Submersion - enemy icons, communications and killspam.

[EVILPIG]

I have spoken about these things many times during Planetside and just want to go over it again here. Most draw their opinions based on prior experience and there has been a lot of mention of Tribes here lately. Also in the past, but a resurgence lately. I have also seen and made many references to WWII Online, due it's persistence, a win condition (which you can have in a persistent environment, it does not mean "endless") and it's mission system. I want to talk about something else WWII Online offers that I have not seen much of in other games.

Immersion. WWII Online does not have names above enemy units. Infantry don't even have symbols. If you see an enemy foot soldier, you just see the uniform and the equipment. Imagine how the game would look if there were no symbols on enemies? There also was no killspam. You could look up who you killed or who killed you after that life, but it was not on the screen during play. You also could not communicate with the enemy. Now, I know that players could use 3rd party means of communicating, but not having it in game removed making it easy, as well as harassment or hate tells (the best compliment).

I know it's not what players are used to, but I would love to see a video of gameplay with enemy symbols and names turned off. I want you to imagine fighting a nameless enemy who is simply "TR" "NC" or "VS." I want you to consider gameplay that is not about putting up a billboard of killspam. Most of all, I want you to imagine how immersive it would be just seeing the graphics of the game without any symbols on the enemy. Allowing camo patterns and cloaking affects to truly try to blend in. Imagine a veteran's knowledge and ability to recognize what type of enemy unit he is looking at making a difference, vs. an icon simply telling you what it is.

Lastly, as I said, I know that most are totally used to having these elements in a game, but we are trying to separate Planetside 2 from the rest of the market. The scale will certainly do that, do you think that changing anything I spoke of would do that as well?

Actually, you already see this in most of the screeshots and the trailer. Now compare that with the GDC footage.