Sometimes, I feel like the guys at the head of Sony really are not in touch at all with modern day gaming. They say things in interviews that make you scratch your head and ask, "What the heck are you talking about?" In short, it's basically a feeling of disconnect, as if they have no idea what we want. As a result, us gamers get a feeling of "Wow if I was in charge of (Sony/Slant6) I could have bettered this product ten-fold, since, as a community member, I know what people willl want to buy."

Examples of applying this to Sony: lost exclusives, not securing future exclusives, not applying enough resources to needed projects (*cough* SOCOM *cough*), applying too many resources to un-needed projects, poor marketing, and poor industry decisions. All of which leave us gamers asking, "Do they even know what people want?"

We find ourselves in a similar situation with Slant 6, with the examples being identical to the ones listed above.
I think Sony and Slant 6 really need to come to understand a few things. So let's help them out.

My Top 10 Things Slant6/Sony Should Come to Understand:

10. SOCOM is a Hadrcore Game
It's understandable that Slant 6 and Sony wanted to expand the audience of SOCOM by making it more casual, but that's not the kind of game SOCOM is. By trying to make SOCOM mainstream, you only hurt the series and will in fact lose more people than you gain. This is evident in the transition of SOCOM 2 to SOCOM 3. THOUSANDS of players lost, all hardcore. In the end, it severely hurt the series. Never ever ever alienate the harccore audience of your game. There are things you can do to bring in new players, but alienating the hardcore audience is NOT the way to do it.

9. Listen to the Hardcore Audience
Since SOCOM is primarily played by people who will spend every chance they get playing it, it is only natural that this would be the next spot on the list. The people who know the series inside and out are the ones you should listen to. Those are the people who will play the game for years, who know what would hurt/help the series, and who will convince their friends to buy the game as well.

8. We Complain Because We LOVE the Series
I think I speak for the majority of SOCOMers when I say that there is literally a place in our hearts for this game. People love SOCOM as much as they love real people. It's disgusting in a way, I know, but I read posts on these boads every once in awhile about relationship breakups because of SOCOM. It's safe to say that when people complain on these boards, even as ugly and insultive as it may be, we only do it because we love the game. If you take any personal offense, we're sorry. I think it's safe to say that the insults hurled at the devs are out of frustration, not out of careful thought. It would be nice though if community members could learn to articulate their thoughts in a more mature manner.

7. SOCOM IS/WAS HUGE
This is where we get into the heart of the matter. This is where Sony's ignorance really shows. It is evident that Sony really did not think SOCOM was as big as it really is. I think Slant 6 was surprised to see Confrontation in the top 10 sellers for the month of October. Sony made this project a low budget game (according to the posters here), and that was a huge mistake.

Back in the PS2 days, SOCOM was a direct competitor with Halo as far as "online multiplayer" is concerned. I don't mean genre or gameplay wise, I mean the fact that Halo was Xbox's big online game, and SOCOM was Sony's big online game. Even though Halo was a mainstream game, SOCOM's hardcore audience amounted a similar quantity. That speaks volumes about the strength and notority of the SOCOM series. It's too bad that Sony did not see this and give Slant 6 more resorces to complete the game faster and in a better state.

6. Community Incentive Over Company Incentive
Like I said, it's understandable that Sony and Slant 6 wanted to add new things to attract new people, but we've already talked about how that is a bad idea with SOCOM. Slant 6 really has to listen to the community over their own intuitions. I get this image of a bigshot at Slant 6 saying "Let's put in OTS view! Let's take away the tiebreaker! 8 rounds! Let's make a mandatory side switch between rounds!" That's just a bad idea with SOCOM. The community never asked for any of that and never even indicated that they would be accepting of it.

I'm not saying those mentioned features hurt the game, maybe we'll end up liking them eventually, but a lot of us are unsure as to how we feel about those gameplay changes as of now. What we do know is we would be perfectly content with the game setup of the old SOCOMs. If slant 6 really wants to put in a new feature into the series, the smart thing to do would be to put up a poll on SOCOM.com, on this forum, or in the game as soon as a player logs in. That will let you know, Slant 6, if the community wants those features or not. Your intuition may not help the game, but ours most certainly will. Both groups will benefit. Slant 6 sells more games, community is happy with games.

5. Alright, So You're Listening to Us... Now TALK to Us.
I've said this in other threads, we, the community, are so appreciative of the fact that you, Slant 6, do in fact listen to us. But to every relationship, there are two parts: revealing, and discovering. Any relationship in which there is one of those parts and not the other is a disfunctional relationship. Please Slant 6, talk to us more. Let us know what you guys are thinking, the progress you are making, and if you have ideas bounce them off of us. Trust me, we will be honest. We can help you guys out a lot if you would fulfill the other half of relationship duties: revealing.

4. There is Such a Thing as "Overbalanced"
It's nice that Slant 6 wanted to make Confrontation as "fair and even" as possible, but I think that has a chance of ruining the game. Having the maps being symmetrical makes for a somewhat boring environment.

SOCOM games of old were made more interesting in some cases by having advantages based upon what team you were on. That's why Breach mode was so awesome in S2. It was such a thrill to be a SEAL and take on the challange of breaching into the terrorists base, because the terrorists had an obvios advantage. Sometimes it's the challange of a game that it makes it more enjoyable and engaging, as opposed to the eveness of a game. This can be applied to the side-switching and team shuffling as well. Not saying that I'm opposed to either, but it's just a thought.

3. Do Not Remove Things
There are many things in old SOCOMs that were removed from Confrontation that seriously hurt the game. Check out my other thread: http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?message
.uid=39941337#U39941337 Never ever ever remove things that worked.

2. Improvement; Not change
This is big. Since S3, it really seems as if Sony is just trying to change things in the franchise for the sake of change or being new. That's a bad move. Change is not neccessarily good. What is good is GOOD change, aka IMPROVEMENT. That is the basis of the idea of a sequel. To improve upon the previous installment, not change it.

1. WE WANT TO PLAY SOCOM
This is another big one. The SOCOM audience only wants to play SOCOM. Stop trying to make SOCOM a generic shooter. SOCOM had it's identity, and Confrontation pulls away from it a bit. If SOCOMers wanted to play a game other than SOCOM, then they'll play that game. But that's not how it is. The majority of SOCOMers are devoted to the series, and as such, when we put a SOCOM disc into our Playstation, we want to FEEL it through our gameplay experience.

[And I want to add: The SOCOM we want to feel is CLASSIC SOCOM. THE SOCOM that SOCOM 1 and SOCOM 2 set blueprints for. Though SOCOM 3 did have some positives, it was not THE SOCOM feeling that we've been dying for. It seems like Slant 6 was trying to make Confrontation take off where CA ended. They should have just put S3 and CA behind, learning from mistakes, and starting where SOCOM 2 left off. In all fairness SOCOM 3 featured good community features (aside from the terrible support), and a few other things (see my other thread), but the gameplay was just not SOCOM. We want to experience the SOCOM that kept us in on weekends, kept us up untill 4am, tempted us to take days off from work/school just to play, and made us hate having to leave the game to eat or go to the bathroom.]

These are not neccessarily in order of importance. What do you guys want Slant6/Sony to come to understand?