42 replies to this topic

[DAYLEET]

This F2P topic made me think about he following.

Last month a friend of mine decided to try the game. He bought a Med pack, i informed him it was a great value considering they are half price, feature a hero and champion (ie upgraded mech). He tells me they are 30bucks, they are? at half price? i kinda expected 15$ for 3 med. The game is very hard for anyone starting, we all know this. Unless you have a strong(unhealty?) will to move tons of metal with the sole intention of using them in anger you are likely to try the game and move away thinking you sucked or the game sucked. Once you've done proverbial bootcamp and get a better understanding of the game you have a completly different opinion of the game.

Now consider this; I mostly bought all my mech with cash befofe bundle pack existed, some were half price hero, most were full price esp all the none hero variant and then i got preorder packs. If i just kinda threw money at pgi because i didnt want to grind the cbills, i never felt cheated in anyways but if i wanted to enjoy the game in a timely manners spending cash is a better option. The game was just starting with a hopeful futur ahead and i always maintained that i made a good decision and after 2 years feel that cash was well invested as i am still enjoying it and i still see it improved as opposed to be left to die. That decision to spend cash was reinforced by the fact that there was few mech to be had and buying them usualy meant i had some days of sweet exclusivity. There is like 300 battlemech now and exclusivity was replaced with 6 months of preorder waiting time. Theres still exclusivity but the waiting time is crushing me. I had my resistance pack refunded along the way because i didnt want to have that above my head.

Now days i think all battlemech monetary/MC price should be cut in half, not cbills obviously. I would leave premium time as is (it's praticaly a subscription) and cut the vanity item too, 750 for a fan is a bit step. Pack, bundle and single purchase, all cut in half. If you want to have a pokemon kind of game then you have to at least make it seem like it's easily accessible. "But it's not a pokemon kinda game" It is, it just is. "but but but DAYLEET, you've paid alot of cash back in the days, assault heroes full price day1 and that means 40$+ for a single mech and then 2 normal variant to go with them!", This thread isnt about the amount of my past purchase, or yours, it's about the game being now able to support lower price and have a bigger/ customer base as a result. I realy think it can afford it because everything is sold and there many of said everything.

It make sense when your business model is f2p to have a certain price on your items, esp when there isnt much of said items. Now there is like what 300 mechs, the game can afford to lower the price, it can afford to be more appealing. We all have ideas to make the game more popular and i think cuting the price of battlemech mc would be a good step.

Everything in this game can be bought for money, everything but colors and cockpit item feel like they will make your gaming better, true or not the feeling is there. If you're going to have everything to be sold for cash and have lots of it then why not lower the price and entice new people and OLD custoper to spend more? I hope this game hit steam one day, i hope all price will be reajusted before then or for this special occasion.

tldr; there is none. Thanks everyone who read that wall of text. Thanks everyone who wanted to say something about a part of the game that isnt about monetary price and didnt because this isnt what this thread is about. And thanks everyone who have already help fund this game, encourage pgi to keep at it and don't mind others having it easier than them when it comes to price.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

$5 for a Mist Lynx is still too much, but it is a start and one that I would appreciate greatly to see happen.

[Alistair Winter]

TL;DR.

But I agree with the statement in the thread title. A cut in MC price is in order, as the game will be 3 years old soon.

[lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol]

A cut in prices for mechs I doubt would pay for their overhead... unless they're saving that for "Steam Release." While I agree that A LOT concerning Real World economics of purchase prices and cbill economy needs addressed, I don't see PGI slitting their own throats when they have people consistently paying 80-120 bucks per 3 months plus premium time and paint schemes.

But if they're going to do that, then why not just switch up the f2p model and make it a one time pay to play model? The people who are paying have already dumped a lot of money into it, what's 50-60 bucks more to have everything at ones disposal... and the free to play people... well... if they haven't bought anything it's not like you're losing a paying customer.

Edited by 00ohDstruct, 15 July 2015 - 05:20 PM.

[DAYLEET]

00ohDstruct, on 15 July 2015 - 05:18 PM, said:

A cut in prices for mechs I doubt would pay for their overhead... unless they're saving that for "Steam Release." While I agree that A LOT concerning Real World economics of purchase prices and cbill economy needs addressed, I don't see PGI slitting their own throats when they have people consistently paying 80-120 bucks per 3 months plus premium time and paint schemes.

Cutting prices don't mean slicing your own throath as a business. It means you sell more, it means you become more popular and sell even more. At least that's the whole point.

00ohDstruct, on 15 July 2015 - 05:18 PM, said:

But if they're going to do that, then why not just switch up the f2p model and make it a one time pay to play model? The people who are paying have already dumped a lot of money into it, what's 50-60 bucks more to have everything at ones disposal... and the free to play people... well... if they haven't bought anything it's not like you're losing a paying customer.

The new model isnt for the people already playing.

Edited by DAYLEET, 15 July 2015 - 05:42 PM.

[El Bandito]

If PGI can ever get their lazy asses up and revamp the skill tree per chassis, then I would be more inclined to buy more mechs.
Right now, the mech progression is BOOOOOOORING. I got 25 million C-Bills sitting here doing nothing cause of that.


Also, perma-camo and colors are ridiculously overpriced, not to mention the mechs themselves. The whales and BT fans might have less qualms about paying it, but the stingy Steam horde will not be as indulging. Mark my words, the overpricing will show up on a lot of negative reviews. Same deal with mech bay gating--which will turn off a lot of players.

Edited by El Bandito, 15 July 2015 - 06:43 PM.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Decrease in alot of the prices, both MC and Cbill. MWO inflated the costs by fooling us into believing we are buying 3 mechs, when really its just 1 copy pasted 3 times. THen make the cbill prices and in game grind significantly higher then it really needs to be just because I guess they didnt know what they really were trying to do with this game besides get rich off the fanatical devotion alot of us have for a shiny new mech game.

CLan mechs, 10-15 for 1 mech would be cool. IS mechs, much the same.

Cbill earnings in game need to go up by about 2x-3x.

This game for the most part is a joke. ITs improving, but its obviously just a quick money grab for PGI.

[Tetra Cutestopher Grey]

I am a Legendary Founder. All in all I don't have much game play experience with MWO outside 40 or so matches, but I wanted to give as much money as I could during its inception to someone who would devote development time to Battletech.

The game's currency system and PGI's non transparent greed had driven me from this game for a solid two years. I've only come back to participate in CW after a Youtube search yielded that this game wasn't dead. I still count myself as a new player with the time I've put in.

I'm a little upset at the small hardcore base that is enabling PGI to gouge its community. The C-bill grind in this game is absolutely awful. With prices per mech the way they are now, new players will not be adopting this and sticking to it. They have no clue that the same C-Bills they want to purchase a bad-ass mech with will have to divert to engines, heatsinks, weapons and by the time they get into all that, suddenly buying a LIGHT in retrospect made more sense if they wanted to customize something different other than being locked to trials.

What I've seen so far is a company taking advantage of nostalgia. Especially with the Clan Invasion, I'm sure PGI had money signs in their eyes.

I'm fairly certain the average age is older in this community than most tactical team based games, so I am a little surprised that there is only one topic on this game's ridiculous pricing at the front page and curious to why I haven't seen PGI defend its outrageous demands (probably because of the hardcore base).

As most new players will research a game in regards to strategies, play styles or how to even farm more C-Bills (since they HAVE to be doing something wrong in their minds, as they continued to be bent over by a bad system) articles like this are their introduction to Mechwarrior Online on google.

http://www.reddit.co...s_so_expensive/

http://www.forbes.co...0-golden-mechs/

Of course, no one is forcing anyone to buy anything, but that second article - just reading the headline would make me think I was reading a story off the Onion. As a new player with zero experience; that is going to push me away.

1. I'd be thinking this community must be really stupid to invest 500 dollars (in one sitting) in the game. Why the community? Because no way a company would dare charge that much unless they felt someone would pay.

2. This game is NOT League of Legends, or Call of Duty, or CSGO or ANY strong draw for E-Sports, so why do they have the balls to be charging so much as if they were assuming they were the only shooting e-sport game on the block? The fact is MWO is not remotely on the main stream map, and yet the prices make it seem like we owe them big time because there's nothing else for us to play. I'm sorry, that is how it seems like to me.

If PGI lowers MC prices for mechs, or increases C-Bill gain substantially; instead of contributing zero money since getting my Founder's pack, I would immediately buy more mechs with MC since I could then dedicate C-Bills to equipping them the way I want.

But really. Do you know how hard of a sell this game is for new players? If you could have seen my friend's face when I described how you need to purchase storage for mechs - he literally didn't understand it.
"Is the garage or whatever customizable? Can people visit it? " No.
"Can other players invade and shoot you or can you attack other people's bays?" No.
I had to explain it like this in League terms:
"You need to pay for Pulsefire Ezreal. On top of that, you need to pay for a closet to store his armor in."

I'm just saying... PGI makes Bungie look like SAINTS that have come to save the sci-fi gaming world. Something needs to change or this game will get absolutely shat on in Steam release. And trust me. The Steam community is very vocal in their reviews and can be downright troll.

Please do not dishonor a long, storied universe with this anymore, Piranha. Just reduce the costs across the board in MC and Cbills for starters. More people will buy at a 30% discount. The Thunderbolt was an AWESOME sale and now I see a ton of them everywhere. I hope you see that's a step in the right direction.

Your packs could use discounts too. 90 dollars? You could get an entire special edition game, complete with multiplayer, stable servers for europeans and hundreds of hours. How about you guys calm down. Thanks, Piranha.

[Xetelian]

40$ for an Atlas pack is outrageous.
35$ for a Banshee pack is also outrageous.

30$ for 3 Mechs just seems really high.

[627]

I think the mentality is that this community is older than usual, and older people have more money than time. And that's why you can charge them more. Because they can pay it and money is not scarce like 20 years ago... man 20 years ago I already played video games... I feel old.

But hey, I earn real money now!
Joke is, steam community is more like mid 20 than mid 30, possibly even younger than that. Much time, not much money, not much patience.

[Team Chevy86]

I support this idea on older mechs, ie: Atlas, Hunch, Jenner, Catapult, etc. It would be nice on mechs that hit a 'birthday' into MWO have they're MC price slowly degrade over a time, like %5 every 2 weeks until they hit a preset minimum.

[Raggedyman]

I think a price drop in the older mechs would be reasonable. It's old content, it's not got the shine or excitement of the new stuff, so max out the profit on it by encouraging everyone to pick it up cheap

[9thDeathscream]

Wouldnt hurt, with the US dollar stronger and the AU dollar failing again, MC is to $$$ atm, Normally would have bought the heroes but didnt this time!

[Joseph Mallan]

00ohDstruct, on 15 July 2015 - 05:18 PM, said:

A cut in prices for mechs I doubt would pay for their overhead... unless they're saving that for "Steam Release." While I agree that A LOT concerning Real World economics of purchase prices and cbill economy needs addressed, I don't see PGI slitting their own throats when they have people consistently paying 80-120 bucks per 3 months plus premium time and paint schemes.

But if they're going to do that, then why not just switch up the f2p model and make it a one time pay to play model? The people who are paying have already dumped a lot of money into it, what's 50-60 bucks more to have everything at ones disposal... and the free to play people... well... if they haven't bought anything it's not like you're losing a paying customer.

Well IF the reason folks aren't buying a lot of Mechs is the cost. I mean I used to happily paid $15 for a Mech Mini, $25 if it was a limited edition, I could hold in my hand & required materials to make more. Once the art is rendered and given life there are no more costs unless the Mechs gets a rework.

Iron Wind Metals will make just a new Arm, Leg or weapon sprue that can be added to a existing model to make an "Alternate Configuration". I would assume this works for MW:O unless it is a new Camo pattern also.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Joseph Mallan, on 16 July 2015 - 01:31 AM, said:

Well IF the reason folks aren't buying a lot of Mechs is the cost. I mean I used to happily paid $15 for a Mech Mini, $25 if it was a limited edition, I could hold in my hand & required materials to make more. Once the art is rendered and given life there are no more costs unless the Mechs gets a rework.

Iron Wind Metals will make just a new Arm, Leg or weapon sprue that can be added to a existing model to make an "Alternate Configuration". I would assume this works for MW:O unless it is a new Camo pattern also.

I always thought minis in games were over priced anyway....

IDK how a mini could possibly cost more then maybe 10-15 bucks. I think the most i ever paid for a game piece was maybe 40 for just the piece+pilot card and that was in Wizkids Clix game for Jonah Levin's Atlas...which was a nice piece, mugged many a player with it. Even there, they had some super rare Dark Age set Mad Cat II going for unholy amounts of money, like 500 or 5K, something way to dang much...but it was a LE or something. THis guy http://www.warrenbor...nit.php?ID=F131

hes not even good...

Edited by LordKnightFandragon, 16 July 2015 - 02:12 AM.

[Joseph Mallan]

LordKnightFandragon, on 16 July 2015 - 02:10 AM, said:

I always thought minis in games were over priced anyway....

IDK how a mini could possibly cost more then maybe 10-15 bucks. I think the most i ever paid for a game piece was maybe 40 for just the piece+pilot card and that was in Wizkids Clix game for Jonah Levin's Atlas...which was a nice piece, mugged many a player with it. Even there, they had some super rare Dark Age set Mad Cat II going for unholy amounts of money, like 500 or 5K, something way to dang much...but it was a LE or something. THis guy http://www.warrenbor...nit.php?ID=F131

hes not even good...

But thats collectors for you.

[GreyNovember]

I know I made a thread about this, making a case for Normal CBill mechs having no business being as expensive as an equivalent hero or champion in MC because they lack any special features.

Anyway, yeah. Agreed.

[SmoothCriminal]

LordKnightFandragon, on 16 July 2015 - 02:10 AM, said:

I always thought minis in games were over priced anyway....

IDK how a mini could possibly cost more then maybe 10-15 bucks. I think the most i ever paid for a game piece was maybe 40 for just the piece+pilot card and that was in Wizkids Clix game for Jonah Levin's Atlas...which was a nice piece, mugged many a player with it. Even there, they had some super rare Dark Age set Mad Cat II going for unholy amounts of money, like 500 or 5K, something way to dang much...but it was a LE or something. THis guy http://www.warrenbor...nit.php?ID=F131

hes not even good...

Was this the only MadCat II in the in the F for E set? If so, I bought this off ebay (for about $80 odd - along with a few other mechs), took a knife and chiselled the mech off the stand, re balanced it with some non-descript milliput and used it as a cool paper-weight.

Whoops.

Edit: I lie - it was this one: http://bidwicket.com...Mad_Cat_II.html

Presumably less valuable?

Edited by SmoothCriminal, 16 July 2015 - 04:54 AM.

[Wronka]

Fully support the push for reducing MC and increasing c-bill earnings. I don't think anyone can argue that the prices for everything in this game are ridiculously overpriced. And grinding c-bills as a new-ish player can be downright brutal.

I understand PGI needs to make money, the game is free and all, but we need to grow the player base of this game. I am a good example of a what a new player would be like. I've played for over a year now, my first game was back in April 2014. I was never into battletech, or even heard of it before. I only got into this game because a friend told me about it, and well I am a gamer so I will try any game. It was free and I figured why not. I quickly learned I couldn't really do much in the game without spending money for MC. Within the first month of the game I had spent $60 for MC packages to buy various random things, a hero mech, premium time, and a mechbay.

After my first month I had realized I had already spend equal to what any new game costs. The only problem was, I still didn't really have anything. By the end of my first year I had spent over $200 for nothing more than premium time, various MC purchases paints/camos/etc, mechbays, and a few more hero mechs. $200 may sound like nothing to some of you (as I'm sure many have spent more than that for a single mechpack), but that $200 is roughly $16 a month, which is more than any monthly prescription based game I have ever played. And yet still I didn't have any mechs.

The issue is, if you're not willing to drop the $100-200 for new mech packs, you are really SOL with what you can get. And as a new player who really doesn't know the lore/history/significance of a mech, dropping that much in a single sitting is just simply a no-go. Now, I do not really have a problem with mech packs costing what they do when they are brand new, because eventually they do come out for mc/c-bills. But the issue is being able to afford those once they are out for c-bills or MC. Which kind of brings me to my next point.

C-bills simply take TOO long to get. If you are just your average new player just coming to this game, you're likely making under 50,000 c-bills a match. Maybe 100k if you got lucky and did decent. You want to buy a shiny new TBR? Well you can drop $30 for MC to be able to afford 1 variant, or spend roughly 15M c-bills. $30 for a single variant is insane, and if you take the cbil route you're talking a solid 150+ games to be able to afford that. How long does it take to play 150+ games? Well lets see I just so happen to have 158 games played in my Ilya Muromets, the current play time is clocked in at just over 14 HOURS. And that was not my first mech, so I guarantee a new player will take longer. And that is just for 1 single variant.

So the solution is simple right? Just buy premium time? Premium time basically makes this game a monthly prescription based game at roughly $10-15 a month, depending which package you get. But then not only do I have to pay for that, I also have to pay for mechpacks that can be up to over $100? Its just too much for a new player to be able to enjoy a wide variety of the game when he/she wants to. I get with patience you can eventually get almost every mech but this will not retain any new players. No one will want to spend 30-40+ hours to be able to buy 3 variants of 1 chassis, which they have to if they want to master that mech.

My solution is actually rather simple. Increase premium time boost to say 100%, while decreasing MC cost of everything in game. The increase in premium time boost will basically make it a must have, which at $10-15 a month is a steady cash flow for PGI and a reasonable price to the customer. PGI can still get money from those that want to pre-order mech packs, and they can still make some (though less) money from MC purchases for other in game items like mechs and in game items/paints/camos. However to the player that doesn't want to drop the money for mech packs, he can quickly still get those mechs for MC or C-bills once that mech is out for mc/cbills.

TL:DR, Increase premium time boost % while lowering MC cost for in game items.

Edited by Wronka, 18 July 2015 - 05:10 PM.

[Felbombling]

I read a really interesting book once that had the author advocating raising the prices of a dog walking business that was in trouble financially. It seemed to be counter productive, but the end result was that the dog walker lost a client or two, but ended up making a profit from then on out because of the new influx of cash from her established clients that had stuck with her. Not only that, she got new clients easier because she appeared to be of a higher calibre than her lower-priced competition.

Long story short... there are customers you want to have, and customers you can live without. I'm thinking PGI has decided that they can survive with the whales and don't really need to cater to the zero-sum players who intend to only play for free.

I'd love for prices to be cheaper, too, especially on things like camouflage and colours.

Here is how you can survive in MechWarrior: Online as a minimal spender...

1. Wait for sales... don't pay full price for anything.
2. Play something else if there is no sale pending and you feel the grind is going nowhere.
3. Don't sell off anything from your inventory unless you are certain you won't need it later.
4. Mech packs are a great value if you need a jumping off point.
5. Buy premium time if you get a good situation, like a double XP or XP conversion weekend.

Other than that, embrace the horror. It is simply a question of how much you value your time. If you have the spare income, great. If not, you're still getting free entertainment.

I am also a World of Tanks player. Coming from that environment, with the XP and money grinds that that game has in place, I really don't mind one bit the MechWarrior: Online grind or price structure. By way of comparison...

I bought a Premium tank in World of Tanks for roughly $40.00. That tank came fully upgraded, but still needed modules, consumables and camouflage. It allows me to train up my German medium tank crew skills slightly faster, as well as giving me a silver credit reward bonus [World of Tanks equivalent to MechWarrior: Online C-Bills].

I also bought the Panther / Enforcer package recently, also for $40.00. In that package I got...

Two premium Mechs that earn C-Bills at a greater rate than normal Mechs.
Four variants of the two premium Mechs.
Six Mech Bays.
Six new colours.
Six cockpit items.
A block of premium time.
Radar Deprivation module.
Seismic Sensor module.
Target Information Gathering module.

I'm probably missing some stuff. Beyond that, you can strip all the weapons and equipment off those Mechs and sell of what you don't need, including any Mechs you feel to be redundant after the chassis has been elited.

So, if you're asking me which company gave me a better deal for my $40.00, I'd have to say PGI.