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Mech Warriors, lend me your ears (eyes?). Something has happened today. Something which effected all of us alike, and something which I honestly think most of us will not stand for. I'd like to try to do something about it, rather than stand idly by (lets face it, forum whining is only a little more effort than that) once again as developers ignore their community and ruin a great franchise. Just to name a few, this happen to SWTOR, Diablo III, and WoT not that long ago, some of those are much bigger franchises, and they still fell apart because the devs ultimately failed the players and wouldn't listen to their suggestions. All of them lost a good deal of players after refusing to listen to the players about what needed to be in the game, and none of them have recovered. You don't get many chances in this business, and once the players leave, they rarely come back.
This is not a thread to complain and argue and post funny pictures and videos of animals and humans in varying states of displeasure. This is not a place for people to get angry any of the upcoming updates at all, except insofar as they represent a P2W scheme which could doom this game. Leave the complaints about how coolants and strikes will effect the games elsewhere, I'm concerned with the P2W bit only. In fact this really isn't much of a discussion at all. It's a petition. More than that, I encourage it to be a series of petitions.
I don't think PGI is listening. I think if they were, this sort of thing would not have happened in the first place. They promised, several times, that they would not go P2W and they just took the first step down that slippery slope. I don't think anyone will go through and read the megathread the mods have compiled of our feelings and complaints, in part because it is so long, and in part because it does not provide a coherent, constructive, rational point of view that they would even take seriously. I imagine someone will just mention at the next meeting, "so it wasn't a big hit on the forums," and then that'll be the end of it for them. They'll expect us to get over it, but if they keep doing more of this, we won't.
I intend to compose a series of letters/emails to send to PGI representing the voice of those members of the community who feel that the new "tiered consumable" system is at best a gateway to P2W and at worst an obvious cash-grab that immediately starts creating a P2W environment. I am asking you for your support, in the form of an impromptu petition. We have seen something like this, a small, paid-for advantage, eventually snowball into a P2W environment that ultimately drives players away from the game. Similarly, we have seen developers ignore community outcry only to lose their customer base and ultimately be left holding a bunch of great ideas that will never be realized.
My intent is to succinctly, calmly, and thoughtfully explain my position, and that of a significant portion of the community, and also to offer suggestions for the devs on more things we would be happy to pay for. I can already think of plenty of things that I would be more than happy to shell out the MC for, but as soon as it becomes about buying an advantage which cannot be earned no matter how much you grind, I lose all interest. This is a cancer to both the competitive (e-sport) aspect of the game as well as the casual part of the game. Neither form of the game will survive if they create a P2W environment. It alienates players, makes the competitive side a joke (Imagine someone winning an olympic medal because they paid the judges to give them 1 point higher on their scores). While the hope may be that this creates a situation where more players spend more money to keep up, those players much more often just leave. You simply cannot sustain a game the second you set a threshold that can only be crossed with real-world money.
Now, on the positive/constructive side, I have plenty of ideas, and I'd love to hear more ideas in this thread for ways to give PGI our money without sacrificing the integrity of this game. I realize a thread like this exists in suggestions, and I'll look there as well, but I want to add some positivity to this as well. I understand this is a business, I want them to make money, and I actually believe that there are better ways of making money because they encourage players to remain loyal. For example I want to encourage them to give a small universal C-bill %increase for the purchase of any MC, I'm thinking around 10%, it could even stack with premium/hero mechs. Most games do something like this, and it ensures that people will spend at least SOME money on the game. Then once they already have the MC anyways, they'll find something fun to buy with it, and this often encourages a player to find a few more things they wouldn't mind contributing a few more dollars for.
All of that said, I know this change hasn't even been implemented yet, and I don't want to jump the gun entirely, so I'm going to leave this thread up for a week or so, and see how the changes actually look and feel in the game. I doubt my opinion will be changed if you can pay for something which improves performance, but I want to base it on more than conjecture, so I'll give it a bit of time. I suggest you all do the same.
After your period of deliberation, I encourage anyone who feels as I do to hit the like button under this post, or to add their support with in the form of a response. If the list of names really gets going, I will create a more formal petition on one of those petition sites and link it here. I will also create a poll on the subject, but I didn't want to do that now, before the update was even released.
Feel free to make constructive, well-conceived points that you might like to see added to the final version of my letter. Any suggestion is welcomed. I also encourage others to start similar projects of their own, if they find themselves as passionate as I am about saving this game. I've simply seen too many great game ideas fall apart recently, and it has become clear that forum outrage has never helped in saving those other games. I'm just hoping that a well-reasoned, impassioned community response with a good deal of support might be enough to help PGI make this game into everything it has the potential to be.
Its likely just a drop in the ocean, but who knows...I don't lose anything other than a few hours by trying.
TL:DR?
I understand that this change has not yet been implemented, but it sounds very P2W, and the point is not how big an impact this one update makes, but the precedent it sets for more impactful P2W. I have played several MMO games in the past which fell apart either because of a P2W model (its starts like this, it gets much worse), or because devs failed to listen to their player base. In this case, I'm afraid of both happening; the game falling apart because the devs don't listen to the community, who don't want a P2W game.
I want to voice these concerns in an honest, well-reasoned letter to which I can attach a petition from the community, urging the devs to stay away from P2W options, and even offering them help in figuring out the stuff we will pay for. If you have a constructive suggestion with regards to this, please add it, if you'd like to become a part of the petition, please like this post or say so in a response. If I start getting enough names, I'll make a more formal petition for people to sign. Tell people to look for this post in the forum if you want to get more support for the idea.
Edited by ragingmunkyz, 05 March 2013 - 03:04 AM.
. Take deep breaths and i think if you try to keep your forum posts to 3 paragraphs in the future you would get a better response. Also if you were to write a letter make sure it is quick, to the point, and positive, because the devs don't have lots of time to go over every little thing that people write or put in the forums. Hey look i am being constructive, unfortunately it is not in line with what you wrote about, but about what you wrote.
). I am a little confused why they did not just made all 3 of the consumables purchasable with MC and cbills just have MC buy you some that last over multiple games, but the usefulness of the modules are still up in the air so i won't say any more about it till later.
