14 DAY TRIAL // John Smedley, the leader of Sony Online Entertainment, says that his team sees cheaters as one of the biggest problems threatening the long-term future of Planetside 2 and has plans for a number of in-game punishments to deter them from acting.
The executive tells PC Gamer that, “I won’t mince words: I hate cheaters. I don’t like people who ruin the experience for everyone else, and – quite frankly – we see cheats as a threat to our game and a threat to our livelihood.”
The SOE team is putting a lot of resources into a mechanics to detect cheaters and automatically punish them and the developers are also relying on the community to report those who are breaking the rules of the MMO.
Smedley adds, “you can expect some rather amusing things to be happening in the next month or so as punishments within the game. Finding the ability to virtually tar and feather cheaters in game is quite entertaining for us, and we want to make an example of them in a big way.”
The CEO acknowledges that punishments can be seen as badge of honors by some MMO players, but the Planetside 2 team wants to introduce mechanics that will make cheaters angry and force them to try another game or reform.
Planetside 2 is free-to-play and relies on a great mass of players who are not paying anything in order to create a good gaming environment for the about 10 percent that are willing to put money into the MMO.
The game was launched in late November and Smedley has previously revealed that it is already more successful than his company expected.
The team is said to have a 3-year plan for future content, which will be fully revealed in early 2013, but SOE hopes that players will continue to be interested in Planetside 2 until 2025.