Improvement: Social "MMO" Ideas

[TAA]

Any MMO relies heavily on the social aspect to ensure a loyal and growing player base. Even FPS games have a substantial proportion of players who are not just looking for shooter action, but who rather enjoy the social aspect of hanging out with their friends more than the gameplay itself. Catering to those players is absolutely not a bad thing.

I see several suggestions here for a neutral zone where all the factions can gather. This must never happen. There must never be any communication of any sort between factions. This is a very basic social engineering design principle. Why do you see so much trash talk in FPS titles? Why dont you see that level of trash talk in an MMORPG like WoW? Because games like WoW do not allow opposing factions to talk to each other. What would they say? Mostly obscenity, bragging, mocking, harassment - none are things that are conducive to building a positive social environment. The factions are enemies to each other. No communication must ever be allowed between them in the game.

However there are other possibilities. For example, there can be up to 2000 active players per continent. Why not create a separate staging area for each faction where people waiting in line to get into the fight can hang out?

Eg. There are 3 continents, and all are full with 2000 players each. However there are another 1000 players waiting around wanting to play. What do they do? Why not put them into the neutral staging area. While there they can chat, go hang out in the cantina, check out instructional videos or general action videos (ie. YouTube videos), watch a giant holographic globe of the world spinning around showing faction control zones, set up private rooms for 'discussing strategy' or whatever it is that roleplayers call it these days, etc. Players in the staging area can choose to enter a queue to get into the fight and walk around while they wait, which is better than staring at a screen showing how many other people are in the queue ahead of them. Some players would probably choose not to enter the queues at all and just hang out in the staging area all day. Good for them. They would probably be spending a lot of money on costumes too.

Further social events could easily be organised through this hub. For example, the great annual race to circumnavigate the continents, or the monthly contest to see who can kill the most (insert opposing faction) players.

[The Degenatron]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

(I know discussions are frowned upon inside the idea forum, but I don't feel like it fits in the Planetside 2 discussion forum).

So I was talking to my friend who has played Planetside 1. We were discussing the old memories of the game. He started talking about Everquest and how he used to sit down on a dock with a fishing rod and beer in the game (and in real life) and talk to his friends on the game over Vent.

Now the reason I bring this up is because he said something that caught my attention. That is all the MMOs he's enjoyed had extra stuff outside the core gameplay for players. That is instead of always doing PvE or PvP players could socialize in certain locations in the game. He brought this back to Planetside and commented that in Planetside all there was in the game was the core gameplay in mind outside of the one or two emotes. There was no role-playing feature essentially. (Which he viewed as sensible since it was an FPS, and not an RPG, but felt they were missing all the same).

Do you think Planetside would have left a longer lasting memory if it had included things outside of the core gameplay for players to enjoy? Just taking his idea for the moment. Something as simple as a virtual beer to get drunk and mess with your vision? (Drunken combat or dueling?). Or fishing in your uncapturable base next to a small lake? (Realizing the silliness with this since there are no fish).

Obviously it detracts from the core gameplay if players are doing this on continents that are pop-locked, but outside of them I'm not sure it would be a problem.

I'm going to leave this more open ended (mostly because I don't want to anger anyone with a wrong suggestion and have people fixate on it). Is there anything in the game that you guys ever wanted, that fits into the social MMO genre, that wasn't included since it wasn't part of the core gameplay?

I thought we were already here.

[Kezz]

Of course PS is an RPG. Its longevity relies on players identifying with their side and getting invested in the game. Its gameplay relies on people identifying with their side and getting invested in winning or losing. Sure, some people will play just for the pure competetiveness, but they'll be gone when a "better" shooter comes around. The ones that stay will be the ones that are "[TR|NC|VS] til they die".

If it happens, I think it should be three "service personnel" bars, one in each of the sides' footholds somewhere. The heirarchies of all the sides would pretty soon shut down any organised "neutral" location. It doesn't have to have much. And one thing it ought to have is a "stand to" function, maybe callable by higher CRs, where everyone in the bar gets kicked out by the MPs, fed "sober up pills" and shuttled to the hottest "instant action" location. An emergency reserve, if you will. You're in-game waiting? Well guess what, dogface? Wait's over.

Non-persistent shooters have lobbies where people can shoot the fat without being shot at. Such a "lounge" would serve some of the same purposes.

I'd like to see some training grounds too. While it's pretty gritty, having to learn what to do while some NC goon is ramming his Jackhammer up yer jaksie, the basics would be learned quicker in peace. Case for an "outfit" base, I reckon.