EVE General Discussion

WAY tl;dr - Post anything you're thinking regarding DUST 514.

Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 have both been released, their PS3 versions commanding Metacritic scores of 86 and 88, respectively. These two games represent the pinnacle of years of ideas and development into the types of games DUST 514 will be directly competing with. If you're a shooter fan, as I am, what would motivate you to play DUST as opposed to these, and other, excellent shooters?

Here are my own uneducated and semi-unrelated random thoughts on the subject, if you're interested.

-- DUST and M.A.G. --

DUST immediately draws comparisons to MAG, another PS3-exclusive FPS. MAG boasts 256 simultaneous players on its largest maps, and has XP-based incentives to follow your squad leader's orders, which somewhat mitigates the chaos. When it released it received a 7.0 from IGN.com, which isn't terrible, but it certainly isn't impressive.

What many might not know is that about a year ago, it was patched to MAG 2.0, which resolved a lot of the issues with the game. If the game had shipped this way to begin with, review scores would have been higher and more people might be playing today.

The point of all this is that DUST 514 needs to make a strong first impression. It can't just be "that shooter that links to some online game." It has to be "a kickass game, and oh it also links to some online game."

-- Marketing --

CCP has already stated that they're trying to draw from a different demographic for DUST 514.

EvE can get away with slim (by comparison) marketing efforts because it's a niche genre. Even in the MMO space, the high fantasy games have to advertise how they're different from WoW, and even WoW had to advertise why it was superior to EverQuest back in the day. But good, high quality space-themed MMOs are hard if not impossible to come by. If you're interested in sci-fi and MMOs, chances are you've at least heard of EvE Online.

DUST does not have this luxury. It's competing in a vicious marketspace where the titans of the genre have already been established. More interest and attention needs to be generated for DUST than it currently is for EvE. The advertisements you see before playing YouTube or other videos need to contain DUST promos. I don't think a TV spot would be out of the question.

DUST will be $20 on the PSN, which will give you the game and $20 of the in-game currency. It is essentially free. There's no reason why PS3 owners shouldn't flock to this game, unless it comes off on the PSN advertisements as just another online downloadable barely worth investigating. I think a retail copy, priced at normal game retail prices (with extra currency/benefits for the higher cost) would go a long way in cementing the idea in browsing gamers' minds that DUST is a "real" game.

-- Community and metagame --

If the EvE link were taken away, DUST should still be able to stand on its own as a decent shooter in its own right. The standard features that players have come to expect from modern shooters (good balance, leaderboards, stats, social links, etc.) should all be there.

I'm going to point to MW3's introduction of Call of Duty Elite as an example. Despite MW3 being basically a $60 DLC pack, I believe it's going to hold more endurance as an online shooter because of Elite's ability to help you improve. Seeing an overhead of all the maps with the areas in which you tend to get killed has done for online play what the original Modern Warfare did with the Kill-Cam.

Since DUST links to an MMO, the metagame is crucial. Gamers need to be able to log on to a website that tracks whats going on to their slice of the DUST universe. What are my kill/death stats? What are all the planets I've fought on, and who owns them now? What is my corporation doing/fighting? What EvE corps have I fought for? I want to be able to know and track these things without turning on my PS3.

-- A feeling of polish --

I think the primary reason shooters appeal to people is the inherent simplicity in learning the game mechanics. You point at something and press a button. There's no confusion, and no camera issues. Just pure reflexive bliss. Making those long-distance headshots has to be one of the most satisfying experiences I've had in gaming.

Where a lot of shooters seem to screw this up is in the execution or "feel" of this concept. MW succeeds by playing it straight. You point and shoot, and that's pretty much it. If you can do this the fastest and in the right circumstances (learn the maps!) you're a good player. BF, by comparison, has a weightier feel to your character. When you sprint across the snow in full gear, you can almost get a sense of how exhausting that might be in real life, and you better watch yourself while doing so 'cause bullets really hurt. It's a different but equally valid solution for immersion.

Whatever style DUST ends up with, whether it be MW's point-and-click, BF's weighty alternative, or even Halo's floaty mechanics, it needs to be internally consistent and believeable. The right weight and sound to the weapons and vehicles, and even the "correct" feel of sprinting, go a long way towards deciding how long I'll stick with a shooter.

-- What I believe many EvE players dread --

I think most of us want DUST to succeed. It's an original idea made by an original developer. From videos and blogs, it's obvious that DUST will be at least a competant shooter.

I think the general fear (or atleast mine) is that this is merely what it will be. A generic, repetitive point-and-make-dead game that does little to distinguish itself from other similar games on the market.

Having said that, if anyone can succeed, it's CCP. Good luck, guys.

not empty quoting

A PC port.

It uses the Unreal engine for the love of God, I refuse to believe it'd be that much trouble.

Do NOT expect DUST to compete directly for large numbers of subscribers upon release. The planned development path for DUST is completely different from other games

http://www.develop-online.net/features/1461/Dust-514-The-PS3s-most-important-game

There are some very very good reasons why DUST is slated for release only on the PS3. Primarily ....

Interesting, but I can tell you Huxley would have flopped because it was cross-platform. Pitting people with mouses against people with joysticks has only one possible result - all the console players quitting, buying PCs, or getting into masochism.

And it just doesnt make sense to launch on the PS3 when the target audience is the EVE playerbase, *all of whom* own gaming PCs.

Problably wont happen, unless they get crap numbers playing the game and then have to let the people play it on their PCs. After a while wont most people playing Dust only be the people playing Eve Online? I guess a few console gamers who don't play Eve Online will keep playing. It is going to be free to play after all.

I say this with all due respect to our CCP hosts, but DUST will be a blip in gaming history - probably only recognized only for ambition.

The market is far too saturated by quality products so very similar that the concept of FPS meta gaming will simply not be enough to overcome to date has been underwhelming previews of the game.

CCP cannot hope to out market other publishers and face stiff competition on its only platform in the form of Planet Side 2 which will be shamelessly promoted to DUST players in the hope to harvest them.

Am I saying DUST will be a bad game? Not at all. Destined to be a FW type add-on to EVE for hard cores? Pretty much.

My only hope is that it doesn't send CCP to the wall or effectively ruin them as suits move in to take over.

You could have said the same thing about EVE pre-launch.

DUST has one thing EVE does too - it offers something nothing else in the genre does. So I do forsee a similar path as EVE took - slow growth into a decently sized, dedicated niche population.

when you pick up a game with a number in its name, you don't get to complain that it is the same.

No no I didnt buy it, saddly my brother did though