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Thuzel, on 07 April 2013 - 05:35 PM, said:
I just had a wake up call and thought I'd share in case anyone is bored. Hopefully PGI will see it as well, but who knows...
I am as big a BT / Mechwarrior fanboy as they come. I've loved it since I was introduced to the second edition boxed set, and I've spent more time than I care to remember playing every single BT based game that's been released in america. I've even got a boxed set of Solaris VII in my closet and the original Mechwarrior PC game set up in DOSbox.
So, when I decided I had a little money to spare tonight, I considered spending it on MWO. But that thought only lasted about 10 seconds. Instead, I went and bought a $60 founders pack for neverwinter. Now, before I say anything else, I just want to say that I also bought into Star Trek Online when it first released, and that turned out to be a trainwreck. It was utterly horrible. The ground combat was less fun than getting a cavity filled.... And it was developed by cryptic studios, the same people working on neverwinter.
I still spent money on neverwinter instead of MWO because, when it's all said and done, even if it's bad it's almost certainly going to be a better investment than MWO. So, PGI, please shape up. I really want a viable and current BT game on the market, but as it stands right now, this just isn't. But even if you don't get it perfect, good enough will suffice. My willingness to give cryptic a second chance should speak to that.
Here are a few suggestions (feel free to ignore them):
1. Start working on consistency. This includes your patch releases as well as your customer communications. Patches being released during the beta phase are expected to have some bugs, but what we've seen over the last 12 months indicate huge gaping holes in your testing procedure in pre-release. Also, when you want to communicate to your customers, try to do so in a consistent manner. It doesn't matter where you post your message, just pick some place and stick to it. Even after you added the hot topic heatsink, it only took a couple of days before messages that should have gone there were going somewhere else, and that's only the latest example.
2. Work with the forums, not against them. I understand there's a lot of negativity floating around right now, but a lot of that sentiment has been brought on by your own actions. Regardless, these are the people who would happily be the fuel and fire for your game if you let them, so let them. Tell them what your working on, or where the game is going. Try not to shut them out. Also, don't release deadlines unless you are prepared to meet them or to be close to them, or failing that, tell us what's going on when they're missed.
3. Don't pay heed to only the squeaky wheel. There are a handful of extremely vocal members here, and it honestly feels as though they get more than a fair bit of attention. They don't represent the majority of your customers (Just as I probably don't either), so using their input as a weighted guide would be a mistake. Instead, start asking the customers directly for their input outside of the forums. Feel free to place polls in the actual game client, or ask for input from the game instead of the forum.
Now, all that being said, I want to congratulate you on the work you've done to date. I know you don't have a large shop, so it is impressive that you've come this far in only a year or so. A lot of people are really enjoying this game, and that's nothing to sneeze at.
I am as big a BT / Mechwarrior fanboy as they come. I've loved it since I was introduced to the second edition boxed set, and I've spent more time than I care to remember playing every single BT based game that's been released in america. I've even got a boxed set of Solaris VII in my closet and the original Mechwarrior PC game set up in DOSbox.
So, when I decided I had a little money to spare tonight, I considered spending it on MWO. But that thought only lasted about 10 seconds. Instead, I went and bought a $60 founders pack for neverwinter. Now, before I say anything else, I just want to say that I also bought into Star Trek Online when it first released, and that turned out to be a trainwreck. It was utterly horrible. The ground combat was less fun than getting a cavity filled.... And it was developed by cryptic studios, the same people working on neverwinter.
I still spent money on neverwinter instead of MWO because, when it's all said and done, even if it's bad it's almost certainly going to be a better investment than MWO. So, PGI, please shape up. I really want a viable and current BT game on the market, but as it stands right now, this just isn't. But even if you don't get it perfect, good enough will suffice. My willingness to give cryptic a second chance should speak to that.
Here are a few suggestions (feel free to ignore them):
1. Start working on consistency. This includes your patch releases as well as your customer communications. Patches being released during the beta phase are expected to have some bugs, but what we've seen over the last 12 months indicate huge gaping holes in your testing procedure in pre-release. Also, when you want to communicate to your customers, try to do so in a consistent manner. It doesn't matter where you post your message, just pick some place and stick to it. Even after you added the hot topic heatsink, it only took a couple of days before messages that should have gone there were going somewhere else, and that's only the latest example.
2. Work with the forums, not against them. I understand there's a lot of negativity floating around right now, but a lot of that sentiment has been brought on by your own actions. Regardless, these are the people who would happily be the fuel and fire for your game if you let them, so let them. Tell them what your working on, or where the game is going. Try not to shut them out. Also, don't release deadlines unless you are prepared to meet them or to be close to them, or failing that, tell us what's going on when they're missed.
3. Don't pay heed to only the squeaky wheel. There are a handful of extremely vocal members here, and it honestly feels as though they get more than a fair bit of attention. They don't represent the majority of your customers (Just as I probably don't either), so using their input as a weighted guide would be a mistake. Instead, start asking the customers directly for their input outside of the forums. Feel free to place polls in the actual game client, or ask for input from the game instead of the forum.
Now, all that being said, I want to congratulate you on the work you've done to date. I know you don't have a large shop, so it is impressive that you've come this far in only a year or so. A lot of people are really enjoying this game, and that's nothing to sneeze at.
things like... how do you feel about our current content. How do you feel about future content. where would you like to see the game go. What dont you like about the game. What dont you want to see. so on and so forth.
