498 replies to this topic

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Protection, on 29 March 2013 - 03:21 PM, said:

Exactly.

Our corp, like many others, is hundreds of players deep. We enjoy playing with one another, and a major part of our enjoyment of the game is being able to play with those people.

With free access, some of us will pay. You will make some money.

Taking away free player access, you will not get the free players to pay you. You will give the paying players incentive to leave for a better game and you will make no money.

Like yer new sig lol

[Felicitatem Parco]

Gregory Owen, on 29 March 2013 - 03:36 PM, said:

too me, you guys just come across as whiny and cheap. $10 a month for premium is what the eluded to and that is very reasonable.

i'm tired of all the whining and especially if it's coming from people who won't contribute

forums should also be locked to premium also like most mmo's

May we please not respond to the idea or comments about premium locking the forums? Thanks. This thread is about Mercenary Corps, and I'd like to avoid a mini-thread war about who's entitled and whatnot.

I never planned on being premium all the time... But I did plan on being in a Merc Corp. we'll see how this affects my plans. Hint - I'm probably not going to change my first plan. Sometimes I can only drop a few times per week, not enough to justify premium time all the time.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 29 March 2013 - 03:43 PM.

[Roadbeer]

Gregory Owen, on 29 March 2013 - 03:36 PM, said:

too me, you guys just come across as whiny and cheap. $10 a month for premium is what the eluded to and that is very reasonable.

i'm tired of all the whining and especially if it's coming from people who won't contribute

forums should also be locked to premium also like most mmo's

Weird, I see a lot of gold, bronze, and blue commenting on this. and looking at the list below, it's a freaking skittles bag of colors.

Tell me again how much you've invested in this game

[TOGSolid]

Gregory Owen, on 29 March 2013 - 03:36 PM, said:

too me, you guys just come across as whiny and cheap. $10 a month for premium is what the eluded to and that is very reasonable.

i'm tired of all the whining and especially if it's coming from people who won't contribute

forums should also be locked to premium also like most mmo's

Fine, lock it to premium. I'll still be here calling this a stupid ******* idea though. Or were you not expecting a premium account, legendary founder to have half a brain and not drink the kool-aid on such an astoundingly awful idea?

Funny though, I don't see a badge under your name...

Edited by TOGSolid, 29 March 2013 - 03:42 PM.

[Dreamslave]

$10 bucks a month is nothing. I'd be more than willing to pay that in order to participate in every aspect of Community Warfare.

[S3dition]

Nicholas Carlyle, on 29 March 2013 - 03:16 PM, said:

Must be in the dark ages if you need to be at the office to post on message boards.

So you expect them to spend their Easter weekend reading the forums instead of with their family/working on something else? Are you expected to do things for your employer, for free, on your holidays?

Hylius, on 29 March 2013 - 03:11 PM, said:

You want dedication, PGI? I've spent over a year making a corp. I, and many others, have paid our dues elsewhere: VoIP servers (especially with lack of in-game options), websites, forums, teaching our members how to play (because you can't be bothered to), participating in our own player-run competitions and tournaments (since you're taking your sweet ol' time), making connections... I could go on. You want dedicated? How about sticking with you through all this crap you constantly throw at us as you seem to be doing your darnedest to destroy this game from the inside. I've defended you constantly, but I'll tell you right now: you want me to pay for premium to run and participate in a merc corp, you can forget it.

Sadly, I agree. A lot of us have tried to build community support, donate time and resources to recruit and retain players, and look forward to enjoying the game with our friends. It's really hard when you have to say "well, now you have to pay $10/month so we can do this!"

It's not just making me feel betrayed, now I have to tell my friends that this free to play game isn't quite so free.

Fenix0742, on 29 March 2013 - 03:18 PM, said:

Yeah, but Bryan is in Vegas, and he probably didn't tell Support that he was dropping this particular bomb on the press today. Being in Vegas, he probably doesn't care too much at the moment.

He cares, oh believe me he does. But I'm pretty sure nobody has actually called him. Even if they do get in contact with him, he can't just go back on this and recant the statement in a published article in 15 minutes from a hotel in Las Vegas.

Prosperity Park, on 29 March 2013 - 03:24 PM, said:

It would be a good time to remind everyone that, even if they charge for being in a merc corp, that media article said you can still join house units for free, and you can play with your friends in house fights. I'm not defending anyone here, it's just important to differentiate between "no way to play with friends for free" and "fewer ways to play with your friends for free"

We still have to see how this pans out, and hopefully they can get an official word out soon. They told me in our super-secret premium moderator forum that they are aware of the community response, and will come up with something to say about it when the right people can give the right go-aheads.

(DHL ain't got nothing on me.)

I hope nobody thinks I'm automatically on-board with the game staff on this...

Houses do not work the same way merc corps do. They're charging a monthly fee to access premium content. While it's true that you can still drop into standard death match, the problem is with giving one side a resource advantage and co-operative advantage over those who don't play is an enormous problem.

That's without bringing up the notion that a lot of people don't want to play in houses and have dedicated a lot of time and energy to play in a merc corp. You're looking at a massive loss of merc corps membership before CW even starts. Even if those people want to continue playing MWO, they can't play in that corps, they have to join a house or become lone wolves. It's effectively excluding a large player base for some pretty poor reasons.

Preventing a build up of dead corps: Run a monthly SQL query to remove corps that have been inactive for a certain amount of time. It's pretty easy to check the last time of activity with the current date for all members. Purge the database as needed.

Preventing dead weight in merc corps: I don't get why the devs feel they need to police merc corps' members. Actually, this is a bit insulting. Any leader is going to cut out dead weight to make room for active members automatically. It's not something that PGI needs to manage - the player base will do that just fine. Any member who is not serious about playing will certainly be kicked by an active corps. An inactive corps will be culled by the database automatically.

Charging a monthly fee is not a solution to either of these problems.

What the devs should do instead is work on a merc base with vanity items. 1000mc to change the way your HQ looks, or 500mc to change the camo pattern. Heck, even a corps wide monthly premium would be better - a corps that pays $30 per month will get an additional 20% cbills and xp per match for all members. That way they can run donations and pay in for the buff.

There are so many ways to do this without excluding players who can't/won't pay for yet another subscription based MMO.

Edited by S3dition, 29 March 2013 - 03:47 PM.

[metro]

This move will only continue to decimate the Battletech/Mechwarrior community that the game was suppose to serve as the great deliverer. The BT/MW community that has suffered decades of abuse.

This setup...succumbs to Eve, BF3, Guildwars, Hawken etc etc....This isnt Duke Nukem or Dues Ex....dangit

...IMO, the Battletech supporters need to be invited to Canada, so they can sit with the devs ....I will personally pay for the plane tickets.

I would prefer, the Pay to Play game, not Pay to Win, but Pay to Play monthly subscription.

=)

Quote

"We've identified three kinds of players," Piranha Games creative director Bryan Ekman adds. There's the lone wolf, "the guy who doesn't care about role playing, being a part of any organzational structure whatsoever.
"Then we have factions, and factions are NPC factions. They belong to the universe, they're a part of the lore. These are the great houses of BattleTech.
"These guys participate in territory control in a more passive way. Their matches affect the universe, but indirectly.
"And then you have the Merc Corps. These are the guilds, these are the clans, these are the guys who come together, band together, fight together and play together and actually want to control as much territory as they can through their actions.
The lone wolf play style is what players currently have in the game today; the NPC factions will be free-to-play; the Merc Corps, on the other hand, will be monetized. "We're looking at possibly charging a one-time setup fee," Ekman said. "This is just to make sure there's not a flood of one-player corps.
"We really want people who participate in this to be as engaged as possible. And we'll probably require them to have a premium time account, as a kind of dedication level." That premium time account can be purchased in quantities ranging from daily to monthly to bi-annually, with the 30-day pack costing $10.

http://www.polygon.c...ild-and-faction

Edited by metro, 29 March 2013 - 03:49 PM.

[Chemie]

Setup fee makes sense just to prevent abuse (those 1 man teams of 11 free accounts)

Requiring premium is a sure fire way to ensure that very few people ever play the MERC part of CW. Which is a sure fire way to have CW fail (unless MERC corps are not a key part of CW....but then why would ppl pay?).

Maybe the first or two months but people will drop out quickly....it is forcing a subscription to a "F2P" game. Wrong. Charge for unit colors and flags. heck, charge to join the merc team. But ongoing $10/month will fail fail fail in F2P. Everyone will wise up that it is F2P as demo but the "real" game MMO subscription.

[Exoth3rmic]

Gregory Owen, on 29 March 2013 - 03:36 PM, said:

too me, you guys just come across as whiny and cheap. $10 a month for premium is what the eluded to and that is very reasonable.

They've already had more than $10 a month off me and that was for "content" I get to use or receive some other ancillary benefit from.

I simply will not "pay" to play the game or gain access to things I've been waiting for and the promise of which has provided a driving force for me to continue playing to date.

End of.

[Sifright]

Jetfire, on 29 March 2013 - 12:56 PM, said:

1 time fee: Ok, I understand that.
Premium: Umm... how about must maintain at least 1-5 premium members to stay active. Guilds that go offline need to pay the fee again to re-activate the Corp

This seems more fair and allows a mix of F2P and P2P players.

and the above post is a perfect example of ANCHOR pricing.

What you do is give people a nightmare scenario on the price and they go "Ahhhhhhhhhh Too much don't like don't want!!"

Then you give a cheaper alternative and people go "WELL THIS IS MUCH MORE REASONABLE, SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY."

I do wish this wasn't so effective. People are so quick to enter into such one sided offerings....

[Roadbeer]

You could almost apply the Overton Window to this.

[Homeless Bill]

If this is true, it's some serious ********.

[Hawkeye 72]

Prosperity Park, on 29 March 2013 - 01:57 PM, said:

Yeah.. Stone Profit tried that last night... didn't work out so well for him But Murph got me real good... "Meet me in the River" he says... with a dual AC20 Jager...

(I get called-out a lot...)

After you and Helmers "Benedict Comstar" moves, its only right you should be called forth and defend what little mystic honor you have left!!!! Don't make go all Bane a la TDKR on you...

"MECHWARRIORS! TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR FORUM!!!"

*slinks off to begin contemplating the revolution*


As to the topic at hand, premium accounts would be incredibly discouraging. Now maybe, just like the one time Merc Corps startup fee, if I had to purchase a minimum of two months premium time per year, I could live with that. But to constantly maintain a premium account?? No.


Good lord does this mean I will have to pay triple for Clan access? The horror...

[VanillaG]

Where does it state that you have to buy the current Premium time? They could just create a CW plan that is 500 MC a month that only gives you access to being an Merc Corp and no other bonuses. Any higher priced Premium plans could include Merc Corp access with it.

Also, this is for player run corps, not the factions. You could conceivably play with your friends as part of a faction for free.

[KuruptU4Fun]

Exoth3rmic, on 29 March 2013 - 03:44 PM, said:

They've already had more than $10 a month off me and that was for "content" I get to use or receive some other ancillary benefit from.

I simply will not "pay" to play the game or gain access to things I've been waiting for and the promise of which has provided a driving force for me to continue playing to date.

End of.

At what point has Bryan said anything about us paying for Merc Corps content that no one else has access to? So far the only thing stated is that someone will have to pay a fee to create a group consisting of multiple people. Other than that he has implied there may be a monthly fee associated with that group creation for undisclosed reasons.

[TOGSolid]

Hawkeye 72, on 29 March 2013 - 03:50 PM, said:

After you and Helmers "Benedict Comstar" moves, its only right you should be called forth and defend what little mystic honor you have left!!!! Don't make go all Bane a la TDKR on you...

"MECHWARRIORS! TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR FORUM!!!"

*slinks off to begin contemplating the revolution*


As to the topic at hand, premium accounts would be incredibly discouraging. Now maybe, just like the one time Merc Corps startup fee, if I had to purchase a minimum of two months premium time per year, I could live with that. But to constantly maintain a premium account?? No.


Good lord does this mean I will have to pay triple for Clan access? The horror...

Clan access will require that you fly directly to their HQ and prostrate yourself before a might bronze statue of The Garth and pledge your undying loyalty to him. Then you will be ushered into a dimly lit backroom where you will receive a Cicada branding on your chest and a one time use access code that allows you to pilot your first Clan mech.

VanillaG, on 29 March 2013 - 03:50 PM, said:

Where does it state that you have to buy the current Premium time? They could just create a CW plan that is 500 MC a month that only gives you access to being an Merc Corp and no other bonuses. Any higher priced Premium plans could include Merc Corp access with it.

Also, this is for player run corps, not the factions. You could conceivably play with your friends as part of a faction for free.

You didn't read the interview at all did you? Also, your completely made up hypothetical idea is even worse than what we're assuming.

Edited by TOGSolid, 29 March 2013 - 03:55 PM.

[Tezcatli]

We're bout ta have a riot on're hands!
A one time fee is all they really need. If premium gave like a bonus to your group, that'd be nice, but making it required is just sticking a knife in the community's back.

[Josef Nader]

Gregory Owen, on 29 March 2013 - 03:36 PM, said:

too me, you guys just come across as whiny and cheap. $10 a month for premium is what the eluded to and that is very reasonable.

i'm tired of all the whining and especially if it's coming from people who won't contribute

forums should also be locked to premium also like most mmo's

I've dropped between $300 to $400 on this game. I would have dropped more, but I've cut off my MC purchases since the whole consumables fiasco. It seems I was right to do so. PGI's has managed to ruin my confidence in them so completely that I've started looking for other games.

To put this in context, I still consider Mechwarrior 3 to be one of the greatest games of all time, and definitely one of the most influential pieces of media I partook in as a kid. I've been dedicated to the Mechwarrior franchise since I was old enough to use a computer. The very concept of a new mechwarrior game caused $60 to violently eject from my wallet... and I make less than $800 a month to cover rent, utilities, gas, food, and other expenses. MWO has been my sole source of paid entertainment for the last four months, and I was perfectly content to keep doing so until they started all this nonsense.

I will not, and I repeat, will not pay a monthly fee out of my extremely limited budget to play the game with the folks I've grown attached to. I will not pay for something I cannot control. I'm a college student, and I work. Time is the only thing more limiting to me than money, and I refuse to pay for time. If I'm going to be locked out of playing with my buddies when I have the time unless I -pay- for the time I play with them, I'm just going to find a new game. It's that simple.

I'll pay for paint, camo, hero mechs, even bobbleheads. I will not pay for time. Paying for time is not a worthwhile investment, as time is consumed. Time gets used up, and then I have to pay for more time. I will not do that.

I'll play with my friends for free one way or another. All PGI is choosing is whether or not I play their game or someone else's.

[Protection]

I've said this before

but the only silver lining here is that sad truth that our expectations for Community Warfare are so deflated at this point, I will be amazed if the entirety of Community Warfare isn't just a six-color scoreboard that has listings of points for the player who TAGs the most Ravens in a Jagermech over a weekend without sleeping.

[Roadbeer]

VanillaG, on 29 March 2013 - 03:50 PM, said:

Where does it state that you have to buy the current Premium time? They could just create a CW plan that is 500 MC a month that only gives you access to being an Merc Corp and no other bonuses. Any higher priced Premium plans could include Merc Corp access with it.

Also, this is for player run corps, not the factions. You could conceivably play with your friends as part of a faction for free.

Sure, and let's just **** all over those merc corps that have been recruiting and building themselves for over a year, buying TS/Vent servers, websites, etc.

Jesus man, I'm a House guy and I'm not THAT myopic.