30 replies to this topic

[armyof1]

Omni 13, on 29 March 2013 - 11:28 AM, said:

the problem with what you just wrote is that the people who are planning on buying them mech don't really care about the CBill warriors as you put it. so no one is actually deciding anything with their money.

While I see your point I think it's not entirely true, as for example when the first version of consumables that was clearly P2W was presented a lot of founders voiced their disagreement with it. But in this case with new mechs only be available for real cash initially I agree, I doubt few that buy the Highlander will think about those that can't for what is frankly a ridiculous price.

[M0rpHeu5]

Stop buying MC and they'll lower the price, atm i see tones of hero mechs which means that there are people out there willing to pay. Why cut the pricies?

Edited by M0rpHeu5, 29 March 2013 - 11:45 AM.

[armyof1]

M0rpHeu5, on 29 March 2013 - 11:44 AM, said:

Stop buying MC and they'll lower the price, atm i see tones of hero mechs which means that there are people out there willing to pay. WHy cut the pricies?

Yep it's just not going to happen, because there are quite a few MWO players tossing money at this game as if it's toilet paper.

[Roadbeer]

Noobzorz, on 29 March 2013 - 11:27 AM, said:

True, but facile. The marginal cost for providing a hero mech is functionally nothing, so you want to pick the price such that P*Q(P) is maximized, since development is all sunk costs. Would they be able to sell more than twice as many hero mechs if they were half the cost? I suspect yes, but I don't know.

Oh, I don't disagree, at all. I think the weekend sales they have are actually good for their pricing metrics... if 100 people buy the hero mech at full price, but 400 buy it when it's 50% off, that should be a good indicator that they should drop their prices 30% across the board, as you've just found your palpable price point (say that 3 times fast) for consistent sales.

[S3dition]

MeatForBrains, on 29 March 2013 - 10:25 AM, said:

The Prices in this game are INSANELY high. Not just high, CRAZY expensive.

$20 for a Flame, (which i mistakenly bought, won't buy another hero mech simply because it's way expensive)
$27 for a Pretty Baby,

and if you want Franken, with the colors it comes with (or any color at all for that matter)

$19-$20!@#$ FOR COLOR.

It's insane, and I can't justify paying for that. I can have colors on my mechs, Or my wife and I can get mexican food, WITH a 32oz Dos Equis.

Who all agrees that it's overpriced, and if reduced you would actually buy color or cockpit items? Or more hero mechs?

It way way better to buy premium time then fork it over for heroes.

I also wanted to add that the whole concept of buying MC in place of showing actual prices, and not having a 1 to 1 ratio of MC to dollar amount is so you don't really know what you are spending unless you pull out a calculator. This makes it so that you accidentally spend more than you really would in the first place.
This is simply just being unethical regardless of how many other microtransaction games employ this.

I agree that colors are over priced you can get a pot of GW paint for $3, and it's widely considered over priced. That's a physical item that you can use on anything, not a digital items that locked to a single mech.

The mechs however are right on target. About the same pricing as WoT. You don't need special mechs. Besides that, I find the people who don't buy anything are always the most vocal - reduce prices and they still don't buy.

[Rakashan]

What is laughable about this conversation is that if you listen to the video again, he dismisses the pricing right up front with a comment that as long as people pay it, they'll charge it and he's not going to get distracted by that conversation. The point is that if you bothered to listen, pricing is an issue that lies at the feet of the community, not the microtransaction model.

[Moonsavage]

I like the the mechs, I think the prices are a little too high - the reason I probably won't be spending any more money on this game (I have spent quite a bit...!) is as follows.

1. MC prices okay, Mech value a little poor.
2. The game is straight up team deathmatch... the game modes cannot be completed in any other way than fighting directly with other players. There is no such thing as "outsmarting" other players, it's just plain Raven 3L > Anything else and ECM > No ECM and VOIP groups > Solo players. I've had enough of fights that are not on an even field.
3. Compare this monetisation and game depth of MWO with St4r C0nflict (F2P done properly imho) and understand why I have played 10 hours of SC today and not one game of MWO.

[Exoth3rmic]

Its interesting the video makes many points, all gamer orientated. No gamer is going to sit there and say "no, no, I actually do think I should have restricted content if I don't pay!"

The monocle, for example, was introduced specifically for people willing to pay over and above the odds for a purely cosmetic item. If it had cost $10,000 you can be sure people would have bought it simply because of the exclusivity of the item and it does nothing at all in game. Its an item that simply does not require the developer to lower the cost of it for that reason. Plenty of people can buy pants/shirts in eve but not afford the monocle - the fact they cannot "afford" the monocle is the very reason for its existence.

Of course I want access to as much as possible for as little cost as possible and we cannot yet tell whether the pricing points by PGI are maximising their profitability and their long term survivability.

At this time, i'd be highly leaning towards MWO's long term survival being based on how quickly a decent CW gets here. Otherwise they could have everything here for $1 and wouldn't have a decent core to make use of it - simply because stuff is cheap doesn't make "the grind" any more bearable. Lots of people here say they "enjoy" MWO and I'm sure they do, but I bet a large portion of that is based on their vision of its future, not its present.

Edited by Exoth3rmic, 29 March 2013 - 02:43 PM.

[Solidussnake]

I really liked this episode alot. I wonder if PGI ever saw it. probably not.

Edited by Solidussnake, 29 March 2013 - 02:53 PM.

[Tennex]

i hope they watch this. most of it is spot on except for allowing access to second currency.

Edited by Tennex, 29 March 2013 - 05:38 PM.

[Scromboid]

Just to interject here, I have a couple of points to lay out.

1 - The video itself isn't gamer-centric... not in the way you guys are portraying it anyways. The video only sits on the gamers' side from the point of view that the gamer doesn't want their game of choice to die because of high prices/bad micro-transactions. Whether this be from P2W, absurdly high (in the mind of the gamer) prices on the units (no friggin way am I going to buy a $70 monocle - no way am I buying Pretty Baby for $27!) or the illusion of un-equality between paying members and non paying members, the game company needs to remain fair in it's decision on what to charge, when to charge it and when to give it away in the hopes that the gamer will like it so much, they'll buy more.

In my case, Skylanders is a great example of this. Before I bought the game for my daughters, I wasn't willing to whip out $70 for a game and three dudes. I bought the game and 14 dudes from some (hot) lady on Craigs List. Now, when I see the value of the game and how much my girls enjoy it, I dont mind shelling out $10 for "Stumpy" because my girls love it and I feel like I am getting proper Value for my Cash.

MWO? No sir. Not yet, anyways. That leads me to my next point.

2 - I ~WANT~ to support the game... I just cannot find a cash efficient way to do so. I find the fact that we cannot buy a hero mech without buying a mech bay ridiculous. Hell - I find that buying a mech bay at all is ridiculous. I've NEVER had to buy "character slots" in LOL. Imagine! I have over 50 Champs in that game, spent over $100 on silly stuff (whether it be skins that don't affect the game at all - which, if you are savvy, you can put on YOURSELF for FREE and they SUPPORT it) or paying a little extra cash (to the tune of $7) to get a champion on day one of it's release. Everything you want to do for power over there, you can do with a free account that's never "made the company money".

Guys. I love MWO. I really do. I built a new rig - something I have not done for literally 11 years (just bought a GFX 660ti OC Edition.... my last card that I bought was a 6600ti. In 2002) just to play this game. I put together a case... by buddies even pulled some parts together because they love this game so much, THEY want me to play. Total, I am prolly $1100 out of pocket because of MWO.

I'm not cheap. But at the same time, I cannot justify throwing away $27 on a mech that is a) P2W (hard points unavailable on other variants of the same chassis, +30% in money, which is kinda not right, if you ask me, or play time that gives +xp and +cbills that I can't shut off if I am sent out of town again of business or the like) and is OVERPRICED.

THE HERO MECHS ARE NOT JUST SKINS. THIS, TO ME, MAKES THEM P2W.

"Well, Scromboid, which is a ridiculous name btw, If you are not buying Hero Mechs, then what are you buying with your money?"

Not the point.

Give me something that is a good value and I will choose to support the game. Period.

Pretty Baby - $27.65 if you buy $30 of MC at once.
The X-5 - $13.82 if you buy #30 of MC at once.

This is paying for power. The X-5 is the only one in it's chassis that can equip missiles. The Pretty Baby is the only one in it's chassis that can equip a 400 engine. I don't care... you are paying for variants that can do things the FREE VARIANTS CANNOT. THAT IS PAY TO WIN.

3 - I cannot morally support a game that is P2W.

If it becomes that, it's pay to cheat. Plus, I have to justify to myself that I am paying money to cheat at a game - and paying too much to do so.

Let the people earn the Pretty Baby. Make it 25m C-Bills. Let us earn it.

Let us earn Mech Bays.

Colors? Charge us. I don't care! I will buy colors and skins and pay some money for variants I don't want to grind for for the sake of convenience! Just dont' charge me $11 for Raven 3L. Don't make me buy $30 of MC to get there. Let me buy $10 worth and let me grab that 3L for $7 and the mech bay for $1 and some colors.

See what you did there? I can buy a Mech, a Mech Bay, some colors and maybe a camo print for my Raven - all for $10. Guess what? I will find VALUE AND CONVENIENCE in that and I will be MORE LIKELY to buy in the future. That is the cost of lunch.

What are you doing now? Forcing me to buy $30 worth of MC and I'm going to be scrimping that !@#$ because I feel like I already put out more than I would pay for a used Xbox 360 game and I know I am going to have MC left over in a weird number... what else am I going to buy... is the next Hero mech going to be too much... what if I hate the Raven.... that camo pattern isn't cool enough... I really wanted Phranken - CRAP - that's $6 more....

Now I am asking TOO MANY QUESTIONS TO PAY YOU MONEY. If I do that... well, I've already talked myself out of it.

TL/DR: Don't make us question, in any way shape or form, how much we are paying and for what. Minimize that particular thought process to the point where we are shelling out 'peanuts' and you will get MANY MANY more purchases that are ~IMPULSE BUYS~ instead of weighing pros and cons.

Okay, I'm done.