BNuts
2012-08-18, 04:27 AM
-Disclaimer-
Everything is *subject to change* and what the developers told me and what the Pro7 guys said, may not be locked in concrete, so 6 months from now, don't go quoting this thread when the men-in-suits go in a different-direction-decision ;) :cry:
- /end Disclaimer -
http://i.imgur.com/ohTYI.jpg
These are everywhere in Koln, and look great!
http://i.imgur.com/KNYtR.jpg
Brolly on the left, and Dirk on the right, 2 out of 3 of the PS2 Pro7 team.
Anyways..... :D
Went to the "Meet the Developers" at the brauhaus, talked for over an hour to Josh Hackney about everything from their global business model, and the Station-Cash shop, to the gameplay he expects at game-launch-day. He was also the only member on the developer-team to be reppin' TR
But here is a rundown of the events;
First things first. EU people worried about the ProSiebenSat.1Games taking the game-handling over for SOE in the EU...
I am not worried about the Pro7 guys. At all.. Whatsoever.
Brolly (Brollywood) is a cool Irish dude that can handle his beer, and speaks deustch like a champ. The guys there in Munich seem to have the marketing thing under control, as there were billboards, wall hangings, and bus-stop posters all over Koln.
They will have TV commercials, cardboard cut-out standings @ public events and places, all the way, slowly ramping up until release. They are pushing the beta sign-up HARD for the EU public.
There @ Gamescom I even was stopping people from exiting the PS2 booth until they took a look at the Beta sign-up kiosk-computer that was running near the exit.
Station Cash (SC) and Seven Cash (SC) will be initially transferred 1 to 1, and then be available to purchase online. If you use a European payment method, you will have to use the Pro7 cash-shop. If you use a US payment method, you use SOE’s Station-Cash shop.
The EU server is SOE's server, run by Sony employees. Tech support will be handled by Pro7.
Pro7 is here to put it's finger to the communities pulse and to listen to what we want, and deliver what they can, when they can.
They need to tailor the experience to suit the public view of each individual countries' personality, and that can vary quite a bit, as gamers in eastern Europe and gamers in Norway and gamers in Portugal will all have different and varying perceptions of "cool" and what they want, and it all has to be delivered to everyone, at the same time, on the same game, with different people.... Hard crowd to please.
I picked the brains of everyone I could, from Adam Clegg on level design, T-Ray on artistic implementation and his varying backgrounds in game design, to Candance, the senior global brand manager, this is her baby, she was really proud of the CGI, and the fact they broke the video renderer when they first tried to compile the video for the first time. And she laughed at me complaining that the entire video was nothing but the TR getting ass-whupped.
I also talked for the most time to Dirk Steiger and better known Peter Brolly; both are the face of Planetside2 from ProSiebenSat.1 and both played Planetside for a long, long time (VS).
Also Richard Lynch from Ireland, who designed the kick-ass jerseys, and there will be an epic shit-tonne of merchandise coming. I got a sneek-peak at some of the VS stuff rendered. I am in for a hoodie.
I wore around the Infil jersey with BRTD stenciled in black on the red TR logo, and had Higby sign it (Fu*k TR, NC-4-life)- nice Matt classy ;). The others I didn't get to sign it right off, so it's boxed up and sent to the SOE offices in California.
As far as the cash-shop, they are very adamant about not selling pay-2-win products. Although I have seen Wargaming.net make the same claim. Those guys net around 3 million USDollars.. A day.. I hope SOE doesn't get pulled to the dark-side.
For now SOE is going to draw the line at XP boosters and maybe early-unlockable items with SC.
There was much much more discussed regarding the upcoming Open Beta and the model they were using at Gamescom. They want to try many things, and have the army of coders and modelers working overtime – literally. There will be so many things that will make it into launch, but even more that they want the community to try first, and may not be able to keep, or that we will veto outright.
They are listening to us, and they read the forums. All of them. All of it. So you are being seen, and heard. The Beta was released to appease us, even though it may have been premature. So when you do get in, and you will (patience!!!) don’t complain about the fruit being sour.
It’s not done yet, it hasn’t “ripened” to perfection yet. That can happen with the communities support and nurturing, but deliver constructive criticism, not flame-mail and hate-threads.
Invite your friends and tell everyone about the game.
Play the beta when you get invited. And play the –beta- for what it is, a test! Test –everything-, everywhere. And try to exploit everything you can, and then report the problems in-game and on the beta forums.
The one complaint the team had about what they don’t want to see is us all complaining about the Beta once they open it up, that it has issues and isn’t polished.. Its BETA! Not the final release for launch, lol.
I for one want the team to succeed in this, and please the community while delivering Planetside2 to the public with great success.
http://i.imgur.com/N2WEj.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ffkcT.jpg
that was just the opening hall, near 11. I had to walk all the way to the other side to get to the ESL stage and the Planetside2 area.
The ESL guys did a great job setting up the PS2 booth.
http://i.imgur.com/KUxVB.jpg
ESL Stage, where Matt did his appearances, got a pretty large crowd at the 11:30 and 15:00 showings.
http://i.imgur.com/dNNIP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/sDRof.jpg
On the left with his back to me is Brollywood, in the sweet TR jersey is Fara from PSU, and on the right is Clegg in the NC jersey
Everything is *subject to change* and what the developers told me and what the Pro7 guys said, may not be locked in concrete, so 6 months from now, don't go quoting this thread when the men-in-suits go in a different-direction-decision ;) :cry:
- /end Disclaimer -
http://i.imgur.com/ohTYI.jpg
These are everywhere in Koln, and look great!
http://i.imgur.com/KNYtR.jpg
Brolly on the left, and Dirk on the right, 2 out of 3 of the PS2 Pro7 team.
Anyways..... :D
Went to the "Meet the Developers" at the brauhaus, talked for over an hour to Josh Hackney about everything from their global business model, and the Station-Cash shop, to the gameplay he expects at game-launch-day. He was also the only member on the developer-team to be reppin' TR
But here is a rundown of the events;
First things first. EU people worried about the ProSiebenSat.1Games taking the game-handling over for SOE in the EU...
I am not worried about the Pro7 guys. At all.. Whatsoever.
Brolly (Brollywood) is a cool Irish dude that can handle his beer, and speaks deustch like a champ. The guys there in Munich seem to have the marketing thing under control, as there were billboards, wall hangings, and bus-stop posters all over Koln.
They will have TV commercials, cardboard cut-out standings @ public events and places, all the way, slowly ramping up until release. They are pushing the beta sign-up HARD for the EU public.
There @ Gamescom I even was stopping people from exiting the PS2 booth until they took a look at the Beta sign-up kiosk-computer that was running near the exit.
Station Cash (SC) and Seven Cash (SC) will be initially transferred 1 to 1, and then be available to purchase online. If you use a European payment method, you will have to use the Pro7 cash-shop. If you use a US payment method, you use SOE’s Station-Cash shop.
The EU server is SOE's server, run by Sony employees. Tech support will be handled by Pro7.
Pro7 is here to put it's finger to the communities pulse and to listen to what we want, and deliver what they can, when they can.
They need to tailor the experience to suit the public view of each individual countries' personality, and that can vary quite a bit, as gamers in eastern Europe and gamers in Norway and gamers in Portugal will all have different and varying perceptions of "cool" and what they want, and it all has to be delivered to everyone, at the same time, on the same game, with different people.... Hard crowd to please.
I picked the brains of everyone I could, from Adam Clegg on level design, T-Ray on artistic implementation and his varying backgrounds in game design, to Candance, the senior global brand manager, this is her baby, she was really proud of the CGI, and the fact they broke the video renderer when they first tried to compile the video for the first time. And she laughed at me complaining that the entire video was nothing but the TR getting ass-whupped.
I also talked for the most time to Dirk Steiger and better known Peter Brolly; both are the face of Planetside2 from ProSiebenSat.1 and both played Planetside for a long, long time (VS).
Also Richard Lynch from Ireland, who designed the kick-ass jerseys, and there will be an epic shit-tonne of merchandise coming. I got a sneek-peak at some of the VS stuff rendered. I am in for a hoodie.
I wore around the Infil jersey with BRTD stenciled in black on the red TR logo, and had Higby sign it (Fu*k TR, NC-4-life)- nice Matt classy ;). The others I didn't get to sign it right off, so it's boxed up and sent to the SOE offices in California.
As far as the cash-shop, they are very adamant about not selling pay-2-win products. Although I have seen Wargaming.net make the same claim. Those guys net around 3 million USDollars.. A day.. I hope SOE doesn't get pulled to the dark-side.
For now SOE is going to draw the line at XP boosters and maybe early-unlockable items with SC.
There was much much more discussed regarding the upcoming Open Beta and the model they were using at Gamescom. They want to try many things, and have the army of coders and modelers working overtime – literally. There will be so many things that will make it into launch, but even more that they want the community to try first, and may not be able to keep, or that we will veto outright.
They are listening to us, and they read the forums. All of them. All of it. So you are being seen, and heard. The Beta was released to appease us, even though it may have been premature. So when you do get in, and you will (patience!!!) don’t complain about the fruit being sour.
It’s not done yet, it hasn’t “ripened” to perfection yet. That can happen with the communities support and nurturing, but deliver constructive criticism, not flame-mail and hate-threads.
Invite your friends and tell everyone about the game.
Play the beta when you get invited. And play the –beta- for what it is, a test! Test –everything-, everywhere. And try to exploit everything you can, and then report the problems in-game and on the beta forums.
The one complaint the team had about what they don’t want to see is us all complaining about the Beta once they open it up, that it has issues and isn’t polished.. Its BETA! Not the final release for launch, lol.
I for one want the team to succeed in this, and please the community while delivering Planetside2 to the public with great success.
http://i.imgur.com/N2WEj.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ffkcT.jpg
that was just the opening hall, near 11. I had to walk all the way to the other side to get to the ESL stage and the Planetside2 area.
The ESL guys did a great job setting up the PS2 booth.
http://i.imgur.com/KUxVB.jpg
ESL Stage, where Matt did his appearances, got a pretty large crowd at the 11:30 and 15:00 showings.
http://i.imgur.com/dNNIP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/sDRof.jpg
On the left with his back to me is Brollywood, in the sweet TR jersey is Fara from PSU, and on the right is Clegg in the NC jersey