Is Planetside All games?

Was wondering why I still play Planetside. I Have been asked by many of my clan mates and casual TK'rs the same question. After a year, and a moderate amount of content change, and a lackluster expansion pack, why do I still shell out my pesos for this game? This is, in fact, the first game I have ever paid to play. I was not part of the great Everquest Migration from the real world to the virtual. I did, however beta test Star Wars Galaxies for aprox total time of 2 days before getting WAY too tired of dancing instead of... well just about anything else, to get ahead in that world. 

I got Planetside because a good friend of mine in my clan had become the major (leader) of the section in the clan, and I no longer saw him on our regular Raven Shield / Ghost Recon, channels and never played. I knew if this had lured him away, there must be something to it. So I wandered into the Store, and said WTF and bought my first MMO. 

Except its not just an MMO. I make the point here why people are still playing, and will continue to play Planetside. Planetside is all games. Not only is it all games, but its a game where you can remake yourself over the course of a half a week into an entirely different character than the one you started with. And repeat that process over and over until you've exhausted all possible combinations. Not only THAT, but you can also change the WAY you play the game on top of it. 

How is Planetside the 'Everygame'?

Firstly it's an MMO, easy enough, you pay for it, it’s massively multiplayer, etc so that one is pretty clear to see.

Next it's an FPS. Also, by the look and feel of it, the classic W/A/S/D setup (unless you use a Nostromo (belkin.com) like me) really lends itself to what essentially has not changed much since doom or quake.

Now here come the tricky ones to see...

It's an RPG (what?) yup, I say to you that Planetside with its leveling system, and points for buying and using different types of equipment is an RPG. Where else do you see such a set leveling system like this BUT rpg's. DuesX and TRon2 have ones similar to it, but nothing as advanced.

It's a tactical shooter. (Stretch?) If you want to play it like that, the game has a fully exploitable engine to become a tactical shooter the likes of raven shield or ghost recon. Sure the one shot kill thing does not work, but moving as a tight squadron in the midst of a huge battle is more like what a tactical shooter is than a small 8 on 8 fight. If you look at ALL the patches since the new year, SOE is almost without question turning this game into more of a squad based shooter. Everything they have done has pointed to that and it will be up to the people playing to decide. Although I've already seen it start to happen with much more organization in the field of late.

It's a RTS (no way!) yup. it is. It's a real time strategy game in every sense of the words. IF you happen to be an outfit leader, or a respected CR-5 (words that seldom are found in the same sentence I'll give you) you can effectively move whole troops and armor, and air around the field as if it were a Real Time strategy game. Except that all the armor, soldiers, and air are real people. Savage tried to do this, but I'm unaware if it was able to get well off the ground or not. Seeing as I've heard little about it of late, I'm assuming the latter.

So What is Planetside? Awkwardly put its a MMOFPSRPGTSRTS.

Ok, so it's an everygame, even everygames get old. Here are the last few very simple reasons why Planetside is such a fantastic game that keeps many coming back for more.

Player verses Player action is key for an MMO to be a success. Doing missions all day and night that begin to look very similar (go there, kill target, get loot, return, repeat) gets very old. The current exception to this is city of heroes which has no pvp, but has promised its first expansion to add it. This is brilliant to keep the huge swell of players hooked at least till the expansions come out.

Now add some vehicles, there are some other games that do it too, but I think they pretty much all lead back to renegade. IF this were the bible it would look like

Renegade begat Battlefield

Battlefield begat Planetside

Yes I know WW2 on line. But that one never married for reasons unknown, or just couldn't begat anything of its own. It was however first so we'll give it some credit there.

Now here's where the RPG element gets tossed out and revamped unlike anything I can think of before (albeit I don't play many RPG's for the fact I burned out on them back in 1982 with S1;Tomb of Horrors by Gygax himself with pen and paper) With most other games, when you chose your path, be it wizard, or elf, or elf wizard stripper with the heart of gold, that's pretty much it. You're that character for the rest of your stay. I liked the fighters in RPG's cause they leveled up fast in the beginning and could kill stuff while the wizards could purify water and light the way for me to kill stuff. They'd stand behind my hulking barbarian named 'Kevin the dismemberer of things' desperately looking for some useful spell from the FIVE they were allowed to cast ONCE that day. Me, I could cleave all day long.

But eventually, as we began to level, much like industry in sim city, my barbarian became less and less useful next to the previously outgunned wizard. So by the end of the game, I could kill one critter at a time, sure, but the wiz could wipe out hordes of evil things coming at us. At which point I'd say 'next time, I'm making a wizard' but I never would, cause they suck for the first 5 levels at least of their existence.

Enough history, Planetside gets around this in such a beautiful fashion. With the ability to recert your entire character over the course of a week, or even just little tweaks over days, you can become an entirely different kind of character. With a mere 5 points diverted from heavy assault and that extra one you have lying around you can go from super grunt, to medium support man, or even hacker, or pilot.

The thing is, to go through all the different types of characters you can be before giving up on the game. The same way the game changes, you have to change to. Some people are happy having the exact same load out they had a year ago. But most need some sort of variety. One month be the shuttle bus man, the next max it up, the one after that be the adv med guy. Every time learning new abilities and helping out the outfit in ways no single player ever could before.

Also you can change the WAY you play. Loners can play quake style all day racking up tons of kills. The tactical people can re-write the game as explained above using recon tactics. The Armor and air squads can have their say. Combine that with the fact you can recreate your character, and you're getting into some serious diversity here.

The only other main reason (though there are many) that I'll list here is this, and it's very simple. In most online games with an RPG element to it there is NO WAY IN HELL a level 5 character can go up against a level 20 and have any hope to win whatsoever.

In Planetside, it's commonplace. Your level just denotes experience, not damage per item or spell like most on line games. It's perfectly normal (perhaps too so) for low level characters to knock high level ones on their ass nightly. There is NO OTHER GAME LIKE THAT that I personally know of. The fact that a new character does not need to spend weeks killing rats or what not leveling up so he can MAYBE stand up to someone is great. It means every player, just about, for every empire, can make a difference for that empire, regardless of his battle rank.

So why do I still play Planetside? Honestly, as I stroll through the game stores (and I do allot) there's just NOTHING in there that really calls my name the way that good old PS does. Besides, I look around and can find no other MMOFPSRPGTSRTS's on the shelves.