only way to SOE start to redeem himself is fire smedley and all suits there today and start fresh
Without hesitation of any type, this is the first and exact thing I thought about. Well.....me, you and 99% the gaming population, anyway.
The man is totally clueless. I'm thinking he probably married the top boss' daughter or something since they still have him around.
LOL @ thinking your opinion is what 99% of the gaming population thinks. Regardless of what the subject matter is.
Smedly doesn't design the games, he makes business decisions, besides it's not like he has free reign to do as he pleases, he answers to people as well. Does Sony hesitate what so ever to fire people? Nope, yet he still has his job.
It's either a matter of he does something right, or Sony doesn't care at all what happens with SOE, which is more likely? Look past your "they ruined my game" jadedness before answering please.
I'll be honest I do not like much at all about SOE, their games, their support, what have you... Still I'm not going to pen that dislike on one man, whether the buck stops at him or not.
People act as though he's some tyrant sitting in a chair made of gold maniacally laughing as he ruins their games and counts their money, while he strokes his pointy stache, to me that's just ridiculous. Most of it all began at a decision made many didn't like (NGE) (BFR's) or other similar implementations. It wasn't about being evil, it's called taking a chance and hoping it pays off.
As for the question presented by the OP, for many probably, for some not a chance, some just can't let go of grudges or past mistakes and strive to see one pay no matter what they do to redeem themselves.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
only way to SOE start to redeem himself is fire smedley and all suits there today and start fresh
Without hesitation of any type, this is the first and exact thing I thought about. Well.....me, you and 99% the gaming population, anyway.
The man is totally clueless. I'm thinking he probably married the top boss' daughter or something since they still have him around.
LOL @ thinking your opinion is what 99% of the gaming population thinks. Regardless of what the subject matter is.
Smedly doesn't design the games, he makes business decisions, besides it's not like he has free reign to do as he pleases, he answers to people as well. Does Sony hesitate what so ever to fire people? Nope, yet he still has his job.
It's either a matter of he does something right, or Sony doesn't care at all what happens with SOE, which is more likely? Look past your "they ruined my game" jadedness before answering please.
I'll be honest I do not like much at all about SOE, their games, their support, what have you... Still I'm not going to pen that dislike on one man, whether the buck stops at him or not.
People act as though he's some tyrant sitting in a chair made of gold maniacally laughing as he ruins their games and counts their money, while he strokes his pointy stache, to me that's just ridiculous. Most of it all began at a decision made many didn't like (NGE) (BFR's) or other similar implementations. It wasn't about being evil, it's called taking a chance and hoping it pays off.
As for the question presented by the OP, for many probably, for some not a chance, some just can't let go of grudges or past mistakes and strive to see one pay no matter what they do to redeem themselves.
THIS
One of the few posts that make any sense in this thread.
And as for the comment earlier about EQ 2 being mostly cannibalized from Brad Mcquaid's designs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Brad had nothing to do with EQ 2. He left after working on EQ Velious.
Hell, EA did it , their not out of business nor massive shrunk, let alone gave birth to a couple of IP's that made people drop their pitchforks and try them out, Dead Space comes to mind, AND its sequel
Old EA wouldnt even muster out the Fight Night Franchise if they didnt change.
Negativity speaks pretty loud, what speaks just as loud? Profit and popularity, thats when people then start screaming at all the consumers buying all those games that they despise and how it ruins said industry and the generation of all mankind and those equal to their superior arian gaming master race to the nth dimension of Shadoloo. etc etc etc..........................
I fricken hate cryptic studios, but ill even give them a snowballs chance in hell to look at what they are doing to see if they have anything worthwhile.
simply put, any company that is willing to push themselves forward, attempt to try not to make all the same mistakes they have done in the past, and bring forth a game, or mmo that is worth while, then they deserve to at least be watched and looked at.
to play their games would be another matter in entirely-- and the most easiest way to give any company a chance or not is to vote with your wallet and call it a day.
I never realy understood why planetside was not marketed better, as other people who have played planetside years ago, I can definately agree on the immersion and excitement the game had to offer. Sooo many awsome memories of how the game was in the heat of combat.
To fully understand and feel the awsomeness of battle you realy needed to get into an outfit and roll with armor or have a large ground army assault a base. Planetside was not about raiding a dragon and spending many hours following silly pre-programmed boss mobs for better gear. It was about being a skilled combatant and realy making a difference on the battlefield. One skilled person could turn the battle and people would start respecting your name as an enemy or ally when they saw you on the battlefield.
Battle rank was earned, not given. You didnt have to hunt 10 rats and turn them in or run from quest hub to quest hub looking for content. Nothing was given to you in Planetside you had to prove your skill for the things you wanted. For me, the battle was its own reward, getting more certificate points was just icing on the cake.
I came back years later (a year ago to be precise) to see that wonderful world overun with hackers. I actualy got shot by a flying tank (boggle) one that could hit you spot on from a very long distance away.
My biggest worry with the game is that SOE gets the hacking under control, they will need a large dedicated staff soley for PS2 for it to work right, in my opinion. If they can pull it off I will definately be there.
If you're carrying a anti $OE pride with you through Planetside 2's release then I pity the man who voluntarily misses out on a great MMOFPS experience based on proper corporate bias. Here's the trend with alot of people.
Company messes them over - eg [NGE]
Players hate company and boycotts while demanding better service.
Company makes amazing sequel to another great classic
Player still boycotts and misses out.
The problem is that number three has not happened and most likely will not happen. Care to name the last amazing game SOE has made?
People are stuck in points 1 and 2, because SOE has not made a great game since before they were SOE and they keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It isn't exactly like SOE made one mistake in the past and since then have been releasing awesome games that people are mindlessly avoiding for not rational reason.
This is a thread about an entire game company and if it is even possible for their redemption. That speaks pretty damn loud about their games.
If you're carrying a anti $OE pride with you through Planetside 2's release then I pity the man who voluntarily misses out on a great MMOFPS experience based on proper corporate bias. Here's the trend with alot of people.
Company messes them over - eg [NGE]
Players hate company and boycotts while demanding better service.
Company makes amazing sequel to another great classic
Player still boycotts and misses out.
The problem is that number three has not happened and most likely will not happen. Care to name the last amazing game SOE has made?
People are stuck in points 1 and 2, because SOE has not made a great game since before they were SOE and they keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It isn't exactly like SOE made one mistake in the past and since then have been releasing awesome games that people are mindlessly avoiding for not rational reason.
This is a thread about an entire game company and if it is even possible for their redemption. That speaks pretty damn loud about their games.
A lot of people would argue EQ2 was a great game, just because you don't think it was doesn't make it so. Free realms is probably a great game to many of the demographic it's aimed at. To know what a great game is you have to be able to look past your own personal opinion. i hate WOW, but I still acknowledge it's a well made game and great to many people. I actually felt EQ2 was better though, still didn't like that, that much
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
And as for the comment earlier about EQ 2 being mostly cannibalized from Brad Mcquaid's designs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Brad had nothing to do with EQ 2. He left after working on EQ Velious.
Brad working on EQ2 was not the point. EQ2 is nothing more than regurgitating Brad work from EQ with a few different mechanics and a different game engine. That is over simplified, but there is almost nothing original in EQ2. Everything good about it is lifted directly from EQ.
You are right that Brad left after EQ Velious. At the same time EQ2 has spent the last 7 years recycling content the was designed up to and including Velious. In fact they did something unprecidented and decided to spend 2 years working on velious instead of the normal 1 year they spend on expansions. Almost as if they are stretching out the last content that was created by Brad and forced to use Luclin/Planes of Power content. The point where most people agree EQ started its decline.
A lot of people would argue EQ2 was a great game, just because you don't think it was doesn't make it so. Free realms is probably a great game to many of the demographic it's aimed at. To know what a great game is you have to be able to look past your own personal opinion. i hate WOW, but I still acknowledge it's a well made game and great to many people. I actually felt EQ2 was better though, still didn't like that, that much
I wasn't speaking about my personal like or dislike of EQ2, but that EQ2 is the biggest success that SOE has produced as an entity. As a "success" it released at a time when literally millions of new players were joining the mmo genre and EQ2 was closing servers with a year of opening.
From a business sense their biggest success was hemorrhaging subscribers as the mmo market was exploding. EQ2 could have been an amazing game, but most of the decisions and actions of SOE crippled its potential.
SOE has not hit a homerun since the late 90's when it was Verant and made EQ. Since then everything they have touched has been marked by failure, scandals and decline.
Personally I think a lot of SOE games could be great or amazing, but something always prevents them from reaching that potential. There are a lot of reasons and many of them are the same between the games, but the common theme is that SOE is the worst enemy of SOE.
Could Planetside2 redeem SOE? Sure, anything is possible in a world of infinate possibilities, but at the same time there is almost nothing to suggest that SOE will not just continue snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I wish it were otherwise, but that just seems to be the method of operation for SOE.
I think it'll take more than PSNext.I think EQNext will also have to do well in order to gain brownie points from the mmo community.even then I think some people will look at them dubiously still.
A lot of mmo players are sick of pointless grind to nothing end game, and lame arena CTF stye combat. Planetside is the exact opposite of the norm. You are in the action right away in fast paced, massive battles where skill is a much greater factor than gear / time played.
A lot of people would argue EQ2 was a great game, just because you don't think it was doesn't make it so. Free realms is probably a great game to many of the demographic it's aimed at. To know what a great game is you have to be able to look past your own personal opinion. i hate WOW, but I still acknowledge it's a well made game and great to many people. I actually felt EQ2 was better though, still didn't like that, that much
I wasn't speaking about my personal like or dislike of EQ2, but that EQ2 is the biggest success that SOE has produced as an entity. As a "success" it released at a time when literally millions of new players were joining the mmo genre and EQ2 was closing servers with a year of opening.
From a business sense their biggest success was hemorrhaging subscribers as the mmo market was exploding. EQ2 could have been an amazing game, but most of the decisions and actions of SOE crippled its potential.
SOE has not hit a homerun since the late 90's when it was Verant and made EQ. Since then everything they have touched has been marked by failure, scandals and decline.
Personally I think a lot of SOE games could be great or amazing, but something always prevents them from reaching that potential. There are a lot of reasons and many of them are the same between the games, but the common theme is that SOE is the worst enemy of SOE.
Could Planetside2 redeem SOE? Sure, anything is possible in a world of infinate possibilities, but at the same time there is almost nothing to suggest that SOE will not just continue snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I wish it were otherwise, but that just seems to be the method of operation for SOE.
The thing is there's a bit of difference between below average financial success and a market of players who often confuse their upset between gameplay and the business side. If the financial aspect were make or break for every game then arguably indi developers wouldn't exist and the industry wouldn't move forward at all.
Financially you are correct, considering monetary scale, from this exact point in time, SOE's better days are behind them. There are things that I knock SOE on personally in the gameplay department. [NGE], [BFR], [PS hackers], [PSN hacking], and a lack of development or attention to their lower pop games.
With Planetside 2, I will walk into this neutrally. I want it to become a great game, and I am hyped about all of the ideas, but I am completely realistic about their track record which leaves me having some cautious skepticism. At the same time, I am not resigning my personal support of the project based solely on the past and things that do not deal with the now.
SWG made a bit of a mistake here but that's ancient history from what I've seen since they've done reasonably well. Sad to see this one go.
VG they kept this thing alive when no one else would have kudos I say..
I don't get the "sony is evil" thing. They aren't bad. There's a lot of great things about the games they make. And NGE is an overused excuse that is now long dead history. Sure they havn't made the next wow but who has?
Sony has been on my #$@! list for a while in general. Does SOE even have brand equity left? I'd equate them to Activision and that's not good. At this point, I wouldn't by a Sony, SOE or Activsion published game. They're more about making the numbers for their investors vs actually putting out great games and in many cases, can't even do that right.
Maybe ... maybe they can make a come back like EA after EA destroyed all those great developement studios about 10 or so years ago. I'm actually willing to buy an EA published game again, but very cautious.
I like how the author forgets the MMOs that came before Evercrap. If anyone kick-started the industry, it was Origin. If anything, SOE came along and made the experience more generic and less fun. They set the standard for all "on rails" mmos to come. Their popularity came from being the only modern 3d mmo in town. (Sorry but m59 was like colored blocks rubbing together.)
Can Planetside 2 fix SoE? I doubt it. It doesn't look like they learned from their mistakes in PS1. There still doesnt seem to be anything to the Planetside world other than capturing random buildings (that all look almost identical)over and over again. I got bored of capturing random building X after a dozen times. I'm going to use an old school word here. Planetside lacks immersion, and Planetside 2 is going down the same road.
As a long time player of Planetside, I can say that the genericness of the bases and towers was something that the community wanted improved from nearly the beginning. What did we get instead? Overpowered mechs and the worst expansion pack I have ever seen (core combat).
This is what SOE does though. Instead of listening to their communities and making obvious improvements and fixes, SOE for some reason goes off the rails and does crazy sh*t that is neither needed or asked for.
Planetside's Core Combat and BFRs, SWG's Combat Upgrade and NGE, starving Vanguard of resources despite all its promise, I just don't get SOE as a company. It seems SOE goes out of its way to do things that will harm its games.
I was one of the people who was affected by the dredded Neg in swg, which made me feel so betrayed i havent bought a sony product none the less a soe product since then. But it has been a very Very long time, and im much overdue for moving on. I really liked planet side 1 (before pathes ruined that too), so if ps2 is as good as hope, i will probery buy it..
With Planetside 2, I will walk into this neutrally. I want it to become a great game, and I am hyped about all of the ideas, but I am completely realistic about their track record which leaves me having some cautious skepticism. At the same time, I am not resigning my personal support of the project based solely on the past and things that do not deal with the now.
I think this is pretty well said about the subject. Not ignoring the past is smart, but also keeping the option that things might turn out well is also good. Who knows what PlanetSide2 turns out like.
As for the past of SOE it almost sounds like you are talking about distant actions by the company. Things would not be so bleak if the mistakes were something that happened years and years ago. Instead we are talking about things that have happened as recently as last week. This isn't exactly past actions on the part of SOE, but a snapshot of what the company is capable of right now.
SOE has recently released several games. Several failed Facebook games that are closing or sold off to other companies. Magic that Gathering Tactics which is a repeat of the rushed incomplete untested release that cripples every SOE game. DCU which was the biggest investment SOE has put into a game either time, money or talent wise and it produced one of the biggest flops in mmo history.
The problem is that SOE doesn't have a history of learning from their mistakes, but rather repeating them. I would love to see something that suggests they are on the mend or changing their ways and PS2 might turn out to be a great game, but nothing is suggesting that. Other than the original planetside being great for a very short time, but even then SOE ruined that.
SOE when they cared about their games were great. No a days they make a game fix a few problems post launch then pretty much forget about it. either they are too scared there gonna NEG it or too money hungry and know that making a new game charging 60+ bucks for it cus most people will buy it and play for 3-4 months compared to just keeping a player base paying 15 bucks/month is crap compared to a box sell. + throw in XP boost or extra gear in a cash shop and now they can relese a game every 12 months and make more money then just keeping a subscriber base in one game.
so planet side 2 will have great results, for the first 6-7 months then they will start building up hype about the next game that comes out 9 months from planet side 2 push it back an extra 3 monnths for "testing" (AKA building up hype) and pop out a new game forgetting about Planet side 2, but they will add in new releses for the cash shop to Planet side 2 for the few people that find the game enjoyable. since that person cant aford a new 60 bucks box they will give them a 10 buck new armor/gun/xp kit.
The other option they have for Planet side is if its doing good relese a new expantion pack for 45 bucks, and see how meny people buy that incressing level cap by 5-10 or adding a few new skills armor and a new planet to fight over. they proved that modle works great in EQ and EQ2. I would need to take off my shoes in order to count all the expantions that came out for just one of the titles. get a few shoeless friends together to count both games expantions.
Well love my eq2 its the only thing they ever did right. I will have to wait and see if I get a chance at the beta. I have huge worries about PL2 and if it will be as good as one.
With that said I hope they do it right, because SOE has a tendency to do a lot of wrong things.
If they install the monthly fee + microtransaction scheme I won't even touch the game.
You and me both buddie. I havent payed a dime to SOE since the first 3 months of EQ2 Ive played EQ2X did free survays to unlock SOE Cash to unlock a class I wanted to play and havent played it in about 5 months haha. even with them reactivating my account for 45 days cus they got hacked. The only thing I did was install SWG so I could Trade all my old SWG junk for some EvE ISK to a person who said it was thier ownly game they wanted to play. A week later they anounced SWG was gonna end. I laughed so hard.
PL2 is SOE..............steeeeeeeeeeerike...........I heard a few things about this and was interested until I found out it was SONY.............So sorry. I am still boycotting all SONY..................buh bye now.
Well love my eq2 its the only thing they ever did right. I will have to wait and see if I get a chance at the beta. I have huge worries about PL2 and if it will be as good as one.
With that said I hope they do it right, because SOE has a tendency to do a lot of wrong things.
I feel they destroyed that game, they could have made it more like EQ1 where there was a challange to the game, instead they made it more like WOW, added quest, slowly took out the needing to group in order to level. the challange of the game slowly disapeared. In EQ you had to group up past level 10/20 in order to get good exp, EQ 2 came and you had to group up but they took it out now you have a game where you can solo from level 1-85/90 what ever the cap is.
I will walk into planetside 2 with a neutral demeanor. I would not pass up a good game cause I'm too shallow too play it simply because of my NGE hate lol, even though I do have it. It takes more than mint ice cream too make me never eat rocky road again lol
And as for the comment earlier about EQ 2 being mostly cannibalized from Brad Mcquaid's designs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Brad had nothing to do with EQ 2. He left after working on EQ Velious.
Brad working on EQ2 was not the point. EQ2 is nothing more than regurgitating Brad work from EQ with a few different mechanics and a different game engine. That is over simplified, but there is almost nothing original in EQ2. Everything good about it is lifted directly from EQ.
Sorry but I beg it differ. EQ 2 was quite different from EQ 1 apart from locale names and character class names. Nothing about it felt like "regurgitated" work from Brad Mcquaid. Using your same logic, I will take it a step further and say Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft are also regurgitated/cannibalized from Brad's ideas. Such a notion is ridiculous.
Only in recent years has EQ 2 begun to more resemble EQ 1. This is because the player base was unhappy with the fact that it was not more like EQ 1.
If EQ 2 would have truly been regurgitated/cannibalized off of Brad's work, the game would have probably had a strong resemblence to Vanguard.
Comments
LOL @ thinking your opinion is what 99% of the gaming population thinks. Regardless of what the subject matter is.
Smedly doesn't design the games, he makes business decisions, besides it's not like he has free reign to do as he pleases, he answers to people as well. Does Sony hesitate what so ever to fire people? Nope, yet he still has his job.
It's either a matter of he does something right, or Sony doesn't care at all what happens with SOE, which is more likely? Look past your "they ruined my game" jadedness before answering please.
I'll be honest I do not like much at all about SOE, their games, their support, what have you... Still I'm not going to pen that dislike on one man, whether the buck stops at him or not.
People act as though he's some tyrant sitting in a chair made of gold maniacally laughing as he ruins their games and counts their money, while he strokes his pointy stache, to me that's just ridiculous. Most of it all began at a decision made many didn't like (NGE) (BFR's) or other similar implementations. It wasn't about being evil, it's called taking a chance and hoping it pays off.
As for the question presented by the OP, for many probably, for some not a chance, some just can't let go of grudges or past mistakes and strive to see one pay no matter what they do to redeem themselves.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
THIS
That is the only place they can start at.
THIS
One of the few posts that make any sense in this thread.
And as for the comment earlier about EQ 2 being mostly cannibalized from Brad Mcquaid's designs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Brad had nothing to do with EQ 2. He left after working on EQ Velious.
So with the Topic at hand.
can SOE redeem themselves?
Hell, EA did it , their not out of business nor massive shrunk, let alone gave birth to a couple of IP's that made people drop their pitchforks and try them out, Dead Space comes to mind, AND its sequel
Old EA wouldnt even muster out the Fight Night Franchise if they didnt change.
Negativity speaks pretty loud, what speaks just as loud? Profit and popularity, thats when people then start screaming at all the consumers buying all those games that they despise and how it ruins said industry and the generation of all mankind and those equal to their superior arian gaming master race to the nth dimension of Shadoloo. etc etc etc..........................
I fricken hate cryptic studios, but ill even give them a snowballs chance in hell to look at what they are doing to see if they have anything worthwhile.
simply put, any company that is willing to push themselves forward, attempt to try not to make all the same mistakes they have done in the past, and bring forth a game, or mmo that is worth while, then they deserve to at least be watched and looked at.
to play their games would be another matter in entirely-- and the most easiest way to give any company a chance or not is to vote with your wallet and call it a day.
I never realy understood why planetside was not marketed better, as other people who have played planetside years ago, I can definately agree on the immersion and excitement the game had to offer. Sooo many awsome memories of how the game was in the heat of combat.
To fully understand and feel the awsomeness of battle you realy needed to get into an outfit and roll with armor or have a large ground army assault a base. Planetside was not about raiding a dragon and spending many hours following silly pre-programmed boss mobs for better gear. It was about being a skilled combatant and realy making a difference on the battlefield. One skilled person could turn the battle and people would start respecting your name as an enemy or ally when they saw you on the battlefield.
Battle rank was earned, not given. You didnt have to hunt 10 rats and turn them in or run from quest hub to quest hub looking for content. Nothing was given to you in Planetside you had to prove your skill for the things you wanted. For me, the battle was its own reward, getting more certificate points was just icing on the cake.
I came back years later (a year ago to be precise) to see that wonderful world overun with hackers. I actualy got shot by a flying tank (boggle) one that could hit you spot on from a very long distance away.
My biggest worry with the game is that SOE gets the hacking under control, they will need a large dedicated staff soley for PS2 for it to work right, in my opinion. If they can pull it off I will definately be there.
Work hard Play Harder
The problem is that number three has not happened and most likely will not happen. Care to name the last amazing game SOE has made?
People are stuck in points 1 and 2, because SOE has not made a great game since before they were SOE and they keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It isn't exactly like SOE made one mistake in the past and since then have been releasing awesome games that people are mindlessly avoiding for not rational reason.
This is a thread about an entire game company and if it is even possible for their redemption. That speaks pretty damn loud about their games.
A lot of people would argue EQ2 was a great game, just because you don't think it was doesn't make it so. Free realms is probably a great game to many of the demographic it's aimed at. To know what a great game is you have to be able to look past your own personal opinion. i hate WOW, but I still acknowledge it's a well made game and great to many people. I actually felt EQ2 was better though, still didn't like that, that much
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Brad working on EQ2 was not the point. EQ2 is nothing more than regurgitating Brad work from EQ with a few different mechanics and a different game engine. That is over simplified, but there is almost nothing original in EQ2. Everything good about it is lifted directly from EQ.
You are right that Brad left after EQ Velious. At the same time EQ2 has spent the last 7 years recycling content the was designed up to and including Velious. In fact they did something unprecidented and decided to spend 2 years working on velious instead of the normal 1 year they spend on expansions. Almost as if they are stretching out the last content that was created by Brad and forced to use Luclin/Planes of Power content. The point where most people agree EQ started its decline.
I wasn't speaking about my personal like or dislike of EQ2, but that EQ2 is the biggest success that SOE has produced as an entity. As a "success" it released at a time when literally millions of new players were joining the mmo genre and EQ2 was closing servers with a year of opening.
From a business sense their biggest success was hemorrhaging subscribers as the mmo market was exploding. EQ2 could have been an amazing game, but most of the decisions and actions of SOE crippled its potential.
SOE has not hit a homerun since the late 90's when it was Verant and made EQ. Since then everything they have touched has been marked by failure, scandals and decline.
Personally I think a lot of SOE games could be great or amazing, but something always prevents them from reaching that potential. There are a lot of reasons and many of them are the same between the games, but the common theme is that SOE is the worst enemy of SOE.
Could Planetside2 redeem SOE? Sure, anything is possible in a world of infinate possibilities, but at the same time there is almost nothing to suggest that SOE will not just continue snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I wish it were otherwise, but that just seems to be the method of operation for SOE.
I think it would redemm SOE.
A lot of mmo players are sick of pointless grind to nothing end game, and lame arena CTF stye combat. Planetside is the exact opposite of the norm. You are in the action right away in fast paced, massive battles where skill is a much greater factor than gear / time played.
The thing is there's a bit of difference between below average financial success and a market of players who often confuse their upset between gameplay and the business side. If the financial aspect were make or break for every game then arguably indi developers wouldn't exist and the industry wouldn't move forward at all.
Financially you are correct, considering monetary scale, from this exact point in time, SOE's better days are behind them. There are things that I knock SOE on personally in the gameplay department. [NGE], [BFR], [PS hackers], [PSN hacking], and a lack of development or attention to their lower pop games.
With Planetside 2, I will walk into this neutrally. I want it to become a great game, and I am hyped about all of the ideas, but I am completely realistic about their track record which leaves me having some cautious skepticism. At the same time, I am not resigning my personal support of the project based solely on the past and things that do not deal with the now.
So Sony doesn't know how to make games...
EQ2 was/is a good game
EQ was/is also a good game
SWG made a bit of a mistake here but that's ancient history from what I've seen since they've done reasonably well. Sad to see this one go.
VG they kept this thing alive when no one else would have kudos I say..
I don't get the "sony is evil" thing. They aren't bad. There's a lot of great things about the games they make. And NGE is an overused excuse that is now long dead history. Sure they havn't made the next wow but who has?
Sony has been on my #$@! list for a while in general. Does SOE even have brand equity left? I'd equate them to Activision and that's not good. At this point, I wouldn't by a Sony, SOE or Activsion published game. They're more about making the numbers for their investors vs actually putting out great games and in many cases, can't even do that right.
Maybe ... maybe they can make a come back like EA after EA destroyed all those great developement studios about 10 or so years ago. I'm actually willing to buy an EA published game again, but very cautious.
If you don't worry about it, it's not a problem.
As a long time player of Planetside, I can say that the genericness of the bases and towers was something that the community wanted improved from nearly the beginning. What did we get instead? Overpowered mechs and the worst expansion pack I have ever seen (core combat).
This is what SOE does though. Instead of listening to their communities and making obvious improvements and fixes, SOE for some reason goes off the rails and does crazy sh*t that is neither needed or asked for.
Planetside's Core Combat and BFRs, SWG's Combat Upgrade and NGE, starving Vanguard of resources despite all its promise, I just don't get SOE as a company. It seems SOE goes out of its way to do things that will harm its games.
If they install the monthly fee + microtransaction scheme I won't even touch the game.
I really liked planet side 1 (before pathes ruined that too), so if ps2 is as good as hope, i will probery buy it..
I think this is pretty well said about the subject. Not ignoring the past is smart, but also keeping the option that things might turn out well is also good. Who knows what PlanetSide2 turns out like.
As for the past of SOE it almost sounds like you are talking about distant actions by the company. Things would not be so bleak if the mistakes were something that happened years and years ago. Instead we are talking about things that have happened as recently as last week. This isn't exactly past actions on the part of SOE, but a snapshot of what the company is capable of right now.
SOE has recently released several games. Several failed Facebook games that are closing or sold off to other companies. Magic that Gathering Tactics which is a repeat of the rushed incomplete untested release that cripples every SOE game. DCU which was the biggest investment SOE has put into a game either time, money or talent wise and it produced one of the biggest flops in mmo history.
The problem is that SOE doesn't have a history of learning from their mistakes, but rather repeating them. I would love to see something that suggests they are on the mend or changing their ways and PS2 might turn out to be a great game, but nothing is suggesting that. Other than the original planetside being great for a very short time, but even then SOE ruined that.
SOE when they cared about their games were great. No a days they make a game fix a few problems post launch then pretty much forget about it. either they are too scared there gonna NEG it or too money hungry and know that making a new game charging 60+ bucks for it cus most people will buy it and play for 3-4 months compared to just keeping a player base paying 15 bucks/month is crap compared to a box sell. + throw in XP boost or extra gear in a cash shop and now they can relese a game every 12 months and make more money then just keeping a subscriber base in one game.
so planet side 2 will have great results, for the first 6-7 months then they will start building up hype about the next game that comes out 9 months from planet side 2 push it back an extra 3 monnths for "testing" (AKA building up hype) and pop out a new game forgetting about Planet side 2, but they will add in new releses for the cash shop to Planet side 2 for the few people that find the game enjoyable. since that person cant aford a new 60 bucks box they will give them a 10 buck new armor/gun/xp kit.
The other option they have for Planet side is if its doing good relese a new expantion pack for 45 bucks, and see how meny people buy that incressing level cap by 5-10 or adding a few new skills armor and a new planet to fight over. they proved that modle works great in EQ and EQ2. I would need to take off my shoes in order to count all the expantions that came out for just one of the titles. get a few shoeless friends together to count both games expantions.
Well love my eq2 its the only thing they ever did right. I will have to wait and see if I get a chance at the beta. I have huge worries about PL2 and if it will be as good as one.
With that said I hope they do it right, because SOE has a tendency to do a lot of wrong things.
You and me both buddie. I havent payed a dime to SOE since the first 3 months of EQ2 Ive played EQ2X did free survays to unlock SOE Cash to unlock a class I wanted to play and havent played it in about 5 months haha. even with them reactivating my account for 45 days cus they got hacked. The only thing I did was install SWG so I could Trade all my old SWG junk for some EvE ISK to a person who said it was thier ownly game they wanted to play. A week later they anounced SWG was gonna end. I laughed so hard.
PL2 is SOE..............steeeeeeeeeeerike...........I heard a few things about this and was interested until I found out it was SONY.............So sorry. I am still boycotting all SONY..................buh bye now.
I feel they destroyed that game, they could have made it more like EQ1 where there was a challange to the game, instead they made it more like WOW, added quest, slowly took out the needing to group in order to level. the challange of the game slowly disapeared. In EQ you had to group up past level 10/20 in order to get good exp, EQ 2 came and you had to group up but they took it out now you have a game where you can solo from level 1-85/90 what ever the cap is.
I will walk into planetside 2 with a neutral demeanor. I would not pass up a good game cause I'm too shallow too play it simply because of my NGE hate lol, even though I do have it. It takes more than mint ice cream too make me never eat rocky road again lol
Sorry but I beg it differ. EQ 2 was quite different from EQ 1 apart from locale names and character class names. Nothing about it felt like "regurgitated" work from Brad Mcquaid. Using your same logic, I will take it a step further and say Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft are also regurgitated/cannibalized from Brad's ideas. Such a notion is ridiculous.
Only in recent years has EQ 2 begun to more resemble EQ 1. This is because the player base was unhappy with the fact that it was not more like EQ 1.
If EQ 2 would have truly been regurgitated/cannibalized off of Brad's work, the game would have probably had a strong resemblence to Vanguard.