14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Sony Online Entertainment is at the moment working on the core ideas for a new system that will introduce long-term goals for all veteran players who have been playing Planetside 2 since it launched.
In a bigger Reddit-based Ask Me Anything session, Matt Higby, the creative director working on the MMO, admitted that his team could not deliver content at the same rate as the high-level players got through it.
Long-term goals with a lot of requirements can change that situation.
He says, “Right now the cert system is basically the thing we have to provide for that, which is problematic. At a certain point people will run out of things to unlock, we’re not trying to run a non-stop gear treadmill game.”
SOE seems interested in making equipment less important for high-level players in order to create a clearer connection between them and other aspects of the character they are using.
The developer adds, “This will allow us to provide those long term ‘reach’ goals without having to either price new players out of important gear, make a punishingly steep grind for advanced upgrades or continuously inflate the number of upgrades at the end of the treadmill like most MMO games do.”
All titles in the MMO space need to confront the problem that a number of gamers are so engaged with the game that they consume all the content the developers have included.
Planetside 2 is free-to-play for all those who want to enjoy its core mix of shooter and MMO experience, but those who are subscribing get a better overall game experience.
The title is offered on the PC and should also soon be delivered on the PlayStation 4 from Sony, although the two versions will not bring any cross-platform play.