180 replies to this topic

[ObsidianSpectre]

Niko's recent post seems to suggest that PGI might back away from pay to win. I certainly hope so, and I want to love this game so bad I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

One of the people I was talking to about this in chat made the point that it's possible PGI is desperate for money. From the numbers I've seen and everything I've heard, I really doubt this is the case, but still companies do love money. So I figure, let's see if we can come up with some more ways for PGI to get our cash that aren't pay to win. We give them enough ways to make money, and we can remove the temptation for them to ever try this again.

Feel free to come up with your own ideas, or comment on other people's.

1) Rentable private servers. Full control over a private server hosted on PGI's boxes. No c-bills or xp rewards. Rent by the match, by the day, or by the month. I bet all serious groups are going to want at least one on standby.

2) Very expensive, very visible aesthetic things. Give the people who want to throw money at the game a way to let everyone know they're rich enough to afford it.

3) Pay-To-Play tournaments. You can have rewards like custom skins, banners, MC, hero mech vouchers. Maybe even an ad-hoc tournament system where tournaments can be created on the fly by the players, where PGI takes 20% of the entry fees and pays out the remainder to the winners.

Anyone else have anything?

Edited by ObsidianSpectre, 04 March 2013 - 10:46 PM.

[Mystere]

Full subscription model?

[QuantumButler]

ObsidianSpectre, on 04 March 2013 - 10:45 PM, said:

Niko's recent post seems to suggest that PGI might back away from pay to win. I certainly hope so, and I want to love this game so bad I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

One of the people I was talking to about this in chat made the point that it's possible PGI is desperate for money. From the numbers I've seen and everything I've heard, I really doubt this is the case, but still companies do love money. So I figure, let's see if we can come up with some more ways for PGI to get our cash that aren't pay to win. We give them enough ways to make money, and we can remove the temptation for them to ever try this again.

Feel free to come up with your own ideas, or comment on other people's.

1) Rentable private servers. Full control over a private server hosted on PGI's boxes. No c-bills or xp rewards. Rent by the match, by the day, or by the month. I bet all serious groups are going to want at least one on standby.

2) Very expensive, very visible aesthetic things. Give the people who want to throw money at the game a way to let everyone know they're rich enough to afford it.

3) Pay-To-Play tournaments. You can have rewards like custom skins, banners, MC, hero mech vouchers. Maybe even an ad-hoc tournament system where tournaments can be created on the fly by the players, where PGI takes 20% of the entry fees and pays out the remainder to the winners.

Anyone else have anything?

Niko's recent post?

I haven't seen it, would you care to link it?

[ObsidianSpectre]

QuantumButler, on 04 March 2013 - 10:47 PM, said:

Niko's recent post?

I haven't seen it, would you care to link it?

http://mwomercs.com/...uch-a-bad-idea/

Niko Snow, on 04 March 2013 - 07:26 PM, said:

P2W is something we aim to avoid at all costs. Nobody here, whether it's the developers, the testers, the designers or the publishers, not even the guy who handles the recycling, want the game to end up in the situation where the only people winning are those who put down money. We've all played those games and we didn't like them either.

Do keep in mind we are discussing a feature that has just completed it's initial design and has not yet been introduced into the game. There is still a great deal of development, testing and revision ahead.

Now if you'll all excuse me: I have to compile 142 pages of feedback on this matter.

I might be reading a bit too much into it, but don't you dare take my hope away from me.

Mystere, on 04 March 2013 - 10:46 PM, said:

Full subscription model?

I'd be happy to pay for it, but I don't think it'd be good for the player base.

Edited by ObsidianSpectre, 04 March 2013 - 10:49 PM.

[Mackman]

Mystere, on 04 March 2013 - 10:46 PM, said:

Full subscription model?

I would be incredibly sad if they moved to subscription. I just wouldn't be able to justify paying a subscription for any game, not to myself and definitely not to my wife.

[SuomiWarder]

Sell ads on billboards in the game. I can totally imagine Coca Cola or Pepsi still being sold in 3050. Or recruting bill boards from mercenary groups. Heck, if the price was low enough I'd probably pay to have bill boards warning that Zombies were loose.

Of course if we could blow those ads up in game, so much the better.

[Metafox]

I really like ideas 2 and 3. I'm thinking 6000 MC for top hats and monacles for atlases.

As for my own ideas, I think I may have posted this somewhere before, but how about a clan invasion kickstarter?

[ObsidianSpectre]

Metafox, on 04 March 2013 - 10:55 PM, said:

I really like ideas 2 and 3. I'm thinking 6000 MC for top hats and monacles for atlases.

I'd totally buy it, even if it meant I had to run an atlas afterwards.

Quote

As for my own ideas, I think I may have posted this somewhere before, but how about a clan invasion kickstarter?

Founders, but for the clans? I like it.

[Zaptruder]

1. Urbanmech... rentals.
2. Mech sized: Top Hats, Monocles and Diamond Studded Canes. Consumable.


I'm sure you'd see a market for those items that bring a little levity to the game.

Edited by Zaptruder, 04 March 2013 - 10:59 PM.

[Grits N Gravy]

merchandising!

[Mystere]

ObsidianSpectre, on 04 March 2013 - 10:56 PM, said:

Founders, but for the clans? I like it.

The forums just went nuclear today because of something as mundane as MC vs. c-bill coolant flush. What do you think will happen if only the people who paid real money get to play the extremely overpowered Clans?

Edited by Mystere, 04 March 2013 - 11:02 PM.

[Xipe Totec]

Quick list:

1. Gifts, both as a draw-gift and as a specific gift (IE: Random/Non-random).

2. External banners, both from the mechs and from captured zones. IE: If lance X takes an area it unfurls their banner.

3. Custom Avatars, custom habits. I'd pay to have little swirls of cigar smoke for my pilot and an ashtray, or to have a character that looks totally boss.

4. Customizable sound bites or prompts. IE: You unlock for 1000 MC and you can choose what your alarm sound is for being targeted or missile incoming or ammo low (the low ammos would have to be generic though, still, how often do you have a bunch of different ammos run down at the same time). My ideal system critical would be Alucard's sound bite from TFS "You Done Goofed!"

5. Additional title slots, if CW has titles for planets, you could purchase slots to show off your conquests. So you could be "the butcher of X", so when people R your mech it tells them who you are, because it would be awesome.

[Dr Killinger]

Alternate body parts for my mechs. Cool Atlas head, a mace fist for YLW, etc.

C-Bill packs.

Re-usable consumables (THAT ARE NO MORE POWERFUL THAN CBILL VERSIONS)

Laser color mods

Missile flight pattern mods (provided that it provides no competitive advantage)

Autocannon tracer colour mod (again, no advantage, just colour)

Voice packs (alternatives to bitching betty)


All this in 10 minutes. Please PGI, take my ideas for free, but don't fall to P2W!!!

[QuantumButler]

Mystere, on 04 March 2013 - 11:01 PM, said:

The forums just went nuclear today because of MC vs. c-bill coolant flush. What do you think will happen if only the people who paid real money get to play the extremely overpowered Clans?

Don't be daft, the founders would just get founder clan mechs, while the freeplaying masses will get ugly olive green versions of the same mechs with no cbill bonus, just like regular founder mechs.

[ObsidianSpectre]

Mystere, on 04 March 2013 - 11:01 PM, said:

The forums just went nuclear today because of MC vs. c-bill coolant flush. What do you think will happen if only the people who paid real money get to play the extremely overpowered Clans?

Nonono, make it just like the founders program. You pay in early, you get a founders version of a mech that's going to be available to everybody. Anybody can buy a JR7-D, but only founders got the JR7-D(F). It's the same exact mech, but with a unique skin and a +25% C-Bill bonus. I don't hear anyone seriously complaining about this, so I think it'd work out.

[Znail]

MWO is making PGI money. The problem is that they are spending that money on other projects. It's not a blilliant move to take resources from an unfinished but so far successfull project and use it for other possibly failures.

[Slab Squathrust]

I have never understood why they didn't put some small but not negligible benefit on cockpit items purchased with MC. I just don't understand why anyone would care about such a thing when you are the only one who can see it. If it say came with a 1 or 2% c-bill boost and stacked with whatever founder hero, or other cockpit item bonus was on the mech, I could imagine they would sell more of these things.

[Zaptruder]

Dr Killinger, on 04 March 2013 - 11:02 PM, said:

1. Alternate body parts for my mechs. Cool Atlas head, a mace fist for YLW, etc.

2. C-Bill packs.

3. Re-usable consumables (THAT ARE NO MORE POWERFUL THAN CBILL VERSIONS)

4. Laser color mods

5. Missile flight pattern mods (provided that it provides no competitive advantage)

6. Autocannon tracer colour mod (again, no advantage, just colour)

7. Voice packs (alternatives to bitching betty)


All this in 10 minutes. Please PGI, take my ideas for free, but don't fall to P2W!!!

1. Sure, as long as there's no change to function and part is non-essential. Better yet; external mech doodads that make the mech look different, but provide no functional benefits.

2. Yes. We might as well have a straight MC to Cbill package if we can buy mechs for MC and sell for Cbills.

3. Consumables for MCs; as long as all the same are available for cbills. Pay to grind less, or pay for convenience. Don't cross the boundary.

4. Nope. Laser colours are gameplay essential. Would be confusing to have purple and orange lasers, and small laser that fire green or blue.

5. Nope; flight pattern provides differences in gameplay; a pinching X pattern (as it is now) produces different results from a spiral helix pattern (after 5th of March patch).

6. Nope; could be confused with a different weapon.

7. Yes; easy way to give players content for money. The most natural of exchanges.

[ObsidianSpectre]

Another couple of my own:

1) Implement a loot system. Each win, you have a chance to salvage some loot item not available on the market. Most are just sidegrades, trading one small advantage for a small disadvantage versus the market version. I personally would be alright with some rare drops being minor upgrades. Each player's first win of the day gets a guaranteed drop, to encourage people to keep coming back. Then you can sell grabs from the loot bag for small amounts of MC. The randomness reinforces the skinner box principles, and means PGI will get to milk all the gambling addicts who wander in.

2) Sell different voice packs for Bitching Betty.

[Hedonism Robot]

Znail, on 04 March 2013 - 11:05 PM, said:

MWO is making PGI money. The problem is that they are spending that money on other projects. It's not a blilliant move to take resources from an unfinished but so far successfull project and use it for other possibly failures.

Agreed, they need to be careful with getting too big too fast. The flow of cash can be really uneven in the gaming industry.