AGN: ReachCast Episode 42 CQ - For those of you who still don’t have an outfit, why?

[ReachCast]

This weeks question is ...

For those of you who still don’t have an outfit, why?

as always if you would like to call or email in your answer below is that info

Email us at [email protected]
Call us at (415)787-3224

[Rahabib]

my reasons:

• time commitment. For what little time I have to play these days, I don't want to feel forced to be online constantly, or end up relegated to never have any input. This especially goes for outfits that have internal ranks that promote those who have more free time than others.
• ranks. since I brought it up, its annoying to me to have someone "pull rank" so that you end up never doing what you want to do. When you deviate, even slightly, even though you are still supporting the team, it can be annoying to be yelled out because you didn't "all go heavy" when you are getting sniped to death and wanted to counter snipe (actually happend to me). I am all for utilizing tactics, but you have to let the players perform the roles they are best at. Don't ask a QB to play Safety.
• military mindset. Listen, I didn't join the military for a reason. You probably didn't either. So why then are we pretending this is a real military simulation. I come from a competitive gaming background, and I treat the game like a sport, yes with captains, set positions, etc. However, the treatment of players and officers in some outfits like they are in a real army is a little silly.
• too macro. many outfits seem to play very "macro" and expect an entire platoon to follow one order, which takes out some of the fun of "micro" squad engagements. Some outfits do this right, but only a few I have pub joined do it right.
• Slower pace. I can go where the action is the minute I see it happen, which is much faster than waiting for squad points, waiting for galaxies, waiting for tank columns to line up perfectly, etc. Its also annoying when you are making a good run and then ordered to "redeploy."
• Until MLG comes out, its a pub game. Your actions really don't mean anything in any grand scheme. Not really a knock against outfits, its just that the game really doesn't have a component that requires teams.

I am sure not all outfits are like this. Many will not have all of the points I have listed, but most will have at least a few of these points. I have had a few "tryouts" when PS2 was in beta, when the game was taken way more serious then it is now, so maybe there are some good clans that are more about skill and tactics than social structure and behavior. I am not opposed to outfits at all, I have run my own successful gaming clan for years, and so I see the value in it. I am also interested in MLG, but it seems all the good competitive clans/outfits require more than the 4-8 hours a week I generally put in. So until then I lone wolf it.

since this topic has come up before, I know this is where every outfit posts how they are not like this.

[Fedr]

Because I got kicked out of my old outfit, Waterson Holmes

[OctavianAXFive]

Originally Posted by Rahabib

my reasons:

• time commitment. For what little time I have to play these days, I don't want to feel forced to be online constantly, or end up relegated to never have any input. This especially goes for outfits that have internal ranks that promote those who have more free time than others.
• ranks. since I brought it up, its annoying to me to have someone "pull rank" so that you end up never doing what you want to do. When you deviate, even slightly, even though you are still supporting the team, it can be annoying to be yelled out because you didn't "all go heavy" when you are getting sniped to death and wanted to counter snipe (actually happend to me). I am all for utilizing tactics, but you have to let the players perform the roles they are best at. Don't ask a QB to play Safety.
• military mindset. Listen, I didn't join the military for a reason. You probably didn't either. So why then are we pretending this is a real military simulation. I come from a competitive gaming background, and I treat the game like a sport, yes with captains, set positions, etc. However, the treatment of players and officers in some outfits like they are in a real army is a little silly.
• too macro. many outfits seem to play very "macro" and expect an entire platoon to follow one order, which takes out some of the fun of "micro" squad engagements. Some outfits do this right, but only a few I have pub joined do it right.
• Slower pace. I can go where the action is the minute I see it happen, which is much faster than waiting for squad points, waiting for galaxies, waiting for tank columns to line up perfectly, etc. Its also annoying when you are making a good run and then ordered to "redeploy."
• Until MLG comes out, its a pub game. Your actions really don't mean anything in any grand scheme. Not really a knock against outfits, its just that the game really doesn't have a component that requires teams.

I am sure not all outfits are like this. Many will not have all of the points I have listed, but most will have at least a few of these points. I have had a few "tryouts" when PS2 was in beta, when the game was taken way more serious then it is now, so maybe there are some good clans that are more about skill and tactics than social structure and behavior. I am not opposed to outfits at all, I have run my own successful gaming clan for years, and so I see the value in it. I am also interested in MLG, but it seems all the good competitive clans/outfits require more than the 4-8 hours a week I generally put in. So until then I lone wolf it.

since this topic has come up before, I know this is where every outfit posts how they are not like this.

Nailed it. I'm in the same boat except for the last point about Pubs.

I'd also add that I started playing as TR and by design I'm a bit stuck. Not that I don't like the TR, I chose them because I simply liked their guns the most (though it was a tough call between TR and VS).

That means all outfits I look for are pretty much by default TR because that's who I picked up first and that's where all my purchases have been. (also my muscle memories for recoil patterns are tied to TR weapons by now)

Lastly I'm a bit stuck in my time zone (EST) so my pool of candidates is somewhat smaller than it could be. If I get more free time in the future I'd have a better field of possible candidates.

[LayZ]

Originally Posted by Rahabib

[*]military mindset. Listen, I didn't join the military for a reason. You probably didn't either. So why then are we pretending this is a real military simulation. I come from a competitive gaming background, and I treat the game like a sport, yes with captains, set positions, etc. However, the treatment of players and officers in some outfits like they are in a real army is a little silly.

Heh, I served in the US Army for several years and I find it amusing when civilians who never even took JROTC in high school try to come off like they're in the real military in this game. Some of these guys couldn't make it through MEPS (the initial inprocessing station).

Then there are the guys who say ummmm or ahhh more often than actual commands on teamspeak than try to make a decision. Or can't decide what they want to do (pull MAXes.....oh no, now pull tanks to kill this one guy). But the guy was in the outfit much longer than you and kissed enough ass so any effort to help or correct is futile.

That and time commitments as well. I don't get on till about 8:30-9 PM CST most cases and I'm not dealing with high ping to play on a west coast server.

[Hamma]

I couldn't imagine not having an outfit! I guess I was lucky though I joined mine when I first started gaming online and have been on the same team since. So long that I am now the leader

[Gatekeeper]

Originally Posted by Rahabib

my reasons:

• time commitment. For what little time I have to play these days, I don't want to feel forced to be online constantly, or end up relegated to never have any input. This especially goes for outfits that have internal ranks that promote those who have more free time than others.
• ranks. since I brought it up, its annoying to me to have someone "pull rank" so that you end up never doing what you want to do. When you deviate, even slightly, even though you are still supporting the team, it can be annoying to be yelled out because you didn't "all go heavy" when you are getting sniped to death and wanted to counter snipe (actually happend to me). I am all for utilizing tactics, but you have to let the players perform the roles they are best at. Don't ask a QB to play Safety.
• military mindset. Listen, I didn't join the military for a reason. You probably didn't either. So why then are we pretending this is a real military simulation. I come from a competitive gaming background, and I treat the game like a sport, yes with captains, set positions, etc. However, the treatment of players and officers in some outfits like they are in a real army is a little silly.
• too macro. many outfits seem to play very "macro" and expect an entire platoon to follow one order, which takes out some of the fun of "micro" squad engagements. Some outfits do this right, but only a few I have pub joined do it right.
• Slower pace. I can go where the action is the minute I see it happen, which is much faster than waiting for squad points, waiting for galaxies, waiting for tank columns to line up perfectly, etc. Its also annoying when you are making a good run and then ordered to "redeploy."
• Until MLG comes out, its a pub game. Your actions really don't mean anything in any grand scheme. Not really a knock against outfits, its just that the game really doesn't have a component that requires teams.

I am sure not all outfits are like this. Many will not have all of the points I have listed, but most will have at least a few of these points. I have had a few "tryouts" when PS2 was in beta, when the game was taken way more serious then it is now, so maybe there are some good clans that are more about skill and tactics than social structure and behavior. I am not opposed to outfits at all, I have run my own successful gaming clan for years, and so I see the value in it. I am also interested in MLG, but it seems all the good competitive clans/outfits require more than the 4-8 hours a week I generally put in. So until then I lone wolf it.

since this topic has come up before, I know this is where every outfit posts how they are not like this.

Excellent post, the things you describe there were exactly what put me off outfit-oriented play in PS1 and the reason I've never joined a PS2 outfit.

Mind you, I am getting bored of lone-wolfing - especially since most of my friends have now stopped playing the game. So it's possible I might give an outfit a go, despite my reservations.

[Hamma]

Well, not outfits are that way

[Rahabib]

I forgot one last point. Until server transfer tokens are released, it really limits your choices. I don't really want to start over a new character after 7 months of grind.

[Assist]

Originally Posted by ReachCast

This weeks question is ...

For those of you who still don’t have an outfit, why?

as always if you would like to call or email in your answer below is that info

Email us at [email protected]
Call us at (415)787-3224

I don't find that I need one.

It'd be different if my goal in the game was to login and take a base, or take a continent. But taking bases happens far too often to be a real goal for me, and taking continents doesn't have any meaningful impact on the game.

My goal in the game is to get as many kills as I can while I'm in game. I don't feel like I would get that many more kills if I were in an outfit.

[Kalee J]

I am of two minds here. First I am in an outfit on my primary character, Kalee. However, I also play solo on my secondary character that almost sees as much play time.

The reason is I like to keep options open for my play time. Some times I want to do what Assist does and just try to get as many kills as possible. That is what my secondary NC character is for. And her K/D is over twice what my main's K/D is. She will likely never be in an outfit because I mandate that she's in a never ending search for the next big fight and pays little to no heed to the continental or global state of Auraxis.

However, I enjoy the PS2 unique aspect of continental warfare. So I enjoy playing in an outfit to achieve directed, territory based goals. At the end of the day it's PS2's (and PS1 before it) unique MMO persistent nature that will keep me here for years to come. So I invest more time there.

Effectively, I want to have my cake and eat it too.

[Slackermagee]

At least on Waterson, many of the great outfits run squads that pubs can join. So there's no pressure to always be available when you can join whatever you fancy. Being in a large enough outfit (VDRS) we get kinda the same feel.

.

Aaaaaand of course I can't get it to just start playing at ~50s when the 'lone wolf don't run with the clan' bit starts.

[KaskaMatej]

I have an outfit and if I didn't have it, I would stop playing PS2 all together and uninstall it.

[bpostal]

Originally Posted by KaskaMatej

I have an outfit and if I didn't have it, I would stop playing PS2 all together and uninstall it.

Yep, without my outfit I would have quit this game months ago.

[Palerion]

I agree with Rahabib.

For me, I just don't like dealing with people who take everything too seriously. I'm pretty laid back about everything, and, honestly, you can cap those points as many times as you want, the swing of power will just go back and forth.