success...

...what if the BFRs had been loved instead of loathed...

...would we have seen PS as popular as EVE?

If the devs hadn't dropped the ball over the expansions and made some astonishing blunders with them perhaps we wouldn't even need to be looking forward to PS2.

Raymac · 2011-03-29, 05:54 PM

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

If the devs hadn't dropped the ball over the expansions and made some astonishing blunders with them perhaps we wouldn't even need to be looking forward to PS2.

Yeah. You see some of these really long running successful games, and you see how tremendous Planetside was. I mean people talk about it in a "I was there, man" kind of way. And it makes you wonder exactly what you spelled out.

I think all the things you just named helped contribute to Planetsides decline, but I think it was on its way down already and those just accelerated it.

I just think PS was a little ahead of its time. I just don't think there were enough people that had a strong enough computer and a fast enough internet connection back then to really make PS viable. I used to lag like crazy, but I would look past it because even with the lag, the gameplay was still second to none in my book.

Thats partly why I'm so excited for PS:N. More people should be able to play it with less lag, and after 8 years of a still barely surviving Planetside, there is some name recognition in the gaming press.

Madcow · 2011-03-29, 07:38 PM

Planetside's decline was very slight prior to BFRs. Launch day of that expansion was one of my worst gaming experiences ever, and just showed how out of touch they were at that point. Remember the early near indestructible BFRs being allowed inside the caverns? It was a slaughterhouse for anybody without the cert. That didn't kill the game though, it was their slowness to respond and balance in typical SOE fashion.

I laugh when an item shows up in something like Team Fortress 2 that players complain unbalanced the game. Nothing can compare to that initial BFR nightmare.

Firefly · 2011-03-29, 07:59 PM

About two days ago I had a mate come over and help me with some furniture delivery. I let him run an alt on my Planetside account, and after I ran him through the VR training (I sat side-saddle), he got into the game during a particularly busy outfit session. He, an above-average gamer with an above-average situational awareness of gaming, wanted to know why he had never heard of the game before. This is an all-too-common sad story. Gamers my age who were in their mid-20s when the game came out have never heard of the game. Then they see Youtube footage or hoarded AVI/MPEG files still posted on websites, and salivate at the prospect of something bigger than a 32-person e-sport battle. It really makes me nerd-rage. It really does. I pissed off some SOE marketing dweeb at 2006 Fan-faire because I cannot tolerate the lack of promotion for this game.

Was the game ahead of its time? I'd like to say no. What, exactly, is a game's time? Next to porn and warfare, technology - especially online technology - is driven by gaming. I don't really think that in this day and age, that a game can be ahead of its time. Planetside was incredibly innovative - perhaps the only way it was ahead of its time is that technology to properly play the game was available only to people who could drop a thousand bucks and lived in an area with high-speed internet. The technology was there, it was just really expensive for the average basement-dwelling neckbeard.

And then, of course, SWG and WoW came out - and people who couldn't compete were heading there in droves to PvE their ass off, and craft potions, and gear-whore, and otherwise pretend to be girls. Combined with the Corpse Combat, BFR, and Aftershock/Bending death knell, it's a wonder the game didn't actually tank altogether and force a server shut-down.

But what I can tell you with absolute certainty, is that there are a lot of die-hard people who remember the game's glory days and can still pull in a few converts. Just judging from the people on this forum, plus the poplocks that I've seen in-game, I'd say that's a certainty. That a game this flawed and with such a checkered, storied past can still pull that sort of weight tells me that we have something incredibly precious and powerful.

I used to lag like crazy, but I would look past it because even with the lag, the gameplay was still second to none in my book.

To this day, it's second to none in my book, and I've played some truly awesome games. I fear that SOE has dropped the ball and will break faith with a lot of people if something doesn't happen before April 1st. A lot of people were burned by Planetside's inability to sustain and/or SOE's marketing/PR follies. I daresay they will NOT give SOE a second chance no matter how bad-ass Next may be.

Aractain · 2011-03-29, 08:28 PM

Considering the avalibility of broadband and the framerate issues Id say it was ahead of its time. Limited customer base = failure, right.

Conversly WWII Online was NOT ahead of thier time. The had many many limitations in order to serve a very hardcore niche so thier playbase isn't going to get far above what they had then until they make the game more accessible (which they are... slowly...).

I think Planetside is capable of multiple hundreds of thousands which is not at all unrealistc if done correctly.

Geist · 2011-03-29, 09:53 PM

I only managed to play Planetside for a year before I moved to a non-high-speed-internet accessible town in Washington State, but that year is one of my most cherished memories of gaming that I ever had. Now, SOE is far from my favorite MMO company(they may actually be my most hated company, because of how they treat customers), but if they can make a PS2 that is as fun as the first, with many of the same features and a couple improvements, then I will be happy to pay the monthly subscription.

That is of course depending on if SOE can release PS2 at all. They seem to be going through the same problems they had with Planetside in regards to marketing, I mean, it's supposed to be released this year right? Where is a trailer? Info on features, more then 3 pictures, etc... It seems as though they just started PS2 and decided to show off some concept art to get people interested.

I'm beginning to think that early Q1/late Q2 this year was actually 2013/2014.

Rbstr · 2011-03-29, 10:30 PM

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

...would we have seen PS as popular as EVE?

I don't really think that's possible. The games are just very different.
Very few online games include real loss or the depth of economy the EVE has and I think that creates a different kind of player base.
Plus continual dedication on the developers part, not just to adding content but completely reworking mechanics to the point where the game is nearly unrecognizable. They completely re-did all the graphics, they futz with server architecture. They don't do EVE 2, they just keep doing stuff to the old one, and they never charge for it beyond the monthly. SOE hasn't really ever shown signs they're willing to do that.

Quite simply, the things that keep people coming back to EVE would make a really poor shooter...I mean if you got shot and died and lost equipment worth a couple hours worth of work.
It could be crazy interesting to see how suddenly everyone became far more conservative players. But ultimately not that much fun to play.

NKGotMilk · 2011-03-29, 10:34 PM

Smedley tweeted about an hour ago:

http://twitter.com/j_smedley/statuses/52915794992041984

@RachelLovesDogs I have zero idea what you could possibly be referring to.. That was a planetside next meeting.

not yet forgotten, although no real info

krnasaur · 2011-03-29, 10:38 PM

2 days.

Rbstr · 2011-03-29, 11:16 PM

GUYS, GUYS BIG NEWS!

Early second quarter can mean it might be April before we get something worth while!

Plenty of time to get your panties in such a bunch you'll need one of these for extraction:

Seriously...taking the release comment the way many of you have is pants-on-head retarded:
The game. has not. been. officially. announced.
Everything about a potential game-release time frame of the next month (or really any potential game-release date) is so profoundly stupid it makes me wonder how you managed to live long enough to learn how to type. Even months ago when got the first hints it was obvious the game itself wouldn't be released.
The absolute best you could hope for is a beta of some kind.

If you got your hopes up that you might be playing retail Planetside 2, or whatever the fuck they're going to call it, before easter you have nothing to blame but yourself.

Geist · 2011-03-30, 01:58 AM

Originally Posted by Rbstr

If you got your hopes up that you might be playing retail Planetside 2, or whatever the fuck they're going to call it, before easter you have nothing to blame but yourself.

I don't know about everyone else, but my problem has more to do with the fact that Smedley apparently announced that the game would come out this year, when there has been no marketing, 4 screenshots, and not even enough official info about PS2 to fill one of those comment boxes for youtube videos.

Seriously, it reeks of ill-planning on SOE's part.

Edit:

@RachelLovesDogs I have zero idea what you could possibly be referring to.. That was a planetside next meeting.

What he responded to would help with the context.

@j_smedley website/trailer imminent? Confirm/deny? #toughquestions