Planetside 2 is DYING.

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by KoreanGuy98, Nov 7, 2015.

  1. KoreanGuy98

    Before I begin, click this link. http://www.therebelscum.net/world-p...&zoom=5&daterange=1376107200000,1446872400000 Once the world pop tracker loads up, click all worlds (combined) and then all for zoom. It's pretty eye opening, isn't it? On 8/10/2013 at 12:00 am, we had 8,873 players playing on all servers. As of today at 12:00 am, we only had 3,049 players on all servers. Planetside 2 has effectively lost a major portion of its players over the past 2 years. And remember, this game released on 11/20/2012. Therefore, the players lost from 11/20/2012 to 11/7/2015 is greater than the stats shown.

    Now, what does this mean? Three things. First, the game today is different from the game three years ago. After all, many of us old players left the game in disgust as we saw the game we love destroyed by the new changes. On the NC side (Emerald) alone, names such as MadHatta, ToshMi, BulletMit, GoatSack, DVSDelrith, and Kiane do not hold any weight as a new generation of zergfit leaders take their place (More on zergs later). Second, the game does not interest a great number of people anymore. With the lattice system in place, there is a lack of diversification in tactics as the only true way to take a base is to zerg. Any other tactic that does not use a zerg is now obsolete, making a lot of players leave the game. Third, the game is not very fun anymore. Including the whole spiel about zergs from point two, the game itself has not been innovative. Over the past three years, the only major additions to the game are two vehicles, Hossin, the alert system, the lattice system and the victory points. Due to the lack of content, the game degrades itself to a massive team deathmatch when it was a previously an enjoyable strategic video game.

    With all this information presented, the situation of the game is rather bleak. I am not saying it is not bleak. After all, with the current trend, it won't be surprising if Planetside 2 shuts down by the 4th anniversary. However, I am optimistic about the game. With the departure of two developers who shall not be named, the game has an extremely small glimmer of hope. However, Daybreak Games must be decisive if it wants Planetside 2 to continue.

    There are no set ways to keep Planetside 2 alive; the developers are not omniscient. They do not know which path is the correct path. Thankfully, that is why the forums are created. With the forums, the developers have a powerful tool as they can read the players' posts and determine what would be best for both the game and the players. Therefore, I will add my own suggestion or two.

    1. Pander to the old players. Give us a reason to come back. The changes that the developers have added caused a major decrease in numbers as we did not approve of the way the game was going. For example, the lattice system was one of them. We HATED the lattice system as it basically streamlined the game and led to the rise of the zergfits. If there was a major alteration or even the complete removal of the lattice system, then I can assure you that there would be a mass surge of players.
    2. INNOVATION! This is a big one. As I mentioned before, the game has not added a great deal of things in terms of gameplay. If there was an increase of content, then you would see an influx of players. However, I do not mean weapons in terms of content. I am talking about continents and vehicles. I know that it would be completely unrealistic for an immediate addition of content by tomorrow. However, if there was an increase of quality content over the course of 2016, then many people would stay indefinitely.
    As a final note, I know that I am focusing on the old players; I am a player who has played since release. However, from the way I can see it, there are a lot more old players than new players (remember that statistic from the beginning?). Therefore, if you, the developers, can entice us old players back, then the game would be fun for everyone as the new players can learn from the old players and the old players see that Planetside 2 is becoming more like the game they loved so dearly three years ago. Therefore, I hope that you, the developers, can see this and truly take these thoughts of mine into consideration. Thank you.

    P.S. As for you players, voice your thoughts. I won't mind constructive thoughts or suggestions. As long as there is no trolling. Finally, thanks for reading this long rant of mine! :)
    • Up x 8
  2. TacoMasters(PS4)

    Oh great, another "Planetside 2 is dying" thread. Like I haven't seen a 190049595996070019390049560099923394025 billion of those before.
    • Up x 14
  3. GrenadeShark

    As an Alpha Squad member, I can attest to most of what is said above. Granted, my issues are different as I am a Pilot first and foremost. Therefore lattice doesn't really effect me much. But the flight change along with the constant introduction of skill less weapons such as lockons of all sorts has made me quit for large periods of time.

    Truthfully though, this game needs fresh blood. And a lot of it.
    • Up x 6
  4. oberchingus

    I don't think the game is dying. I think the veteran player interest is dying. Directives were a last ditch effort for players to do something, but once auraxiumed - what's next?
    • Up x 3
  5. Pikachu

    http://sirisian.com/planetside2/population.php
    2015 july 10th 8pm there were 5700 players.
    2013 march 2nd 8pm there were 22000 players.

    When I tired to log in 23rd november 2012 my server LithCorp was full. There were 13 servers total. Indar, Esamir, Amerish.
    • Up x 3
  6. KoreanGuy98


    Ah, thank you for the clarification! I myself thought that the numbers were a little iffy. Well then again, those were the numbers taken at the midnight, so it should make sense that less people were playing at the time. Regardless, the numbers have dramatically decreased, which leads to GrenadeShark's observation!

    I agree that we need fresh blood as well. However, how can we gain fresh blood if the game itself is dying. That is why I am emphasizing on focusing on the old players first. As Planetside 2 gains more of the older players, many people would be gain interest in Planetside 2 as they see that the game has gotten better again. Therefore, we would gain an influx of both new and old players, if that makes any sense (It's essentially like a domino effect).
  7. Scr1nRusher

    Multiple AAA FPS games are coming out.


    Halo 5

    Call of duty BO3

    Fallout 4

    SWBF2.
    • Up x 1
  8. KoreanGuy98


    I can see how that could affect Planetside 2 populations. However, Call of Duty is, bluntly, a rehash of the same game every single year, so we wouldn't lose many people to that. Halo 5 is an xbox exclusive. Not many people would be lost as Planetside 2 is only a PC and PS4 exclusive. The only real strong contenders are Fallout 4 and SWBF2. However, both of those games are vastly different as Fallout 4 is both a first person and third person shooter with a focus on rpg elements while SWBF2 has a focus on multiplayer fps that is not open world. Therefore, Planetside 2 would not lose much of its players at all.
    • Up x 1
  9. RainbowDash9

    the way i see it, the more veteran players you bring back, the more difficult you make it to get said fresh blood. they shouldnt pander to anyone period.
    i mean yea make it easier to get new player in, but dont pander to them. they just need to continue to add in new and original content, then both will come.
    • Up x 5
  10. KoreanGuy98

    I can agree with that. I mean, I guess I got the pander to old players because I myself am an old player, as mentioned before. Therefore, I guess you can say that I am leaning more towards us older guys rather than the new guys. Regardless of the fact, yes, I can see that an increase in quality content would entice both new and old players back into the game, causing an influx in server populations.
  11. PKSpark

    Ants have to be pushed fasta in ordrer to draw the casuals into the game
  12. KoreanGuy98

    Yes, they need to release the ant quickly. However, they'll need to release with as little bugs as possible. In previous updates, many bugs that came with the updates caused many players to be angry. This is due to the fact that bugs constantly appeared, lowering the quality of the Planetside 2 updates. Therefore, this lowered the player population even further.
  13. Atis

    You are dying too, just like me, lets run around screaming in terror, or wait, I know, lets scream about dying videogame.

    On a srs note - devs dont read forums much, if at all, devs dont have resources for new continents, existing continents are mostly empty, new continent would be slightly different pile of same ****.

    What we really need is a new things to DO. i dont mean directives and other useless collectibles, I mean something related to huge combined arms combat. New abilities for all classes, new cert lines, new tools, really original weapons, new mechanics etc. I know about ant and buildable stuff, but by the time it will be implemented and tweaked to working condition we'll lose more ppl. We need way more new stuff very fast, while we can sustain big fights at least at 1 continent in primetime. Only way to do that in time is to implement mechanics which dont require much assets and use unfinished features for scrap parts.

    I bet 5 certs you haven't seen exactly that number of such threads.
  14. ColonelChingles

    That just means that PS2 can't survive by simply being an FPS game. As far as being an FPS game goes, PS2 is fairly middling. It's not as arcadey as Borderlands or Doom, but it's also not as tight as STALKER or ARMA (or even Battlefield for that matter). It's a bit too much run-and-gun and RNG to be taken as a top-tier FPS in its own right.

    Some have said that PS2 could be a "large" FPS game, which would differentiate it from other games which are more instanced and arena-like. So far though that hasn't worked. Maybe because of Redeployside, as for many purposes PS2 is essentially an arena-based game, where you fight at a base for a certain amount of time, redeploy, and fight at a different base for a certain amount of time. There's not much connection between bases and the land in between is essentially meaningless. Lattice lanes really only are akin to map lists found in other arena shooters.

    And when PS2 goes toe-to-toe against other arena shooters for people who are looking for arena shooters, that's a problem.

    For example, compare PS2 to ARMA 3. Now the data below should not be taken to try and show that in total numbers these ARMA has more players than PS2, because of course many PS2 players do not use Steam at all. Additionally another difference is that PS2 is F2P, while ARMA is not. But what you should look at from the chart are the different shapes that PS2 (blue) and ARMA 3 (green) have.

    [IMG]

    A "good" game like ARMA will actually grow in popularity, starting off low and picking up as popularity spreads through word of mouth. I mean sure PS2 is undermarketed, but I would suspect ARMA 3 would have been in the same boat. Anyhow, ARMA rises with spikes in what I assume to be sales, but the most important thing is that such spikes have a lasting effect. But it's also important to see the drop that ARMA sees towards late April 2015, which is probably caused by technical bugs introduced through a patch. If the Devs break the game and cause inconvenience to players, it will HURT the game significantly.

    So look at PS2's curve. Slight bump between December 2012 to January 2013, which was caused by the winter events. But it doesn't really retain players, as it drops soon after. Slight bump again around January 2014 and January 2015, but that's about it really. Otherwise PS2 is on a steady decline in popularity. No major bumps (elasticity) either, even with events. What this suggests is that many people tried it and then dropped off, and that PS2 is unable to generate enough interest or buzz to keep those numbers up.

    And again, most likely because PS2 isn't really... stellar in any particular way.
    It's a middling FPS game (compared to CoD or Battlefield).
    It's a poor-to-middling tank and aircraft game (compared to World of Tanks and Warthunder).
    It's a poor-to-middling "MMOFPS" game (only rules because there are no competitors).

    Apart from being free and unique, there aren't that many draws to PS2 sadly.
    • Up x 2
  15. Scr1nRusher


    Lets hope the ANT does something magical.
  16. DeadlyPeanutt

    how about fixing the balance problems that already exist? like the 80-20% battles and the flipping HA with his glowy win button?

    5 certs? bit cheap, ain't you?
  17. Atis

    Pop balance is unattainable without some stupid restriction, like instancing. In good MMORPG zerg is balanced with AoE and team skills, organized team can beat 3x more ppl even if individually players are mediocre. But in PS2 that would require full combat rehaul, not gonna happen.

    HAs dont disturb balance in mass battle, only in small encounters, so when you QQ about HA's balance you are part of problem, which is shoveling devs with small problems instead of core ones.
    In short - fock balance of small things, add new systems, new mechanics, they will shatter balance anyway, then bother with fixing balance. We don have time to worry about small stuff, which is gonna be broken with any meaningful addition.

    I think, after whole game paradigm changes from "hundreds of headless chickens doing run and gun" to "armies fights over continents", nerfing HA's shield wont be a problem, mass-battle oriented players simply wont care enough to defend some shabby iwinduels button.

    I dont want to ruin your budget. Not completely at least.
  18. Movoza

    I skimmed your post, but I always shudder at the misconceptions and mistakes in these posts.

    First. Any game is bestowed a certain amount of time. Generally this means a bell curve. First a few trying it out, then gaining popularity, then the popularity reduces over time as people get bored or see better/other alternatives. Only so many people like the form of this game, so it isn't weird if we exhausted all our interested people after all these years. In a society that demands nearly yearly upgrades, this game lags behind. It isn't sold as new, so it doesn't retain all the players.

    Simply put, the reason the game is dying would be time, not any "reason" you make it up to be.

    Second, it is convenient to blame change on something you didn't like, but I remember the days before the lattice. Plenty of zergs there, I can tell you that. The difference was that there was a lot of ghost capping. Unexpected drops in areas where people weren't inclined to go, that kind of stuff. Basically there where a few zergs going past each other, some ghost caps and few real fights. Yes there was a fight always somewhere, but so many weren't attacking anything with a real opposition. I remember the huge tank columns that departed from the warpgates to roflstomp on everything until they clashed with another zerg. The lattice was a welcome change, as witnessed in the first few months where people would fight on latticed contenents only, mostly avoiding the no lattice continents. The lattice might be too strict, but it is still a step up from before.

    Secondly, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?
    They added 2 continents, 3 if you also count Esamir. They added a boatload of weapons and vehicles. In the meantime they made the experience more equal between players on many graphic settings, they fixed many latency issues. QoL changes a plenty, making medics a better choice. Every single class got extra stuff, except maybe the light assault who only got some changes.
    Now there is the victory point system to change the alert systems (which was first only bio/tech/amp, then continent and bio/tech/amp, which was changed to continents only, and now alerts are a part of the victory point system). This was on the critique for the too powerful alerts. Even the bonusses changed.
    Furthermore there is a lot of innovation and change forthcoming. ANTS, building systems, different harvesting.... A lot of changes have been discussed and made after Daybreak took over. No innovation? Simply one thing. HAHA.

    That there was so much change and you think it is the same game is actually something that needs to be applauded. It is very difficult to do. That you don't agree with some change is bad, but saying the game is dying because of it? Not really. Right now the game is in a phase where it can gain its second bell curve, but likely smaller. Better retention of (new) gamers might inflate it once more to some heights, but don't expect much. Although the game is far from dead, there is little that can be done to stop the reduction of the player base. The game WILL die and that is nearly impossible to stop without a new version (PS3) to respark interest like COD, BF and even World of Warcraft are doing. Which only extents the life, but doesn't stop the dying. Look at UT and Quake, names that seemed to live bigger with every iteration, but suddenly.....
    • Up x 1
  19. Atis

    What change? Crap you listed in good game would all fit in 1 expansion pack and have some more on top. QoL and fixes are repairing what DEVS broke, not innovation.

    Resource revamp p2 is "forthcoming" for like a year, should we count that innovation too?

    You talk like starving kid from slums who got in macdolads: "Whoa, 10 kinds of sandwiches with actual meat! Best food place evah!!" Terminal stage of "don't know better", I guess.
  20. TheFlamingLemon

    Water is wet
    • Up x 1