PSO2 Closed Beta Survey

[Drifting Fable]

Translation request:
"Please consider using meseta as the currency for the Ethe salon instead of AC."

Thanks, and keep up the good work. You're doing a great thing for the community.

[Zyrusticae]

Yeah, I don't think they're going to improve the graphics, no matter what arguments you guys might push through, it wont happen.

For one reason and one reason only. Developement cost.... That's actually two words....
[snip]

Again, this is nonsense.

They already have the artists on payroll. They already have people working on the graphics this very second. Technical artists are valuable personnel; I would be highly surprised (and disappointed) if they worked on a temporary or contract basis. And remember something - content and upgrades are not an either-or thing. Different team members work on different aspects of the game, and it is very common for artists to be at a lack for work while waiting for concept artists and designers to churn out new areas, monsters, weapons, and so on.

I won't be surprised at all if the game sees quite a few upgrades between now and OB, and even more between OB and launch - just like how we saw upgrades between Alpha 2 and CB.

[Eclipse5632]

Translation request:
"Please consider using meseta as the currency for the Ethe salon instead of AC."

エステのサービスを利用する際、ＡＣよりメセタで払うべきです。

Thanks for the support, guys.
I think I should be caught up now. Let me know if I missed anyone.

[Drekko]

Again, this is nonsense.

They already have the artists on payroll. They already have people working on the graphics this very second. Technical artists are valuable personnel; I would be highly surprised (and disappointed) if they worked on a temporary or contract basis. And remember something - content and upgrades are not an either-or thing. Different team members work on different aspects of the game, and it is very common for artists to be at a lack for work while waiting for concept artists and designers to churn out new areas, monsters, weapons, and so on.

I won't be surprised at all if the game sees quite a few upgrades between now and OB, and even more between OB and launch - just like how we saw upgrades between Alpha 2 and CB.

Payroll means didly squat, if you have forgotten, most artist in Japan are contract based not payroll based. Also if they are payrolled they do not just work for one project and one project alone, so your argument about them having people to work on graphics is wrong.

Sega atm is in finacial straights, any artist that is still employed pernamently are few and will not just be working on PSO2. Sega has other projects beside PSO, they will send any coders, Artists, Animators, etc. to work on other projects, that if you were to look at sega game list, pretty much any game that going to be retailed is going to have priority over PSO2. On top of that, PSO2 is not just being made for the PC it's being made for the Iphone/Android and Vita. Meaning not much from the engine can be changed between the different iterations, this is to maintain a standard quality accross the board.

So all those artists, and coders that your thinking about, they're not there. I don't know where you get your info about how games are produced or the internal workings of a company and financial priorities. But you need to brush up badly on todays market and on how each company is structured now specially the Japanese companies.

Sorry, that you may be dissapointed, but that is fact. When F2P games are being made, what you see in CBT tends to be what your going to get, the final just tends to get just a couple of extra features or content that they might think would make the cash shop turn more of a profit.

[kyuuketsuki]

When F2P games are being made, what you see in CBT tends to be what your going to get, the final just tends to get just a couple of extra features or content that they might think would make the cash shop turn more of a profit.

That's nonsense. SEGA is probably banking on making more profit with PSO2 as an F2P game than they would have made with it being P2P. Why would the F2P model then somehow dictate that they cut costs so aggressively that they wouldn't even consider keeping some technical artists on to polish the graphics after the beta?

Also, do you have a source for SEGA's artists not being on the payroll? While it's certainly common for various things to be contracted out during the course of a game's development, my knowledge of video game development is that there are typically permanent artists on the payroll of the studios since any project is going to require artists. Further, just because SEGA has other projects going doesn't mean they're at a point where they'd have any need for the artists working on PSO2, or that they'd have priority over PSO2 for some reason.

[Drekko]

That's nonsense. SEGA is probably banking on making more profit with PSO2 as an F2P game than they would have made with it being P2P. Why would the F2P model then somehow dictate that they cut costs so aggressively that they wouldn't even consider keeping some technical artists on to polish the graphics after the beta?

Also, do you have a source for SEGA's artists not being on the payroll? While it's certainly common for various things to be contracted out during the course of a game's development, my knowledge of video game development is that there are typically permanent artists on the payroll of the studios since any project is going to require artists. Further, just because SEGA has other projects going doesn't mean they're at a point where they'd have any need for the artists working on PSO2, or that they'd have priority over PSO2 for some reason.

Dude, this is common knowledge about artists in Japan, you can go on any Game developer website, and there's tons. Hell here's a website full of just people who work in the industry, NamesinGames.com, go ahead and ask anyone there. They'll tell you same thing I'm telling you.

The difference between the Japanese industry and the American idustry is far and wide. What you think is common, might be in the US, but not in Japan.

About the F2P, sorry to disappoint you, they're not banking on making more money from the project. They're expecting small profit margin, you have to understand no matter how much we like PSO, it's not a mainstream title. They went from F2P with the original PSO, to P2P for PSOv2, and continued with P2P till PSUP. Let's look at how well it did in recent years, badly, atrocious. Remember competition is going to keep away many players from it. Couple that with reviews from reviewers.... Famitsu, and other japanese mags have not been kind to recent games, especially MMO's.

To keep it cost effective to ensure profits, they will not be keeping any tech artists or any contract artists to work on the game and they will not spend any extra resources to improve the game from what has already been used. They might Contract someone maybe 2-3 years from when it's release to do a graphic update, but it will be very minor, unless there's a significant, I mean huge, success of this game that will mandate Sega to do more.

This is the real world, this is how things work. Companies will not spend resources that they don't need to for a game that is not a mainstream title and atm is unknown whether it will be successful. Considering the titles competition, it's going to be hard.

I love PSO, but I just know better than to expect things that are beyond the scope of what "Sega the software company" can do within budget.

[Spellbinder]

Dude, this is common knowledge about artists in Japan, you can go on any Game developer website, and there's tons. Hell here's a website full of just people who work in the industry, NamesinGames.com, go ahead and ask anyone there. They'll tell you same thing I'm telling you.

The difference between the Japanese industry and the American idustry is far and wide. What you think is common, might be in the US, but not in Japan.

About the F2P, sorry to disappoint you, they're not banking on making more money from the project. They're expecting small profit margin, you have to understand no matter how much we like PSO, it's not a mainstream title. They went from F2P with the original PSO, to P2P for PSOv2, and continued with P2P till PSUP. Let's look at how well it did in recent years, badly, atrocious. Remember competition is going to keep away many players from it. Couple that with reviews from reviewers.... Famitsu, and other japanese mags have not been kind to recent games, especially MMO's.

To keep it cost effective to ensure profits, they will not be keeping any tech artists or any contract artists to work on the game and they will not spend any extra resources to improve the game from what has already been used. They might Contract someone maybe 2-3 years from when it's release to do a graphic update, but it will be very minor, unless there's a significant, I mean huge, success of this game that will mandate Sega to do more.

This is the real world, this is how things work. Companies will not spend resources that they don't need to for a game that is not a mainstream title and atm is unknown whether it will be successful. Considering the titles competition, it's going to be hard.

I love PSO, but I just know better than to expect things that are beyond the scope of what "Sega the software company" can do within budget.

For what it's worth, if you go to the sega website they're hiring designers and artists.

[Ryo]

I don't work for Sega, but here's what they're doing!

None of us work for SEGA... we don't know how much money they expect to make, how many designers they have on staff, how many hot dogs they consume every second Wednesday or anything else.

[RocSage]

Again, this is nonsense.

They already have the artists on payroll. They already have people working on the graphics this very second. Technical artists are valuable personnel; I would be highly surprised (and disappointed) if they worked on a temporary or contract basis. And remember something - content and upgrades are not an either-or thing. Different team members work on different aspects of the game, and it is very common for artists to be at a lack for work while waiting for concept artists and designers to churn out new areas, monsters, weapons, and so on.

I won't be surprised at all if the game sees quite a few upgrades between now and OB, and even more between OB and launch - just like how we saw upgrades between Alpha 2 and CB.

Actually... there are a few aspects to this and it matters what you mean by "graphics" as to who would need to work on what.

Personally the game looks fine technically and the style is the PSO style so I think either decision is asinine and denotes a lack of understanding of art, design, and creativity as far as critical commentary goes and it indicates the same old nonsense of the modern age which is that games need to be super-realistically rendered to be good or something.

[Peejay]

Actually... there are a few aspects to this and it matters what you mean by "graphics" as to who would need to work on what.

Personally the game looks fine technically and the style is the PSO style so I think either decision is asinine and denotes a lack of understanding of art, design, and creativity as far as critical commentary goes and it indicates the same old nonsense of the modern age which is that games need to be super-realistically rendered to be good or something.

The environment could use some serious sharpening still.