open beta coming - Page 4

Cyan8313 · 2003-03-25, 08:55 PM

For me to download 3 gig would take just over 5 hours... it would take at least 2-3 days to get the cd...
And there are sites that specialize in uploading things to ppl like fileplanet and 3dgamers etc...
If they make a cd (in open beta) you will moast likly have to pay for it, 10$ perhaps to cover shipping and the cost of the cd..

Remember beta testing is a privilege not a right.

C

TheAvantGawk · 2003-03-25, 09:35 PM

SJ said that 1. Open beta will be mailed and 2. They're trying to keep it free for the testers.

TRscpd · 2003-03-25, 09:39 PM

open beta is CDs they well mail you the CDs they dont want to have download cuz it takes alot more money to have servers up and ppl downloading it.

mr_luc · 2003-03-25, 09:42 PM

Originally posted by mr_luc
I would be surprised if DLing is an option.

3GB of transfer . . . 50,000 downloads . . .

150 TB of transfer. That gets expensive.

(Ok it won't be 50,000 but you get the idea).

^^ page 1

TheAvantGawk · 2003-03-25, 09:51 PM

I have a dream that my teammates and I will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the age of their characters but by the extent of their mad skillz.

great writing up there by the way, mr_luc.

p.s. noticed everyone's posts up there, and it seemed like people were still unsure about whether or not beta will cost. seemed like it needed a smidge of clearing up, if only a smidge. just in case any of your last response was for me. no

here.

mr_luc · 2003-03-25, 09:58 PM

Nah, just wanted to add my voice to the throng of other right people. Then I remembered that I already 'said' it, so I copy/pasted instead of typing.

Because, after a long day of coding and documenting (heh, and wh0ring forums so that you can get away from it), your fingers get tired.

TheAvantGawk · 2003-03-25, 10:00 PM

It's refreshing to see someone NOT get flamed for a misinterpretation, especially when that someone is yourself.

mr_luc · 2003-03-25, 10:51 PM

This board has a relatively high number of tribes players and ex-tribes-players -- I think that, for FPS fans, we tend to be a little more polite/intelligently uncivil than average. Of course, it's nowhere near most RPG communities.

Oh, and thanks everyone for the kind words. I think the PS community is shaping up to be extremely successful and vibrant, which is why I wanted to get involved with it. Lots of communities spring up for other unreleased games, but this one is free from the majority of their evils. I see a lot more new gamers, and 'one-gamers' -- people that aren't jaded, shallow hedonists that blaze through every new game, proclaim it a disappointment, and move on quickly.

The blend here is very unique because the lure of the game is unique. The lure is that of an FPS, but the llamas flee from the game because of its very nature -- it's secure, so no warezing it, it's pay-to-play and persistent so that gets rid of the mindless kids with no attention span -- "Why pay for something that I can just lost my train of thought I like pie and guns and oooh pr0n!".

And yet, the skills-based nature of the game, the lack of a protective coccoon in the gameworld, and the lack of even the simplest 'quest' or storytelling elements help lose the people that try to build their elitist pseudointellectual role-playing cliques.

And while, on the one hand, I am typing out SOE's worry list (that Planetside will not draw enough other gamers), I am also describing what will, in the end, being more people to the game.

Everquest has proven that people need escapism. It also proved that those seeking escapism often actually prefer a world where there IS hard work to do, where the game might be thankless and frustrating and take a lot of time for even the simplest things -- AS LONG AS IT'S FAIR, as long as some asshole can't come along and tear it all away, as long as their world -- their fake world -- can't come crumbling down around them, and where they will at the very least never go backwords, never get worse.

In fact, if there was enough 'content' to accomodate them, the Everquest crowd would gladly play up to level 2000.

That's nice, good for them.

But Dark Age of Camelot proved something else.

People don't just want security, safety, and the chance to 'live' in peace and be masters of their own fate. They also want competition. DAoC was definitely an experiment, and because of this it retained many elements from EQ. However, even the traditional elements of the game are extremely competitive because of its faster nature. Levelling is almost a sport in DAoC at the high end.

However, the competition -- the player-player competition, the real competition, the Realm vs Realm combat in DAoC has disappointed many players and turned many away.

Why?
Most commonly:

1) The levelling takes too long to get to PvP.
2) PvP sucks.

Those are the number 1 and number 2 reasons why people quit DAoC -- or the reason they want to. Escapist gaming, the ability to go somewhere else and game even when you aren't hopped up and excited about it like in a shooter, is like a drug (as anyone that has ever played these games can attest to). But I know many, many Tribes players that started DAoC and still play it even though they are very unhappy with it -- because they need their 'persistent fix'. They wish they could still enjoy normal FPS games, but they need the persistent world aspect of it.

It's lazy gaming, not escapism. When a map ends and you start over at zero, for a HUGE part of the gaming population, that is not a good thing. Maybe they weren't winning score-wise -- but the popularity of multiplayer TEAM-BASED games proves that being number 1, and then game over, start over, doesn't necessarily scratch the right itch for gamers.

I think a lot of gamers just want to keep playing. Planetside will let them do that -- and how.

And those gamers, the gamers that are attracted to Planetside, are going to be that breed of player that understands and is attracted to team-based games on some level, that understands teamwork -- but that also enjoys the thrill, the excitement, the SATISFACTION of competing against other human beings, instead of wasting hours and hours of their life playing against machines, talking to other Lost Souls.

And that may well be the difference that emerges with the new wave of MMOG's -- a new breed (or market) of players. We are gamers that want a game to fill the hours of our lives that are not otherwise occupied. We don't mind if it intrudes on our life, disrupts it a bit. We don't mind that it furnishes us with an escape of sorts, a place to spend our 'downtime'. But generally speaking, we don't WANT Planetside to SUPPLANT our Real Life -- we just want it to be an enjoyable part of it, something that sits alongside it, that coexists peacefully.

And say what they want to about their games, we all know that games like Everquest and Ultima Online have a tendency to BECOME your life. Planetside, we all hope, will be different.

TRscpd · 2003-03-25, 10:53 PM

i stoped half way of reading it got boring and am too lazy

mr_luc · 2003-03-25, 10:55 PM

That's funny, TRscpd.

Originally posted by mr_luc
it's pay-to-play and persistent so that gets rid of the mindless kids with no attention span -- "Why pay for something that I can just lost my train of thought I like pie and guns and oooh pr0n!".

Was that intentional?

JonnyK · 2003-03-25, 10:56 PM

damnit you people need to learn how to summarize, i might acutally read more posts if they weren't a 5 page essay!

mr_luc · 2003-03-25, 10:59 PM

Yeah that waxed poetic a bit. But I write stuff like that every now and then, hoping that the devs will read it, slap themselves in the forehead, and say "YE GODS! WE NEED THIS MAN IN BETA, STAT!"

Alias · 2003-03-25, 11:17 PM

I enjoy a long read; especially when it's interesting and I can agree with it. As I did with much of mr_luc. Especially quitting reasons for DAoC. #1 reason was why I quit, but what helped it was watching my brother who quit for #2. I started so I could get to the PvP, saw him PvP and was like, that's it?... Pff.

If it makes you feel even slightly better about writing long posts, I support them, even moreso than short one-liners. Sometimes it takes a book to get the message across.

Matuse · 2003-03-26, 07:06 AM

I was lucky enough to quit DAOC during beta, and didn't have to waste money finding out what a POS that game was.

Revulsion · 2003-03-26, 07:10 AM

Originally posted by Matuse
I was lucky enough to quit DAOC during beta, and didn't have to waste money finding out what a POS that game was.

DAOC has held me over for a very long time. Sadly I was in beta and didn't see what the game was