PlanetSide 2 Preview
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A quick anecdote: when the original PlanetSide launched as a subscription MMOFPS in 2003, I got in on the ground floor and marveled at the massive class- and team-based battles. I had a blast. So much so that I gushed to a PC gaming friend. When he finally made it over to my house to check it out a few weeks later, I eagerly dropped onto the continent and headed off in search of battle. I wandered around for about 20 minutes, didn't see another digital soul, and tried to explain. My friend just laughed and thanked me for making his decision whether or not to pay a sub to play PlanetSide easy.
That's when I realized what had happened: once the 30 day free trial was up, players vacated en masse. Sure enough, my PlanetSide experience never came close to those early day highs again. A couple months later, I threw in the towel. I told Higby that, while all of the new features and tweaks sounded fantastic, I thought the F2P model would be the PlanetSide 2 difference-maker. He agreed.
"I love the free-to-play model. I'm a huge fan," he said. "I think it's one of the best things to ever happen in PC gaming. It's a model that comes naturally to PlanetSide and makes perfect sense: there will always be huge populations for fights, and the more players there are, the more stuff there will be for people to do."
Higby said that all of the hundreds of weapons, armor, equipment, and upgrades -- aside from purely cosmetic items -- will be unlockable by playing. There will be XP boosts for sale and some weapons will be available for purchase, but Higby is adamant that a purchased item will never give a player strength or advantage, but rather a new play-style choice.
