Don't try turning a monster truck into a race car.

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Earthman, Oct 25, 2013.

  1. Earthman

    It's the metaphor that sticks in my mind most when I hear about all the demands made from people that want this to be some sort of "MLG ready" game.

    I'll try to seperate my personal opinions about MLG itself and its proponents/fans. Instead I'll elaborate on why I chose the title above:

    Planetside 2 is designed a particular way, from the very start. It's meant for very large battles, at least as FPSes go. Instead of instance-based battles, it offers multiple potential battles at the same time, all across large maps. Although often focused on capture points, sometimes a convoy can be ambushed along a roadside, or a Sunderer can be deployed on a cliff for snipers and engineers to try to create sustainable havoc below. Yes, there's lots of population unevenness, but done right, this is a strength, not a weakness. The idea is that anyone can jump in at any time on a faction of their choosing and pitch in.

    MLG demands, as I've seen them so far, don't take advantage of any of the above.
    1. They expect small battles, with perfectly "balanced" maps.
    2. They expect "skilled" weapons only, as they define them, with specific parameters. Basically sniper rifles and direct fire small arms only.
    3. They expect premade groups and tight organizations. Want to just jump in and play? That's not professional. Go watch.

    I could go on but I think the point is made: MLG expects a sports car, and they're starting with a monster truck called Planetside 2. It's not meant to go very fast, nor to turn that tightly, or to accelerate very quickly for that matter. You'd have to remove just about all the parts it started with, reshape it completely, and even then it'll probably never be quite as much a sports car as a sports car that started as a sports car.

    My opinion? We should make Planetside 2 as good at what it's supposed to be as possible: a big war MMO with lots of people shooting at each other in numerous ways (and hopefully more ways than now, in the future). The "esport" thing is better served elsewhere.
    • Up x 21
  2. Liquid23

    [IMG]
    • Up x 8
  3. Earthman

    Cute, but I think the point still stands: racing that against a from-the-start race car will not likely go well for the Aflacmobile, leading to wasted effort and frustration beyond the brief novelty of "hey look what we did".

    That'd be what would happen here: take a big war game, remove the big part, remove the war part for that matter, and re-arrange the rest, stripped down, into yet another e-arena. Why not just go where the e-arenas are to begin with if that's what you want?
    • Up x 3
  4. TheMercator

    Sums it up pretty much.
    My opinion:
    e-sport != fun game
    • Up x 4
  5. Commissar Penitus

    I agree so very much with the OP.

    I don't understand why the MLG people want this to be some kind of MLG game so badly when it barely even resembles what they are going for.

    I won't even go into the toxic mess that most MLG-compliant games become, in player attitude, Planetside 2 is saintly by comparison even on a bad day.

    We don't need this here and I don't know why they even want it here to begin with. Some sort of ultra-metagame of conquering all other online games and turning them into bland esports with obnoxious announcers and selfish jerk drama?
    • Up x 10
  6. Pirbi

    I didn't start playing PS2 because it was yet another arena FPS. I started playing because it wasn't.
    • Up x 13
  7. Commissar Penitus

    Same here.

    The devs need to stop trying to turn this into yet another tiny arena shooter with self-important "pro" teams the only emphasis.
    • Up x 3
  8. Kanil

    Then why do so many damn people play LoL? And more importantly, how do we get them to stop? :p
    • Up x 2
  9. Chipay


    Bam, game's MLG ready, we aren't affected.

    MLG will keep this game alive, raise awareness (for free) and keeps new players coming.
  10. Pixelshader

    Who wants to play planetside 2 professionally? Who wants to watch planetside 2 deathmatches?

    I get the feeling MLG will actually just fail horribly from a complete lack of interest.
    • Up x 3
  11. Pixelshader

    1. copy paste dota
    2. add lovely cartoon graphics and mmogrind
    3. use free to play model
    4. launch at perfect time to capture all the 'new gen' gamers
    ????
    5. be wildly successful
    • Up x 3
  12. Chipay


    Fifa 14 is MLG and people want to watch that, just as with the Empire showdown i'd imagine many people would watch it.
  13. Phazaar


    I don't even know why people would watch football, let alone a videogame version... Your example falls on ignorant ears :/




    On topic:

    It's a hilarious mistake that will never pay off. I am happy to be paraded infront of a whole MLG crowd in my underwear as they throw fruit if this ever even rivals a moderately good MLG title.
  14. Tytos

    Sry but MLG is the only thing that can make more people play this again, nobody forces you to do the battle islands, you will still be able to play on the regular continents and ignore the e-sports stuff if you want to. I see nothing bad about going e-sports as it will also improve balance.
  15. Kanil

    This isn't how it works. Just ask Blizzard about StarCraft 2.

    You don't become an esport, then get people to play. You get people to play, then you have a horde of potential viewers.
    • Up x 2
  16. deggy

    It won't improve balance in the slightest, don't kid yourself.
  17. Zorro

    Planetside 2 should not be adapted for e-sports, e-sports should be modified for Planetside 2. E-sports could work if it is less about arena deathmatches and more about large battles along the front, emphasizing strategy as much as individual skill. However, Planetside 2 needs to have its mechanics refined if it is ever going to succeed in e-sports.
    • Up x 1
  18. Earthman

    That's a first semester logic failure right there.

    He said that MLG games are not necessarily fun, nor do fun games necessarily have to follow MLG demands.

    Likewise, "lots of people play LoL" doesn't discredit that statement, either. I think LoL is tedious and dull, and downright obnoxious the moment I try to sit through a "professional" stream. Therefore, not fun for me.
    • Up x 1
  19. Earthman

    Or, MLG will choke the creative direction of the game (anything that doesn't please their narrow little view of what "fun" is will be screamed about the moment it's proposed, look at what happened to World of Warcraft when its arena lobby took over for a few years), raise negative attention and melodrama spectacles, and scare away the actually "new" players that MLG elitists tend to look down their noses on and say "scrub" to a lot.
    • Up x 1
  20. Earthman

    Saying "sorry but" doesn't give any more weight or factualness to your opinion.

    Again, as I said in the OP, there is apparently no good reason to waste time and resources converting this game into yet another bland arena shooter when there's already plenty of those out there.

    Your post only solidifies the fact that resources are being spent directly in a longshot gamble that this monster truck will metaphorically be convertible into a race car. Every dollar that SOE spends pandering to you is a dollar that could have been used somewhere else in the game, to draw in and retain people that see PS2 and say "hey, a large-scale shooty MMO, neat".

    I still don't see the marketing draw of "large scale shooty MMO, now small scale shooty esport!". It's like trying to stand out as a generic version of Cheerios when there's already 4 competing generics sitting next to the original Cheerios box at the supermarket.
    • Up x 2