Originally Posted by Smed
What I have been trying to do is to keep the folks at PSU updated because you guys are the most loyal Planetside fans. Ive released stuff ahead of any marketing or PR push. Recently ( a few weeks ago actually) we made the call to update the game to a new internally developed engine. Doing that meant delaying the game, but we thought it was in the best interests of Planetside Next. It also means delaying releasing further info for a little while. I will let you all know more when we firm up the schedule. The likely next step is a larger scale release of information and the beta signups going up. As I've said previously current Planetside subs will be included automatically.
Normally when we do game announcements we do a much bigger concerted information push all at once and these kind of one off posts don't happen. In this case I feel like the Planetside audience has hung in with us for a long time and I really want to involve you all more in advance of the official info. However what happens is everything gets carried across the net and the actual info gets changed. I'm sorry for that happening. We will do our best to keep you informed early. But that necessarily means that sometimes when things change you have to be ready for that too.
Smed
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In regards to keeping existing players informed, yes, you're doing an appropriate job. Not too sure I'm happy about your official SOE and Planetside websites not easily or obviously directing people to this site, but there is a clear sign that you're not ignoring the existing playerbase is good.
However, as someone who stopped playing and has almost no incentive to return to the original product, I must express my concerns about getting the people that haven't experienced the product before into PS:N. At the end of the day, I stopped playing because logging on and only having one continent being actively played on was frustrating. Without a way to continually bring in new players through means other than gimmicky promotions, I will remain very dubeous about SOE's PR gameplan.
PS:N HAS to succeed on it's own merits. You can't rely on this site to promote and drum up excitement. The people that visit this site already know the product. It's mere existance is enough to excite us, but at the end of the day, people aren't coming here if they don't know the product, and this is where a lot of the "left in the dark" sentiments are coming from.
A lot of people "called it" regarding to the March release date being missed, mostly because all scheduling seemed off. We received an e-mail asking for design ideas just over a year ago.
Savvy players that study MMO trends will tell you that this gave an indication that the core gameplay mechanics and functionality hadn't been finalised, and to not have it finalised 1 year before an estimated ETA is just....well, it's scary. It promotes an "ignorance is bliss" mentality from anyone that was skeptical about this project in the first place.
Then there was the announcement in December that it would be released in 3 months, before any solid plans for the public closed beta was announced. Again, another sign that things aren't following the industry standard. Again, very very scary.
Granted, not everyone will think like this. For their own sakes I hope they don't because it is draining, but things haven't been on track for this product yet in my eyes, and action need to be taken to get it there. Without even showing any video footage of the game, I can't even see the game being ready for NDA closed beta testing, let alone the open testing that needs to occur 1-3 months minimum to make sure the release is stable.
I don't know, guess things are different now. Maybe betas aren't important PR tools anymore, let alone a means to properly test the game prior to release. It's an existing IP, so the existing fanbase guarantees somethign regardless of the products merits, but it saddens me that the only good news I have seen other than the screenshots is people losing their jobs. It leaves a horrible taste in my mouth.
Please John, kick your marketing and testing departments into gear, otherwise this game is going to struggle to see Summer.