1105 replies to this topic

[Star Captain Obvious Kerensky]

Quote

After releasing 3PV we saw an immediate improvement in our target demographic, with a good bump in new player retention!

So PGI finally came out and said it: Mechwarrior fans are not PGI's target demographic.

It was actually a smart move on their part. Collect the founders money, Premium Time, and Hero Mech purchases from the hardcore fans, then quietly push them out to make room for people who don't have any expectations.

[DragonsFire]

Screech, on 27 August 2013 - 02:43 PM, said:

When your monthly Creative Developer Update post includes threats to call the cops, you know things are going great.

It's also a pretty terrible state of affairs where people feel the need to resort to actual threats over what amounts to entertainment. Regardless of the medium, if you ever find yourself getting worked up to the point that you feel the need to threaten or harass someone you clearly need to take a step back because you're beyond the point of entertainment.

[jozkhan]

The update is simply UTTERLY delusional in the extreme with a cherry on top

[Homeless Bill]

ObsidianSpectre, on 27 August 2013 - 02:35 PM, said:

Thanks for the summary, but you're missing what I think is the most important point:

The people who visit these forums are not the target demographic for this game.

Also interesting is that the lesson they took away from the 3PV debacle is that they communicate too much.

Apparently, the critics represent the vocal minority and PGI represents the silent majority in all cases. It's a sad way to brush aside criticism, but they've made their choice.

I don't like calling for people to be fired, but whoever dictates their entire strategy on the communication front needs to get canned. Everything about the way they conduct communication is done wrong (the various sub-forums, Twitter and Facebook, the timing, the spelling/grammar, etc.). They need to fire whoever is running it, bring in somebody with a thick skin and a passion for talking to people, and start from scratch.

Fetladral, on 27 August 2013 - 02:40 PM, said:

I love how they mention they will talk about CW structure at the launch event but don't say one way or the other if phase 1 will be in or not at launch.

The fact that they're going to tell us what it is nine days after launch indicates to me that there's zero hope that Phase 1 will be live.

[Azakael]

Okay as a somewhat vocal minority:
3pv - Ohmygoshit'sruinedmygameplay! Wait. No. It hasn't. Perhaps I am not in the right queues. Perhaps I am. I don't know. All I know is that I am still having fun playing stompy robots.
C-Bill nerf - Honestly, the grind sucks. Yes. Especially if you want to elite or even master out assaults. That said, what happened to playing the game for the sake of playing the game? Yes, a reward for playing is nice, but stompy robots? I know I had forgotten this last night when I questioned a friend for randomizing his mechs rather than using his hero mech to grind c-bills. His response? "I'm just going to have fun. The c-bills will get there eventually. If I'm really close to something, then I'll pull out my hero mech to grind the last of it."

Edited by Azakael, 27 August 2013 - 03:09 PM.

[Blackfoot]

dangerzone, on 27 August 2013 - 02:46 PM, said:

If you do not want to play anymore, that is fine. However, there is no need to stick around on the forums QQing about X and Y and how Z is broken, etc. All you are doing is bringing unwanted negative attention to the game. Either suggest ideas or don't post. Simple.

Ok I am done ranting. I thank any and all who just read my post.

You know what's sad? 6 pages in and this is the only post I've seen trying to defend PGI.

I'm not saying your post is wrong or bad, just pointing out that its the only one so far.

[Moku]

Since you mentioned target demographic. Please tell us what the target demographic is.

[xWiredx]

I'm losing confidence in this game by the day. I've got a couple of thoughts.

Kind of disturbing that new player retention is more important than veteran player or "core demographic" player retention (whatever the core demographic is, it definitely isn't hardcore MWO fans or people that have been playing since closed beta).

The game is going to be officially launched and what seems like core features that should be pretty much finished up before something leaves beta testing are probably not going to be finished by then.

The fact that they think the economy is where it should be is simply unbelievable. A single new mech in MC is typically around the $20 mark, and asking the general populace of the game to grind for a week or more for a base model mech because of a small percentage of exceptional players (read that, players that really do kick *** as well as players that simply have tons of time to play) is very short-sighted.

[Monsoon]

Thanks for the update, though I wouldn't go so far as to lump this in with past CDU, as very little was said about what's in store for Sept.

Come on Bryan, you can at least give us a list of what to expect for the 3rd? Please!

Or is this what the CDU will look more like in the future, as referenced in the Summer Edition as a 'new format'?

Edited by Monsoon, 27 August 2013 - 02:58 PM.

[Sybreed]

Woooo an update!

/reads it

Oh......

[Sadist Cain]

I think you've misconstrued that the lack in communication can be solved by your thoughts and feelings with very little information content underneath the layers of "dear diary".

A "vocal minority" shows the tip of the iceberg of a much larger group of players, your graphs, data and demographics can't tell you about them because they aren't here due to being shoved away.
The vocal minority are the ones who are more likely to invest in your game in a much larger fashion, not just with money but organising clans, houses and structuring events all bringing a tighter sense of community and more welcoming atmosphere to newer players encouraging them to also invest more of themselves into the game.

The problem also doesn't stem from players having a narrow field of view. there are hundreds, thousands of us and 40 odd of you chaps each individuals gripes and complaints they feel strong enough to vocalize show support for a game they care about and want to succeed so they can feel good about throwing money at it.
These players have a far wider perspective than staff at pgi, breaking them down into simplistic numbers and avoiding the nub of the matter which is your hardcore fanbase begging for features aimed at them instead of new players who aren't as interested or as invested, your legendary founders, phoenix refunds, commanders and tacticians whose features have ZERO reward or encouragement for their use (when was the last time you saw a pub player command anything to orchestrate a great match?) ignoring all of these potentially wonderful nuances and fine points of gameplay because you think that the ones giving them are narrow sighted!?

Alone they might be, but collectively they have a excellent understanding of a much bigger and better picture than you have and those that articulate their thoughts, oppositions and ideas in a well constructed manner with outstanding inner community support are dismissed as a narrow sighted vocal minority?

I'm afraid it's yourself whos being narrow sighted by brushing over a noisy, enthusiastic, outspoken and for better or worse absolutely dedicated core fanbase and ignoring them for the sake of trying to appeal to silent drifters in the distance.

They all surprised and exceeded your expectations on sarahs jenner by what 16x? 1600% increase on your personal projections?
Keep your core players happy and we shall bring in the players for you.
That's another thing your player base can do better if they're so inclined.

[Pezzer]

Never thought PGI could personally {redacted} me off until now.

They OBVIOUSLY think stats are going to give them every answer in the world, and represent EVERY demographic on top of real-time gameplay.  They talk a LOT about demographics, which basically tells me that all forum users are in the "we don't give a {redacted} about them, they make up for less than a quarter of the player base" hardcore demographic.

They are barely listening to us, are VERY obviously talking about "new players registering and playing this month" to avoid the topic of many older users leaving the game, having their Project Pheonix packages refunded, etc.

I know at least 3 people that have refunded, 2 of which aren't going to touch the game after Nov. (Star Citizen launch).  It's not like Star Citizen is causing them to refund, either, they have enough money for both games.  They just think it's a waste of money on a doomed franchise.  So don't think it's a small section of the playerbase that's leaving the game/refunding, odds are  that if since met 3 people that are refunding thier Pheonix orders, at least 5% of PP purchasers...purchase-ees...are getting refunds [taking into account the fact that I've met at least 50+ people on TS3 recently that aren't, which are for the most part hardcore believers and therefore wouldn't refund...trying to equate for this, about 5% sounds like an OK number].  Ofc, yes, made up statistic, but the point here is that a lot of money is coming away from the game and towards other games/things, simply because PGI doesn't listen.  Oh, 3PV brought new players to the game?  How is that?  Anyone with half a brain will play the game for an hour or 2 max in 3PV, then turn it off forever, realizing how much of a handicap is.  If they don't ragequit by that point, which most casual players probably will, odds are.  Not to mention that they can't really advertise 3PV in any way.  I mean, they could add "NOW WITH EASIER LEARNING CURVE" to thier banner ads or something, but otherwise...

This game is slowing going down the toilet, and if this game takes one more step toward the c4sua7 C4ll of D4ty door, I'm going to quit playing.  200 bucks wasted, sure, but I've wasted more on lamer BS.
Besides, I mean, they are only destroying arguably one of the best mech combat games of all time.  Who cares?  It's a stupid, old generation of gamers that play them anyways.  Let them whine and cry, while we make millions on an ignorant generation of twitch-shooter kids that have little to no skill!  And money!  That'll work, right?  The people that play this game a couple hours a month will think this game is worth their cold, hard cash....right??

Edited by Pezzer, 28 August 2013 - 01:24 PM.

[Tsunamisan]

Well thanks for stating the exact reasons why i stopped playing an taking a break from the game.

First of all you tweaked c-bills have you ever considered those player that can only play 3 or 4 matches a day because they have a life. Apparently not you just flipped them the bird an didn't listen to any of the community concerns before you pushed a big update to the live servers.

Need to keep the test server up an have patches on it for coming releases so the player can evaluate an critique the build before it goes to production servers

[Duncan Longwood]

Is it increased retention of new players or is it vets making new accounts to get the cadet bonus and avoid the miserable grind?

I don't think I'm the only one that read that scrap as, "We made 3pv the default view and people still play the game; therefore all people still playing like 3pv."

Can I suggest that all the Developers need to have their accounts wiped every week or two so they can have the "first-hand new-player experience" that needs so much tuning? Maybe if you guys had to constantly be participating in the "new-player experience" you could understand the problems with the cbill nerf, trial mechs, ELO, and all the rest? Maybe if the developer team had to grind out a new stable of mechs each week, for example, just to play together as a group of friends for the twitch streams, you would understand what a hassle it can be and prioritize finding solutions?

And make premium time more valuable. Reducing base income has made the 50% bonus to cbills much less valuable as has the inclusion of an xp bonus for the first match of the day. Increasing it to 100% cbill bonus should just happen. Paying customers could go back to previous levels of income, which isn't game breaking, and 100% is a hell of an incentive to sell more premium time when compared to 50%.

[Wieland]

Eldragon, on 27 August 2013 - 02:47 PM, said:

So PGI finally came out and said it: Mechwarrior fans are not PGI's target demographic.

It was actually a smart move on their part. Collect the founders money, Premium Time, and Hero Mech purchases from the hardcore fans, then quietly push them out to make room for people who don't have any expectations.

Actually, they said that already a while back in an Interview, that they only needed the MW fans to get it started.

[M4NTiC0R3X]

Let's focus:

on UI 2.0, CW, and Clans

When will the vote map feature and tonnage limits be implemented? Those'll be important game changers 'n should be top priority considering balance & game play enjoyment.

When will you give up the information players desire about CW.. we already understand what will be included we're just curious as to how this will effect game play! What I can't use this 'mech because it belongs to Marik!? We want to know and you told us you'd tell us a million times now.

What the hell happened to clans!? I never believed those posts from a year ago that it would actually probably be 1 - 2 years, leaning towards 2, years a freaking way!

Edited by M4NTiC0R3X, 27 August 2013 - 03:03 PM.

[Chronojam]

InnerSphereNews, on 27 August 2013 - 01:17 PM, said:

We all have favourite weapons, builds, Mechs that we want to be the best they can be, but oftentimes we can overly focus on what affects us, and forget about other players with other Mechs, builds, and so on.

Is this a coy statement to say you've decided to stop the continuous stream of "fixes" that only bolster 2ppc/1gauss and jumpsniping? Oh, that's right, a 1-point heat increase on PPCs happened, how could I forget that generous bone you've thrown us.

[SirDubDub]

Blackfoot, on 27 August 2013 - 02:52 PM, said:

You know what's sad? 6 pages in and this is the only post I've seen trying to defend PGI.

I'm not saying your post is wrong or bad, just pointing out that its the only one so far.

That's because those of us who don't think that Rome is burning have learned to keep our mouths shut.

[StaIker]

Quote

We continue to see a steady increase in online players, with more new MechWarriors joining us every day. Registrations continue to be strong with a very nice increase during the month of August. Our Phoenix program was a big success and we’re very excited to deliver the Phoenix `Mechs in October!

Player numbers are obviously terrible enough that you thought MWO couldn't survive two game queues. Forum registrations might be up, but actual player numbers? No. Give us the hard data, because at this point no one believe a word of this self-serving publicity talk.

[Tezcatli]

That C-bill thing was real disappointing. : /

I'm only glad to hear that HSR is getting another pass. I also heard Garth mention on the ngng podcast. Hopefully that lives up to expectations.

I'm honestly not expecting the moon. But I do hope they continue to balance. And most importantly do deliver on UI 2.0 and CW. Especially CW.