7 replies to this topic

[Gremlyn]

Iv been reading forums and reddit on many games for years and have never found my self making a post before.

I am a founder member and do enjoy the gameplay (another one that desperately wants CW)

I really enjoy mechwarrior universe and want MWO to be sucessful. Iv played them all since MW2.

That being said why is the pricing structure and game progression made in such a way that excludes all but the very wealthy casual gamers?

Asking for the price of a full AAA game for very limited content for a player that cant put that much time into the game really cannot justify the cost to reward.

At the same time people that have that limited time to play will find it takes far too long to be able to generate enough Cbills to actually progress anything in game.

I can see high prices working if they really are targeting the hardcore older gamers however with the introduction of things like 3PV and the plan behind it to bring new players to the game would make me think they wanted a larger more casual player base then fewer hardcore gamers, the development goal and the pricing structure seem to contradict each other.

tl:dr why are the prices so high that limited time players cant justify the spend while at the same time they cant progress because of there limited time?

[Sen]

There are a few different arguments on this:

1) They're not pricing anything over anyone. It just means, if you don't buy the premium package, that you will have to wait until the 'mechs are available for C-bills. All you're buying is early access and shiny extras [and possibly some premium time]

2) They're not developing this game for the hard-core fans at this point, and this is a way to try to cash grab from the up and coming people you seem to think they're trying to weed out. I think "completely ruined" is the kindest way I've yet to hear a hardcore BATTLETECH vet talk about this game.

3) The prices are so high because PGI has not learned that "pennies from the masses outweigh pounds from the few". If they were SMART, they'd do an ala-carte purchase structure side by side with the current sale, letting each chassis go for a fixed amount. Unfortunately, they realize that a LOT of people are going to be extremely upset when they find out the clan mechs are not Omni capable [if they were, we wouldn't need variants, folks] and are trying for the last big bonus before the player base drops so low they have to shut the game down.


(I'm guessing on that last part, but it does seem logical about the correlation between clan variants and omni hardpoints)

I'm in the same boat as you are. I WANT this game to succeed. Unfortunately, it seems PGI marketing don't know how to properly monetize this title.... which is sad, because it's not THAT hard.

Edited by Sen, 14 December 2013 - 07:54 AM.

[Shath Allenson]

I played mw2 and read some of the books, always loved the concept of the battletech universe.
Mwo Has taken an ideah but never developed it fully and only now with more vacancies in each match are they finely trying to get it right, so it would seem. To do the upgrade though to the program needed they need funding to pay thier employees, unfortunatley they do have a dwindling base of fans at this point and priceing more of them out of these offers then what they should. PGI please read these post and relise you are only holding a gun to your head and when it ends badly the only ones that get punished are the ones that have been loyal to a fault.



p.s. Forgive spelling

[Werewolf486 ScorpS]

Any game maker wants to maximize their profits and casual gamers don't make profits. Don't feel bad about not being a lemming and feel penalized for it, just take joy in knowing you only paid $XX.xx for a game and be happy with what you have. In the end you're not spending $1000's to play a free to play game, no matter how good of horribly bad a game is.

[pbiggz]

Sen, on 14 December 2013 - 07:54 AM, said:

There are a few different arguments on this:

1) They're not pricing anything over anyone. It just means, if you don't buy the premium package, that you will have to wait until the 'mechs are available for C-bills. All you're buying is early access and shiny extras [and possibly some premium time]

2) They're not developing this game for the hard-core fans at this point, and this is a way to try to cash grab from the up and coming people you seem to think they're trying to weed out. I think "completely ruined" is the kindest way I've yet to hear a hardcore BATTLETECH vet talk about this game.

3) The prices are so high because PGI has not learned that "pennies from the masses outweigh pounds from the few". If they were SMART, they'd do an ala-carte purchase structure side by side with the current sale, letting each chassis go for a fixed amount. Unfortunately, they realize that a LOT of people are going to be extremely upset when they find out the clan mechs are not Omni capable [if they were, we wouldn't need variants, folks] and are trying for the last big bonus before the player base drops so low they have to shut the game down.


(I'm guessing on that last part, but it does seem logical about the correlation between clan variants and omni hardpoints)

I'm in the same boat as you are. I WANT this game to succeed. Unfortunately, it seems PGI marketing don't know how to properly monetize this title.... which is sad, because it's not THAT hard.

Pricing is steep, as for your assumptions about cash grabs and non-omni variants... No.

PGI is being funded by IGP, they have no shortage of cash. As for the omnimechs using variants, it is likely just a variation of fixed equipment. Since omni mechs have fixed internals the variations will come entirely in the form of different internals, engines, and armor (which cannot be modified on omnimechs) and varying amounts of podspace based on those different internals.

[XphR]

Since omni mechs use to have have fixed internals the variations may come entirely in the form of different internals, engines, and armor (which possibly still cannot be modified on omnimechs) and varying amounts of podspace based on those different internals.

Going to have to wait and see what they have done this time.

[pbiggz]

PGI's weak points are in it's development cycle, not in it's actual ability to design mechs/content/art. Those are quite strong actually, so I doubt clan balance will be much of a problem, but speculating and then becoming ANGRY based on just that, is stupid.

Edited by pbiggz, 14 December 2013 - 12:17 PM.

[Rizzwind]

be it a high price point or not. The mechs look good. But when all we can do is look at them in a mech bay and not much else right now no point in dropping that kind of money.