Is it safe to say admit playing this game?

[Abashi76]

The American market really hates this game:

http://pc.ign.com/objects/890/890125.html
http://pc.ign.com/objects/729/729460.html

As well as most other JP games.

There is a very small player population; and this is partly due to a culture bias, and US consumers tend to listen to the press, they don't just try games themselves. IGN will not include JP press scores in its press score averages, which unfair to games from Japan. The US press will most likely loath any game coming form Japan in favor of local products.

I've always been too scared to tell anybody that I played these Phantasy Star Online games, in fear of being ridiculed. I've heard this game and previous PSO titles getting bashed by other people at highschool and elsewhere. I don't think I could say it publicly in front of other gamers; being that I'd be told that the game is gay, and I'm a loser for playing it. I havn't met anybody else that likes this game, and I'm afraid to talk about it with anyone.

How do you feel about it, and its unpopularity?

[SpikeOtacon]

Actually part of the blame is the total lack of advertisement after the game was out. In fact, I didn't even know that the expansion was out until I was staring it in the face at the store, some week or so after it came out.

A lot of my friends are WoW nerds or recovering WoW addicts, and that is their poison. A lot of these people I had played PSO with on a regular basis many years ago. When bringing them to PSU, they mentioned how a lot of the game felt forced, bland, and not expansive enough to be called "Universe". Mind you, none of these people read reviews, they just got accounts and they all dropped like flies.

Also i'd like to remind you how biased Japan is to US products. Sony and Nintendo thrive over there, while Microsoft suffers. Note how only the totally American based company suffers in this situation. Japan also gives japanese players cool bonuses for pre-ordering or even just buying the game outright, while the US is lucky to see even a keychain as a preorder bonus. They treat the US like shit, no doubt a bit of Xenophobia in action. Let's not even begin to talk about how bad the EU is treated.

There are a lot of factors to blame for PSU's commercial disappointment. Sega's support is terrible, and they rarely advertised for the game anywhere. I still meet people who loved PSO back in the day but had no idea PSU even existed. PSU was also at launch a rather substandard product and that really hurt the reputation.

It is also worth mentioning that PSO was a JP product and the American press ate it up. To this day it still tops "Best Of" lists and is brought up quite a bit as an example of a true revolution in gaming for consoles. PSO did a lot of things right. PSU did a lot of those things wrong, apparently.

[EphekZ]

lmao what the fuck? It's just a game dude. If you play it, you play it. Anyone that bashes you for playing a game needs to relax.

Point is, If you like the game who cares what other people think. It's not like you're admitting to getting off on 2girls1cup or something.

Good luck and have fun.

[Abashi76]

Is there anywhere I can find a statistic for the amount of players on the US servers, a graph or something. I'm curious to how long this game will last. I'm worried that it might shut down in the US, after the next gen MMOs arrive.

[Weeaboolits]

I think they'd sooner let it stagnate like they did PSO, unless they can't resolve the billing issues.

[astuarlen]

For the sake of yourself and your loved ones, please don't mention any PS games. One time I mentioned to a friend that I used to play PSO, and a week later a bunch of lobsters shot my cat.

[Nai_Calus]

No. No it is not safe to admit to playing PSU.

Your friends will abandon you. Your god will abandon you. Your life will become a friendless, loveless sham. You will never again hold a job. You will never get laid. Your entire existence will be endless, miserable, agonizing pain. There will be no hope for you in this life or in any other. Your soul will suffer throughout all of eternity in a boiling sea of the venom of those who have come to despise you and your enemies shall attack you without mercy or respite.

You will be completely and utterly fucked.

[leblancdiaz]

To remake I post I made when it was what psu lacks thread:

I got a several things I want to list on major problems on Phantasy Star Universe

The lack of interest and the lack of community.

The ranges between levels very low end - high end no mid range.

The economy should be reset.

There should be more game and content updates. We ever going to get master classes or we going to have to wait endlessly amounts of time to find out that we will have to wait even longer.

Everyone wishes for race specials (you think Nanoblast and SUV would be enough)

Most people got turned off at the beginning by how incomplete Phantasy Star Universe was it's only devoted fans who still support.

People can't decide what the game is.

Finally the most major problem on Phantasy Star Universe is World of Warcraft.

[astuarlen]

You will never get laid.
You will be completely and utterly fucked.
Now I am truly confused.

[Eihwaz]

Abashi, please stop making such sweeping generalizations. :disapprove:

I think the reason PSU isn't so popular in America isn't because of some cultural bias, like you think. I'd say it's probably more due to the fact that PSU is considered at best a mediocre MMO by the gaming community at large. Of course, reviews don't matter if you personally enjoy a game. Play the damn game and tell anyone who is idiotic enough to hate on someone else because of their choice in games to fuck right off.

Most of the people I've mentioned PSO to seem to remember it fondly. I haven't run into anyone who's actively made fun of PSO.

[Nitro Vordex]

"Is it safe to say admit playing this?"

You DO know which site you are on, right?

[Sgt_Shligger]

The American market SHOULD hate bad games. There's literally nothing PSU has going for it to separate itself from the pack or even make itself enjoyable. The only thing I had fun doing was chatting in lobbies but I'm not paying ten bucks a month to chat in lobbies. If a game's bad people won't play it. There are plenty of a American games that get bad reviews and people don't play them either. Honestly, the market is NOT against Japanese games. Companies like Nintendo and Sega do well out here (Sega doing poorly lately but not completely shut out).

[Seority]

My friends used to play PSO occasionally and loved it, but they don't play PSU. Everytime they see it, they like to stare and watch the pretty colors and such, but they think it's still quite boring/to hard to understand/to hard to get into, with their Halo and AoC and WoW and such. When I'm at conventions, a lot of people said they have played PSU, but got bored of it real quickly and dropped it. This is only from what I've seen.
I say PSU:AOI had a potential to be a great game, but Sega truly didn't care about us that much to keep things as awesome here as it is there. Do I blame them? I suppose if they didn't see much profit over here, I'd say it was a good idea to just stick closer to home.
I hope that maybe the next extention or even Phantasy Star Portable will help rejuvenate it. I do love PSU and really hope it doesn't die completly over here. Otherwise I have to learn Japanese REAL quick lol.

[Zarode]

That review also reminded me of something: They reviewed it RIGHT when it came out, when Sega had, really, nothing to give us at the moment.


If they re-reviewed it now, they MIGHT give it a higher score, but then also, they would be stuck at White Beast. :wacko:

[Sord]

The dislike for PSU has nothing to do with being a popular Japanese game, and everything to do with a plethora of problems the game itself has. Yes, it's big in Japan, maybe they have different standards, also their support team is probably FAR better than the one we've been slapped with.

[Darkly]

suprisingly enough abashi - your high school isn't the rest of the world.

[Sekani]

suprisingly enough abashi - your high school isn't the rest of the world.

The OP is too busy looking for acceptance from his or her myspace peers to listen to things like common sense. At least that's what I've gathered from the last several posts he or she has made.

On topic, PSU's unpopularity can only be blamed on Sega/Sonic Team. It got a lot of press on release, but the majority felt that it was a shallow and incomplete game, and definitely not worth paying a monthly fee for. Your personal tastes probably vary, but you can't say that their opinions had no merit.

[PhotonDrop]

Aside from PSO fans and kids at gamestop saying "Mommy, what's THAT game?", the American market doesn't know PSU exists.

As everyone else said, if Sonic Team gave consistent updates and perhaps rebalanced the entire game, it would give players something positive to talk about. Beyond that, they need to actually market the damn thing. No commercials, no viral advertisements, no posters, billboards or flyers. This game is so far under the radar you can't blame the "American market" for not caring about it.

[Kylie]

How did I know? :roll: Anyway, my friends already know I'm weird, so I'm not afraid to admit anything. But usually if something brings you shame, maybe you shouldn't be doing it. Be proud!

[Neith]

Most of the people I've mentioned PSO to seem to remember it fondly. I haven't run into anyone who's actively made fun of PSO.

One of my friends at University came round my house once, when I was logged on PSOBB. He insulted it, flamed the hell out of it, criticized everything he could.

Did I listen? No.

Why? Because he played WoW.

[Darkly]

One of my friends at University came round my house once, when I was logged on PSOBB. He insulted it, flamed the hell out of it, criticized everything he could.

Did I listen? No.

Why? Because he played WoW.

anyone's that actually played pso for a while seems to remember it fondly. I think most orpgs look boing to watch but not to play - and the whole wow playing thing pretty much sums it up.

[Abashi76]

anyone's that actually played pso for a while seems to remember it fondly. I think most orpgs look boing to watch but not to play - and the whole wow playing thing pretty much sums it up.

I found PSO to be very fun to watch actually, much more so than WoW, which is slow paced. WoW to me, is way too slow paced, and the graphics too bland, and it lacks an advanced system for communication, which is present in this game. Alongside that, the game did not operate well on my machine (PSU works great on Windows mode, barely even slows my computer). But to give credit, WoW was the first turn based MMO I actually liked; but I got sick of it at about level 15, the game was just too slow there. I don't think WoW is responsible for the lack of players on this game, the two games are just too different to be comparable to one or the other.

[Kent]

For the sake of yourself and your loved ones, please don't mention any PS games. One time I mentioned to a friend that I used to play PSO, and a week later a bunch of lobsters shot my cat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu9A0LlLyvo

This just came to mind when I read that.

...But anyway, for its time, PSO was a really good game, and its fun factor lasted a surprisingly long time... Just like Diablo II. Funny, especially being that they're basically the same type of game.

Playing PSU... Well, that's your own choice, if you play it. Doesn't make any difference to me, or anyone else that's at least partially intelligent. :/

On top of that, however, if you try to discredit someone just because they play a specific game... Odds are, you probably don't really deserve much credit yourself. The only thing you can really judge based on what games they play are what games they play.

[Nitro Vordex]

WoW is Runescape's idol. 'Nuff said.