Congratulations Dev's! Good press is always good.
I feel like it's a deserved spot as well. I'd personally rank it higher, as in my opinion, most shooters are the same anyway. Mechwarrior at least feels different when compared to the average FPS. I know that there is plenty of bias though coming from me, as I love the lore that comes with any BattleTech inspired game.
I also wanted to speak to the comment that indicated that those that are Founders HAVE to play in order to feel good about their purchase. I admit that I haven't played non stop since closed beta, but I DO keep coming right back to MWO. I've purchased plenty of games that were considered AAA titles since MWO was released and many were very lackluster.
One notable one in particular that can serve as an example was/is Bioshock Infinite. A game I only purchased because it came with a free copy of XCOM (a decent game, but back on the shelf as well). I wasn't too excited about Bioshock at all when I purchased it but after some time, with all of the hype that came with it, I decided that I was ready to experience this 10/10 that everyone was going nuts about. When the game finally released, I was beside myself with excitement after hearing and reading all the news about this mind blowing game. "Is this the Future of Gaming" asked Yahoo as high scores flooded in from nearly every single reviewer. I played for a few hours and didn't see it. I played for a few hours more, and still didn't see it. I still haven't beat the game, and just don't see myself going back to it at all. It was, in my opinion, only "meh". And this is a game that many in the gaming community went crazy over.
But the point is that I paid hard earned money for that game as well and don't feel that I need to "justify my purchase" by playing that awfully boring game, or even the better in my opinion game, XCOM. The money that I paid to become a founder was, to me, an investment in entertainment that I have gotten back ten fold when compared to games considered true "AAA" titles. At this point, I've learned that MWO may have most of what I'm looking for when it comes to gaming, and have even ceased looking elsewhere when it comes to FPS type games. And none of this is out of some "guilt" that I over payed or was bamboozled by PGI. Quite the opposite. PGI has shown me that I've been getting bamboozled by all of those other developers and publishers that crank out the exact same product as their competitor and slap a different name on it. To me the true difference between COD and Battlefield was whether I wanted to feel like I was running on crack or running through mud.
So...TLTR: In this humble gamers opinion (admittedly a BattleTech fan, though I can't quote field manuals or anything like that), I think number 19 in a PC gaming centered magazine is fair. It's damn near at the bottom of the list. And as was mentioned above, most people who are making lists in this very thread only make it to 11 or so before saying "See, there!". I'd rank it higher!
Edited by Khan Reaper, 24 May 2013 - 05:42 PM.