16 replies to this topic

[Jabilo]

Niko Snow has made two short statements on C Bill earnings.

FYI and in case you missed it, I have pasted them below.

The thread is here:

http://mwomercs.com/...s-reduced-back/

Niko Snow, on 14 August 2013 - 11:12 AM, said:

We appreciate your concerns on our recent changes to C-Bill earnings.

As an online game, MechWarrior Online requires close attention to economy balance. We have been actively monitoring and tweaking our rewards system in preparation for upcoming features and overall economy design.

As we move closer to the game’s Launch on September 17, our developers will be addressing the community in an official post on our forums with a focus on C-Bill earnings and other reward systems.

Thank you again for your feedback and patience while we continue to adjust the game’s economy.

Niko Snow, on 14 August 2013 - 02:03 PM, said:

It's easier to test and adjust this way: By first reducing the overall reward, we can observe the telemetry of how much less players are making overall during this period of time and thus make better judgement on the value of future rewards.

This also helps reduce the possibility of over-shooting our adjustments and giving away too many rewards. In such a scenario, we would have to nerf those rewards permanently and be left with much upset from any players who had grown accustomed to those greater reward levels.

In our current development: We can confidently counter frustrations with the current rewards implementation with the knowledge that more rewards will be coming, similarly to when rewards were previously adjusted last year.

Your other concerns should be addressed in future communications from the Dev Team on the upcoming rewards.

My take:

1: It is implied that average earnings will go back up once new rewards are introduced in the future.

This may be the promised rewards for class role play - i.e. greater rewards for capping, scouting and spotting.

This is promising.

2: This is all I was looking for as a statement short term, but this response should have been posted in a more visible fashion days ago.

[Thunder Lips Express]

yeah thats cool and all that they are still looking at this and tweeking it...however those of us who purchased premium time before the c-bill changes took place should be compensated. not that i care that much, just sayin

[Angel of Annihilation]

However I paid for a new 30 day premium subscription a day or two before the patch so something I spent real money on has been greatly devalued while we wait patiently for them to test and introduce new rewards.

This is fine as long as I get some sort of compensation for my lost wages. I figure based the amount of games I play, the average amount that rewards have been lowered plus the extra length of each match, that I am behind roughly 12-15 million on where I should be if they hadn't changed the rewards. So when do I get my 15 million C-bill compensation?

Ok I will even make it easier. How about giving me an extra two weeks of premium time I don't have to buy?

This is the thing, no matter if they call the game beta or not, they have taken my real money and because of that fact, they have an obligation to not drasticly modify anything I have spent real money on. This is called good customer service, good business practices and good business ethics.

[DarkDevilDancer]

They really should of given more warning so premium time users didn't end up wasting their money.

[KharnZor]

Viktor Drake, on 19 August 2013 - 12:10 AM, said:

However I paid for a new 30 day premium subscription a day or two before the patch so something I spent real money on has been greatly devalued while we wait patiently for them to test and introduce new rewards.

This is fine as long as I get some sort of compensation for my lost wages. I figure based the amount of games I play, the average amount that rewards have been lowered plus the extra length of each match, that I am behind roughly 12-15 million on where I should be if they hadn't changed the rewards. So when do I get my 15 million C-bill compensation?

Ok I will even make it easier. How about giving me an extra two weeks of premium time I don't have to buy?

This is the thing, no matter if they call the game beta or not, they have taken my real money and because of that fact, they have an obligation to not drasticly modify anything I have spent real money on. This is called good customer service, good business practices and good business ethics.

LOL wow. Its their product and can change it as they see fit.

[Native]

Viktor Drake, on 19 August 2013 - 12:10 AM, said:

However I paid for a new 30 day premium subscription a day or two before the patch so something I spent real money on has been greatly devalued while we wait patiently for them to test and introduce new rewards.

This is fine as long as I get some sort of compensation for my lost wages. I figure based the amount of games I play, the average amount that rewards have been lowered plus the extra length of each match, that I am behind roughly 12-15 million on where I should be if they hadn't changed the rewards. So when do I get my 15 million C-bill compensation?

Ok I will even make it easier. How about giving me an extra two weeks of premium time I don't have to buy?

This is the thing, no matter if they call the game beta or not, they have taken my real money and because of that fact, they have an obligation to not drasticly modify anything I have spent real money on. This is called good customer service, good business practices and good business ethics.

ever hear of a terms of use agreement? you know, that thing you had to click OK to when you started playing the game?? this says they dont have to give you anything if they make changes. your not "entitled" to any compensation for percieved loss of value, regardless of what you think, say, or feel. it states that if you don't like it, there is the door. your free to uninstall the game.

Edited by Native, 19 August 2013 - 05:26 AM.

[DemonRaziel]

KharnZor, on 19 August 2013 - 05:01 AM, said:

LOL wow. Its their product and can change it as they see fit.

Native, on 19 August 2013 - 05:12 AM, said:

ever hear of a terms of use agreement? you know, that thing you had to click OK to when you started playing the game?? this says they dont have to give you anything if they make changes. your not "entitled" to any compensation for percieved loss of value, regardless of what you think, say, or feel. it states that if you don't like it, there is the door. your free to uninstall the game.

While you guys are both correct and Victor is by no means entitled to any compensation, alienating your playerbase, especially paying customers that spend their money on Premium time, is not the best way to go, if you want to keep said paying customers.

[Scromboid]

Then give us a bonus at the end of the 'testing period' so we can not have wasted all that time for 30-40% decrease in payout.

[DaZur]

Not to point out the obvious...

But your premium still provides the same bonus as it did before the last patch.

You're just earning less, thus your average bonus is less.

If PGI reduced / changed the promised % you net, then... "yes" you would be well within reason to voice complaint.

[Bilbo]

DarkDevilDancer, on 19 August 2013 - 02:08 AM, said:

They really should of given more warning so premium time users didn't end up wasting their money.

While you may be earning less than you were, so is everybody else. Your Premium, Founders, Champion, and Hero bonuses still give you the leg up they always did in relation to those not using it.

[Angel of Annihilation]

DemonRaziel, on 19 August 2013 - 05:47 AM, said:

While you guys are both correct and Victor is by no means entitled to any compensation, alienating your playerbase, especially paying customers that spend their money on Premium time, is not the best way to go, if you want to keep said paying customers.

This is exactly why I ended my post with those three concepts.

1 - Good Customer Service
2 - Good Business Practices
3 - Good Business Ethics.

Sure, they don't HAVE to do squat, but it would behoove them to make a Gesture of good will in this case.

Let me give you a prime example. I recently bought a new monitor form New Egg mostly based on it getting a 5 Egg rating from people who have purchased the monitor. However when I recieved the monitor and set it up it was absolutely horrible and nothing like the descriptions of the 80+ reviews led me to believe.

Now by POLICY, i.e. the terms of service if you will, I was responsible for shipping charges and a 15% restocking fee if I was dissatisfied with my product. So I called them and explained to them that the product didn't meet the 5 Egg rating I was expecting and that since I couldn't otherwise check the quality that was all I had to go on.

Know what they did without even blinking? You probably guessed it, they wavied the restocking fee and even paid for return shipping. I didn't have to argue, cajole, yell, threaten or anything, they even offered to do it without me asking or the slightest hesitation.

Know what I did after that? Told everyone I knew how great a company New Egg was. Heck now I am here telling even people I don't know how great New Egg is and using their example of great customer service as an example another company should be following. Talk about positive advertising.

The point is, this sort of thing is how you gain customer loyality and increase sales, you do the right thing by the customer even if you have words printed on a page saying you don't have to.

Edited by Viktor Drake, 19 August 2013 - 11:38 AM.

[GoriKarafong]

I am really sad about how PGI is handling this issue. I started with very high hopes back in closed beta. Back than PGI stuff was on the forum regualry and it was kind of a communication with geting information and reaction about community questions/feedback etc.

NOW? This? What I see is PGI does want to cut our CBills income. Reason - not communicated! Effect in the community for a CBill nerf - not intended? Late reaction by PGI about community concers - with what feedback/information for the community?

Sorry I feel to be sarcastic about this. The way PGI handles this issue makes me way more angry than the nerf itself. Dont get me wrong I feel that the nerf was wrong, but the communication about this feels like PGI does not understand how the MWO community and especially ther core fan base/paying customres are ticking.

Just a last note why the nerf is a bad idea:
1) The game is very grindy already and new players will find this out sooner or later. Beeing even more grindy new players will have less interest in staying in this game until they find a nice community and have fund just by playing and beeing part of the community.
2) The CBills provided now seem to be arbitrary. Why give more CBill for an assist than a kill? The system does sadly support some bad player behavior. If you want to farm money you just need to pick a spider, run up to the enemies, try to hit as many of them, try to target as many of them, than die and leave the game. No fun to play, no real help for your teammates but way more effective in earning CBills and as it is only "bad playing" ist cannot be handled by the supportteam for beeing missuse.

Thank you PGI but please start growing up and listening to the community!

[Zolaz]

I have stopped expecting anything from PGI to make sense.

[Warge]

With current reward system I started using TAG: found script for Logitech keyboard and made TAG toggible.

Edited by Warge, 19 August 2013 - 07:26 PM.

[Vassago Rain]

Native, on 19 August 2013 - 05:12 AM, said:

ever hear of a terms of use agreement? you know, that thing you had to click OK to when you started playing the game?? this says they dont have to give you anything if they make changes. your not "entitled" to any compensation for percieved loss of value, regardless of what you think, say, or feel. it states that if you don't like it, there is the door. your free to uninstall the game.

Terms of service hold absolutely no legal power outside of america, and PGI isn't even an american company. I am entitled to what I have spent money on. Currently, I have 95 premtime days banked. Activating those now would be extremely worthless, since money's so low. They no longer represent the money they cost to aquire.

[Devils Advocate]

In their defense it is an open beta and you get what you get. On the other hand this is a company who lied to tens of thousands of people to sell millions of dollars worth of founders packages (coolant, MC only mechs with variant-specific advantages to engines and hardpoints, dropship gametype, third person view, etc.) and has failed to deliver on anything more than two deathmatch modes and a huge number of poorly balanced mechs (Awesomes anyone?).

When the only thing there is to do in your game for two years is buy new mechs, which require you to spend real money on new mechbays in order to store, and you nerf their ability to acquire those mechs, you're hurting player trust and your own income.

It's PGI's bed to lie in. They aren't in the wrong here they're just poor decision makers.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Devils Advocate, on 19 August 2013 - 07:48 PM, said:

In their defense it is an open beta and you get what you get. On the other hand this is a company who lied to tens of thousands of people to sell millions of dollars worth of founders packages (coolant, MC only mechs with variant-specific advantages to engines and hardpoints, dropship gametype, third person view, etc.) and has failed to deliver on anything more than two deathmatch modes and a huge number of poorly balanced mechs (Awesomes anyone?).

When the only thing there is to do in your game for two years is buy new mechs, which require you to spend real money on new mechbays in order to store, and you nerf their ability to acquire those mechs, you're hurting player trust and your own income.

It's PGI's bed to lie in. They aren't in the wrong here they're just poor decision makers.

"Open Beta" in games that are actively taking money from its players is not a defense, it is a cop out. Anyone with half a mind knows that today's open beta was Yesterdays release and that game companies prey on the ignorance of people when they claim "open beta" status on games they are already selling.

Honestly I am not sure why people put up with this except perhaps they are like me and say, "Ok if you want to call your RELEASED game Open Beta, it is fine by me, just do screw me because of the terminology you use." I mean I seriously don't care what the call it. Release, Live, Initialized, Up, Running, Open Beta....it is all the same to me as long as we all (players and developers) realize that all these terms mean the same thing.

I mean it is like saying Darn and Damn. Darn is just a way of covering up the fact you are thinking Damn but no one believes you really meant anything but Damn.