114 replies to this topic

[repete]

Battlecruiser, on 26 June 2013 - 07:27 PM, said:

i'll wait until july to maky me decision, pgi has two patches to impress me to give them money instead of my computer.

apparently we don't represent the mechwarrior community even though they ask us for money, so we'll see.

What if it is largely where it is now, either due to absence of any major changes, or a two steps forward, two steps back kind of thing?

[Reported for Inappropriate Name]

repete, on 26 June 2013 - 07:31 PM, said:

What if it is largely where it is now, either due to absence of any major changes, or a two steps forward, two steps back kind of thing?

i would rather play world of tanks or hawken if the game is either stagnating or heads further down the improper direction for game balance, objectively speaking. Although it has some unrecoverable flaws, I feel this game really has potential, I'm only really interested at this point if I can see more than promises. promises were for founders, I consider that leeway time over as we near the intended release date of fourth quarter, and I honestly see no reason for myself to spend money if the game continues to head in its current direction.

The developers have made some promises recently, and I know the developers are good for their promises based on past experiences and conversations with them, but whether or not myself and many others are convinced really comes down to what they have planned for july.

I could drop 80$ right now but I'm holding onto my wallet for the time being.

of course people like me aren't who they make money from, I don't jump every time something shiny is thrown around the room and I would honestly be very surprised if anything I say ever makes any impact.

Edited by Battlecruiser, 26 June 2013 - 07:38 PM.

[repete]

Battlecruiser, on 26 June 2013 - 07:34 PM, said:

i would rather play world of tanks or hawken...

I'll admit, the only attraction for be is being a long time Battletech/Mechwarrior player. I don't believe I'd have any reason specifically to play MWO over any other game if it wasn't for that.

[Reported for Inappropriate Name]

repete, on 26 June 2013 - 07:41 PM, said:

I'll admit, the only attraction for be is being a long time Battletech/Mechwarrior player. I don't believe I'd have any reason specifically to play MWO over any other game if it wasn't for that.

well let me put it this way.

hawken has the whole robotech/dystopian future/action thing down, and tanks has the strategic/arcade/heavy meta thing down, especially now that they've reduced rng's impact to your accuracy, and introduced a camera stabilization akin to a mbt's stab system. In fact both of those mentioned games are quite a bit more balanced than this in terms of competition and meta, but to be fair pgi has been mainly focusing on cosmetic features (although HSR is a very nice touch, kudos.) to justify to their string holders the money they give, which is understandable, they're in that odd place of game development right now.

the only thing this game has going for it is promises, most of which bear a striking similarity to things world of tanks already has, a game I've also got quite a bit more invested in and therefore between the two more likely to play due to said invested time and money, for as a competitive player the form does not weigh as much as the function

I don't like being hard about this kind of stuff, but ultimately it's my money, and it's my right as a customer to hold my own standards and expect them of others. So if PGI really delivers with this new patch, and paints a clear picture of its future direction that I find acceptable, then yes, they can have all my money.

I'm not asking for a finished product, just a clear illustration with substance that will convince me this game will be around and healthy in 2 years.

Edited by Battlecruiser, 26 June 2013 - 07:57 PM.

[repete]

Battlecruiser, on 26 June 2013 - 07:49 PM, said:

...hawken has the whole robotech/dystopian future/action thing down...

Yeah. I've loved the look of the Hawken universe since I first heard it announced. But as for game play, it has always LOOKED (Note I've never played) like any regular FPS, it's just 'robots' instead of a person. And I've heard that said by some who have played. But perhaps that's something you need to play to understanding. I've only been willing to commit myself to one game, as that's all I have time for.

[Kyynele]

repete, on 25 June 2013 - 10:55 PM, said:

I have heard it said by those in the game industry, either game devs/publishers or journos, that your money comes from casual players. This doesn't seem implausible. If so, to be honest, I don't expect anyone protesting over things like 3PV to make any difference. But for those that do, it is the principle of it, and I can respect that.

In the scenarios you've outlined above, hopefully before "game dies" someone goes "Hey. Revenue is declining. What's going on?", and perhaps a stat in there is, players who were previously paying are not any longer. Perhaps. A lot of MWO players I know talking about Star Citizen at the moment. A LOT.

I work in the game industry, although just as an artist. I've still had to attend all sorts of monetization meetings and lectures, and believe I have a decent grasp of the current F2P money making models.

You are partly correct, casual players bring in the money. In CASUAL games, that deal with millions or billions of monthly users that play a couple games now and then. And even in them, it's really the whales that spend ridiculous amounts of money that bring in a huge portion of the income, compared to the regular paying users that pay a dime once or twice. Majority of players by far will never pay anything.

MWO is a schoolbook example of a niche F2P game. It can not rely on attracting enough whales from millions of users to guarantee a stable income. It relies completely on a rather small group of very dedicated players, who are willing to support the development of that niche product. Businesswise, the only viable option is to sell things at comparably high prices to make up for the small targeted audience.

I'm sure everyone here realizes, that developing a title like MWO likely takes a lot more time and money than developing those casual titles like Angry Birds or Candy Crush Saga. Those casual games can afford to tweak their monetization and even gameplay here and there looking for the sweet spot for maximum profit, money will be pouring in anyway. Sadly, usually maximum profits come from P2W, because people really really like winning in games.

Considering this, the only likely reaction to a sudden drop in profitability accomplished by people not buying stuff, would indeed lead to someone going "Hey. Revenue is declining. What's going on?" In a perfect world where PGI was made of money, free labor and inifinite wisdom, this could lead to the dev team figuring out how to improve the game. But in this dumbass moneygrubbing world we live in, to keep money coming in to keep the development going, the priority would very likely be to figure out ways to increase the players' desireability of spending more money. P2W anyone?

I personally would consider a truly P2W MWO a dead MWO.

I honestly think PGI has made beautiful work with their monetization by providing digital goods that I want to buy, but that don't really give me much of an edge in the game. I don't even feel cheated by paying money for mechs that didn't make me win.

That's my 0.02$ for the boring business thingies.

Besides that, I do agree that there are things desperately in need of fixes and huge completely absent features that will define the game. And as a player, I would of course prefer everything to be cheap or free and transparent and patched 5 times a day to fix balance. I would also like to have a real life Timber Wolf.

[ryoma]

Can't say the 20 dollar pack is because it comes with the worst light, 2 mechbays, and a 30 day Premium time.

The 40 dollar pack is in a similar boat to the 20 dollar pack.

Considering many people wont spend more than 40 on this game in one month, this excludes a lot of people.

[Reported for Inappropriate Name]

whether or not i buy this depends on pgi. I really want a new videocard, but i can wait if they prove its worth it.

[The Verge]

Battlecruiser, on 27 June 2013 - 05:12 PM, said:

whether or not i buy this depends on pgi. I really want a new videocard, but i can wait if they prove its worth it.

look battlecruiser, if MWO is the only game you play, you should wait. If you are going to play games more intensive then MWO, then upgrade ASAP. All of your games will benefit, not just MWO.

As for the package, now that we know the details of each mech we can get, We know now that the $20 pack is useless to current players, and current meta. But the next 3 are quite nice, and seem balanced for this meta.

Still, mech use could change by October, so it seems like a bet that the Locust will still be viable. Heck, any of the mechs "might" work. We're just betting right now, and hoping we get a good game out of it, not good mechs.

that's my 2 more peas to this stew.

[Reported for Inappropriate Name]

V3rg3r3, on 28 June 2013 - 09:39 PM, said:

look battlecruiser, if MWO is the only game you play, you should wait. If you are going to play games more intensive then MWO, then upgrade ASAP. All of your games will benefit, not just MWO.

As for the package, now that we know the details of each mech we can get, We know now that the $20 pack is useless to current players, and current meta. But the next 3 are quite nice, and seem balanced for this meta.

Still, mech use could change by October, so it seems like a bet that the Locust will still be viable. Heck, any of the mechs "might" work. We're just betting right now, and hoping we get a good game out of it, not good mechs.

that's my 2 more peas to this stew.

as far as i'm concerned they're all bad until they balance the game

[BigMooingCow]

Bilbo, on 25 June 2013 - 01:06 PM, said:

This is the content. I think you want balance and fixes, which are worked on by different people who need to be paid somehow.

That old farce? So if they hire 40 people to work on making silly novelty items for cash while they have one guy working on netcode, they get to wave their hands and say "the novelty items aren't slowing down the netcode guy"?

Do people really fall for this?

If you have a bunch of people working on mechs and novelty items, and that's going quickly, but you have fewer people working on CW and engine issues and that's going slowly, you have one problem: resource allocation. You hired too many artists and not enough programmers.

And don't tell me you can't have more people working on net code. There are over 1000 people working on the Linux kernel at the moment.

PGI, hire some programmers and stop trying to suck the community dry with expensive commodities. Your in-game engine has seen no serious improvements since closed beta, unless you count patches to the netcode that finally bring the game to the level of Quakeworld, and there is still zero metagame after a year of development. Considering this is a beta product and I see no beta development happening, I can come to no conclusion except there is no development happening, that this whole Project Phoenix thing is just a way to suck a little more cash out of nostalgia-hungry TT Battletech fans.

[Zuri Prime]

So what I'm getting here is, irregardless of our feelings for the game, we MUST purchase this package in order to support PGI's game development.

As a Goldie, I don't like what I see and haven't for a while now -- but, personally, I might just buy that Overlord pack because it's a good deal, but not because I like PGI and their publisher or support their way of producing their game(s).

[Sable Dove]

Well, you're assuming that the mechs are worth their MC prices, which in the case of the Locust, I can assure you is not true (and with PGI's pricing scheme, arguably none of them are worth their expected MC prices).

It's a better value for your MC, but that's because prices are normally inflated by about 30 times. Plus, you still have to pay for more MC, or grind out the bad variants for each mech. Good luck with the Locust, and grinding out experience with the worst variant of the worst chassis to date.

I'd consider it if the game started moving in the right direction at any significant pace (and if the Locust wasn't almost certain to suck). Gameplay balance especially, but given that the concept of actual heat penalties seems to be beyond PGI's comprehension, and that each patch seems to be getting lighter and lighter, I don't see the balance improving that much any time soon.

[Nauht]

I bought Overlord for one reason and one reason only - for me.

I want to stomp around in my SH and BM, i want the mechbays, everything else is gravy.

Dont care what PGI does as long as I get at least 20 hours of entertainment from it.
I've paid for AAA titles only to finish the game off in one afternoon.

Don't care about balance or padding PGI's books. All that matters to me when I'm gaming is my enjoyment.
If I don't enjoy something I don't do it, given a choice.

[Kellsey]

I'm still debating if I should get the packs, not because if its worth the money or not.
But if I will like the mechs or not.
The only mech I find interesting is the Shadowhawk, and maybe the battlemaster.