Final Opinion on PSO

[LastUtopia]

Here's something I've been thinking about recently. This isn't a rant, it's intended to start a discussion. Any other video game you play, you have an opinion about it right from the start and your opinion only really changes in the area of lasting appeal. Other than that, the game doesn't change. With online games such as PSO, your opinion of the game (and more importantly, the QUALITY of the gameplay) depends on the people who play it, and they seem to be getting more idiotic every day. This has turned many away from PSO.

When Phantasy Star Online was first released, the gaming community regarded it as a "great online experience" and it's reviews were mostly good. Sure, there was stealing, but if you were careful it wasn't a problem. Unfortunately, the dupers came along and began what would become the game's slow decline in value and popularity. Once the game's servers had been littered with Spread Needles and level 999 mags, these dupers moved on to learning lobby magic and the art of Player Killing. As I said before, many have turned away from PSO for these reasons. So, I would like to ask everyone a question that I'm sure you've considered before at least once: If you were to rate PSO today, would you give it the same 8.5 or 9 that it recieved back when it was released? Or would you see how corrupt PSO has become and give it a considerably lower rating?

[Manifest]

I dont let the cheating affect my game. so it would still get a solid 7.5 from me.

[LastUtopia]

Well, I don't let cheating ruin my game either, which is why I'm still addicted to it. Of the people I played with in the first week of PSO's release that I still knew recently:
3 stopped playing weeks ago
1 turned duper/pk/cheater
2 still play as usual
1 plays much less, having so many duped items and being bored

So, I don't let this effect me, but it still is a part of the game that cannot be ignored. If it was just me giving the rating on my personal opinion, it's an 8. But if I were to take into consideration the community that the game currently has, I'd say it's more like a 3.5.

[DarkWolf]

I think my opinion of PSO has only dropped about half a point... It is getting a bit aggravating for me to level up, and you can only beat DF solo only so many times. I really wish they would have put in, like, one special level for V. Hard or something... but in regards to the people, I can't say it's dropped at all. I mean, day 1, there were theives and jerks. Now there's PKers and jerks. The people don't change... just their methods. Hence, all in all PSO gets a good 8.5 from me.

[Rapscallion]

I'd still give the game a solid 9. I've had the game for over a month, I've logged nearly 50 hours into it and I'm STILL seeing new items on people. This was the reason I liked Diablo and Diablo 2 so much. i thought the game itself was good, but the treasure hunting aspect of it was the most addictive element. Hoping to find that ultimate item, getting the ultimate mag. The game really suffers from it's repetition, same 4 levels, same monsters, kill kill kill. But that's not exactly the point of the game. The game brings together people into a unique community of players where we can find people who might become friends and people who might just wind up forgotten, that "guy you played with the other night..."

Like all game communities, the cheaters come eventually and try as they may to make the experience miserable for everyone else they wind up tossing the game aside not long after they've gamesharked their way to supremacy. It might seem like for every one that goes away two take their place, but by this time we should all have enough trusted contacts that we could take to play in password locked games.

It's still just as addictive as the first time I played it, I haven't touched any of my other games since I got it.

[PowerSlave]

The game:
After having been through bad VMU's, broken Dreamcasts, I can safely say that I love PSO as much as I always have. I don't think this game has left my dreamcast since Jan 30th. With most games, if I would have lost over 200 hrs worth of save files the game would be smashed up to bits or traded in to the local EB.

The people:
As we all know in life there are assholes and saints, there's an art in avoiding the asses and finding the saints.
I play with people I know 90% of the time and thus cheating doesnt really affect my game, unless it is the few friends I have lost because they fell in cahoots with the sharkers.
If I feel like meeting new players I equip a weapon I dont care about and go have fun, if the people in that game suck, I move on....simple.

[The_Saint]

Saints...theres saints in this game???? lol
Anyways..too many people are quitting!!! remember a couple o' weeks ago when everybody was so jazzed (cool word huh?) about version 2? Now everybody is fed up. And i still haven't met you all!!!! Anyways with all the Sh*t in PSO, i still give it an 8.culd be better.....but on-line games are what you make 'em, yes?

[Aberu]

i like this game a lot and i would give it an 8, for it was made that way, it was not made perfect but it was made to deserve an 8, i dont rate an online game based on the jerks involving it. i rate them based on the original intent and what i get out of playing honest players, jerks dont ruin the game for me, they jus tick me off, thats why i call dupers, cheaters, and PK'ers jerks, cuz when they have the power they use it in a jerky way that affects everyone and hurts SEGA directly. Im a huge fan of sega games, and i hate it that they keep getting destroyed by the other companies because of their image, personaly N64 sukked terribly but because of its name and pokemone nintendo is still surviving and saturn was looked down upon when it was a very good system, the same is happening with DC even though it sold a lot of copies. well thats my two cents gomene!

[Skeeve]

Personally I think something that has hurt the lifespan of pso is the lack of a definite confirmation of ver.2 for america or europe as people have basically lost faith in sega's ability to completely combat the various problems in the original game. If people knew they'd soon be getting the game they enjoy with extra stuff and removal of most of the problems then I think more would keep playing.

[zanza]

SERIOUSLY, I THINK PSO IS JUST ANOTHER
DIABLO IN 3-D STYLE. (ESPECIALLY NOW THAT PKING CAN BE DONE)
BTW: I HATED THAT ASPECT OF THE GAME!
I'VE PLAYED THIS GAME A GOOD 300+HRS
NOW AND I SAY IT DOESN'T OFFER MUCH
IN THE LONG RUN.
WHAT BRINGS ME BACK TO GET PK'ED AGAIN?
MEETING PEOPLE. THE PEOPLE OF PSO
KEEP ME COMING BACK!
I GET A KICK OUT OF SOCIALIZING AND MEETING YOU ALL!
ITS TOO BAD THERE HAS TO BE LAMERS
ONLINE.
SEGA, HOW ABOUT A PATCH TO FIX THAT?
EX: A MESSAGE APPEARS AT THE CORNER:
{THIS GUY IS A JERK/LAMER.}
HM? HOW 'BOUT IT? SEGA?