Now that the development of Planetside 2 is confirmed and the information is really stepping up I think it's time looked back into PlanetSide history and examine what caused the game to stop being popular.
I played the game for a long time, I was incredibly lucky to be able to play it at all. The story behind it is incredibly amusing, when I started I was pretty young, by 'pretty young' I mean I was still in primary school aged 10, I was an avid PC gamer even in 2003 aged 10, and I still am in 2011 aged 18. My first PC game was C&C aged 2, shortly followed by Doom just to give you an idea of how ridiculous my past was
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Anyway I'm getting sidetracked here, the only reason I got to play Planetside was through my teacher, now just think about how funny that is. I didn't learn about it through TV, advertisements, the Internet or any typical media outlet. Instead I learned of PlanetSide's existence through word of mouth, think about how unlikely that is. Now I was in trouble and through sheer chance I mentioned playing a few PC games at the time, the teacher immediately told me about Planetside which he had got onto the beta for and was really enjoying so when I got home I hit it up on the internet and flicked through the latest PC Gamer magazine which just happened to be offering a 7-day trial and had the game on disk in demo form. So I got the game installed and began playing with about an average of 5 frames per second. But the game had hooked me and I got broadband, got the proper game on disks and got an account in mid-2003.
Now the entire point of this story is how hard it was for me to start playing, the only reason I found out about the game was due to someone mentioning it to me. Consider how many people actually had Planetside on the month of its release; probably around 30,000 at a guess. Imagine the odds of running into one of those people in a small town in the UK. That's how lucky I was to learn about the game, even with that considered I only managed to play it and test it out because of PC Gamer having a trial! The guys at PC Gamer UK are massive Planetside fans and they consistently wrote articles on the game and how good it was, I'd advise SOE to give these guys all the information they can because they will be such good advertisers.
Which leads me to an incredibly important aspect of success
Marketing, Marketing and more Marketing
Planetside had quite a few subscribers for the time period and given the quality of internet and computers at the time. I believe it peaked at around 100,000 subscribers, Planetside 2 has the power to go far, far beyond that. Star Wars The Old Republic has a handful of trailers and multiple game-play videos on the internet, it's widely known about and they've had tons of stories in the gaming media. What Planetside 2 needs is something similar, I've seen that Higby is doing interviews with PC Gamer and other media outlets which is pure awesome, hats off to him for getting the word spread! But It'd be even better to see banners on websites and even a TV advert campaign, SOE will see a return in the money paid back in sales and subscriptions, or in the cash shop.
Get a trailer together showing a huge battle, galaxies dropping guys on a base as dozens of tanks and aircraft duke it out in the hills around it. Dozens of troops planting C.E. and mines everywhere and squads defending the control console, zoom out and show the continent with battleplans and troops on it, then zoom out and show the globe with multiple similar battles going on in different continents. Convey how large scale and incredible Planetside is.
Now that I had the game I played and played, obviously I'm looking back at Planetside through the rose-tinted glass of childhood nostalgia but the game was extremely good, probably the best game I have ever played (Accounting for the differences in technology and hardware) But that didn't stop it having flaws. One change was both positive and negative - The addition of broadcast Warpgates.
Sanctuaries
Before we had Brodcast Warpgates you had to take the direct route via normal continent-continent Warpgates, what this meant is that you had to attack with overwhelming force and organization otherwise you would be kicked right back to sanctuary, or to a tower with zero vehicle support. This effectively forced people to create huge raids in which all the vehicles and support you needed were there. My greatest memories of Planetside are the the huge raids, 50 Prowlers driving out or OsteKake's pop-lock's worth of galaxies are my favourites. The raids were awesome because they gave that feeling of being an Empire and having all these other humans here fighting with you, in current battles people can just warp to the continent and make their own way to the battle very easily without the need for overwhelming force. The faster you can get into the battle the lower the stakes are, with low stakes killwhoring benefits as your life is worth less to you. In Planetside death is inconsequential and the only cost is to the personal time you have to enjoy yourself, if dying means that you have to go all the way back to sanctuary then you try to maximize the odds of survival by using overwhelming main-force attack.
The Sanctuary was therefore a vital part of the game, it was a safe hub that allowed empires to create that main-force attack and organize effectively. In the early days of Planetside the hub was always bustling, it is empty in the current era because it has been obsoleted by broadcast warpgates and low populations, main-force attack is no longer needed and teamwork is less valuable. I think in Planetside 2 something similar to a Sanctuary is needed, perhaps the unconquerable 'foothold' will fill the role but I think it's important that we remember that Sanctuaries were once a highly important tactical area.
BattleFrame Robotics
I have two vivid memories of BFR's, my first was testing them on the testing server. I pulled the one man ground variant and stomped off into Ceryshen with no idea of what I was doing, it just so happened that I ran into an NC reaver along with a vanguard and around a squad of infantry. At first I though I had been dumb for just running in blindly, I crouched and fired at the vanguard expecting to be totally screwed, even with everything firing at me I took very little damage and in a matter of minutes I destroyed the Vanguard and scared off the Reaver and infantry.
I had put myself into a terrible situation with no support, I had put myself up against 3 elements of Planetside's Rock-Paper-Scissors, Air-Infantry_Armor. If I had been in any vehicle from the pre-BFR era I would have died VERY quickly yet in this one man BFR I defeated them all without any real skill, teamwork and I didn't sustain any permanent damage.
The second example was logging in the time period between release and nerf, I was in an AMP station and I ran outside to defend the base, I did not see a single infantryman, tank, aircraft, jeep or AMS; instead the ridge opposite the base was lined with BFR's and there were around 20 in total. I just logged off in disgust and didn't come back until they were nerfed.
The BFR was a perfect example of doing everything wrong and going against the core principles of the game, it did not need a gunner only a driver. All the gunner added was a little extra DPS, you could operate a flying, self healing deathmachine that could travel extremely fast, reach any point on the map, fjord rivers and be switched to counter any other vehicle or aircraft in the game. They had a high survivability due to their ability to run away, self regenerate and switch loadouts to match the play of the battle which meant battles were ground to a halt. Their weapons often had incredible range and damage that matched the next best unit it the category their weapons were fitted for. Even after their nerfing they still outperform any other vehicle and are the most prevalent vehicle other than a mosquito.
When they were first released their shield regeneration could totally negate the damage of multiple infantrymen, a tank or many other vehicles. This violated the key foundation of Planetside - That two people working together as a team was always more effective than one person. If you drove a tank you could get a lightning or a Main Battle Tank. The lightning gave the weaponry to the driver but two lightnings could not defeat a two-man Vanguard. The whole of the 2 People working as a team was more than the sum of its individual components, this is Planetside sacrament.
I love the fact that the devs have acknowledged that BFR's were bad and are not bringing them back for Planetside. I am also glad that we are seeing an increase in the reliance on teammates, the importance of teamwork is huge, the fact that we will have to rely on people being medics or engineers is great. However we should make sure that we don't get another 'BFR' moment, the BFR really cut Planetside down far before its time. No vehicle should ever be able to span across so many roles at once - it hurts the variety of the game and the players who enjoy the different roles.