159 replies to this topic

[BlackWidow]

Alilua, on 02 April 2013 - 08:20 PM, said:

PGI is certainly testing my patience.

While your statements are not inaccurate and certainly reflect a lot of peoples concerns here in the forums, might I suggest.......BETA!

I think PGI needs to have a HUGE splash screen at the start of EVERY match that says:

*BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA*

This game is still currently under development. And as a 'work in progress' (BETA) not all features have been implemented. Additionally, many features and functions on the live (BETA) servers many exhibit incorrect behavior, erroneous display properties or out right crashes (BUGS).

*BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA*

As the code in MWO is barely a year old (where as most retail games take two to four years of development time) PGI is constantly playing a balancing act. This includes which new features to implement, balancing existing features, finding, duplicating, analyzing, coding and patching bugs, while continually trying to maintain an (BETA) environment that allows you to play (and hopefully enjoy) this game while it's still in the DEVELOPMENT process (BETA).

As such, you are FREE to play this game as much as you like WITHOUT PAYING A SINGLE CANADIAN DIME. If you *choose* to do so you *may* (at your discretion with FULL knowledge this is BETA product) spend money to enjoy some additional content early as well as help support the developers financially to continue to make this the best game possible.

My suggestion (entirely futile, I understand) would be to continue to play and enjoy the game as it progresses. Submit bugs and suggestions in the appropriate forum sections (instead of stroking your e-peen and vomiting bile all over the boards) and appreciate that one day soon, when this game is full release, you can look back on the whole beta experience with fondness (and some frustration) and realize that you made a POSITIVE contribution that helped make the game better for you and others.

As it is now, you only risk putting off potential new players instead of welcoming them. Now you *can* welcome them with a warning....and that would be this.....

*BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA*

Welcome fellow player Mechwarrior Online, the latest happenings from the Inner Sphere! While this game is challenging and fun, the forums are full of SUPER AWESOME dedicated Battletech fans and everything is FREE to play, it is still a work in progress. But, I, and others like me are always here on the forums to help you participate, understand and enjoy all this world has to offer you!

*BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA* *BETA*

Wouldn't that be nice.

Seriously. What would be nice if everyone could pull the stick out of their rear armor and chill a bit. Now, when September 21st rolls around and MWO is still a (in your opinion) big steaming pile...then FLAME AWAY.

Now shut up. (said with a smile)

[Shock Hazard]

BlackWidow, on 03 April 2013 - 08:27 AM, said:

While your statements are not inaccurate and certainly reflect a lot of peoples concerns here in the forums, might I suggest.......BETA!

The beta excuse no longer applies when you are accepting money and will have no further resets then it gets shredded when you start employing sales gimmicks like releasing the hero mech before the chassis is out.


THIS IS RELEASE NOT BETA NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU SCREAM "IT'S BETA"

Edited by Shock Hazard, 03 April 2013 - 08:33 AM.

[Klaus]

Alilua, on 03 April 2013 - 07:40 AM, said:

It would help if I knew Japanese. But if you refer to games in the asian market, they tend to have region specific releases where their native region gets the updates first and region specific publishers have much more say in how their version gets updated. NA markets often get a filtered product where important changes are made to the native release first.Now if it's the scale of an indie game then I can understand, however MWO tries to come off as a mainstream title and offers more options to use mc than EA has paid dlc. Even final fantasy had a nice big patch though making the game playable. Can't really complain there, although I hear the change log is huge.

I suggest no more alcohol for the devs till the community is moderately satisfied with a patch.

I am in fact talking about Final Fantasy and Square Enix. They have the worst PR department in existence. At least PGI answers things, albeit in BS ways sometimes, SE just doesn't.

Edited by Klaus, 03 April 2013 - 08:36 AM.

[Garth Erlam]

Shock Hazard, on 03 April 2013 - 08:32 AM, said:

The beta excuse no longer applies when you are accepting money and will have no further resets then it gets shredded when you start employing sales gimmicks like releasing the hero mech before the chassis is out.


THIS IS RELEASE NOT BETA NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU SCREAM "IT'S BETA"

So, say you go to a pre-opening in a restaurant. You are informed of this. You can buy food. You order deep fried steak, and they say "I'm sorry, our deep friers are not installed yet."

Do you:

A) Complain, because you're paying money.
Say "Oh, damn, can I have 'x' instead?"
C) Claim they're a scam to take your money.

[Roadbeer]

I choose...
D) "Why did you do a soft opening without your deep-fryers and a full inspection of your ANSUL system."

Then I order the shrimp cocktail.

Garth brings up a serious point, and I think it needs a poll.

Edited by Roadbeer, 03 April 2013 - 08:40 AM.

[Max Power]

Garth Erlam, on 03 April 2013 - 08:37 AM, said:

So, say you go to a pre-opening in a restaurant. You are informed of this. You can buy food. You order deep fried steak, and they say "I'm sorry, our deep friers are not installed yet."

Do you:

A) Complain, because you're paying money.
Say "Oh, damn, can I have 'x' instead?"
C) Claim they're a scam to take your money.

Well, if that restaurant advertised that they had deep fried food, then I would say C.

Kinda like how MWO was advertised as a 1st person sim that would not be P2W, but it's not going to be/already is.

[Syllogy]

Shock Hazard, on 03 April 2013 - 08:32 AM, said:

THIS IS RELEASE NOT BETA NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU SCREAM "IT'S BETA"

Please, explain why this isn't Beta?

Arma 3 is charging for Alpha, why can't PGI create sales in Beta?

[BlackWidow]

Shock Hazard, on 03 April 2013 - 08:32 AM, said:

The beta excuse no longer applies when you are accepting money and will have no further resets then it gets shredded when you start employing sales gimmicks like releasing the hero mech before the chassis is out.


THIS IS RELEASE NOT BETA NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU SCREAM "IT'S BETA"

And no matter how much you and others like you continue, ad naseum, to complain about it....it's still FREE to play and you are welcome to leave at any time. You DON'T have to pay a dime. You DON'T have to post everything in a Chicken Little Sky Is Falling manner. You DON'T have to even be here.

Now, please. I'm not saying **** or get out. Quite the contrary. I want this community to be as big as possible. But, unless you have photographic proof of one of the *evil* PGI devs either tying your hands behind your back while simultaneously forcing you to play and extracting money from your wallet....sorry...your arguments are invalid.

[Shock Hazard]

Garth Erlam, on 03 April 2013 - 08:37 AM, said:

So, say you go to a pre-opening in a restaurant. You are informed of this. You can buy food. You order deep fried steak, and they say "I'm sorry, our deep friers are not installed yet."

Do you:

A) Complain, because you're paying money.
Say "Oh, damn, can I have 'x' instead?"
C) Claim they're a scam to take your money.

I read "deep fried steak" on the menu and walk out I wouldn't want to eat in a restaurant that features a chef who brutalizes good beef. Now he may well mean "chicken fried steak" and honestly that's not really a steak, its a machine tenderized (read DESTROYED) piece of meat that was to tough to be anything else except ground beef, I do actually ENJOY chicken fried steak, but its all about the optics.

Now on a deeper level, did that restaurant advertise all over town about their deep fried steak with not a mention that it was a pre-opening in the advertisements? You know, like what MWO is doing?

Yeah I thought not.

You and I both know that heavy metals release is a sales gimmick, to increase MC only sales, its not a bad idea honestly, but the fact that you are milking the cash cow for all its worth means it is NOT BETA.

Edited by Shock Hazard, 03 April 2013 - 09:41 AM.

[Syllogy]

Shock Hazard, on 03 April 2013 - 08:44 AM, said:

I read "deep fried steak" on the menu and walk out i wouldn't want to eat in a restaurant that features a chef who brutalizes good beef.

Now on a deeper level, did that restaurant advertise all over town with not a mention that it was a pre-opening in the advertisements?

Yeah I thought not.

You and I both know that heavy metals release is a sales gimmick, to increase MC only sales, its not a bad idea honestly, but the fact that you are milking the cash cow for all its worth means it is NOT BETA.

Please, what makes a game Beta, vs. Not Beta?

[Jchan1e]

Beta or otherwise, a lot of people seem to forget the size of PGI's workforce. There's only so much they can do with the number of developers they have.

[FrostCollar]

Shock Hazard, on 03 April 2013 - 08:44 AM, said:

Now on a deeper level, did that restaurant advertise all over town about their deep fried steak with not a mention that it was a pre-opening in the advertisements? You know, like what MWO is doing?

It's quite well advertised on the site that this is a beta. To use your restaurant example, I've been to pre-opening events for restaurants that are still under development too. Those offer you a chance to get some of the goods earlier than would otherwise be possible. Sure, maybe they run out of donuts sometimes, but that's to be expected. The restaurateur gains experience before "launch" and you get tasty treats.

The main difference between that and MWO is that MWO is free. So what's the issue?

[Greyfyl]

Mystere, on 02 April 2013 - 08:34 PM, said:

With the amount of abuse being hurled at PGI, I don't blame them at all for being silent.

How would you feel if a thousand insults were thrown at you EVERY SINGLE DAY?

If you had any common sense you would stop putting out one buggy patch after another.

[Noobzorz]

Syllogy, on 03 April 2013 - 08:41 AM, said:

Please, explain why this isn't Beta?

Arma 3 is charging for Alpha, why can't PGI create sales in Beta?

You've got the image macro posting skills of a 13 year old redditor and the beta-definition of someone who last played a game in 2004. You're like a voltron of bad internet habits.

[Shock Hazard]

FrostCollar, on 03 April 2013 - 08:53 AM, said:

It's quite well advertised on the site that this is a beta. To use your restaurant example, I've been to pre-opening events for restaurants that are still under development too. Those offer you a chance to get some of the goods earlier than would otherwise be possible. Sure, maybe they run out of donuts sometimes, but that's to be expected. The restaurateur gains experience before "launch" and you get tasty treats.

The main difference between that and MWO is that MWO is free. So what's the issue?

How about the pop ups and banner adds all over the web??? Hmm any mention of "BETA" there? OH whats that? It says things like "AAA title FTP game"? Oh darn!

It's Garth's restaurant analogy, not mine.

[Scromboid]

You have to remember that rage comes from passion. Folks are passionate about this game and sometimes it feels that no one cares if you are or aren't.

It's easy to get frustrated about a thing like this.

It makes me remember the Relic Forums. They had a girl that monitored and responded with actual information ~regularly~ with actual info. It's been, what, 2 weeks since the last command chair before this one? That's a long time.

It could be done better than "Jettisoned Communication", is all.

[Dennis de Koning]

[sigh]...

[John MatriX82]

First is still a beta and noone asks you to throw cash in it, at least until the game isn't officially launched. On a second extent, their support is always kind and answers pretty quickly, and we've seen hotfixes getting rolled in pretty fast. They read the feedback forums, I'm pretty sure that we'll have soon a fix for the graphical issues.

I agree that they could do something more to communicate, but I also guess that the moaning and the pitchforks often seen in these forums (I did my part in this too) doesn't help either..

Edited by John MatriX82, 03 April 2013 - 09:04 AM.

[FrostCollar]

Shock Hazard, on 03 April 2013 - 08:57 AM, said:

How about the pop ups and banner adds all over the web??? Hmm any mention of "BETA" there? OH whats that? It says things like "AAA title FTP game"? Oh darn!

Why is this an issue? They're publicizing the game. You're implying that PGI is hoodwinking people, yet anyone that actually clicks on the ads can read about the game.

Shock Hazard, on 03 April 2013 - 08:57 AM, said:

It's Garth's restaurant analogy, not mine.

It's a good analogy.

[AndyHill]

Garth Erlam, on 03 April 2013 - 08:37 AM, said:

So, say you go to a pre-opening in a restaurant. You are informed of this. You can buy food. You order deep fried steak, and they say "I'm sorry, our deep friers are not installed yet."

Do you:

A) Complain, because you're paying money.
Say "Oh, damn, can I have 'x' instead?"
C) Claim they're a scam to take your money.

I think there are two ways of looking at a beta status of a game that is charging money for the content

1) It's a fair warning, you get to participate in relatively early stages of development and can already buy premium time and other nice stuff if you want to, fully knowing it's a beta.

2) It's just an excuse for a low quality product and a shield against bad press and angry customers.

As far gaming media is concerned, the question is tricky, because they have an interest not only in gaming culture, making you want to give a game a chance and pass judgement once its makers say it's ready, but also an interest in informing potential consumers. Public betas are all the rage today so it's basically a line drawn in sand and needs to be considered separately for each case.

I don't mind testing game balance stuff, it's bound to go screwy from time to time. The latest patch is a bit bad in the regard that it seems to dramatically lower quality of service for many users, since they get their 'mechs locked and match results don't count, experience an inordinate amount of crashes etc. That tends to raise the consumer information nerve in me quite a bit.

The way PGI responds to just this kind of problems is IMRO important and it's going to be interesting to see how this current crisis is handled. The hotfix/patching policy has been decent in the past, so I'm guessing the present situation will be handled acceptably as well.