Celebrate PlanetSide's Ten-Year Anniversary By Playing Free

IanDavis

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Aug 18, 2012
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Celebrate PlanetSide's Ten-Year Anniversary By Playing Free

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/j_smedley/status/336693753014276096 align=right]

The decade-old massively-multiplayer shooter will shed its subscription soon, SOE boss says.


With the popularity of SOE's massively-multiplayer shooter PlanetSide 2, it's easy to forget that it once had a younger, ground-breaking brother. Yet nostalgic, or even curious players are often deterred from checking in on this aging shooter by its archaic subscription fees. Speaking from his [a href=https://twitter.com/j_smedley]personal, Planetside-branded twitter account[/a], Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley talked about opening up this classic for all. In a series of tweets, he casually announces that plans are in the works to convert the original game into a F2P model. Oh, and if you've spent any time in either game, you should have free access to the original as of now, to celebrate its 10-year anniversary.

"We did a mass grant of anyone who has ever played ps1or ps2 with free time in ps1", Smedley tweeted late last night, "we weren't ready to announce it yet because the database grant is still ongoing and won't be done till [tomorrow] morning. So please if you didn't get flagged chill. We are trying to do something cool for everyone and we were going to tell people when it's done. But people saw it and others broadcast the info. Please don't complain :) we aren't raising your taxes we are making a game free. This also gives us more time to make it f2p. So enjoy starting [tomorrow] late morning."

The news arrives as the massively multiplayer shooter reaches its first decade of existence. It launched as a subscription shooter in the promordial age before World of Warcraft took the MMO throne. A multiplayer shooter with more players than Battlefield 1942 was just as technologically impressive back then as it was mind-blowing to play. That said, there are more than a few differences between it and its sequel, as any vet will gladly tell you. The pace is slower, the vehicles are more important, and your soldier caps out at a paltry 34 certification points. [a href=http://planetside.station.sony.com/]The game's website[/a] seems to be locked in internet amber, as it loads into a dial-up destroying intro video and talks about downloading the game via the defunct Direct2Drive service.

No timeframe has been given for the F2P conversion, but according to [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4350936/planetside-will-go-free-to-play-in-future-says-studio-ceo]Polygon[/a], current players can expect to receive six months of free game time in Planetside 1 as part of the anniversary celebration.

Source: [a href=https://twitter.com/j_smedley]Twitter[/a] via [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4350936/planetside-will-go-free-to-play-in-future-says-studio-ceo]Polygon[/a]

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Lawyer105

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Apr 15, 2009
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As much as I loved PS1, and find PS2 to be a somewhat inferior attempt, I honestly can't see any point in this. The last time I went back, even the solitary remaining consolidated server was almost lifeless and populated largely by:
- die-hard vets who make LoL look like it has an open and friendly community; and
- Russian/Chinese (character named, anyways) hackers.

We're not talking about the "good" kind of hackers, either. The "zomg, u killd me hax" kind which are actually just better than you. We're talking utterly blatant hacks - teleports, speed, flight, invulnerability, texture/wall etc.

The original was awesome, but there's almost no point any more.
 

Ftaghn To You Too

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Nov 25, 2009
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Lawyer105 said:
As much as I loved PS1, and find PS2 to be a somewhat inferior attempt, I honestly can't see any point in this. The last time I went back, even the solitary remaining consolidated server was almost lifeless and populated largely by:
- die-hard vets who make LoL look like it has an open and friendly community; and
- Russian/Chinese (character named, anyways) hackers.

We're not talking about the "good" kind of hackers, either. The "zomg, u killd me hax" kind which are actually just better than you. We're talking utterly blatant hacks - teleports, speed, flight, invulnerability, texture/wall etc.

The original was awesome, but there's almost no point any more.
Whenever there's an event like this or when PS1 Subscriptions got a PS2 beta key, the population jumps. There's quite a few playing now, most likely.

I personally missed the glory days of PS1, so I'd like to see how the game plays with a decent population. I enjoy PS2, but it would be nice to see the old ways.
 

gigastar

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Sep 13, 2010
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Lawyer105 said:
As much as I loved PS1, and find PS2 to be a somewhat inferior attempt...
Thats sort of obvious when PS2 "launched" in an obviously unfinished and extremely buggy state.

But ive stuck with the game since December, and things in the game have improved since then.

The community, not so much.
 

Lawyer105

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gigastar said:
But ive stuck with the game since December, and things in the game have improved since then.
I've been watching the improvements, hoping that PS2 will develop into something that's worthy of the Planetside name. Unfortunately, they've developed (imo) the wrong things. More weapons, vehicles, certs etc. were never what the game needed. The game needed meta.

Even something as simple (and let's be honest... kinda silly) like the PS1 meta of "sanc-lock the other two Empires, then stroke your epeen about how awesome you are" would be enough, and they're certainly in a position to develop better than that. They didn't bother though. Distract the ADHD ritalin-poppers with short-term flashy, and everything will be alright. That seems to be the business plan.
 

gigastar

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Sep 13, 2010
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Lawyer105 said:
gigastar said:
But ive stuck with the game since December, and things in the game have improved since then.
I've been watching the improvements, hoping that PS2 will develop into something that's worthy of the Planetside name. Unfortunately, they've developed (imo) the wrong things. More weapons, vehicles, certs etc. were never what the game needed. The game needed meta.

Even something as simple (and let's be honest... kinda silly) like the PS1 meta of "sanc-lock the other two Empires, then stroke your epeen about how awesome you are" would be enough, and they're certainly in a position to develop better than that. They didn't bother though. Distract the ADHD ritalin-poppers with short-term flashy, and everything will be alright. That seems to be the business plan.
The next big update should be tomorrow and its becoming increasingly clear that PS2 really is becoming more like PS1.

For example, in that update Indar is being modified to behave something like this-

Note- The map screen will not look like this in PS2, the neutral zones were removed after people on the test server found you could hide armies there. However it will behave the same.

Intercontinental gameplay is also being worked on, however this is much further down the line as PS2 needs more continents first.
 

viranimus

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Nov 20, 2009
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Knowing Smedley he most likely said that through his teeth and behind closed doors makes


look only slightly miffed with the size of the fit he is pitchin at the thought of letting money go.