Yesterday's Activity

Miss a day and you miss a lot, they say, and truer words couldn't be spoken about this past Friday. We saw a flurry of Planetside related activity, from a video interview with the developers to a trip down to San Diego by one of my favorite internet personalities. So lets get to this article before today becomes tomorrow and we're looking at two day old news and not day old news!

In the end, not so far off.

So first things first, lets talk about this interview FPS Guru had with Matt Higby and Tramell Isaac. The content of the interview were primarily questions that have been asked and answered hundreds of times, but before I get into why this is a problem, lets talk about the two interesting tidbits that came out of this. The first was a quick explanation of vehicle diversity by Higby, where he described the various functionalities of the Galaxy. In this explanation he mentioned a drop pod variant, a gunship variant, and how the ability to transport troops could somehow impede or conflict with the ability to be deployed as a forward base - none of which painted a clearer picture of how the galaxy or vehicles at large would function, but all of which was very interesting. The second bit of interesting information came from Tramell, where he explained that low polly, low res models of the original Planetside characters would be available to players. While I'm sure that comes as a lovely nostalgic gesture to long term fans, I sincerely hope it's not a practice that becomes widely adopted - remember people, at the end of the day, you don't have to look at yourself while in the first person - I do!

But that was it! An entire interview and only two mildly interesting pieces of information, and both were provided candidly by the guests and not provoked by the interviewer. The questions - when they weren't being interrupted by Twitch TV's inability to keep a secure connection - were the same rehashed questions that the developers have answered time and again, and you can see and hear their frustration. Interviewers, when you get to interview the creative director and senior art director of a Triple A title, would you please give the scenario the respect it deserves. Don't ask them when the beta is going to be - they're not going to tell you. Instead try asking them what their favorite vehicle is, or what their iconic Planetside 2 moment has been during their play testing, or what the greatest design challenge they've had to overcome has been. Matt Higby and Tramell Isaac are some of the most lively characters I have ever followed in game design (even more so when you get them together), and if you're not willing to engage them on their level, why bother? This bump on a log style of internet journalism isn't just a lost opportunity, it's an outright detriment to both the community, who becomes frustrated with having their time wasted, as well as the developers, who may less open to doing community based interviews like this in the future. [/endrant]

Hope yet remains though, because if there is one member of the media I trust to bring some life and some very serious attention to Planetside 2, it's Totalbiscuit. I've been a follower of Totalbiscuit's since his early WoW videos and have been routinely impressed with the effort he puts into his work. He has the rare ability to hold my respect and keep me entertained even when presenting me with an opinion that's polar opposite to my own. He's headed down to San Diego with the express purpose of giving Planetside 2 a test drive, and has apparently captured over 90 minutes of raw footage, and as a long time Planetside fan, I'm sure he'll have a lot to say about what SOE has been up to. Keep tabs on TB on Twitter, the Cynical Britt website, and his personal You Tube channel.

We had two other minor releases for Planetside 2 yesterday. The latest in the lore of Planetside, if you're into that sort of thing, has been released onto their official site. Ordinarily the story of a game is usually my primary motivation for playing, but with Planetside, it's more about the experience itself, the scope of the battles, the potential it has to immerse me via gameplay alone. In the end it's caused every attempt I've made to experience their story pretty much end due to lack of interest. But hey, to each is own!

Ninja Entourage

We also had an interview with Xander Clauss surface on MMORPG.com, a site that's easier to navigate on Google thand it is from it's own home page. It focuses on the Terran Republic faction, it's lore, and how it plays into their vehicles weapons, and just the overall feel they give off. Nothing new or exciting in this one, but I like to think of it as just another line in the water, potentially hooking fans that never would have known about Planetside 2 otherwise. 

But that's it for now folks. The site is starting to garner a little more traffic as the search engine crawlers start to identify the page. I'd like to invite any newcomers to leave a comment or two, if you like. I've been hesitant to plug my blog anywhere yet, figuring there just hasn't been enough time or content on it to bother with, but that might change soon - we'll see, shameless self promotion can be a volatile thing. I'll be back again soon! 

- Rob