A Message to Seth Luisi

[[SS]Rator]

Seth is the Senior Producer at SCEA and heads up the Socom series.

In an interview in May's OPM he was asked the following and replied.

OPM: Why has SOCOM been such a hit online? Why do you think the game's been such a hit in general?

SL: ...I wanted to play with 16 players, i wanted to have persistent lobbies, persistent games and persistent environments. I wanted to focus on the teamplay. ...I was going out and meeting with diff headset manufacturers...so we could get voice chat in the game.

...I think it really paid off and worked just as i had expected.

Ok, look here Seth. nobody cares about YOU or what YOU want. YOU don't play this game. WE do. Let's get one thing straight, WE have played this game for over 3.5 years and while you THINK you've made HUGE leaps in online gaming, the sad fact is,... you haven't. Let's get into some details...

YOU wanted 16 players, why? ALL other squad based shooters are 8 v 8.

YOU wanted to focus on teamplay? Then why do you keep using the word "I"?

Give us a final screen that gives us some information like ALL of the players totals, how bout the final score? It would be nice to see what the score was after a match y'know?

Take some cues from some games that got it right. BF2, Raven Shield, etc, I mean who the hell pops out of the scope after firing a round? Why does the scope take up the whole screen? I'm pretty sure i can open my other eye when i'm looking thru a scope and see what else is around me. The crosshair should be in the same place when i switch from 1st to 3rd person views, it should shoot at what i point at, meaning it shouldnt let me see a target if i'm actually going to be shooting a rock in front of me. I mean these are just details, (and i have lots more if you want) but you need to look to the players if you ever want to improve your game. Listen to the thousands of people who play your game. THEY/WE know whats wrong with it from a gameplay standpoint, not a coding or financial standpoint.

Ok, back to the initial question, "Why is socom such a huge sucess?" BECAUSE THERE ISN'T ANY COMPETITION! Halo? no. BF:MC? no. SWBF? no. All of those games are totally different. There are no other squad based shooters. Don't get me wrong, you guys have done some things right, but so many things wrong as well. Fix the things that bug us and we'll stay loyal. Don't , and well, not only will you continue to lose previously loyal players, but new ones as well. You're going to hurt Sony and Playstation too, people are already jumping to the 360 for REAL squad based shooters like GRAW. We/The SS have been some of your most loyal followers, i mean look at what we've done between the maps the TWB the official guide, i mean we WANT to play socom, just fix whats wrong.

Get your game as close to a PC squad based shooter on the PS2/3 as possible and you'll have a winner. Email me for more help if you need it, rator@seasnipers.net

[Chenzo]

didja mail this to him!?

(And technically this would be a "open letter to Seth Luisi", yeah?)

Kick his ass.

[[SS]Rator]

No, i just had to post this because of his delusions about socom from the interview i read. He seriously thinks everything about it is just kick ass.

[[SS]Cuervo]

u should mail it to him.. u never know what "big"fish may bite

[Chenzo]

Originally posted by [SS]Cuervo
u should mail it to him.. u never know what "big"fish may bite

I agree... or email it to OPM...

(Imagine if he asks for input on SC4?)

[[SS]Rator]

Ok, well i have emailed Seth before when i was talking to David Sears Ex Zipper Creative Director. I asked David if we could get some overhead shots of the maps for me to make my illustrations in Socom 1. He said i'd have to talk to Seth and gave me his email. I wrote him of course and never got a reply.

..And i/we gave Zipper direct feedback at last years E3 to which CJ Heine was seemingly receptive to and even mentioned that they shopped one of our ideas to Sony but it never made it to the game. In fact they didn't even know that they have a lag-switch that people can cheat with in Socom. I emailed CJ and another developer there with the info about it to which they never responded.

It's ok, i know people are busy.

[[SS]Steve-O]

They are turning SOCOM into a Battlefield game. The game is no longer "tactical" in the same respect as it once was. SOCOM 1 was all about figuring out ways of breeching, tactically moving your clan mates, and thinking on your feet. Now it feels like a camp ground. When I play S3 it no longer feels like I have to think at all. It feels like I am just going through the motions. The only thing you have to now worry about is being shot by a sniper. The funny thing is that there is no vegetation to hide in when a sniper is shooting at you. No rolling hills, no fog, nothing. Snipers went from being a skilled art to the easiest thing to do in SOCOM 3(no offense to those who can’t yet snipe).

Now with somebody important (forget who) saying that SOCOM 4 will be dramatically different then anything before, quite frankly makes me think I am going to need a new tactical to play. Has zipper ever heard of the saying ’if its not broke don’t fix it’? They are trying to incorporate things from other games like Battlefield when the third person Counter Strike was more then adequate. If I wanted to play Battlefield I would play it on the computer not the PS2.

so these are the people that make the game or are a part of it in one way or the other and they dont know what goes on in online gaming ? if thats the case , how do they get thier jobs ? maybe they just dont care ? hmm , you would think that they would pay more attention to stuff like this especially coming from people like [SS] . i mean its only to help the game . i guess they dont want to make more money on game sales , just like these maps that were supposed to be out in march . makes you wonder a little about whats gonna be in store for us in the future w/ PS3 and S4 , if they even bring that out , lmao for NOV 06 , its prolly NOV 2008 , oh well guess theres not much we can do about it except complain and deal with it

[[SS]Rator]

"oh well guess theres not much we can do about it except complain and deal with it"

THAT is exactly what they have gotten us used to.

And they can because there isn't anything else like it on the console.

SONY/Zipper/SCEA etc. Take a look at EA's BF2 and the fact that its only been out for about a year, and has released 2 expansion packs, Special Forces and Euro Force with all new maps, all new weapons, medals, skins, voices, vehicles , what else? I dont even know because there's so much. On top of that, they have patched the game at least 4 times i believe. Attention to detail and attention to their players, that's what keeps people coming back for more, NOT a corner on the market.

hey come up with an idea on what we can do , and ill do what i can to support us , maybe some one will see whats up if enough people complain and maybe then they will fix all the crap that goes on and we can all enjoy the game a little more i guess selling the title to EA is out of the question ?

[[SS]Rator]

Ya Sony just bought Zipper or absobed them whatever. And they dont care bud, they only look at how many people are online each nite and how many copies they sold because its the only one of its kind on the ps2. Zero support. Makes me sad. I want to like it, i want to play it.

Grrrrr to those Head Sony ppl batboysmil

[[SS]SportoFu]

All I need is an address and a plane ticket. . . . .

haha , thata boy

[Chenzo]

Originally posted by [SS]Rator
Ya Sony just bought Zipper or absobed them whatever. And they dont care bud, they only look at how many people are online each nite and how many copies they sold because its the only one of its kind on the ps2. Zero support. Makes me sad. I want to like it, i want to play it.

Hrm... yeah... You can be gauranteed yer game will sell if it's the only one of it's type on the market...

perhaps that's why sony bought Zipper.

I still think you should rework the letter, make a single, stand-alone webpage with it, explain yer frustrations (I don't think you should threaten "jumping ship" but just that yer disappointed) and then call it an open letter and mass email it to every suit and tie fucker you can think of.