Identity Crisis

::::WARNING:::: large rant incoming!

These last few big updates have really drawn blood from the wound that began in the days of Beta.

The Playerbase, to me, cannot rightly identify what Planet Side 2 is really supposed to be.

Is it a Mil-Sim?

Is it a Sand Box Shooter?

Is the only thing different about it than every other AAA FPS is that it's huge and online?

All of these clashes:
Solo Play vs Team Play
Balance 1v1 vs Balance Faction vs Faction
Asymmetric design vs Symmetric design
Choosing where and how you play vs adapting to Metagame and Macro Progression

Even on the in game coms, peoples perceptions are rife with mislead identity. .. and really, can we blame them?
Nope.

PS2 is in this awkward state where it keeps trying to reward the standard crowd AND the niche crowd and as a result it's almost like it's killing it for EVERYONE. Both sides. Not just one or the other.

People who want smaller fights in tight bases... isn't their better titles for that?
People who require Co-op and organized team play... isn't their better titles for that too?
PS2 is like a jack of all trades. It's got a little bit of everything! It just doesn't do any one of them all that great.


With the last big update (Hossin and Cont-Locking), the crap is flying again. People cannot "pick" their maps. Which only makes me think that those users are obviously used to Lobby based FPS multiplayer like your standard AAA titles (MoH, CoD, BF). Yet those who want the opposite of that, can't seem to ever enjoy it because "NERF EVERYTHING" and continent locking is mainly accomplished through alerts; making actually "Earning" a lock feel very shallow and arbitrary.

So whos right? Who's wrong?

I don't think any player here is wrong at all. Sure, no player is perfect. I get sick of players who join a game and then whine about how it should be just like this other title (seriously, wtf, don't we all hate that guy?).
But, we as PS2 players? Everyone has been mislead. I can't even describe PS2 to my friends. It's hard. It's hard to talk it up in any way. Everyone says the same things. "You die a lot. Be a medic, get certs. Once you get some gear, follow orders".
Wow. That's... a great intro. It's basically saying "First its going to suck and it's going to continue to suck until you grind your *** off to get some better gear to where you at least hit a KDR of 1.0". Jeebus. Sounds like work.

Why not something like PS1?

"It's like a full scale war. You HAVE to work together! You can fly CAS, you can siege with artillery or tanks, you can infiltrate with Spec-Ops style infantry classes. You can run supplies to a base to keep it fed so your faction can still spawn there, you can starve enemy bases as well. You can conquer whole continents and then push invasions into the next! All in Combined Arms!"

For PS2, I can say how it's huge, . . . . and that's about it? "Co-op" is still a very voluntary thing. And no, saying "EVERYONE GET AA!" doesn't really go far enough. In BF you can do the same thing. My old work buddies do "Organized Play" on CoD. There is nothing PS2 has that really differentiates itself. It never goes the distance. You never rely on Engineers ENTIRELY to break through a Door because it was hacked or something special. You're never rewarded or even get tools remotely close to BF4 or ArmA for being a Leader. Nothing. It's all just "Voluntary". It's only due to the chaos that it behooves you to be in groups. Why? Because if you die, maybe a nearby medic will ress you or that MAX you were running behind will block most of the shots aimed for your head. You're there, you're running. You're just looking for that perfect "Fish ina Barrel" situation where a bunch of Infantry is all lined up mowing down your allies because they keep stupidly pouring through a choke with no worry because respawning means literally nothing.

I can more easily Identify PS2 with Farmville. I'm just happy that there at least some cool outfit that make operations "feel" like "Yeah! This is how the game should be all the time!". When you DO volunteer for organized play; it's amazing, but this can happen in ANY FPS.

So, we can lock continents now and I know that's only phase 1; things may change. But, these things should've been there from the beginning. The Meta Game, the MacroSide; the very thing that Planet Side 1 had and still has that no other game does? It's still not really there. It's getting close, it just almost feels too late. SOE not picking a niche and just sticking with it from the very beginning screwed themselves. We've got as many players now that we would've had if we managed to keep the Beta Crowd; mainly vets of PS1, ArmA and other Co-op PVP tac-shooters.
Only if you kept that crowd? You'd have a very loyal playerbase because they'd be playing a game that they could actually Identify and truly bond with. You may even have gotten more subs that way.

*sigh*

I don't want to alienate the lone wolves, the solo players or the guys who'd rather play on Indar. I think it's obvious that I'm one of those guys who supports a game that actually embraces it's sense of Scale through Meta and Macro game design. But, I'm happy to game with any one. I just wish that the game wasn't trying to be a freaking PRODUCT and instead was just some good old fashioned Game Design; a risk taken, niche filling, art driven game.
Anyone who's done design knows, you can't please everyone. It's impossible. This is Art, this is entertainment. It's entirely subjective. You cannot please EVERYONE at all. All you can do, is focus on that one idea that makes you; the designer, most happy. It seems selfish at first but trust me - after 16 years, I know. You'll always have that cult crowd appear. They'll follow your designs everywhere. It's their "Niche" as much as it is yours.

That's how classics are made. I just hope PS2 still has "classic" written somewhere in it's future.

Nice rant. I read all of it, some bits twice.

How do you see Planetside 2 going then? I wish I knew, but I'm not clever enough to cogitate about this kind of stuff. I'll be here to the bitter end though, when all the servers have been merged into one. Unless someone can come up with something similar.

I don't do well with the BF, CoD, MW style of games. I'm just not good enough. So I certainly won't be able to fall back on those kinds of titles when PS2 goes t i t s up.

Anyway, yeah, nice rant there dood

each players philosophy is his own and any disagreements are irrelevant.

youre free to do what you want here. once people quit worrying about others and tend their own yard they can see that this game and all other MPs are up to the community on an individual basis to find whats fun for them within the lifespan of the game.

Spewing doom and gloom about the game dying doesnt matter because PS2s fate is the same as all other games, as is yours and mine.


to eventually die............................... have fun while you can friends

If you throw everyone's eventual death into the equation, the only result I get is "LOG OFF".

You know like "You have one hour to live. What are you gonna do ?"

If you answer "Play PS2!", I'll feel sorry for you.

Indar's locked anyway...

i think you may be a bit too young to understand the analogy for what it is. repost when your hormones dont influence your words so greatly

also why post all that and then reply acting as if you dont care anyway.


you need 300 words to not care?

Too young ? I don't think so... My daughter and son might be though...

It's a war game (read: game, not simulator) where you get to play as a foot soldier. My dream game, to say the least.

I actually think PS2 will be looked back on as a classic. It is a genre defining game(MMOFPS), it achieved things games in the past only dreamed of achieving(massive 2000+ player battles), and it has had a healthy population of devoted/obsessed fans for over 2 years. It also produced one of the most watched online game streams of all time(Waterson/Mattherson Server Merge)

It's easy to get caught up in the things that can drive you crazy in game, but to say PS2 isn't a classic game seriously downplays its achievements.

I try not to define what exactly this game is, but if forced I would say it is a "massive multiplayer combined arms sandbox war game."

When my friends ask what it is, I tell them it is a" FPS that you can also drive tanks and fly planes in. It is a large persisting war where your factions goal is to take control of the planet"

Doesn't that sound about right to you? Why are you so confused about the game that it is difficult to describe to people? In fact, your description of PS1 is actually perfect for PS2, minus the resources.

I just tell people that "ITS AWESOME"

And I find that that is very accurate.

All of this isn't true.

Well it's half true. 2000 player battles killed the server and performance regularly, the cap got significantly lowered (some say 1200). The population is "devoted" but stagnating, PS4 might remedy to this. As for Mergesmash, it's unheard of.

It's almost depressing to say, but PS2 missed the opportunity to be the one true FPS that crushed everything under its heel.

The things that drive me crazy in game aren't trite matters. It's the core design of the game, or the lack of, mistakes committed since its very inception on the drawing board. PS2 is much, much less solid than PS1, with overall less original content.

It's not just bitter vet talk. At the end of the day most people will remember PS2 for it's "wow factor", while PS1 will be remember for it's never equaled complexity in the FPS genre.

I'll tell you EXACTLY what Planetside 2 is. It's actually very simple.

It.....is......F U N.

That's it, no more, no less. People need to quit worrying about how to classify it, and just log in and play. If you label it, you're going to get pissed because some other game in the same category you just put PS2 in with, will be doing certain things better.

PS2 is its own category. Does that make it a jack of all trades? Sure it does. Which is awesome. There's something for everyone here. Granted other game do certain things better than PS2, but no other game combines all of these things like PS2 does.

Say you like armor. Maybe World of Tanks does armor better. But there you're playing armor only with a small grp of armor only players. Here your playing with armor fanatics, air fanatics, infantry armchair warriors, and complete crazy off the rails nutcases like me

Dont pigeonhole PS2, just enjoy it for what it is. A game that does everything at once, all wrapped up in a size and scope never seen before.

Very nice read since you actually formatted it well (unlike other people) but I need to disagree with you.
The 'identity' of PS2 is exactly what you described as a problem: a bit of everything.
Nothing else out there offers that.

It's "Farmville"... with guns and a strict hierarchy.

Most infantry<MAX<Light Vehicles<ESF's<Liberators

Instead of Peas you farm noobs or those below you in the hierarchy.

Nothing more.

Spot on, perfect, couldn't have said it better myself.
You summarized some of the underlining truths that cast light on the game problems everyone feels, but not everyone can name or identify.
This article isn't a rant, it's 'the' Planetside 2 description. Review you might say. The best put together I've seen so far.
I don't mean to sound pessimistic, I don't write it with a bitter taste at all. I simply just wished the game mattered to me more, I didn't miss it when my system drive died a month ago. It's funny how high skill and yet ridiculously casual the game is. It's... confusing.

I wanted to thank everyone's input. This was just a rant. Wasn't really expecting much of a response at all really.

I understand why people might not see it as shallow as I do and I feel the same that others do, obviously. In every game there is always going to be rifts between players but to have rifts like this? It screams "It works for me, I think". So unsure.

Don't get me wrong. I actually still have a BLAST with this game. I game every night when I can. Sometimes I take 3 days off, sometimes I play every night when I get home. It is fun; but all of my fun hinges on finding a good platoon that isn't there to just farm. And that's rarer than you think. I've since left my Outfit because I usually only saw 20-25 people online out've the 1.6k that the roster has.
Between school, work and kids I'm sure a lot of us cannot get in the time they used too. I know the feeling. I'm prepping for school myself, I'm working with a new High Price Point product launch at my job and my first daughter is only 10 months so she's a handful. However, despite the relative understanding I have with other fellow parents, students and employees out there; I know that most of who'm I used to game with left the game because it left no lasting impression on them to keep them coming back.
I get online out've pure hope.

Please note that my rant if obviously just pure opinion but it does have some validity behind it. I've knowledge of the industry, schooled for it and have been an artist for over 16 years. My comment about "Can't please everyone" is very true. You could make something please A LOT of people, sure. You tend to do this by making it simple, clear cut, stream lined or as some would say "dumbed down". As a musician, this is exactly why Hip Hop is generally so popular. It's not complicated at all. And science has proved that yes, pretty much 90% of all hip hop does in fact, sound the same. (I'll look for the article if you're interested).
The issue comes when the people want more. Because you made your art work so simplistic? It has no depth or lasting impression to keep them interested for long. Oh, yes. They love you. However, they only love you enough if you keep supplying them content. Smash out Transformer Sequels, create Hip Hop albums twice a Year, have a dual developer team releasing a CoD EVERY year in sync with each other (BO one year, CoD the next).

Just look at PS2 right now. We're all screaming for more to be added to the game because it's just not enough. It's just not.

Yes.

This may be it's one true identity - "It's a little bit of everything".

But it still stands that the game isn't good at any of those things it presents. It's not good at meta, the FPS Shooter suffers due to TTK being so low versus the hit-reg and lag issues (probably tick rate). Vehicle bugs galore. Poor base capture mechanics and arbitrary macro mechanics such as a TIMED ALERT deciding who gets booted off a continent (uh... what? who decided this?). The fact that we cannot decide as a community if we want Asymmetric Balance or Symmetric only is just frightening.

The game is fun, none-the less. But as old school gamer who's done some schooling, designed mods on his own and still does creative work... I can't help but wish things were better.

Right now, I'm just settling for PS2 because "It's all that's out there..."

Again, mostly opinion. Thanks for the responses guys

Your one old wise man of the game?

I want this game to improve, not sugar-coat it and give my money to lazy people.

haha... I may be old, but not so wise methinks


Further, I feel a bit for the peeps who want more from this game, more for this game. I guess I'm lucky in that I only play PS2 much like my missus plays Tetris on her DS... It helps me escape a little... (except I escape for four hours at a time LOL)

That might be a bonus

If only you played on Miller NC, I'd so beg you to join our outfit.