I have criticized ArenaNet for explaining major game features with “go read the wiki.” PlanetSide 2’s entire tutorial is a link to YouTube videos on the launcher. Logging in, you are dropped directly into a warzone without an explanation of advanced features like “how to tell who is on your team.” You are told to go control the land for your faction without mention of how to do that.
This has a worse introduction than Dwarf Fortress. There are other games that start you without a tutorial or have a steep learning curve, but this one drops you directly into combat with experienced players rather than “start level one and figure it out as you go along.” On a scale of 1 to 10, the introduction gets a negative number for skipping both the tutorial and that entire space where the beginning would be. I was killed by teammates before seeing an enemy, then again before shooting one. The part of the game that every player will see seems designed to drive away new players.
MMOs strive to be a niche market by making the players work for it. If you want to play this game, you must go watch these videos and read these links on another site so you can know what is going on and how to play. It is a strange thing that almost every buy-the-box game gives you an introduction so that you can start off on the right foot, though they already have your money even if you never re-load the game, while this F2P+cash shop game is making it hard to get started, but they need new players to come back and spend money after their horrible first experience.
: Zubon
Couldn’t agree more. After spending 15 minutes playing this morning.. then scouring the net.. and STILL not knowing how to tell who is on my team and who is an enemy, I’m not sure I’ll be launching this game a second time.
Had the same experience as well. Watched some of the videos first, but going through all of them would take quite a while.
When I first entered I was shot dead a few seconds after I went outside, trying to get my bearings. I really like the setting, but it does make it hard to embrace the game.
Feeling this entirely. I don’t want to be spoon fed but just an inkling of what to do would be a great help.
PS. Don’t get me started on the map :p
Its got a lot of information…none of which is explained. One thing that really helped, as the minimap is useless at the default size – press H to increase the size of the minimap.
Enemies:
Red icon/name if spotted, no icon/name otherwise
Friendlies:
Green = Your squad (group)
Orange = Your Platoon (raid)
Blue = everyone else
Check out “Planetside 2 – The Absolute Basics – Navigating the world” by TB. It helped me a lot: http://youtu.be/Tx_xeRFlNTA
The icons get really confusing if you’re playing as the Terran Republic. A red building icon means you own it, but a red player icon means they’re hostile?!
The building icons themselves could use some thickness/boldness. At one pixel width, it’s difficult to tell the difference between blue (New Conglomerate) and purple (Vanu).
You’re tossed into a squad on your first play along with being tossed into a warzone. This is a squad filled with people who haven’t played (or made a new char). It’s not at all clear how you leave this squad for something more useful without logging out.
I get the feeling a lot of the UI and design decisions were taken from Planetside 1 and they didn’t consider people who never played the game.
I had very similar problems. However, if you kind of take everything a little bit more lightly you might enjoy your time some more. I think for most of the people playing the only way they learn about something is just going hmmm lets click the button and see what happens. Today I learned how to get vehicles. I can’t really say I learned how to drive them with any proficiency, but it was definitely entertaining. At one point I’m pretty sure I was flying upside down. And that one fast ground vehicle, felt very jarring when driving. It was almost like being thrown on a roller coaster or something.. I just felt confused 90% of the time, but I understand that it just takes some time.
I tried it once. I was dead before I could get my hands back on keyboard and mouse after the extremely-long loading screen, er, drop sequence. Haven’t been back since.
What about stock voice comm thingies? Hearing people scream for a medic or saying thanks is something I would like to do too! :D
TBH I found it pretty exhilarating to be dropped straight in. Disclaimer: I did watch one or two of the absolute beginner vids and I had been playing quite a bit of WvW in GW2, so I understood the genre if not the specifics. I’m not a hard-core (or even medium-core) gamer but I found it quite straightforward to find out what was happening, and where, using the map. Plus the travel feature help you get either in or out of action quickly. Yes I died lots and lots of times, but – so what? No death penalty means just getting straight back in without worrying if you are dying or not. Fun!
The same thing happened to me when I first tried this game. Logged in, made a dude, picked a faction, got smeared at my first attempt at actually playing because nothing was explained whatsoever.
I’m not sure how they’re going to ask me for money while simultaneously making it clear they don’t want me playing their game. And even that wouldn’t be so bad if PS2 didn’t beg for money CONSTANTLY in one of the most embarrassing video game cashgrab attempts I’ve ever seen. it puts Zynga to shame.