Reserve Now Register Now
header

Why you want MechWarrior Online to be Free-To-Play

by Bryan Ekman Nov 4, 2011 4:16 PM PDT

Why you want MechWarrior® Online™ to be Free-To-Play!

Since the announcement came out, one of the hottest topics has been about Free-To-Play (F2P). This Into the Lab will discuss the details of why MechWarrior® Online™ is F2P and how we came to love the concept () and why you should too. So let’s get started.

How many times have you bought a game for 60 bucks and felt disappointed? Or if you’re like me, paid 60 bucks, played for 2 hours and never touched the game again because you get busy with life or work? Or loved a game so much, that you wished there was more, only to wait 2 years for a sequel! The Free-To-Play model solves this problem by allowing players to drive value and content.

How does this translate into MechWarrior™ Online™? Great question! Let’s talk about the design principle we’re using to drive MWO, simply referred to as: “All Carrot, No Stick”.

The core experience is available to anyone for no cost at all. You as the player, get to choose how and if you spend money. And make no mistake, I want you to spend money, but only on the things YOU value. In fact, when you spend your money, it tells me that we’ve succeeded in creating a game players enjoy. Sounds like a basket full of carrots to me.

Key to achieving this concept is a design that rewards players for participation, skill, tactical thinking, team play, and heroics in a way that is engaging to the individual and contributes to the overall community experience. These rewards take many forms, including in-game currency called C-Bills, experience points, and prestige. Players can also purchase items which make this experience more fun, engaging, or efficient depending on what matters to them.

For example, if you are an offense player like me, you will be rewarded with money, experience, and prestige by dealing damage, and killing or helping to kill the enemy. I’m also a collector; I love to own one of everything. So MWO provides me with the ability to acquire and store items of value (collector), while rewarding me for doing what I love most, crushing other MechWarriors in the field of battle (offense player)!

We are catering to all major player archetypes, the lone wolf, the team player, the collector, the efficiency/tuner, the tinkerer/builder, the leader and many more. These archetypes are all represented within the context of MechWarrior® Online™ a free-to-play BattleMech action/sim.

Now let’s talk about Pay-To-Win, the red-headed step child (no offense to all the red heads, we really do love you).

There are those who will rumble about Pay-2-Win, which equates to the person with the biggest wallet winning. I’m not going to lie, some things can and will allow you to acquire items faster, or even instantly with real cash.

Foul! Foul! You said you can’t buy a tactical advantage! That’s a stick! That guy with the wallet is going to be able to buy the biggest, bad assed items in the game! He’s going to kick my butt with his wallet.

Well here’s some food for thought, maybe the biggest isn’t always the best! To take a quote from an early MechWarrior® presentation – This is not your father’s MechWarrior®! One of our core pillars is Role Warfare and is designed to, well – level the playing field – another concept from our original design. We're doing away with the arms race and making BattleMechs of all shapes and sizes have a purpose and role on the battlefield. If you love scouting, grab that light mech, train and gear it up. Be that sneaky guy who relays critical information back to the rest of your lance. Maybe you’re a commander type, who loves to multitask, directing fire support, air strikes, and multiple lances in a mech suitable to that role. If you play any of these roles well, and with skill, you will be rewarded.

So remember this, time and experience (the real kind), will always equal greater skill. Greater skill will always equal more rewards. You can’t buy skill, you earn it.

Now if that wasn’t enough here are some of my other favourite reasons why you want MechWarrior® Online™ to be F2P!

We can iterate quickly.
  • This means we can listen to your feedback and actually do something about it.
We have live game metrics.
  • This means we can respond to key indicators and refine the game play experience.
We are not bound by content delivery limitations of a console platform.
  • For now, getting new content delivered through a console is a costly and arduous process.
We can use test servers and a beta community to test our ideas and new content before pushing it to live servers.
  • This isn’t new concept. However, it’s vital to keeping the quality bar high for MWO.
In summary:
  • All Carrot, No Stick.
  • Balanced roles to suit a variety of player styles.
  • Skill is earned.
  • You can make your own choices!
  • Spend money on things YOU value.
  • MechWarrior™ rules! (Fan Boy moment)

Posted On:

Comments (402)


lyonn on Nov 4, 2011 11:58 PM UTC

Bryan



you've written a big post but didn't mentionwhat you expect to sell. Lets have some examples of each type of thing

Odin on Nov 4, 2011 11:49 PM UTC

quote:

...you will be rewarded with money, experience, and prestige by dealing damage, and killing or helping to kill the enemy.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________



If you really do simulate information warfare, sophisticated, thoughtful,

smaller Mech stand a chance and gameplay will not be just another WoT.

Such development will cost you! money and time, I'm hoping you code as much diversity into this as possible.

Here's still hope not to see 100ton Atlases on scouting missions :)

Anyway I'm sold :D

Roh on Nov 4, 2011 11:45 PM UTC

Boo! No getting things instantly! Fail! For many reasons fail! I could go in detail why it is fail but no one will be listening anyway.. So I will just say Boo! Fail!!! To make myself feel better and leave.

Bryan Ekman on Nov 4, 2011 11:43 PM UTC

There's some issues with our aggregation via custom tool. Kyle will fix it on Monday.

Mal on Nov 4, 2011 11:42 PM UTC

Good rational reasons for why MWO being F2P isn't P2W (I'm really just trying to see how many more acronyms I can squeeze into one sentence now).



Also, is it just me, or does the original post have all the HTML formatting tags visible?

Dividan on Nov 4, 2011 11:40 PM UTC

Ok...I'm sold. I'm not even gonna buy things I'm just going to give you cash for the great game (Can I do that? Like donate?). Thank you so much Bryan, I know the Mechwarrior franchise is in great hands :D . I realy like how you been great with responding to the community, and with this F2P model I know you will continue doing so.



-Dividan

rollermint on Nov 4, 2011 11:38 PM UTC

View PostMosadoff, on , said:

I like FTP model with real-money shop. I would gladly pay for something like custom mech paint, additional mechs unavailable for totally free players , extra hangar slot etc. Devs should look at World of Tanks- its free, its fun, its financialy successful and its ingame shop dont ruin gameplay.




With regards to WOT, it doesn't ruin gameplay...for random matches.



It totally ruins gameplay for competitive clan matches. You are forced to buy gold ammo and kits if you want to even hope to have a chance to be competitive.



But yes to certain mechs, custom paintjob, or forming a full lance or even multiple lances, to form a mercenary company, extra mechbays etc etc.

jhempsrt4 on Nov 4, 2011 11:38 PM UTC

I am a huge fan of F2P. It keeps the servers filled with players, and allowes people to pay as they see fit, not requiring a subscription or large sum up front. If they are able to implement it as well as WoT does, it will be a home run for all.

SquareSphere on Nov 4, 2011 11:34 PM UTC

Exactly what I expect. :D Game experience now a days boil down to Time, Money, Time &Money. You're always going to have people that have lots of time but don't want to pay so they grind their way to items. Others don't have time, it's called real life folks, so they'll spend few extra bucks here and there to help get items. Then you have the fanatic fan base that's willing to spend time AND money on a game. Obviously, this last group will probably spend the most in terms of TIME and MONEY on the game.

Mosadoff on Nov 4, 2011 11:33 PM UTC

I like FTP model with real-money shop. I would gladly pay for something like custom mech paint, additional mechs unavailable for totally free players , extra hangar slot etc.



Devs should look at World of Tanks- its free, its fun, its financialy successful and its ingame shop dont ruin gameplay.

rollermint on Nov 4, 2011 11:33 PM UTC

That sound alright, pretty good.



But we are going to wait to hear the exact details first though :) We still don't know what we can or can't buy with real money. Can we buy superior weapons? Superior armor? superior engines et c etc? The infamous "gold" ammo?



I hope thats not the case though. I don't mind buying certain special mechs with real money though, since no mechs are superior than every other mechs. Besides the Lowes and T59s of WOT doesn't seem to be that good, anyway. No, gold ammo or components. Please.



I do wish this game to be a huge success. I really do.

Kamakazi on Nov 4, 2011 11:33 PM UTC

I do have some questions about the F2P model based on other MMOs that I have played.



1. What can we expect to buy with C-Bills? (Mechs, Weapons, Play Areas, etc.)

2. Will there be any uber-gear from F2P content or is it only through C-Bill microtransactions?

3. Will there be an option to have a monthly payment option to gain all new content and a monthly C-Bill boost for paying subscribers.

shiva on Nov 4, 2011 11:32 PM UTC

View PostGalaxy613, on , said:


Well I'm sold.





Me too. So long as it doesn't take too long to get me a raven or urbie, I'll be happy. I can save up my in game credits to get me that Whammie or Marauder. Anyone who buys an AS7 right off, and does the Mr. Deep Pockets hoping to get wins will instantly find himself target numero uno on the battlefield. I doubt he'll believe so many missiles existed at one time, as they all head towards him.

Mifun on Nov 4, 2011 11:32 PM UTC

Well i still don't want MWO to be f2p.

Galaxy613 on Nov 4, 2011 11:26 PM UTC

Well I'm sold. Especially how light mechs; GASP! Might have a place on the battefield other than for level 1 n00bies.



I think the thing to really note here is this line: "I'm not going to lie, some things can and will allow you to acquire items faster, or even instantly with real cash."



Ok read that again. "...some things can and will allow you to acquire ITEMS faster..." The question is, what ARE items? Are they components for mechs? Does it include the mechs themselves? Are they special golden LRMs?



At the very least, it means you WON'T be buying c-bills & reputation with money.

Popular Forum Topics


BattleMech Technology; an education!
Feb 22, 2012 5:06 PM PST

Thoughts or feelings on First person only?
Feb 22, 2012 5:04 PM PST

Old MS Zone Players
Feb 22, 2012 5:03 PM PST

Grey Knights Mercenary Team
Feb 22, 2012 5:01 PM PST

Battlemech 8 - ?
Feb 22, 2012 5:01 PM PST

Elementals?
Feb 22, 2012 4:57 PM PST

BZ/VL Pilots Sound Off!!
Feb 22, 2012 4:57 PM PST



footer