Before you throw the new owners completely under the bus I suggest you look here: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Sony-Online-Entertainment-Reviews-E21279.htm They had were more than justified to clean house. Things will change and for the better, I'm sure DBG understands the concept of F2P games and micro transactions way better than SOE ever will. SOE $25 name changes, $10 helmets, $5 Camos and over priced weapons, these aren't micro transaction prices. I wouldn't be surprised if the revamped the pricing model to bring it in line with other F2P games and actually generate revenues that will be used for development to get more players in the games. SOE made no real content for this game other than adding one new continent. As I have said before in 3-6 months this game will get back on track.
Well... I sure do hope you are right. Looking back, I have spent about 350 bucks on this game. I have 51 days playtime. That means I spent about 29 cent per hour gaming. Seeing as I have bought AAA titles for 50 bucks that had content for 10 hours I'd say that was money well spent. If they bring this game back on track and sustain it for a long time, then I will start spending money on it again and I will keep doing it. And as my past spending shows - I am willing to do it, not only making empty promises.
Similar complaints have been around for years as people left. I wondered about one or two surprises in the layoffs, but office culture can make things messy. While it seems unfortunate now, it does open up the possibility of better management and direction coming. There was one senior management name that oversaw all this and didn't correct it, his remaining doesn't scream coming improvement though. I still have a couple of months on my annual renewal, though I haven't really played anything from SOE for a couple of months. From this side, all we can do is hope for the best and see what happens.
Personally I'm glad he is gone. I have never really agreed with Higbys vision for PS2. Maybe now they can bring in a new lead that knows what Planetside is really about, and not this COD/Battlefield clone he wanted.
Can hear it now: "Yo, Dimitri, Vladov over in Moscow is hacking our game again, go take care of it!!" "hey KGB, we have a code red situation in Siberia! Hackers getting into PS2 again!" CN/Renova have a lot of resources at their disposal. We can only hope....
Daybreak ought to clean house if they haven't done so already. Go find the guy who did all the early concept art for Planetside 2 and redesign things to be badass rather than lame faction color schemes on vehicles and on EVERYTHING else in the game. I feel most devs, (and I believe Higby to be mostly to blame for this) kept the factions out of balance due to personal preference. (Striker nerf, everyone else has weapons that are more TR like than anything else and TR gets a load of horizontal recoil.. seriously what the hell?) I may not be popular for saying this, but goodbye and good riddance, Higby. It's about time this game gets some desperately needed updates, a better microtransaction model (10$ for a rifle??? ffs) and better faction specific content and such. It's been long overdue.
Im glad Higby is gone...we need new blood. Its pretty obvious the people affected saw this coming and did nothing to further the game. Its clear he favored the NC, his baby. Good ridence, go destroy some other game.
Is the game server really offline right now? What is going on in that game? It seems like the last 2 weeks ive been sometimes coming on these forums, I have seen the Offline notice like 10/14 days....
We hope so. Complete with the improvement of hit detect, if this game returns to a fun, depth filled, amazing game that it was in 2012 when I joined, I might return...it was a cool game I looked forward to playing... If balance returns, if tanks become tanks and not just big Cbill dispensers, if air and its counters become more inline and less...Plane shows up, game over.....I might have to come back to it.
Maybe the new bosses should make a statement about the future direction of their product. That may foster a more constructive and optimistic environment.
Maybe he should have while it was a job for him? You know, attitudes would have been different perhaps.
Honestly, a lot of the announcements I've been seeing since the buyout have been reminding me of "Mission Statement". "We must all efficiently operationalize our strategies, invest in world-class technology, and leverage our core competencies..." Hmm, somebody should make a DBG Buzzword Bingo card.
here's a reddit thread with somei insights: http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/2vs5gl/ama_david_carey_former_ps2_producer/
Best PSA ever! Finally I have some hope for PS2. Maybe we can get a creative director now who's in fact directing? Leading the coders to work carefully? Preventing bugs before they occur and fix existing ones? That would be great!
I wouldn't get too hopeful, at this point we'd be lucky to get anyone to tell us whats going on,let alone getting picky over how they do so.
