Posted 29 August 2013 - 06:01 AM
Umm, ok, so this castrated, useless 3PV brought some player retention? Because now players were able to figure out how their mech's legs work?
I brought about a dozen people into the game. It took me 15 seconds to explain to each of them what your 3PV is supposed to accomplish (mind you, they were more frustrated about the entire registration form resetting if your username was taken). I helped them grind in useless trials, and for those that made it past cadet bonus I helped choose and outfit their first truly viable mechs. Even so, only 1 or 2 people stayed. You know why? Because, barring the frustrating instagib deaths from Gauss/PPCs, they realized that grinding for their next mech is gonna take forever if they don't start paying for premium time and hero mechs.
And you make a 3PV, then force it on the half of the community that doesn't want it, and at the same time you cull it to a point where it's also useless for the half that did want it? Old grand-daddy IL-2 that was a definitive sim game of its time had all sorts of cameras implemented from the start. It didn't have a viable combat-usable 3PV (which MWO doesn't have any longer either), but it did have a free orbiting camera, perfect for purposes of looking at your paintjob or figuring out where your flaps were. Yes, an air sim has no spotting advantage issues, but they had all the options to allow or disallow external cams in multiplayer games from the start. It's unfathomable why we're getting a single cut-up camera option or 8v8 replaced by 12v12 before we get more option screens instead of one big doomsday "LAUNCH" button. I wouldn't mind any lack of communication if the game went in a good direction, with set goals and priorities.
Now I'm just one player. I am insignificant (along with my 60+ mechs) and the fact that I even bother talking makes me even more insignificant, because I'm automatically with the "vocal minority", whose opinions can be ignored under pretense of also figuring out and catering to needs of silent majority. But to hell with that. Do you, PGI, yourselves have a good solid understanding of what you're doing? Understanding, unbiased by personal playstyle, laziness, time limits and crowd appeal? Because I, along with other members of "vocal minority", seem to have understanding of things about MWO, which PGI either doesn't know (extremely unlikely) or chooses to ignore in favor of goals that seem funny to even be considered goals at all.
So, new player retention? Before viable trial builds (not that Champion A1 Cat that idiots used to fire their LURMZ at point blank range, and not that Gauss/LL Dragon that taught everyone how to properly soil their Gauss slugs)? Before convergence nerfs? Now with a default 3PV, do you even realize that people that won't bother looking at options screen are gonna be stuck in 3PV, thinking for weeks on end that MWO has no minimap and no arm movement???
Who exactly is your target audience? Do you really want people here that won't jump into control options to see which button does what? Do you realize they won't play this game well anyway? Do you realize that when they realize they can't be good at this game, they're gonna quit anyway? This is no League of Legends, FFS. MWO is a complex game, you start playing it well not just when you get acquainted with weapons and proper builds, but when you know when and where to go on each map, when you know when and where you may or may not stand, because there are poptarts, and LURMZ, and light packs. When you know that as an assault you're supposed to initiate and as a fire support you're supposed to be close by to seize the opportunity. Several months ago, when Splatcats and AC40 K2s were our only concern, the game seemed more welcoming, and a properly handled 9AL was a formidable force. Today the game is designed around mediocre and undedicated pilots that would grind their Highlander, play for several months, insta-gibbing anything below 60 tons, and then shelve it in favor of some irrelevant star citizen.
And what do we, eager long-time sim players and giant-robot lovers get? Assurances that telemetry shows increase in game's demographic, nevermind the fact that I kept discovering new and new kinds of clueless transients that do improbably nonsensical things with their builds and ingame behaviour every day.
"Telemetry" says you're ok, mechwarrior. Now stop complaining and die quietly. We have a Silent Majority to please here. **** and Feed the Wheel.
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van Uber, on 28 August 2013 - 11:43 PM, said:
