First off, let me start this post with the declaration that I am NOT crying for buffs for anything. This is NOT a flame post. This is NOT a QQ thread. This is NOT a thread about how PS1 > PS2. (Though at first it may seem that way) Hello, My name is MilitiaMan and I have played or should say did play Planetside for a very long time, I started out just shortly after release and loved every minute of it. Though I would take breaks for a few months, I would always return because Planetside was a game that had something no other game had. What that something is, I am not really sure but it had that factor which made me always return to it. Planetside was a game that was at the same level as World of Warcraft (flame away) but WoW was and still is a game that I take breaks from but always return to. It has its ups and downs just like Planetside did, but I still love it and still play it. By now you are probably asking yourself "WTF is this guy rambling about?" but rest assured that I am getting to that. While WoW is not in the same category as Planetside and it's hard to compare them I figured I would point out something that I always gave a lot of props to blizzard for. That something was Ghost Crawler, the lead system designer for WoW. Though some can't stand him, something that I always liked about GC was the fact that he would come on to the forums and comment on peoples threads from time to time. Agree or disagreeing with the poster, it made him feel like he was a real person and that he cared about the people that play the game that he works on. I could be wrong, but I don't think I have ever seen that in any mainstream game. Take SWTOR, why did I quit? Lack of acknowledgement from the dev team. I found that it didn't matter what you said, how you tried to help or pointing out that that is a bad idea and this is why. They would NEVER comment. To me, that is like saying "We know whats best, your opinion doesn't matter. Deal with it." and while I agree you cannot just cater to every tear someone sheds. Some acknowledgement on the subject would be great. I know Smedley does twitter and Higby goes on his little webchat things but honestly, that doesn't really connect on a personal level to your player base. I bet you would get a lot more understanding out of your player base if you would do what Ghost Crawler does and just post on here from time to time. While I love you Radar. When I see a post from a forum mod that says "They are looking into it" or "It is being talked about" doesn't really sit well for me. Now if Higby or Smedley said something, I would be inclined to say "Well, at least they know it's an issue".. Tell people that we understand this is an issue, we are looking into it. Though it may seem like gamers are terribly hard to please, if you just acknowledge their plight. I bet you would find it rather shocking how understanding and patient they can be on certain subjects. I didn't right this to get acknowledgement, I wrote this because I see 3-4 "I quit this game because...." posts a day. I love PS2 and I want it to be the diamond in the rough if you will that stands out among the other FPS games and be this game that if you don't play it. You are the black sheep of the family, "YOU DON'T PLAY PLANETSIDE 2? WTF MAN!!!!".
From my perspective, I am thoroughly impressed that the CEO of a gaming company who makes more games than just Planetside 2 is taking the time to focus so much attention on Planetside 2. This game has more interaction from the design team than ANY other game I've ever played. I understand your point, but I don't personally feel that just because the CEO of Sony and Creative Director for PS2 haven't acknowledged specific issues the community may have doesn't mean they're not listening. I jumped on both the Alpha Squad package for PS2 and the Founders Package for Mechwarrior Online. I haven't played MWO since PS2 dropped pretty much exclusively on the fact that SOE's PR is much better with the community. Your mileage may vary.
MilitiaMan - while I can agree that getting that acknowledgement would improve community relations, I think the issue is that it would take several full time employees to manage the volume of posts made on the forum. The Technical Support forum seems to have great response times from the CSR team but having Higby or Smedley in here posting in all the threads would prevent them from handling their most important job: continuing to develop and improve PS2. My two cents,
I guess I just don't see it. Then again, alot of my time is spent on the forum boards of a company that specifically has a policy against using the forums as a means of communication (i.e. FFG). There easily could be legal, PR, or various other reasons why we don't see in depth posts from devs. Honestly, I really don't care. Half the ideas we see here are bunk anyway, and while we all like to think we're armchair game developers, anyone outside the dev team just simply is not aware of all the circumstances surrounding PS2. There could be technical, legal, or complexity problems that prevent the implementation of whay many consider "a good idea." Also, there could be balance angles some of us just wouldn't see. Or maybe they're clueless. But then the simple words of wisdom come to mind "Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt."
Speak for yourself, sir! I agree with all your points. Just because someone isn't responding doesn't mean they're not paying attention. Nice quote, btw.
