Others have provided Internal Answers.Originally Posted by Meta77
I will give you an External Answer...
I always view how well a game does based on how its content updates compete with other games.
Some games run content updates which are seasonal and non-permanent.
Other games run content updates that just add a gametype to facilitate a small percentage of players.
Then we have the games that go all out, add a bit of everything... including permanent updates.
Sure, new games are coming out all the time and the hype on all of these games are always at an all-time high, but I like how a game develops. Its nice to see an update here and an update there, but I care about World Expansion and Character Expansion, and it feels to me that Sega has been trying to adapt PSO-2 to a much more casual base. They have been working more on retention and keeping shareholders happy through forcing endgamers to always depend on the latest EQ for just about anything.
I compare content updates from one game to another and see how a game has evolved. Between 2015 to present day, PSO-2 is a game I went back and forth to not knowing what to make of it outside of all the fashions and weapon models that are out there, but there are MMORPGs out in the market that in 2012 - 2016 I thought I would always despise and never give a second chance to, that actually performed a full turn around for me.
Picture a game that you never would give a second chance suddenly become a game that through updates is not just playable, but becomes a favorite game. This is what happened to me with three MMORPGs that I judged as being graded two Fs and a D, to suddenly the games being graded a B by me and now they are close to breaking into my top list of games played as A-Ranked games in my book... all due to updates.
I write this because since MMOs are long term games, it means that the launch is just there to generate mainstream first impressions, but the content updates over a long period of time are what truly make the game. PSO-2 is a game that overall I grade around a C, and what happens is that its updates make me push the game closer to a D, and I've hardly ever given this game a B rating. One of the reasons why is because when the seasonal updates are released simultaneously for most MMOs (Including PSO-2... which is one of the few things SEGA gets right... to release massive updates at the time other big companies release theirs) PSO-2 updates might be interesting and a welcome addition at times, but compared to the others games.... PSO-2 is usually somewhere around the middle to low. The only big update that I considered it to be on the upper end of things was when the Graphics Update was released and the game was released on PS4. However, as far as new content went, it had almost no real content compared to every other game released at its time.
For example
Its nice to get a map.....and a brand new area.... that is ran in usually one or two arks missions + the free mission and maybe a new EQ to the area. Its nice to see 3 - 8 new enemies in the area, but it does not compare to when at the very same time another game said in its update notes "Adding a new continent to the game, increasing the world size by a third, and adding two new classes" and another game said in its update notes "Added High Texture Resolutions for 4K Systems and fixed SLI. Rebalanced the classes and added four new dungeons, One New Raid, and Two new areas" and I was like "wow... 10 years ago, I would have paid for all of this through an expansion, now I'm getting expansion-level updates during the massive update schedule."
I wish that just once I can see a PSO-2 update compared to other games during massive seasonal update and with no doubt in my heart of mind say "This was the best update out of all games this update cycle." but that has never happened and it just pisses me off. ;(
Reply With Quote
Connect With Us