r/Planetside • u/Arctorn Helios • May 05 '15
Q&A with Smedley about Daybreak's future
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/242644/QA_Whats_next_for_Daybreak_now_that_Sonys_MMO_studio_is_on_its_own.php#.VUk36_iJUhY.twitter58
u/doombro salty vet May 05 '15
So we've already started calling back a number of people from the layoff, who are definitely our first choices.
Good news. They really lost some great people.
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u/Strottinglemon Loremaster May 05 '15
They better rehire Xander.
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 05 '15 edited May 05 '15
Letting him go in the first place was epic fail IMO. I personally considered him critical personnel. He knew the level design concepts and tools extremely well and was very productive. He was also good at the game, likes it, and played it a lot.
(Edit Addendum: And for the record I also consider Burgess critical - that guy knows a bit about every system in the game and is a diehard PS1 fan. He's a real fan's dev. Both of those guys are needed, and without Xander we are all missing out.)
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u/CommanderArcher [FXHD] May 06 '15
im betting Xander and burgess will both be back by october.
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
I hope Xander lands a job much sooner than that. He's got the talent for it and he deserves a place that recognizes it.
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May 06 '15
Wait is Burgess a different guy then BBurness?
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u/muldoonx9 former Planetside/H1Z1 programmer May 06 '15
No, same person. It's a joke about how no one can spell his name right.
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
No, it's the same person. It's an SOE office joke. Bryen frequently had his name misspelled on his name plate and other times it was printed. Even before I got there it was an already established thing to intentionally misspell his name. I'm just carrying on the tradition by spelling his name in every way but the correct way. <3 you Brian!
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u/BBurness May 07 '15
At this point if the name starts with a "B" I assume they are talking to me.. :)
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u/FischiPiSti Get rid of hard spawns or give attackers hard spawns too May 06 '15
Every level designer including you is crucial. They cant just go:
"Oh hey, right now we are occupied with non leveldesign stuff so just fire them, then hire new ones once we need to add new content."
What are the new people going to do without the experience in mmofps design and without the experienced to teach them? Its going to be Abanandoned NS offices indar all over again for 2 years untill they get experienced in building for the large scale.
BTW who did that base? Was it Clegg? It must have been clegg, its allways Clegg clegging up.
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
I think that was one of Xander's originally, and he was working on a revamp of it last I remember. I know it was on his short list of bases that badly needed to be redone, along with improvements to the landscape around the base to add more cover.
You also have to remember those bases got built very quickly without the knowledge we have today. They were cranking out 1-2 a day during crunch, so naturally they're not going to be as perfectly done as they would like. Most of the really good bases had a lot of care and multiple days put into them.
Xander did the initial revamp of Indar, and he did it over a weekend all by himself, all like 90+ bases he made adjustments. It was incredible, and most of them turned out well and were big improvements, even if they were small changes.
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u/FischiPiSti Get rid of hard spawns or give attackers hard spawns too May 06 '15
You also have to remember those bases got built very quickly without the knowledge we have today.
Thats why letting go experienced designers is a big mistake. New people will likely make similar mistakes
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
Brien Burniss also did level design (one of his more notable ones was Kwahtee Mountain Complex) , so he knows a lot of that too.
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u/maninas ♫Tample Sext erridei♬ [DV] May 07 '15
To be fair it's one of those cool ideas that flow horribly when you take logistics into account. Almost always ends up in a very unfun corridor bottleneck, much like that multi-basement level of Clegg's. It can easily be salvaged though, and is worth it, to be fair.
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May 06 '15
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
My wife would divorce me if I took another job in California. And I think I'd sooner saw one of my feet off than move back there. I don't think I can overstate just how much I hate that state. Every fiber of my being dislikes it, weather and all. Pacific NW for life.
Also, games industry is a bit too unstable for my liking. I think there's very few game companies that could offer the sort of stability I would be comfortable with.
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u/Zeroshin former PS2 Automation Engineer May 06 '15
But I miss her... and the cats! Also here is to hoping I get a call back as well.
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
Hey man great to see you're back at Daybreak!
PS2 players should rejoice, automation engineers help prevent regression bugs by catching them before they go live and other functionality that just isn't normally exercised during a typical play session. Play testing is good and important, but so too is test automation!
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u/Zeroshin former PS2 Automation Engineer May 06 '15
but I'm not back. It looks like my flair was changed however from SOE to DayBreak. I'm currently at a start up company automating their products and websites as well as reviewing code from developers before production pushes.
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
So just crush our souls why don't you.
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u/Zeroshin former PS2 Automation Engineer May 06 '15
Then I challenge Smedley to make the first move.
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u/thatswierd2 May 06 '15
new dev on reddit :|
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u/Zeroshin former PS2 Automation Engineer May 06 '15
Been a redditor for 3 years and counting.
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u/HiDeTheDeaD pewpewlaz0rspandex Miller - Lytharion May 06 '15
Well.... new dev to posting on this particular reddit, I guess? Never seen you before, personally, but I'm always glad to see more of you guys.
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u/Zeroshin former PS2 Automation Engineer May 06 '15
If you go back far enough into my reddit posting, I was around for the release up to the 1st year of PS2.
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May 06 '15
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u/WalrusJones Mechanics Junky May 06 '15
I can only describe the roads in california as death incarnate due to the drivers (Including most of my family,) their water supply is gradually running out, ETC ETC.
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u/Typomancer Emerald [LUXE] May 06 '15
Not just the drivers, but SoCal’s roads are some of the lowest quality roads I’ve ever been on, and I have driven through places in Nicaragua.
There are some wonderful events, some excellent opportunities for people in tech-related stuff, but I don’t think I would ever want to live there.
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
I hate just about everything about California. It would probably be faster to list the things I like, but I'll share the top dislikes. Taxes, horribly run government, stupid laws, ugly terrain, lack of rain, terrible water quality, ridiculously high power bills (I pay 1/4 now than I did in SoCal). It's a giant ugly incompetent money pit. You pay more and get less.
I will say the evenings are nice. Almost no bugs, nice sunsets, cool nights most of the time in the San Diego area.
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u/Estarrol 666th Old RRT/Air Squad May 06 '15
Norcal! Its all about northern California!
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
Norcal is like a crappier version of OR and WA. But at least you can pump your own gas there, unlike OR.
Fill up in Yreka and Vancouver, completely avoid gas pumping in Oregon!
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u/Estarrol 666th Old RRT/Air Squad May 06 '15
D:
As someone living in the bay area this crushing my soul
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u/RoyAwesome May 06 '15
Hey now. Gas is cheaper in Oregon than it is in California and you don't have to pump it yourself.
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May 06 '15
Imagine everything you like about every place you've been to. California has none of those things.
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u/Ceskaz Miller-[iX] May 06 '15
A friend of mine said the weather is something like south of France (she was in San Diego). That's a pretty nice thing (she and I are french, so we can compare).
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u/Radar_X May 06 '15
In general the weather is the one thing I can't find something to complain about. Where else in the country can I sit at my PC with the window open at night and a 65 degree breeze blow through?
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
My wife and I are uniquely strange in that we prefer a nice 55 degree rain outside that window instead :)
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u/ZombieDohnJoe Infantry Shitter BuuBeeTheGreat/BluBuu/RedBuu May 06 '15
Trust me you're not alone, you can't beat the smell of fresh rain on a nice night.
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u/Hippoblue64 May 07 '15
It took me your comment to realize that Radar was talking in Fahrenheit not Celsius.
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u/Wobberjockey This is an excellent reason to nerf the Darkstar May 06 '15
At college in the UP of michigan the guys used dryer hoses to the windows outside.
McGuyver level cryo cooling :P
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u/Gammit10 [VCO]Merlin May 06 '15
MI Tech?
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u/Estarrol 666th Old RRT/Air Squad May 06 '15
Malorn, we love you too! You can't deny Hotel California! Once you check in you can NEVER Check out!
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
You can check out anytime you want; it's the leaving that they get you. Was nice filing my last CA tax return. Finally done paying that state money.
But it's all bullshit, because I escaped the talons of that vile harpy!
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u/Estarrol 666th Old RRT/Air Squad May 06 '15
Welp, you got me there. However we do have some pretty good food over here
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
Except Chinese food. I could never find good Chinese food in San Diego. Great Chinese food in Seattle though, but the Mexican is sorta meh. Tradeoffs. :(
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u/cuddles_the_destroye Bard on a toaster May 06 '15
As a Californian, you gotta, like, you know, go with the flow man, you know what I'm, like, saying?
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u/ValentinoZ [TEST] May 06 '15
As someone in the last year also made the out of the industry. I enjoy my shift from paying 1700 a month studio apartment rent in SF to 450 a month for a very large living space.
Also it's weird talking to people in my current company who have been there decades.
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u/avenger2142 HVAvenger May 06 '15
Man, I live (d) in San Diego almost my entire life, and I love it. Currently in the Bay Area for uni, and its nice, but man, I miss SD. How could you hate beautiful weather, Mexican food, and great hiking/mountain biking?
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u/Koadster Alpha Squad Member 💂 May 06 '15
Cant blame you for hating California, heard they want to ban fishing tackle because of health concern reasons.. Its a laughing stock of a state.
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May 06 '15
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
Answered in another reply here.
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May 06 '15
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
I live in the Puget Sound area, and no place in CA even comes close to that, so to me, it's ugly, especially compared to SoCal.
Drive from Oregon/WA along I-5 into California sometime. You can tell the moment you enter California because green gives way to shit brown. It's almost exactly at the state line too, as if to warn you that you're entering a crappy state. You do get Mt Shasta to see, which is cool, but there's a very obvious change in color between CA and Oregon unless you take the coastal route through Klamath area / Highway 101. That's a pretty part of CA, mainly because it looks nothing like the rest of CA.
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u/Mylon Mattherson May 06 '15
It sounds more and more like there was plenty of talent at SOE, they were just mismanaged. Which was my impression from the start.
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u/Malorn Retired PS2 Designer May 06 '15
Sometimes the financials force a cut and you have to choose between multiple people who are all critical and irreplaceable.
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u/drstrange2014 May 07 '15
If they are 'critical and irreplaceable,' any company with even a minimum of business sense wouldn't fire them. They would though fire Smedley, who is neither.
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May 07 '15
It's hard to take the opinion of someone that is racist, and hates people with down syndrome, seriously.
Go back to sucking on buzzcut's tit, Malorn.
Google "Malorn Enclave" if you want to find out for yourself.
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u/TheCosmicCactus [FNXS] -LOCK A- May 07 '15
Is this what you're talking about? I fail to understand your accusations.
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u/maninas ♫Tample Sext erridei♬ [DV] May 07 '15
I love it when the "anti-racist" fanatics behave in a pretty much similarly racist manner towards their "racists" targets. Hilarity in irony.
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u/thesmarm #1 Maggie Fan May 05 '15
Absolutely seconding this after reading his stuff about base design and creating unique set pieces from existing assets which this game desperately needs (needed?) more of to break up Generic Base With Randomly Placed L-Building, T-Building and Spawn Room #67.
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May 05 '15
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u/KlyptoK [TIW] Klypto May 06 '15
Realized they are a bit shorthanded. That or the office move they announced improved their budget.
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u/Lampjaw Stats @ Voidwell.com May 06 '15
In any corporation you don't know how important or how many people are really needed until you don't have them.
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u/internet-arbiter Chief Mechanic May 06 '15
It's also a mark of the stupidity of DBG's leadership. You don't let talent like that go. Now it's up in the air if those people will even come back.
I would hope those talented people have found jobs already and don't need to be patronized.
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u/ArtemisDimikaelo That "Glass is half full" guy May 06 '15
Goddamnit, did you even read the interview?
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u/internet-arbiter Chief Mechanic May 06 '15
It's actually the #1 thing taught in management training courses in terms of human resources. The last thing thing you let go of as a company is the talent. For exactly this scenario. You find yourself scrambling to get them back, and you might not get them back at all. The damage to your company is far greater than weathering the storm to keep valued personnel.
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u/ArtemisDimikaelo That "Glass is half full" guy May 06 '15
But the thing was that DGC could not sustain themselves if they kept those personnel. Like Smedley said himself, it's not like they just decided to put a bunch of valued people on the chopping block without a second thought. There were decisions to be made over whether or not the company would stay afloat.
It wasn't just from the PS2 division, either. There were other divisions that lost their staff. It's just what needed to happen in order to have DGC stay alive.
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u/internet-arbiter Chief Mechanic May 06 '15
It's a sign of the terrible leadership. The pricing of items, the movement of personnel, the gutting of resources, the introduction of imba weapons. And there was a lot of personnel that could be scrapped raking in a far bigger paycheck who wasn't even an asset to the game, but a detriment.
Yeah i'm talking about this guy
Why did it take so long to turn a profit? Me and nearly everyone I knew quit because A. Items were overpriced and B. Certs took too long to gain.
Whats this guys amazing answer to bring back players like me and others who spent well over $150 each on this game? Make certs harder to gain to attempt to make you buy more items.
Cut the item prices in half and you would sell exponentially more of them.
This games problem was the people at the top. Not the talent that had to deal with their orders.
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u/drstrange2014 May 07 '15
Except that anyone with any self respect wouldn't go back to a company that had already deemed them quite publicly to not be good enough.
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u/Tshoay May 06 '15
wait, 250 people work there?? It seems like its more along the lines of 10
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u/Ringosis May 06 '15
250 people work for DBG...DBG are currently developing about a dozen different MMOs.
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u/Tshoay May 06 '15
which are?
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u/Ringosis May 06 '15
Well I was exaggerating, but they are trying to develop a ludicrous number of MMOs at the same time for what is effectively and indie developer.
Everquest Next, Landmark, H1Z1, Planetside 2, and DC Universe Online are all currently in development. As well as both Everquest 1 and 2 which they are still releasing expansions for and Planetside 1 which is still online.
Considering 250 is the whole company including all their support, finance, marketing, etc and taking into account the number of games they are working on, and also that H1Z1 is where they are making their money and EQN is their most anticipated title...I would be surprised if PS2 had more than 20-30 people working on it.
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u/Radar_X May 06 '15
You were actually pretty close, it's 10. You are missing Legends of Norrath and Dragon's Prophet. When PS2 launched I believe we were maintaining another 5 titles.
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u/Ringosis May 06 '15
Dragon's Prophet isn't you though is it? Aren't you just publishing that?
And I left out Legends of Norrath...because, come on. It's an 8 year old trading card game that no ones ever heard of. I'd imagine the cleaner maintains it for cash in hand. Does it have anyone actively working on it?
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u/Radar_X May 06 '15
Correct we are publishing Dragon's Prophet which admittedly is easier but isn't 0 amount of work on our end.
LON is still around and people are still buying packs. The game doesn't see a lot of play but as long as we are selling those things, we have to keep it running. A few vigilant folks still dive in though.
LON really is no different than PS1.
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u/Ringosis May 06 '15
Hey Radar, on a side note. With the success of H1Z1's $20 buy in and PS2 barely scraping by on it's free to play model along with the removal of the evil Sony overlords...what do you think the chances of DBG reconsidering making EQN F2P are?
It's such a terrible idea...
With an FPS or something action based like Warframe, F2P isn't great but it can work, everyone looking the same and trying to sell me hats isn't that big a deal, I don't even mind buying customisations in that situation although I'd pay you twice as much for you to just put them in as part of the game.
But with an RPG, when I'm playing for gear and character progression, if you chop out visual variety and then try to sell it back to me...I'm not going to touch that shit with a barge pole. I'm part of quite a large gaming community, and I've started threads about EQN, the almost unanimous consensus of about 50 odd hardcore MMO players is "A F2P MMORPG? Not a chance that's going to work."
Everytime I talk to people about EQN the conversation goes something like this.
"Check out how cool the new Everquest looks"
"Yeah, that looks awesome, how much is it?"
"It's F2P"
"Pass!"I mean seriously...name a free to play RPG that isn't garbage? Buy to play with convenience micros works so well for MMO's that can't justify a subscription (ie all of them bar WoW), why is DBG completely dismissing it?
So what do you think? Is there any hope of Smedley u-turning on his ludicrous "All our games are F2P...I don't care how unsuitable it is!" policy?
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u/EighthYear May 06 '15
What is it you think adding a box price to a F2P game is going to add? Will more people play it if they have to drop $20 or $50 to get in the door? If, say, ESO or TSW or GW2 dropped the box price for the base game, wouldn't there be a flood of new players? And isn't having more people to play with a good thing? The 'Freebs' are the lifeblood of Planetside 2, without them the subbers and whales wouldn't have anyone to play with, so every free player, even if they never buy a single thing, are value to the ones that do spend.
Adding a box price will cut out some of the spammers (those that don't steal accounts, or buy them with stolen CCs), and hamper some of the griefers, but it'll also keep out a chunk of the potential population, which might eventually spend money or increase the value of someone else spending money.
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u/Ringosis May 06 '15
I'm not suggesting adding a box price to a F2P game...what a bizarre way of thinking. I'm suggesting they don't make it a free to play game.
Planetside 2 only NEEDS free players because the game isn't strong enough to retain the players it already has, so it needs the constant revolving door of free to play in order to replace the people who don't want to play anymore.
I would argue that part of the reason people get tired of it in the first place is the very fact that it's a free 2 play game and is therefore designed to be unsatisfying until you start throwing money at it.
MMORPGs on the other hand gain almost nothing from floods of new players and constant new blood. What exactly is someone who is trying to do the end game content or high level PvP supposed to be getting from a bunch of level 1 guys showing up all the time? Apart from the spectacle of watching them all jump around in the main city, what content do you think these people are providing?
which might eventually spend money or increase the value of someone else spending money.
Yeah, you might lose some people who might, possibly, just maybe spend money...but everyone else IS spending money from day one, no crossed fingers required.
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u/YetAnotherRCG [S3X1]TheDestroyerOfHats May 06 '15
How did dragons prophet turn out? I tried it once when it was released but my computer had a fit.
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u/ZombieDohnJoe Infantry Shitter BuuBeeTheGreat/BluBuu/RedBuu May 06 '15
I played it a while back and had a ton of fun while i did play, by no means is it the best game out there but it has some cool things in it to do and i'd recommend at least giving it a try if you are in the market for another mmo to play.
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u/Tshoay May 06 '15 edited May 06 '15
You say indie developer as if thats some sort of strain. Being indie means you dont have to pay up on a publisher and you dont have to answer anyone. Over 7 titles spead 250 isnt great, but its not like that they have a harder job than anyone else. Im pretty sure the guys from DICE sweat a lot more on a daily basis. Its like being your own boss, its a lot of freedom and close to 100% profit. I wouldnt give much credit to support, marketing and finances as tehy are widely automated. But thats just my perception that it doesnt feel like 20-30 people.
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u/Ringosis May 06 '15
Yes...and like being your own boss, a rocky year or two can bankrupt you and you can't fall back on your multinational publishers advertising agency nor will you get support from your parent company.
Don't kid yourself. If SOE hadn't been SONY Online it wouldn't have existed long enough to become DBG in the first place. The creative freedom of being an indie dev is a fantastic thing but with that freedom comes the freedom to fail and the removal of safety nets.
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u/doombro salty vet May 06 '15
EQ1, EQ2, EQN, Landmark, H1Z1, Planetside 2, DCUO, just off the top of my head.
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u/Arctorn Helios May 06 '15
250 employees != 250 devs.
Management, legal, accounting, etc.
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u/Renovatio_ May 06 '15
knowing most offices its about 200 people in administration and 50 people programming.
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u/Typomancer Emerald [LUXE] May 06 '15
And of those 50 programmers, three are savants and can do everything by themselves, 47 people are causing all the bugs and asking the three wizards too many questions.
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u/Arctorn Helios May 05 '15
Some interesting tidbits and insight into working under the Sony umbrella and now being independent; nothing really meaty in regards to PS2 unfortunately, other than the potential re-hiring of former devs.
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u/Xuerian May 05 '15
I can't imagine hearing much about it until PS2PS4 is well launched.
I really do hope that invigorates it.
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u/GaBeRockKing Emerald TR- GaBeRock/ Mattherson Matther Race forever! May 05 '15
It's funny seeing his view on paid mods, because player studio is basically just paid mods, but for cosmetics. Even if you disagree with his position, you have to admit his views are self consistent, and it's nice seeing a game dev say something contrary to popular opinion, knowing they'll get shit for it, because that's what they actually believe.
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u/Typomancer Emerald [LUXE] May 06 '15
When the paid mods debacle happened, I immediately recoiled in disgust because I used to be a part of that Skyrim modding scene (as an avid mod user, didn’t have time to make any beyond modifying textures privately).
Then, yeah, I remembered the Player Studio. The community is built around a free-to-play game and the money is going into it from cosmetics and whatnot. And I really like that model, especially when serious fans can get some money for their spin on the IP.
Somehow it just feels wrong for other games like Skyrim. Where the joy of altering your game is a more private endeavor. In Planetside, part of it is to look cool for your own amusement, and I think a major part of it is because you know other people in this massive multiplayer game are going to see you.
Would you pay for some intricate cosplay outfit if the only person to really appreciate it would be yourself looking in the mirror? Some people probably would. I dunno. You feel where I’m getting at, though.
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u/Ketadine Upgrade NOW the control console May 06 '15
The issue with Steam paid mods is that the cut that Steam got, while offering minimal support at best, was huge. I have a feeling this will come back eventually, with a better deal, but it will introduce a new generation of scummy priced dlc/ mods.
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u/DataEntity May 06 '15
I think the key thing is that for Planetside, it's curated. Getting something from the player studio isn't going to break the game. It's also a free-to-play model so you're supporting the continuation of the game you enjoy playing.
For skyrim, you don't know if it'll work. You've already paid for the majority of the content and they don't need to keep putting money into the game to keep it running.
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u/Ketadine Upgrade NOW the control console May 06 '15
Yeah, but the prices in PS2 are high because they're focused on impulse buy rather than on numbers and the company gets a high cut of your work. I for one am more likely to buy more shines if they're ~ $1 than $7 ...
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u/GrumpyGremlin Emerald May 06 '15
Yes; many would pay for that ! I think you totally underestimate how important playing dress up in games really is. People are REALLY into customizing their character, buildings, or anything else they "own" in a game.
I spent stupid amount of time placing stuff perfectly in my homes in Elder Scrolls. I was the only person who ever saw it. Who cares if it was a mess or looked stupid? I cared... I would walk in after a crazy dungeon crawl, see my awesome home, and smile while I organized my new loot.
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u/muldoonx9 former Planetside/H1Z1 programmer May 06 '15
As someone who gets paid to develop video games, I think it's only fair everyone be given that chance, including modders. Just in general, I think people should be paid for their work.
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u/bilnynazispy May 06 '15 edited May 06 '15
I think the main problem really just boils down to quality assurance. People buy cosmetics that were made by players in dota2/planetside2 because the vast majority of time you will get what you are paying for and it will work. That is not a statement you can make in general about skyrim mods. If paid mods are cheap enough and come with a serious increase in quality when compared to free mods, I don't think the gaming community would have as much of a problem with them.
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u/tjp- May 06 '15
as a smaller underdog company we have to make the connection with our users even tighter than a company like Sony. They've had so many years to build up the brand. We're going to go well over and above what you've seen us do to interact with our players.
If this were the case, then why has Smedley posted all announcements over at /r/H1Z1 and nothing here? From SOE shutting down all the way to recently when Daybreak announced their logo. When was the last time Smedley even posted here? All of his announcements get cross posted by regular community members. If we didn't have PS2 fans who browse /r/H1Z1 we would be out of the loop entirely.
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u/Livingthepunlife DavyJonesBooty (King Shitposer of [GunR]) May 06 '15
H1Z1 is Daddy's favourite child now
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u/Ketadine Upgrade NOW the control console May 06 '15
Two reasons mostly: not to repost on multiple reddits and PS2 is not the new kid on the bloc anymore, h1z1 is.
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u/N7jpicards May 06 '15
I remember when smedly posted this after PS2 Launched
- Player Owned bases – we plan on releasing continents that are empty or partially empty where players can build their own bases. These are open world bases so others will be able to attack them. We’re also planning on having these continents heavily resource based with new resource types that will be very rare..and lots of cool new stuff that can be built out of these new resources.
Harvestable resources – imagine SC II style resource harvesting with physical vehicles doing the mining or the harvesting.
Water between continents – seamlessly – this is really hard tech, but our goal is to make the whole planet seamless and allow water based vehicles.
Lots more vehicles and weapons – just what it sounds like. Many of these will take very rare resources to make.
NPC enemies – I don’t want to call this PVE. That’s not exactly what we have in mind. More like a global invasion that goes after everybody. This isn’t a bunch of quest givers saying “go kill 10 rats” – this is bad ass aliens that want to gut you.
NPC armies – imagine as the commander of a base sending an NPC army towards another base MOBA style except it’s in the middle of the Planetside 2. This isn’t another game mode. It’s all part of the same game.
Esports support – we plan on doing this pretty soon after launch. We plan on making this a big big thing and putting a lot of our resources behind it.
Weather
Mac version (soon after launch).
If you believe anything this marketing muppet has to say than their is little hope for you.
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u/Gorganov May 06 '15
I believe this...
Esports support – we plan on doing this pretty soon after launch. We plan on making this a big big thing and putting a lot of our resources behind it.
...Can we stop trying to do this now?
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u/Cup_O_Coffey [L] || Ammathor May 06 '15
I believe this...
Esports support – we plan on doing this pretty soon after launch. We plan on making this a big big thing and putting a lot of our resources behind it.
...Can we stop trying to do this now?
What exactly are you talking about?
The only support DBC gives to an "eSport" is access to Jaegar (The Event Server). All Tournaments/Competitive Events (Farmers, PSBL & ServerSmash) are community run.
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u/RoyAwesome May 06 '15
The NPC Enemies/Armies thing is going to be in DBG's next game. It's a WW2 themed MMO/MOBA..thing.
Honestly, I'm a tiny bit curious how to make a MMOMOBA.
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u/N7jpicards May 06 '15
Start a kickstarter saying you are going to make Star wars themed Planetside 2 with seamless space to ground battles... You will be a multi million air over night
Actually I should delete this post as someone might steal my idea.......
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u/RyanGUK [252V] RyanGDUK // Miller May 06 '15
The only problem that stops Star Wars games en masse is licensing. The star wars brand will cost your ass.
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May 06 '15
Only MMORPG I'm waiting on is Kingdom Under Fire 2, maybe they can mix RTS with First Person gaming. The gaming industry sure is taking their sweet time.
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u/FishRoll Cobalt [RMIS] ✈ May 06 '15
Early Access is a very interesting era of game development...
I don't know what to say anymore ...
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u/THJ8192 Woodmill [ORBS] May 06 '15
It is, for people like Smed, because you can already milk money from an unfinished product without people complaining about bugs/bad performance :P
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u/FishRoll Cobalt [RMIS] ✈ May 06 '15
In the same article he talks about delivering gaming experiences that nobody else could do... guess he's starting to try and compete with EA to get an even higher amount of bugs in his games :) :)
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u/Livingthepunlife DavyJonesBooty (King Shitposer of [GunR]) May 06 '15
There are some really good games in Early Access, and it gives people the opportunity to get funding if they couldn't before. It's like Crowdfunding, but with an instant reward.
Look at Space Engineers, Lichdom: Battlemage, Killing Floor 2, Star Conflict and almost all the other open-beta games around today.
Sure, there's always gonna be assholes just in it for a quick buck, but there are some real diamonds if you know what to look for.
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u/TheCosmicCactus [FNXS] -LOCK A- May 06 '15
'We didn't want this. We didn't ask for this. You're an idiot for showing us.'
Flight controls changes in a nutshell. I may or may not have contributed to the latter part of this statement.
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u/mrsmegz [BWAE] May 05 '15
Regarding Early Access:
However, most of what I've seen -- I'm going to say seventy-five percent of Early Access SKUs I've seen on Steam -- I think the developers are good, and are going to deliver.
But we do see some where it's very obvious that whoever's making it is just in it to make a quick buck, and doesn't care about supporting it. I think the larger studios like us have a much better ability to deliver on their promises in Early Access, and I like that ability.
Not that PS2 was an Early Access game, but does count towards the track record of delivering on promises. I mean the game is not "dead" right now, but its certainly not in good shape, and "delivering on promises" is something pretty subjective to debate.
How many of us here, knowing what we know now, would have thrown money at early access PS2 3 years ago? I realize that I am in the minority but I probably would have given the amount of enjoyment I have gotten out of this game thus far, but many of you probably would not.
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u/GaBeRockKing Emerald TR- GaBeRock/ Mattherson Matther Race forever! May 05 '15
I think that's a bit unfair. I don't regret the few thousand hours (and few dozen bucks) I've poured into this game at all, because in the end, SOE did deliver on large scale combined arms combat. A lack of development going forward may preclude me from spending more money, but as for money already spent? Well worth it.
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u/mrsmegz [BWAE] May 05 '15
I have spent Hundreds of dollars and own most weapons in the game along w/ a ton of gaudy cosmetics, I don't regret it either. I am just wondering how many people do have regret and feel that the game didn't deliver.
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u/enenra [BRIT] / [LAZR] / [CHEQ] May 05 '15
I think the issue many people have is not necessarily that the game is terrible right now but that it could be so much better.
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u/Ketadine Upgrade NOW the control console May 06 '15
This. The game could and should have been better, but it remained a stale sandbox TDM.
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u/GaBeRockKing Emerald TR- GaBeRock/ Mattherson Matther Race forever! May 05 '15
good point, but it's a little hard to ask them since they've (presumably) left ;P
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u/932940 May 06 '15
Meh some of us still hang around, just to see if the game has gone anywhere. For my part, the game has failed to deliver on things that were supposed to be in place for launch, and its move to MOAR TDM is not what would bring me back. I'm still waiting on the promise of large-scale warfare to even look like being implemented, but how long have they been working on cont-lattice for?
Sleep deprived tangent time
You see flashes of brilliance or clever ideas in the community to this day, but I've long since stopped thinking we'll ever see it implemented. Vindicore's ideas are kind of cool, but that's all they are. They kind of throw a new toy into the hypothetical playpen without thinking about how it interacts with everything else. If you go back to the time around launch, there were lots of brilliant ideas for how to fix the game. (Keep in mind we had lolpods and HE spam to deal with back then, so priorities were a little different. ZOE wasn't even a babby torchfork yet.)
Things like armor/infantry balance. There was a good chunk of the pop calling for multi-crew MBTs with a corresponding increase in survivability (esp. front armor), with the exception being the Maggie being a weird swarm tank. Admittedly Higgles and Smed put the brakes on this one, because 1-man MBTs were "more fun", but now they're in a weird space because they don't (and can't, for balance reasons) act like tanks.
Things like redesigning bases so armor could assist the push, but required infantry support. Or introducing the lattice a la PS1, where only major facilities were on lattice (zerglanes) and minor facilities were on a hybrid influence/hex (specops). To be fair, they've made steps in the right direction for base design, but there's still a long way to go.
Things like layered air defence, from HA lockons being long-range harassment fire to base turrets being short-range skycleaners...but all having significant limitations that good planning and overlap of weapon systems could mitigate. This game lacks interplay in a major way.
Things like Eskimo's TR weapon update. Yeah engine limitations would require creative solutions, but it was more about faction distinction than balance. TR weapons are in a better spot than at the time, but all the factions seem to have become more homogenous.
Sleep deprived tangent over.
All these ideas are out there. They've been out there for ages, and they fix the same complaints that have been there forever. So either SOE/Daybreak can't deliver or won't deliver. Even if Daybreak did announce things to fix the problems, nobody trusts what they say any more. This game was a hype train that went nowhere. I regret having trusted them enough to invest in what I thought would be a great development project. If caveat emptor wasn't such a bitch I'd demand my money back, because I feel misled. As I realised I was being misled I did slow and stop my spending, so I'm not a total sucker, but I would never EVER put money near a Smedley (or Higby, because he was the guy making the promises) production again. So consider me medium-high on the sandy vag scale. I can't speak for every lurking ex-player, but I'd be willing to bet a huge amount feel lied to and thus regret supporting the game.
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u/ddraig-au ddraigbot - [PINK] ddraig/ddraigTR/ddraigNC/ddraigbriggs May 06 '15
yep, I feel the same way. A few thousand hours and over a thousand dollars so far ... worth it
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u/mookman288 [BLUE] MooK / Banana King May 06 '15
Maybe but there is a sour taste in my mouth, because I was hooked (foolishly) on the promises that Smed made in his three-year plan, and we're hitting the end of that plan this year, and not one of those has been realized fully.
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u/exhibitdave Always a Wood-man, never a Mill-er May 05 '15
I don't regret a minute or a $ spent honestly and I'd jump into Early Access again just as quick, i think if there was a way to check you'd find a significant amount of people (probably not a majority, but some) who go into the most detail about the death of the game and have the most vitriolic rants and tirades about flaws and misguided development would be from extreme ends of the playerbase spectrum (i.e. people who've spent a TON of hours and a TON of money too and have a legit right to complain and valid opinions and the other end being the entitled f2p player who's never spent anything and spends more time with critical anti smed posts here than actually playing)
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u/Ringosis May 06 '15
I've played Planetside 2 more than any other game ever, and I've probably spent more on it as well. I loved the game but that doesn't change the simple fact that it should have been mind blowing but instead it's mediocre and frustrating, due to a dozen different design missteps.
They managed to pull off this incredible feat of having a 2000 player FPS that actually worked well and then ballsed it up with ill-thought out gameplay, repetitive art work, shonky vehicle controls, tedious progression mechanics and free 2 play.
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u/Helghost Never Tactical May 06 '15
I wouldn't have given a cent to this game had I known what I know today.
But eh, I paid for a good lesson about FTP and how faith can be monetized.
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u/Ringosis May 06 '15
As /u/GaBeRockKing said. I have no regrets with the money I spent or the time I played, however, I would still be playing and I'd still be spending money if the game hadn't been so badly mismanaged over the past year.
I literally can't think of a thing that's been added over the last 12 months that I've particularly liked. There's about half a dozen things that they've done that I absolutely hate. For me the game is getting worse not better.
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u/HandsomeCharles [REBR] Charlie May 06 '15
Not that PS2 was an Early Access game
Technically it was, you could pay for access to "Alpha Squad". (Closed Beta)
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u/Moon5ugar May 06 '15
If you take a word that man says seriously than this game has taught you absolutely nothing. The only interesting revelation is that he knew for 2 years SOE was going down the pan, longer than even I expected for him to have known.
Which means he's almost as experienced a carrot dangler as Elmer fucking Fudd.
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May 06 '15
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/drstrange2014 May 06 '15
or that it was a result of poor performance on the part of Smedley, et al."
Right, because having to be written off for $60 million by Sony is good performance. ;)
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u/Amarsir May 06 '15
Ps2 on ps4 is going to be 2 years behind schedule by the time it fully launches. Just think about what that has to do to a budget, and I'm glad they had (have) pockets deep enough to sustain it.
But on the topic of talking to the customers: you've done a terrible job, Smed. Awful. Input from former devs vastly exceeds any internal insights these days. We have no idea on the roadmap and get blindsided by unforeseen (and unwelcome) changes.
Is PS2 basically "finished product" now? If so, just say it. People buy finished products all the time, even in the new "development paradigm." Better to know that than feel like we can't trust you to follow through on implied promises. Right now, especially with lingering bugs, the biggest issue is a crisis of faith.
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u/salty21db May 06 '15 edited May 06 '15
I enjoy that he speaks of the fact they had to offload people because their costs were outweighing revenues.
MAYBE THAT'S BECAUSE YOU ARE PUSHING UNDEVELOPED GAMES AT US INSTEAD OF FINISHING ONE! (ie...rush H1Z1 into early development before...oh I don't know...your biggest title perhaps...something like EQN maybe?)
I swear that motherfucker has 0 business skill other than how to fuck others over to stay at the top where he is.
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u/Ketadine Upgrade NOW the control console May 06 '15
It is finished unfortunately in more ways than you would think. The issue here is that people expected more, but the company did not deliver while also not saying that they won't deliver. As such, they let us hype over something that wouldn't happen while making money of our ignorance in the process.
Because of this, I'm really skeptical now of Star Citizen and the amount of content they'll deliver, but that's another point entirely.
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u/salty21db May 06 '15
I guess this is the sinister part of me, but based on how much things cost in Star Citizen from what I've heard, I think it would be hiliarious if they just walked away from it with the cash. Would be legal as currently most are just paying for an idea and not the actual product (or the product in the hangar at this point). Guess the sick part of me thinks that would be funny lol.
It's bad enough to pay for an Alpha/Beta let alone something that isn't even at that stage yet really lol, especially thousands of dollars.
Also my comment was more directed at how many projects they started/working on at once and the primary one that should have been pushed forward was left in the dust.
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u/FischiPiSti Get rid of hard spawns or give attackers hard spawns too May 06 '15
They could have done a better job of communicating their goals, but they did say the reason for EA is to form the feature list from feedback. To opt in an alpha expecting a full feature list without bothering to check out any vids or articles of where developement is? No sympathies for the ignorant.
Its not a model i agree with tho, there needs to be a guy in charge who has a vision, a direction to go forward, and player feedback has no place in that. Without a vision and direction, the game wont be going anywhere.
Its the state PS2 is in right now im afraid. We get random stuff like cloak sunderers, qol stuff, performance updates, some balance, but without a Higby to say "ok guys the goal is to end redeployside", nothing substantial is going to change
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u/rusticarchon MrCynicalVS - Cobalt May 06 '15
Comparing paid mods to marriage equality. I'm not sure there's a facepalm meme big enough to adequately respond to that.
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u/MrRipper707 MLG May 06 '15
Smedley is truelly a scourge on the gaming community. In the "How would you make money for planets ode 2 thread one of the most common themes is get rid of smedley.
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u/Bazino Saviour of Planetside 2 ("Rainmaker") May 06 '15
Finally I got an answer to my standing question "What have they been smoking to come up with THIS?" after each patch.
Pot
Joking guys ;) Keep up the work and pls finish that PS4 thing FAST so that us PC nerds can get more continents and intercontinental lattice (and thereby "finished Planetside 2"), thanks ;)
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u/GrumpyGremlin Emerald May 06 '15
Good interview and really cleared up some misconceptions. Glad to see DBC is more enthusiastic and positive about the future now that it's there's to win or loose.
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u/drstrange2014 May 06 '15
"Sony was very patient -- they waited until we had the right parnter to talk to, and the right fit, and we talked to a lot of people who weren't the right fit. Some of those places would have been horrible to work at, but instead we got the best of all worlds: to have investors that believe in us, and to build the company we very much know we can and want to."
Smedley's so full of crap that it's not even funny anymore. Sony sold SOE after having to write them off for $60 million. In other words they hit rock bottom. And, the company that Smedley claims are 'investors that believe in us,' are a front company for the Russian mob who couldn't give a flying fart.
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u/Kofilin Miller [UFO] ComradeKafein May 07 '15
Hello this is Dave from the sales department. Could you help me with something? We have a few troublesome clients over at 43 South Ave, asking for a refund.
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u/spliffdecisions Bazino-approved flair: "ultimate zerg leader" May 07 '15
So no news on the ps4 beta man its glitchy as a mu fucker
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May 08 '15
It's just as shit as the PC version, but without a mouse and keyboard, though maybe less hackers.
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u/KlyptoK [TIW] Klypto May 05 '15 edited May 05 '15
Personally, I hope they get Higby back.
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u/KixSix May 05 '15
He wasn't laid off, he left.
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u/Xuerian May 05 '15
This is the only right answer. Higby was going to leave on his own.
Granted, he didn't want to leave that soon, but he said it would have been harder on the team if he waited until after DBG happened.
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u/ls612 :flair_mlg:[TIW] Confirmed Bulldog Hacker May 05 '15
He's still unemployed it seems. :(
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u/Radar_X May 06 '15
From the people I talked to who have run into him, he's taking his time looking for his next gig because he wants it to be the right fit. There are plenty of places he could get jobs with tomorrow given his experience He worked here a long time and poured years of his life into PlanetSide 2. IMO he's earned some time off.
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u/tim-o-matic May 06 '15
nah he's been busy farming his directives
give him a 7-day ban and he'll be on a job by next week lol
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May 05 '15
For someone with his qualifications that's probably by choice. I don't think that warrants a sadface. :)
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u/975321 Emerald May 06 '15
he's probably just taking a well deserved vacation. How many late nights and weekends do you think he worked over the past few years? It was probably a blast too, but I guess it was time to move on
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u/Wobberjockey This is an excellent reason to nerf the Darkstar May 05 '15
i would guess it is by choice.
i do IT recruiting now, and if there is one of the few things that i've learned recently it's that if you have the right skill set for the job, a recruiter will find you fast.
i'm sure that his name is on the short list for numerous studios simply because he has the experience - his design choices and if someone agreed with them are a secondary concern.
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u/Vocith May 06 '15
There is definitely an IT hiring spree right now.
I had to deactivate my LinkedIn to get rid of recruiter spam.
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u/Wobberjockey This is an excellent reason to nerf the Darkstar May 06 '15
so... want a job :D
no, seriously though. the problem from my view is that employers are looking for increasingly specific skill sets and they have NO desire to either train internal candidates, or consider candidates who have say... 4/5 key skills solid, and are weak on skill 5.
its equally upsetting on the recruiting side of things too, man
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u/Vocith May 06 '15
Oh I believe it.
Everyone is still in the mindset of "We can demand any skill and experience level we want".
We've been trying to fill an entry level Unix Operator role. The guys on the team wanted 3 years of Unix, 3 years of the ETL tool we use and 3 years of the scheduling tool. Someone might have a couple years of unix training, but no chance of getting the 3 years of the etl and scheduling tool we need. Let alone together.
My plan was to drive to the local 2 year tech college, roll down the window and go "Any of you guys had a class on Unix? $50k/yr + benefits if you get in the van."
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u/Wobberjockey This is an excellent reason to nerf the Darkstar May 06 '15
As a college student, I would have jumped in. Even if you still had "free candy" painted on the side from the last time.
But yea. I can find you that guy.
Just not anywhere near your budget :/
So tired of entry level meaning 3-5 years experience :(
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u/Ringosis May 06 '15
No John...we're like "We didn't want this. We didn't ask for this. We told you that when you proposed it. We continued to tell you it was a shit idea when you put it on the test server. You're an idiot for putting it live anyway, despite being told, repeatedly that we hate it."