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I read through, and to a degree I can empathize with his decision, but I think perhaps there is one thing that is either misinterpreted or otherwise omitted that I believe MW:O needs - a Tutorial.
Specifically while reading this part about the E3 2012 bit:
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Let’s skip ahead to E3 2012 and the first time MWO was playable by the public, I got a real rude awakening. I watched hundreds of players walk up to a computer and immediately become confused as they were unaware that even though the pathway before them looked clear and open they were actually running on the spot because there legs were running into a building while there torso was facing a different direction. It was shocking to me how little time people stayed to try and figure out what was going on, mere seconds and they were walking away. This was the beginning of my personal turn around on the subject but I remained steadfast for several more months and I think it was after GDC online in Austin where at an evening meal with Bryan the subject came up again. I was stubbornly offering all of these great little incremental ideas for what we could add to the HUD or the cockpit to explain to players, but even as I was saying them the passion had left me, I knew in my heart that people did not give you enough time for those to work. I think it was at that time that Bryan just looked at me and said “If you want to fix all of that confusion you just need to do one thing” then he gave the dramatic pause and I might have asked briskly “What!?” his reply of course was “put in a 3rd person camera, they will instantly get it”. I knew immediately he was right.
I am thinking to myself, its a bunch of scrubs trying to pilot. I've played mech games, shooters, RPGs, MMOGs of a variety of kinds (though I avoid WoW like the plague) so to a degree I personally consider myself an experienced gamer. Kind of grew up with the stuff.
So when I sat down with MW:O for the first time it took me only long enough to find out what controls do what. Turn legs by keyboard, Mouse for aiming and torso - that one for throttle and so on. It doesn't take much to me - but for a scrub? Newbie? It'll take a bit. And from reading that post I am realizing your trying to expect a fresh person - nearly never experienced with this type of game - to get it on the first run.
It won't happen.
So I would say in response to Bryan's suggestion that Russ typed is this:
What MW:O needs is a TUTORIAL.
3rd person tutorial? Maybe - but not in the game. Not for regular gameplay. What we need here in MW:O is a tutorial to run down the mechs in a testing ground and learn how to shoot and drive.
What I will suggest here, and I hope that you read and agree - is to have 3rd Person POV in Testing Grounds only, and rework Testing Grounds with a series of intractable Tutorials that you can do.
- Loading Testing Grounds and the Movement and basic controls pops up. Has you move from one point to another.
- Interact in another area to have a trial course run through, make your way across a path without falling off a ledge for example. A kind of race course with checkpoints or such.
- Point out what slopes you can drive, and what ones you can't.
- If you have JJs, basic one showing you that.
- Targets around and a spot where it'll tell you how to use your guns. Maybe if its possible have a dumb-fire AI blast off a shot or two to teach how to take damage.
That kind of tutorial.
I guarantee, if you guys in PGI set up a basic Testing Grounds Tutorial on how to do this, you can alleviate a ton of the hassle here. Then you can keep 3rd PV in the Testing Grounds for the tutorial system so pilots can see and learn how to drive, and let normal gameplay remain completely unaffected by it.
That is my suggestion, and I hope you get it.
