The game's population has been gradually decreasing, if watching the steam population over the year is any indicator. I believe one of the huge factors into this is that old players are leaving and new players aren't arriving, because nobody is attempting to advertise this game. Any time I mention Planetside 2 to players outside of this game, nobody has any clue that Planetside 2 even exists, let alone what the game is about. How are we supposed to get new players into the game when nobody realizes this game exists? As important as continued development of the game is to keeping player interest, there needs to be an effort to let people know that Planetside 2 does exist and to encourage people to try the game out.
They should fix up the new player experience a bit more before they consider advertising in my opinion. The straight advantage Veterans have with implants and fully upgraded classes in adition to experience makes it rough for a new player whenever i kill someone thats BR10 or less and i know they arnt an alt i find myself going " aww poor fella".
It was awful to be a new player but I learned fast. But then I was prepared to die a lot in order to learn how the game worked. When I start a new avatar now I know to expect some grief until I cert up some protection but I am also more careful about what I am doing so I don't suffer so much. I think part of this new player problem is lacking a solution - people who think they have the right to just join as new and mix it on equal terms with the certed up veterans. Instant gratification is not the answer though. More basic training and accesible guides via the game interface and a new player space in the forum -all advertised - might persuade some players to stick it out until they git gud. At most, I'd go for making some of the armour upgrades and medkits cheaper (and maybe the default implant being regen, with better drops of chargers and suchlike). But then you only have to look at the number of nerf calls that are clearly whiners going on about getting killed regularly to see that some people just will not accept that the other side can be dangerous.
before you advertise a three year old game, DBG needs to FIX the longstanding problems (balance in pop and class, hit detection, hacking, etc). also, DBG needs to produce NEW content that isn't pathetically flawed like hossin. experienced PS2 players have been singing this song for years, which is why they are leaving en mass then you can start advertising PS2 is not suffering from lack of advertising, it's suffering from lack of DBG's time and attention. PS2 is abandonware, or benign neglectware at best
Steam ? What's that ? All ps2 players do not use Steam. Steam users willingly expose themselves to a lot of new products, of new games. They are not loyal to a brand or a game. They want fresh games. They played Ps2, they play another game atm and will come back sometimes or not. How many loyal veterans and how many new players come to Ps2 while not using Steam ? I doubt that taking Steam stats as a criteron is accurate. But yeah, new content is incoming...Soon. Totally right. hate it too. I feel bad for the guy, and sometimes for the game. But honestly, when you reach BR 25-30, you're supposed to have a fully certed class. You're supposed to be able to face your opponents BR100 or lower. I still think they should increase the free certs gained by the new player until they reach lvl25-30. They already gave extra certs. But my opinoion is that's not enough. Those first BRs are incredibly hard to reach, mainly if you're new to FPS games. Ps2 has a learning curve. When you already have a fully certed class well,new players have to learn how to play the game. And that's ok. I don't think implants may have any real impact on new players' experience. Only Battle Hardened 3 and 4 may have one. Guess which class use them the most ?
As customer548 says, while I wouldnt say all players dont go through steam, the majority don't for various reasons so it's not a good indicator of pop numbers, however the game certainly is in decline and yeah it's partly because the new player experience sux ***. While there are some vets out there willing to give their time to help out new players and make them feel welcome to the game, the vast majority are only too happy to farm them and the game into oblivion. Edit. While I agree having a fully certed class helps it's not really as important as knowing the map, how to move around, knowing where to go with this class or that class and knowing where the enemy is coming from, ambush points, where to deploy a sundy, where tank mines are likley to be ect ect. For instance I dont know how many newbie infils I've shot in the back of the head after they've either sniped me succesfully or just given away their position by taking a few shots at me and failed to move to a new location not realising that hey I know where you are and now I'm gonna flank your ***. The only way to learn these things is either from other more experienced players or many many hrs of trial and error, the latter putting off all but the most hardcore FPS fans.
Ill +1 the feeling sorry for killing low BR players. And it is a complex and unforgiving game. I hope something is done, as while PS2 is old and full of problems, its still one of the best games on the planet. But as pops drop, so does the very thing that makes the game so special. Its scale.
Implants dont have a huge impact but something as simple as being able to regen so i can stay in a fight longer by just taking cover having less screen shake or being able to see AI mines through walls so i dont just walk into a room and go poof are all small advantages but still advantages. Honestly some of the big issues with starting out is its hard to deal with certain things a new player has nothing to deal with air outside of the 1 burster they give your max which means you can 450 nanites just to do a tiny amount of damage to air so i think they need to make the faction lockon/dumb fire weapons the baseline weapon . New players also have a hard time dealing with maxes as C4 is expensive to unlock for all your characters and you dont even get tank mines baseline so you have your rocket launcher and thats it. It is nice that once your BR 25-30 you can compete on equal footing with BR100s however i think were losing way too many people before they ever get to that point as thats what happened to most my friends that i tryed to get to play this game.
Once fixing the new player experience, they need to specifically advertise that it's fixed so that people who have looked at the game and not liked it will give it another try.
It's the same with koltyor on ps4 by the way. I made an infi knife berzerkloler alt and it was rammed with vets, some with blatantly samey names. There was a heavy with an mcg and i truly was disgusted at what he was doing. Koltyors implementation is just bad for the game. It could be fixed on pc for sure but I don't think it can be fixed on the ps4. The involvement of SONY with the servers means that kind of control is impossible i'd imagine. Our characters on ps4 are tied to dbg but our PSN accounts are not so control of who goes to koltyor is basically impossible.
