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[Suggestion] Mc Pricing


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Poll: [Suggestion] Mc Pricing (437 member(s) have cast votes)

Are you currently satisfied with MC pricing?

  1. Yes (43 votes [9.84%])

    Percentage of vote: 9.84%

  2. No (376 votes [86.04%])

    Percentage of vote: 86.04%

  3. Abstain (18 votes [4.12%])

    Percentage of vote: 4.12%

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#1 Shiinore

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Posted 26 March 2013 - 01:49 PM

Hey PGI, IGP or whoever it is that is in charge of the aforementioned topic, I hope you guys take the time to read this thread and give it some serious consideration.

WHAT I THINK IS WRONG:

As a fan of the MechWarrior franchise, I want to do everything within my power to help you guys, as a business, succeed. Usually, that means spending money on the products that you have to offer. However, despite being a fan of the MechWarrior franchise, I find myself hesitating to spend any more money on your game as it currently stands- and the biggest factor that is detracting from my willingness to buy is the pricing.

It just seems to me that paying upwards of $30 USD for a Hero 'Mech seems a bit steep, and I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you I feel like I got my money's worth if I spent 4500 MC on a Fang or Flame. That aside, camoflauge schemes will cost approximately $5 to select a pattern for- and will jump up to around $10 if one decides to purchase colors for it. While this may not sound too bad, with that same amount of money, I could purchase an additional 7 'Mech hangar slots. That's 7 potential new chassis with various hardpoints, engines and loadouts that are conducive to gameplay and my experience as a player, for the same expense as a design limited to one chassis and 3 colors. I don't think I would have minded this aspect too much if it weren't for the fact that MechWarrior has always been about customization- whether it came to practicality or cosmetics, and putting a hefty fee on an aspect of MechWarrior makes it less likely for me, as a part of the playerbase, want to explore it.

I understand that you have to find a way to make money off of a service that you're offering for free, but as a costumer, I feel that the extra services you are offering at the current price aren't favorable for us. It simply seems that we are giving up too much and receiving too little as compensation. I also realize that you may be tinkering around with pricing to see what range nets you the most profit, but asking for $30 USD for a chassis and then accepting money at that price speaks to me that you believe the current pricing is worth paying for. While I don't particularly believe anyone over there has malicious intent to milk money out of a fanbase with blatant disregard to how they feel, I can't particularly say that the practice seems entirely fair to me either.

WHAT I PROPOSE TO ADDRESS IT:
Having played multiple free-to-play games, I find many of them follow a rather similar business model. I don't work in the games industry, so I can only speculate as to why, but if I had to take a guess, it would be because the model has seemed to work for companies- enough to make reasonable amounts of money, and I don't think it would be a terrible idea to port it over to MWO, if not at least temporarily to gauge how things work.

In many other free-to-play games, essentially everything is available to the player through in-game currency that can be acquired through gameplay. In order for there to be motivation to spend money, the items are often listed at cheap prices, with their cost of in-game currency being exponentially higher. If I were to apply this example to MWO, it would boil down to something like paying 2,500 - 3,000 MC (or potentially less) for a Pretty Baby, while at the same time, asking for a C-Bill price of 25,000,000 or so. This way, there's nothing forcing the player to pay money to obtain this new piece of equipment if they wanted to, but it would be astronomically easier if they did. This method offers the same services to those who wish to pay and those who don't, with the key difference between the two being ease of accessibility.

If you wish to retain Hero 'Mechs as Premium-Only content, then perhaps a better suited example would be the camoflauge schemes. As it is, I don't believe 500 MC is a good investment for a single color- regardless of whether it is universal across chassis' or not. Forcing players to pay in order to get access to a feature that would otherwise be largely unavailable to them seems like cosmetic customization is a privilege that should only be granted towards those who have invested in your game. It also speaks to me with the current pricing that you believe cosmetic customization of my Mech is worth $2.50 per color and $5 per design. It seems a bit unreasonable to ask this much for a component of the game that is so minor in terms of gameplay, but important to the individual. I imagine very many people would enjoy the option to reasonably personalize and stylize their 'Mech without great expense.

A system that, from how I see it, would be more fair would be to make colors cost 100-150 MC, perhaps even less. There really isn't any reason why I would pay more for a color than I would an additional 'Mech slot, and for something as small, yet significant as customization to the player, a single color should be worth their potential investment. At the same time, making colors available for 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 C-Bills would prevent barricading off any players who would want to see a feature of the game you've implemented, but don't have any money, and at the same time would require them to put in some level of commitment to the game before they can fully gain access to it. I imagine many people would also be more willing to purchase a color if it didn't take up such a significant portion of their MC wallet.

IN CONCLUSION:
MC pricing as it stands is the greatest detractor from me wanting to buy new things or spend money on additional MC. I can't say I feel a particular sense of satisfaction with my purchase after I've laid down 500 MC (nearly half of the minimum MC purchase) on a singular color. While I enjoy MWO in all it's perks and flaws, one thing that stands out to me as drastically different to me is your cash shop, which by comparison to many other free-to-play titles out there, seems overpriced and much less than worth my money.

On a more personal note, I still have a little over 4,000 MC sitting in my wallet from my Founder's purchase, and I can't say with conviction that there's anything up for sale that I believe is fairly priced enough for me to want to spend it on. I think it goes without saying then, that until some things are changed, any future MC purchases are completely out of the question- if I have $20 to spend on a game, I should walk away from a purchase spree with $20 worth of content. That doesn't ever seem to be the case, unfortunately. I know there are many that share this same sentiment, and I hope my open letter to all of you can give you some insight into your pricing system, and can take it into a new direction that is satisfactory for both the companies and the players.

I hope you review my complaints and suggestions with a degree of sincerity. I'd hate to see MWO fail and I'd gladly contribute money to prevent that from happening- but as things stand, I can't see myself doing that without feeling as if I'd wasted some of it.

Sincerely,

A concerned player

Edited by Egomane, 27 March 2013 - 03:24 AM.
Third option has to be Abstain


#2 Nacon

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Posted 26 March 2013 - 04:13 PM

I honestly thought Color should be free... just the camo pattern should be priced.

Either way, yes too costy, sorry PGI.

EDIT: Just came back after realization on how many times I've seen color choices in matches... and most of them are still green(default color) or black(PCGamer color). I think that pretty much speak volume.

Edited by Nacon, 26 March 2013 - 04:30 PM.


#3 Sable Dove

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Posted 26 March 2013 - 06:06 PM

Only thing that's fairly priced are mech bays, and since new mechs are inherently worse than leveled mechs, what's the point of buying more, when they're less fun than what you already have?

I'm regretting what little MC I have bought because the only thing that isn't grossly overpriced is the ability to purchase a handicap.

#4 McBrite

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Posted 26 March 2013 - 11:40 PM

Agree, priced very high... I catch myself not buying all kinds of stuff because I simply can't justify spending 30 bucks on a mech, no matter how I try to trick my brain into it...

And taking 5$ for a single color is just ludicrous, sorry... Even more so if you want people to play in houses and clans, where they may need certain color schemes to fit into their outfit.

#5 SGT Puddles

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Posted 26 March 2013 - 11:43 PM

the house and unit colors will be free. It is known.

but yess these prices are just too dam high

and i blew through alot of mc, to continue to do so ill need either very good sales, or more reasonable prices

Edited by SGT Puddles, 26 March 2013 - 11:44 PM.


#6 Karl Streiger

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 02:00 AM

Premium Mech are a to expensive. I got a 30% bonus on cbills...but I'm pretty sure that premium time in the same ammount of time does give you more benefits.

For the price of the pretty baby i got what? 50% cbill bonus for 3 months?...and i can use any mech i want to play
Only advantage of premium mech is that i can not loose that bonus after some time.

#7 Holem

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 07:05 AM

I have no problem with the Hero mechs being expensive since they do bring in extra C-bills and over time it adds up versus premium time. WoT uses this model rather well. The pricing for color across all mechs is a bonus that other games makes you pay extra for each chassis, mech, tank, character.

Imho, PGI's problem is that their focus is on MC too much. The successful F2P games out there that has kept me paying is the ones that do not make me even notice that they have stuff to buy. PoE sells tabs and has cosmetic items for sale too. The good thing is that they also host races that gives out cosmetic items. WoT sells garage slots, premium tanks, and hands out gold (equal to MC) with every contests. They also have half off in-game credits for certain tanks. I'm a legendary founder of MWO but Hawken has more of my money overall because they have given me more HC, freebies, promos, etc.

I love MWO but all I see is discounts on buying mech chassis with MC and not a single "sale" on c-bill chassis. If my hanger is full of mechs and there's a mech sale, guess what I'm going to use my MC on? Yup, more hanger slots. Yes, some people won't buy new slots but there will be many more that would. Yes it is an indirect way but it works and doesn't make PGI look money hungry. We all know PGI needs to make money but how you make it or come across is the difference.

Edited by Holem, 27 March 2013 - 07:06 AM.


#8 Syllogy

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 07:11 AM

Meh, wait for MC sales, they usually come around every other month or so. Problem solved.

#9 TroglodyteJB

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 07:13 AM

By far my biggest concern with the game is how poorly-- and I mean really freaking badly-- it handles microtransactions. Without diving into consumables (even if you can attain parity on the C-Bill version, I think they're a catastrophically bad idea), the pricing is deeply concerning.

I want to support MWO, and I have, but the system they've developed favors infrequent large transactions instead of frequent small ones. In the short term, this strategy will play out fine, as players build their stable. In the long run, it's a recipe for doom. The most successful freemium games offer a wide range of compelling, cheap microtransactions that keep players hooked on buying cosmetics that make them look cool. Getting $5 every two weeks for two years is a lot better than $30 once, and by the pricing scheme on mechs and cosmetics, PGI just doesn't get that. I hope they slash some prices. A drop system for "rare camo" would also jump-start player economy and keep people interested, too.

#10 Tynth

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 08:10 AM

MC prices should be more rounded, less for Assaults and more for lights because of how everything is balanced.

#11 ICEFANG13

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 08:16 AM

Also, I don't think I will be buying a mech with MC anyway, but there was a few times were I was really close to using some of the MC that I started with (I still haven't used it, everything is so expensive) for maybe buying a hero mech. I get turned off because I have no garage slots. I suspect you'd see a nice increase in sales if you included a mech bay with EVERY MC purchased mech (probably lowered the price as well).

#12 Arnold Carns

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 08:43 AM

I am not confident with MC content at all at the current state of the game! There are still too much bugs in there from the times of the Closed Beta which haven't been touched since... then coming along holding out hands for money big style every month I personally see a little bit bold! PGI still haven't earn the credits of trust given by their founders! Finally get your things straight and offer work that at least appear like you did your work properly. Then we got a base to talk about MC content...! Regarding 'Mechs for 30 Bucks: Oh, RLY!?! For the double amount I get a complete Game elsewere (I don't want to say "more or less finished, properly working and shiny!" but I have to.)

Edited by Arnold Carns, 27 March 2013 - 08:48 AM.


#13 cephyn

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 08:51 AM

MC prices are too high for me, by about a factor of 2x or 3x. I'm not spending $30 on a mech. I would consider it $15, and pull the trigger at $10 for a mech that suits me.

I don't even look at MC colors and camo. Too high.

#14 raygun

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 09:09 AM

the only thing holding me back from a hero mech is the price; however, those are the only things that i believe are overpriced (maybe colors could go down a bit). I think a year of premium breaks down to about $8/month, which i find very reasonable.

#15 Klunk

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 09:24 AM

I love the game, I play probably about 4-8 hours a week. I spend about $10-$15 a month on MWO, mostly on premium time to help me earn CB. I haven't spent MC on colors (I don't mind the colors available for CB). I think that this rate is probably a little high, I spent less when I played LoL and I got more content when I paid about the same for WoW. But the game is in beta and I'd like to see it succeed.

Random thought - I might pay more for colors and mech appearance if at the beginning of each match I got to see my mech! I'm not a big fan of the 3rd person perspective thing, and I realize this is a hot topic in the MWO community; but maybe an animation showing my mech initializing (cut in between the in-cockpit animation?) would let me feel good about how awesome my giant robot is!

Keep up the good work, PGI! Looking forward to seeing this game grow!

#16 Interdiction

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 09:40 AM

I've honestly looked at Hero mechs and patterns/color schemes so many times and just said "I love this game, and I would love to throw money at these awesome guys who make this awesome game that I love, but I just can't justify it". As soon as the Pretty Baby came out at a $30 price point, I knew I would never be able to justify buying a hero mech. It's just not worth it. Why should I pay half the price of a brand new, triple A game for just one mech in this game? It's not worth it at all.

Then I started playing Hawken, and I believe their mechs are priced at about $7 - $10 each (correct me if I'm wrong) and thought "yeah, for that price I would buy mechs. If only MWO did this".

PGI, I really want to throw money at you. I've already bought a lot of premium time. But you need to make your mech MC costs cheaper, or you're going to lose out on a lot of money from me because it's not worth it.

#17 Spyder228

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 09:46 AM

I agree, MC prices a tad too high. The camo colors are the worst offenders. One hundred MC is still high but much more palatable. There's no way I'll waste my MC on a hero mech. I'll get by buying my mechs with Cbills and using my MC on something that's really worth it - garage bays.

#18 Werewolf486 ScorpS

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 11:12 AM

I can say that I will never pay MC for any hero mech at the current pricing levels. I only use MC to buy Mechbays and I think if you spend MC on a mech you should get a free mechbay with it! I bought 1 color so far and don't plan to buy anymore. They want me to buy anything with MC they'll have to do something really uncharacteristic of them, cut prices in half and or make the Unseen mechs MC only like the Hero mechs, and then I may spend some MC to buy my beloved Warhammer! The only other thing I bought MC for was for my wife to use once she completes her Cadet training and then it will be for the same stuff I spend it on...mechbays and color.

#19 Aldrenean

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 11:20 AM

View PostSable Dove, on 26 March 2013 - 06:06 PM, said:

Only thing that's fairly priced are mech bays, and since new mechs are inherently worse than leveled mechs, what's the point of buying more, when they're less fun than what you already have?

I'm regretting what little MC I have bought because the only thing that isn't grossly overpriced is the ability to purchase a handicap.



I personally think making mechbays MC only is one of the biggest long-term problems this game faces. Without a way to own more than 4 mechs without paying money, the F2P userbase is going to have a turnover rate of about 2 months, tops. Not sustainable.

#20 jay35

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Posted 27 March 2013 - 11:24 AM

I've picked up a significant amount of premium content over the past two months but completely agree that the prices are way too high for most of the Premium content delivered.

Premium Time: The standard price would be a good deal if the timer only ran when you were actually logged into the client, instead of also running it down the other 18+ hours of the day. The sale price is a fair price and I've picked up Premium Time on sale each time there's been a sale in the past two months.

Hero mechs: I believe I own all of these except the Death's Knell, but that doesn't mean I find the prices fair. There are other methods to achieve rarity if that is the stated reason behind charging 6,000MC for the Pretty Baby, a truly mediocre Awesome variant, or 4,500MC for Dragon hero variants that are at-best mediocre, while offering no grind alternative for them. Speaking from the experience of actually using them, an appealing price would be around 3,500MC for the Pretty Baby, and maybe 2,500 MC for each of the Dragons. A c-bill alternative of around 50,000,000 c-bills would keep them solidly out of reach of most players for the time period during which most of the sales on them would have occurred, while still offering a way to access them for the truly dedicated. You'd probably also sell premium time to players who want a hero mech like the Pretty Baby and find premium time prices acceptable but won't drop MC directly on the mech.

Mechs: Regular mechs are grind-only for most people. It's odd to put a high MC price on them, when most people will never use MC to purchase them. Also, given the prices of engines, why not offer an MC option on those as well? Anyone who will spend MC on a mech they could simply grind, will also likely be willing to ease the grind on engines as well. This is one of those incongruities with the MC scheme right now. A curious decision right alongside a missed opportunity.

Colors and Camos: Also quite high, such that I only pick them up when they're on a 50% sale, and I didn't even bother with the Phranken Heavy camos that were on sale last weekend because, despite being a collector, i don't find their look on any of the Heavy mechs appealing enough to spend 625 MC (or whatever it was at the sale price) on that pattern on any of the Heavies. Maybe if it was 250MC I would have considered it "just to have it", being a collector and all.
For the 750MC price, regular Camos could unlock across an entire class of mechs (Light, Medium, etc) vs one chassis at a time. Many people skip them entirely because they know they're going to use them more than once so the 75MC temporary option isn't worthwhile, but 750MC is too high for a proper unlock. What might work is 500MC to unlock a camo across all variants of a given chassis, 1000MC to unlock it for the entire class of mechs (e.g., all Heavy mechs).
Color prices could be halved permanently. The only reason to put so many colors and camos in the game is for them to be used, not to sit there on a shelf. If PGI really believe that, they wouldn't be happy seeing mostly plain green mechs on the battlefield.

Edited by jay35, 27 March 2013 - 11:51 AM.






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