45 replies to this topic

[Angel of Annihilation]

Tigerwolf, on 05 September 2013 - 09:39 AM, said:

Why do people find making money in this game hard? Stop watching how much you make a match and see how much you made in a session or a week, it will surprise you (shoot, learn the Theory of Realitivity; watching things closely makes them move slower is part of it). Also, who said everything in a game has to be easy/given/casual to you? I played Everquest from its launch and it took me 9 months of casual playing to get to level 20 when the max was 50 and then the grind got really bad. To me, if a game is too easy, then I will get bored and leave so PGI will lose customers if they cater to casual or hardcore gamers. Still, ask yourself this, who is willing to spend more money on a game they like? Oh, and I am not a hardcore player, just someone who likes the feeling of accomplishment.

I am an old Everquest veteran myself and you really can't compare that game to this one. Everquest was truely an everquest in that it never ended. There was something new to do and something new to aquire. The grind was brutal but at the same time had purpose, i.e get more powerful so you could get better stuff and explore new content.

MWO has none of that. You pick a mech, buy it and jump into battle in one of two game modes. All the grind does is give you a different mech with a few different characteristics and dumps you into the same two game modes. Also, while the combat is fun, it gets repetitive. This leaves us one activity, collect mechs and experiement with builds. However, the grind is so bad that you really can't afford to collect mechs and experiment with them leaving just the repetitive combat.

Back to Everquest for a moment. One thing you forget is that Everquest at its peak only had about 300k subscribers which was huge by the standards of the day. However the most sucessful MMO of all times was WoW with over 10 million subscibers. What was its defining feature? It eliminated a majority of the "grind" and catered to the casual market which happens to be the same segment F2P games cater to.

The point here is that the majority of the types of people who play F2P games, don't play F2P games to grind. They play because they are looking for a casual and light experience where they can jump in and progress with only few hours of gameplay. That is the F2P demographic.

Edited by Viktor Drake, 05 September 2013 - 02:00 PM.

[ColonelMetus]

c-bill nerf wjz a scheme to sell air strikes for MC BRO

[Archio]

Tigerwolf, on 05 September 2013 - 09:39 AM, said:

Why do people find making money in this game hard? Stop watching how much you make a match and see how much you made in a session or a week, it will surprise you (shoot, learn the Theory of Realitivity; watching things closely makes them move slower is part of it). Also, who said everything in a game has to be easy/given/casual to you? I played Everquest from its launch and it took me 9 months of casual playing to get to level 20 when the max was 50 and then the grind got really bad. To me, if a game is too easy, then I will get bored and leave so PGI will lose customers if they cater to casual or hardcore gamers. Still, ask yourself this, who is willing to spend more money on a game they like? Oh, and I am not a hardcore player, just someone who likes the feeling of accomplishment.

Oh look, another guy who thinks grind = difficulty.

The only reason people like you have logic like this is because you have no responsibilities and think you should be entitled to more than someone who has less time to play than you because you don't get up except for hot pockets or bowel movements.

Harsh, but Im tired of hearing this contention in EVERY SINGLE multiplayer game I ever play. Your ability to play 12 hours a day does not make you a more valuable customer or a better player than anyone else.

Edited by Archio, 14 September 2013 - 10:12 AM.

[Mawai]

All the complaints about a nerf to cbill earnings are to be expected.

We are all used to a certain level of income. It is a shock when it changes.

Those who have been around a while will recall when the cbill earnings could top 1mill/match and then the following weeks when 50k was a lot. They will also recall the repair and rearm days when premium effectively doubled net income rather than increasing it by 50%. As things change folks respond to that change ... however, new folks coming into the game after the change have no reference ... to them it is normal.

Does a ~30% reduction in cbill earnings feel like a lot when you are used to more. Yes. However, new players don't notice, they get a bonus to the first 25 matches and then can just calculate based on the new rates roughly how many matches it will take to earn a new mech. The cbill income rate changes were not aimed at the existing players but at the hope of the expected influx of new players at launch.

Presumably, analysis of the existing grind revealed that folks needed a little more incentive to spend MC and that the earnings were too high/match. SO ... these were adjusted for the next generation of players expected into the game.

[Archio]

Mawai, on 14 September 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:

All the complaints about a nerf to cbill earnings are to be expected.

We are all used to a certain level of income. It is a shock when it changes.

Those who have been around a while will recall when the cbill earnings could top 1mill/match and then the following weeks when 50k was a lot. They will also recall the repair and rearm days when premium effectively doubled net income rather than increasing it by 50%. As things change folks respond to that change ... however, new folks coming into the game after the change have no reference ... to them it is normal.

Does a ~30% reduction in cbill earnings feel like a lot when you are used to more. Yes. However, new players don't notice, they get a bonus to the first 25 matches and then can just calculate based on the new rates roughly how many matches it will take to earn a new mech. The cbill income rate changes were not aimed at the existing players but at the hope of the expected influx of new players at launch.

Presumably, analysis of the existing grind revealed that folks needed a little more incentive to spend MC and that the earnings were too high/match. SO ... these were adjusted for the next generation of players expected into the game.

You leave out the very important fact that new players will see "ooh! 350ishK cbills a match" then they finish their 25 matches and if theyre good, income "only" drops to around 100-150k a match, but if they're bad, theyre lucky to get 70k a match.

Yep, that'll keep the new players hooked on this game all right. The change was nothing more than a means to push players into buying MC. A cash grab.

I don't care what the game was like in CB, I was there. New players weren't, so they have no base with which to compare the pocket change people get now.

Compare MWO to any other mechanized MOBA and you'll see MWO failing because the others at least provide some sense of progress and less of a feeling of bashing one's head into a wall.

Edited by Archio, 14 September 2013 - 10:37 AM.

[Lanline]

I just started playing a couple weeks ago.

I don't know anything about these broken promoises or the glory days of c-bill grinding. I earn an average of 91k cbills a match, and I lose slightly more than I win. Just mastered my first chasis, Atlas.

I started playing with a group of friends, had 2 get scared off by the controls(OMG WHY CAN'T I SIDESTEP?) but still have about 7 people playing that have yet to be scared off by the grind. If I was really worried about the grind I could buy premium time(which I might do if I didn't have to work so much). I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of a game I've spent not a penny on, and that's cool.

I have two complaints as a new player.

1.) In order to get the c-bill earnings that PGI wants I need to be swapping mechs and not staying til the end of games. This is very boring way to play, as you are not at all invested in the outcome of a match. It's also impossible, or very difficult, to do while playing with friends. It gives you incentive to run in, do as much damage as you can, and die in short order to keep yourself in as many matches as possible. Give us something to do after death other than swap out to another match. A c-bill betting system? Could be fun.

2.) The MC price of everything in this game is way too high. I don't suppose there is a whole lot you can do about it at this point, as enough people have paid the way too much. The only thing I could see myself spending money on is premium time. Upwards of 30 dollars for a digital mech is ridiculous. You should be sending people actual minitures on top of the digital mech for that price. 2-5 dollar for a color? No thanks. Greens fine. I'd like to give ya money, as the games solid and free. But the real money economy feels like highway robbery. 30 dollars is more than I've spent on a full game in a long time(Thanks Gabe).

Edited by Lanline, 14 September 2013 - 11:07 AM.