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Cross post from reddit:
A successful f2p game needs to be fun without the cash shop. When players have fun they tend to be more interested in pimping out their characters/heroes/mechs with real money customization options. What's fun in MWO? Ability to purchase new mechs and to adjust loadouts. Is it possible to play MWO without spending money for someone who can spend 2 hours each day at most? No. 2 hours a day = around 1.2 million cbills per day. At this speed it takes about one week to purchase a new mech and then 3-4 days to p1mp it out with upgrades. I guess with premium time it will take about one week to achieve that.
Does that sound fun? It sure as hell doesn't for me. On top of that the system that PGI created requires you to buy same mech three times in other to achieve maximum proficiency. Is forcing players to grind out money and xp for (often) same mech three times sound like fun? No it does not.
And then also come the modules, which are a huge entry level barrier for new players. To support all types of mechs you need 6 modules, of which one costs 2 milion, one 4, and four cost 6 mil. And quite honestly, the way it's bothersome to change modules around you kinda want multiple amounts of each.
To absolutely master a mech and reach maximum potential, for a new player, it takes around: 15 million for mech, another 15 million to purchase the other two variants (and grinding them out without considerable upgrades, which is not a very fun experience) and purchase three modules which I will price at 16 million (seismic + target retention + target info gathering seem like a very reasonable all-round package). In total 46 million cbills - that's how much you need to be on par with 'the big boys'. If you purchase premium time and are somewhat skilled, at 2 hours per day, it would take around 23 days to get the required cbills. (counting 2 millions per day)
And lets not forget that there is no way to test out mechs, not only in their stock version (unless you become very lucky with trial mechs, but they change only once a month) but also with the desired loadout. This very often, at least in my experience, leads to dissatisfaction with the hard earned purchase. Too often have I grinded out money for a new mech, p1mp it out only to find out that this is not what I wanted - massive amount of time wasted.
To sum it up, PGI, you're doing it wrong. Your monetization system allows only select few to have fun without investing money, and quite honestly with how overpriced the standard chassis are, it's considerable money (MC to Cbill ratio is abysmal). If you compare it to LoL: a new champion costs 5.81 euro/7.50 dollars - it's a complete package, you don't need to customize it with additional purchases and you don't need additional champions to unlock this ones full potential. Now lets compare it to MWO: new mech bay 1.38$, around 11.04$ for the mech (1.84$ per 1 million, I estimated the value at 6 million). So we're at 12.88$ and the mech can only reach basic skills, yay! So let's add two more variants, let's see how much it costs to unlock the full potential of one chassis. Another 22.08$ (grinding out on two completely stock chassis at 6 million each) plus 2.76$ for mech bays. In total 37.72$. THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE UPGRADES, MODULES AND WEAPONS that you still need cbills for (26millions, so with the previously mentioned rates - 13 days of gameplay with premium). Isn't almost 40$ a bit darn much for three versions of the same mech? I can have a full AAA title on steam for that money.
This concludes my rant, Larius - veteran founder.
*MC to dollar ratios taken from this article, because I'm a bit lazy, sorry
*the word "p i m p" seems to be censored, sorry, used it two or three times in this post, spelled it with 1 instead of 'i' to avoid it
Edited by Larius, 12 August 2013 - 10:33 AM.
