0
Despite the scores not being the worst, they were still disappointing to me, as this seems to be the only Mechwarrior revitilization we are likely to see any time soon. On top of that, I couldn't help but feel that there was something missing... Something small, something commonplace, that could have moved it from 'meh' to at least 'hey, not bad!'.
UI 2.0 wasn't in yet, but although not perfect, the UI wasn't the problem. Community Warfare wasn't in, but there's plenty of games with no real 'meta-game' that are ranked far higher than 5.0. Not much in the way of training, but again, Mechwarrior has always been something of a niche genre - even with training, if you aren't prepared to work to learn the game, you're not going to enjoy it. All definite issues, but none of them really should have resulted in the scores it's been getting. The core gameplay is fantastic, the graphics are grand, the customization is second to almost none...
So where is the problem?
I decided to try a different approach - instead of looking blindly for what MWO may be missing, I decided to compare it to other F2P games that are doing better. World of Tanks would be the natural comparison, but I wasn't there for the games early days, so I wasn't sure I could accurately compare it. There was another game I had been in the beta, though - League of Legends. One of the most succesful games on the market, and F2P to boot. What is it that League had at launch that MWO didn't?
Was it maps? No, MWO actually had far more at launch... Gameplay? That's hard to compare, as they're different genres, but both had solid gameplay at launch. Metagame? Other than rankings, League has no metagame to speak of even nowadays, so that's doubtful. Characters/Mechs? About equal quantities (counting different variants as different mechs, that is). Player customization? MWO has the Pilot tree, which isn't that in depth, but it's not too far behind the runes/masteries of League... Learning curve? MWO is probably trickier to learn, but both games had curves, and LoL didn't get it's tutorial til after launch. Competition from similar games? Heroes of Neworth challanged LoL at launch for a while, but MWO has almost no direct competitors (maybe World of Tanks or Hawken, but those have enough differences to not count - such as not using the Battletech name, for example).
What could the difference be? What was it that League of Legends had at launch that resulted in it remaining popular enough to go on to become one of the largest games out there? Well, I finally figured out the answer...
Custom games.
This one, small feature is all that MWO needed for launch to have gone over so much smoother. So many features in MWO that are debated, or questioned, could have been solved with this. 3rd person? Toggle it off/on when creating a match. Competitive matches? Piece of cake. Stock-only matches? Sure, why not? Solaris/Free For All? Just give the ability to turn off teams. New player matches? A very common thing with lobbies, great for helping new players learn the ropes with other new players (it could even be restricted to only allow those who are still getting Cadet bonuses). Tonnage limits? Give the person setting up the match the ability to set a lower and upper bound for the teams. Easy.
A lobby system, allowing for people to set up games with the rules THEY want, has always been one of the most notable features of pretty much every game worth mentioning. People want to play the game the way THEY want to play it, regardless of what the game makers think is right. Sure, it's nice for the game makers to also include a 'right' way to play it, a story to follow or some objective to try and accomplish. But sometimes, players want to just sit back, relax, and have 11 commando 1 atlas vs 11 commando 1 atlas matches. Or run around in a No-Heat match with everyone in 6 PPC Stalkers.
Now, lobby systems do have to have restrictions - for example, you don't want everyone just clogging the servers with inane custom games. So, here's some requirments to help make it flow better, at least at the start:
Require 2 full teams.
- This will ensure that the servers don't get over-burdened with 1-2 player games. If you want to reduce it to only requiring 16 or 12 persons (8/6 player teams), you could do that too, but only if you think the servers are ready for it.
Less rewards.
- Custom games are for messing around, and you can be sure players would do that if they are included. To prevent players from just setting up custom matches with their friends, suiciding, and do it again to try and get rewards quickly, custom matches could give 1/2 the normal rewards - you're still getting something for your time, but if you actually want to farm resources, this isn't how you go about it. (Also, no loyalty rewards, once CW is implemented.)
Mech restrictions
- They may be custom matches, but your mech would still be in a match. If you quit a custom game early, that mech is still in the match until it is over.
So, I had solved it - MWO was missing a lobby system. I wasn't sure, but just to make sure, I went back and looked at the most common complaint the reviews pointed out - replayability. Would that be solved by a lobby system?
Well, frankly, yes. It would. Currently, there is only 2 game modes - Assault and Conquest. Even switching between the two across multiple maps, it will still get repetitive over time, even if you love the core gameplay. But with a lobby system, you could introduce dozens of new ways to play the game, without actually adding any new game modes (unless you include Solaris/Free For All).
The best part about a lobby system, is you would get to see how the players play the game - if they could set up a custom match however they want, how do THEY choose to play it? You could then take those ways of playing, add some rules to make them play smoother, and release them as an official game mode. Want proof? Look at League of Legends - they just released the Howling Abyss, an official map based on the All Random All Mid game style (ARAM), which has been a common staple of custom games since the game first went into closed beta. They saw something that players enjoyed doing in custom matches, and made a map based on that concept. A lobby system would allow MWO to do the same.
TL;DR: All MWO needed to be successful at launch was a lobby system.
(Side note: I am aware that private matches will likely be included with UI2.0. This is merely a plea for PGI to please consider a legitimate lobby system, as opposed to just a way for two groups to specifically launch against each other. Although private matches would definitely fix some of the issues, it would likely not allow for the level of player creativity that a full lobby system, with selectable options, would allow.)
Edited by Tvae, 02 October 2013 - 06:56 AM.
