35 replies to this topic

[Iqfish]

--- If you are not interested in my personal opinion, please do not bother reading this thread and look for one that is more fitting your preferences. Thank you ---

1 - The Beginning

I don't really remember when I heard of MWO, but I think it was the german PC gaming magazine "PC Gamer" that wrote an article about it. I was in a supermarket, shopping food when I came by the shelf were they store the magazines.
I scanned it quickly and saw something familiar, the Centurion. I got really excited when I saw that they recently entered open beta and that the game is F2P.
So I bought that magazine, registred and downloaded the game on January 24th of 2013 (I know thats not exactly 18 months, but I felt like writing this thread).


2 - Getting addicted

Oh how I loved this game back then. I played WAY too much. My girlfriend back then was really tolerant when it came to my time spend on gaming but even she was getting annoyed. But this game had everything!
I love buying and upgrading things in games and in MWO I really felt like I "earned" that mech.
Several hundreds of hours were sunk into this game until...


3 - Finding my place

... the Tamar Jägers hit me. My unit leader wrote a message in the ingame chat that the TJs are looking for german speaking pilots. I visited the website and some other websites of german companies, but since I've always been a Steiner and they seemed really sympathic, I joined them on Feburary, 23rd 2013.
I LOVED being a part of a company thats growing and growing. Not long after I joined, the third company was founded and I was one of the first members, until something happened a few weeks ago. Playing the 8v8 matches with actual tactics was an awesome experience for me and I scored some top damage matches back then.
After a few months being a member of an active unit I realized that it was not longer MWO which was keeping me playing, the things that kept me from uninstalling and leaving MWO were my new friends. I also realized that MWO is lacking many things and that I would've been gone a long time ago if I did not join the Tamar Jägers.
This phase lasted approximately until mid 2013.


4 - Founding the Tamar Media Company (TMC)

I always liked making videos. I had a project assigned to me when I was in the 7th grade and my group and I totally went over the top; I spent many hours back then creating our little movie.
That's why I wanted to create videos of my new, favourite game.
I found people inside the Tamar Jägers and we began working on THIS video.
Shortly before we published it, we found our final name and some new people joined us.

I was still playing MWO 2 times a week during training and often in the afternoon with 3 other players, leveling some mechs.
But the most interesting part of MWO was making movies. I also did some private Photoshop work, ask the guys in the repainted concept art thread about these accidents .


5 - Today

I am currently working with 6 incredibly talented and ambitious people on a new recruitement video and together with NGNG on Davion Blues.
I love being engaged in discussions at the forums and I still do my private art sometimes.

But I recently dropped out by myself of the third company of the Tamar Jägers, because I am not considering myself as active enough anymore.

And I did not play more than 2 hours of MWO in the last few weeks.

I wrote a thread some months ago, called "White Knights turn grey", which was kind of displaying the same thoughts I want to display here, but I deleted it, because it got invaded.
I gained some hope when UI 2.0 was released and I really thought "Finally, the real development can start, now they are going to do this smart."

I was hoping for some tank models, strapped to a simple AI, performing attacks on players just to make the games more interesting. I was hoping for a community map contest so we could finally get some more maps. I was hoping for the first phase of Community Warfare, which Bryan presented in September 2013.

But looking back to the beginning of this year, I was hoping for way way way too much. When we got the launch module, I got happy and thought "now we can make our OWN game!" and had a few evenings of fun. But only a few.

I am back at looking at the little thumbnail in my Windows taskbar and thinking: "Should I? Should I not?" and most of the time i start the game, drop in my freshly bought Hero Mechs and Alt+F4 the game after another boring match.


5 - Conclusion
I played 3384 matches, own 43 mechs, 8 of them are Hero mechs.
I own the Overlord package and the Masakari package, spent unknown amounts of €€€ on colors, premium time and camoschemes.

This is the game I've played the most in my life and the game which I connect the most with, but I don't find it anywhere near interesting right now.

My expectations are at an all time low and I idle in various teamspeaks, cutting videos or playing other games.


This is not a bye-bye thread.
This is not a troll thread.
This is not a "I could make it better by doing XY" thread.
I won't leave this game, but as I said not because of the game.


I just felt like saying this and giving you all an explanation why I am getting more and more inactive and lay out my point of view.

Yes I already took a break. From this game and from the TMC, like some of you suggested in my last thread


I want to conclude this with a final plea.

Please, for the sake of this game and the whole Mechwarrior and Battletech franchise, realize what you are doing wrong. Listen to the right guys in your community, take the feedback more serious and BE HONEST with us. Give me a reason to await the drops in MWO with my friends when I am at work.

Thanks for your time if your read all through this and please, try to stay constructive when answering to this.

[pbiggz]

Couldn't have said it better myself... You have captured the angst of the real mechwarrior community.

[Imperius]

I agree too well said... [No more cake jokes please ]

Edited by Imperius, 10 May 2014 - 07:20 PM.

[Sybreed]

the only thing that drove me to play MWO again is the stock mech mondays. I can understand the feeling, especially since I'm in the game since june 2012 (almost 2 years, yikes). So little development has been made to the game except more mechs and paid content.

Right now, this game isn't the MW game battletech fans waited. This is an hybrid of WoT, CoD with a BT theme under it. If I had any talent in developing games and knew the right people, I'd start it all over and do some things completely differently.

[Iqfish]

Imperius, on 10 May 2014 - 07:19 PM, said:

I agree too well said... [No more cake jokes please ]

No more cake jokes, I promise it

[F1yC4sual]

Mate, I couldn't have said it any better. It's definitely not the game that stops me from uninstalling, it's the people I've met in the community. I prefer to MWO watch on twitch b/c it's less frustrating than actually playing & I can chat to people to. Anyway, your post was sincere, many players are either bored or burned out, cheers mate.

P.S. I to will probably never stop playing b/c I'm obsessed with BattleTech, but it's hard to except, that despite honest & well thought out request/ pleas will often fall on deaf ears & piggy will do what it does. I'm here waiting to see what will become of this game & like a fool I still have hope that something will get me hooked again. (By the way, it's double XP weekend & I haven't cared to drop in game... Meh)

[Grimmrog]

Iqfish, on 10 May 2014 - 06:42 PM, said:

I own the Overlord package and the Masakari package, spent unknown amounts of €€€ on colors, premium time and camoscheme

realize what you are doing wrong.

Thats the Issue, from a compny point of view, NOTHING si wrong, they grabbed a load of money no one would ever normally spend for a single gametitle, and therefore they as a company got what they are for: making money.

So as logn as people throw loads of moeny at the game, the game is either not that much wrong or broken, or people are uncontrolled idiots when they spend laods of money for complaining on Forums.

But the truth is somewher ein between. There are issues and a lot. And still enough people are superhappy to instant throw out their money. And with that together rarely much will change, even if the chanegs would be able to mke the game even much better generating even more money. But the business case for this is made somehwre else at the company.
Thas more or less the trouble of the gamign community, since their game title is a frenchised trademark. And therefore the company developing it are monopolists. Imagine what would be if any company would be allowed to use the battletech registered and trademarked names. Imagine there would be 3 games trying to be an online Mechwarrior. This would make the companies put in real effort to be better than the other one. But so we got the mess we have and have to deal with it. Also do you know why so many indie devs do make gerat games? Because they are often a lot less company and profit driven. They often just make that game out of their passion because its what they also want to play.
So while kickstarters are a great thing for fans to bring a game into Life, its still no guarantee that they get what they want.

I mean seriously, 1 1/2 years, and yet not even a simple ingame chat. you can't even scroll the "mission chat". basic feature which I am sure is already available as a black box product on the market.
Feels sad, sine the basic gameplay is ok, but it could be so much more. Massively more.

[Iqfish]

Don't get me like I have lost all hope.
I don't hate this game, PGI or their employees either, like some of the people here do.

And I WANT to have fun again with this game, it's just so incredibly empty and slow developing...

[Davers]

Iqfish, on 11 May 2014 - 07:58 AM, said:

Nice post. But you kinda left out WHY you have lost interest. Is it the slow development? What specific things have turned the game gray for you?

[Randalf Yorgen]

Bleeker, on 11 May 2014 - 02:51 AM, said:

Mate, I couldn't have said it any better. It's definitely not the game that stops me from uninstalling, it's the people I've met in the community. I prefer to MWO watch on twitch b/c it's less frustrating than actually playing & I can chat to people to. Anyway, your post was sincere, many players are either bored or burned out, cheers mate.

P.S. I to will probably never stop playing b/c I'm obsessed with BattleTech, but it's hard to except, that despite honest & well thought out request/ pleas will often fall on deaf ears & piggy will do what it does. I'm here waiting to see what will become of this game & like a fool I still have hope that something will get me hooked again. (By the way, it's double XP weekend & I haven't cared to drop in game... Meh)

Much the same in House Marik, it's the friends that keep you coming back, not the game. However we are looking at a few new games that are being developed and if they pan out then a large chunk of us would be making MW:O a one night a month.... or every three months game.

To bad really, I've been invested into the BT universe since before computer games were a thing. Super NES doesn't count

[Koniving]

My own thingy, here.
Signature link on the right.

[Wraithlord77]

As a Founder who has been here from almost the very start I FULLY agree with your post. It has gotten to the stage now where i launch the game intending a full evenings roboromp but end up going to another game after only 2-3 drops. I am not a member of any group / house, as of yet becouse im not gona commit to a group untill i know i'll be around long enough to make it worth their while takeing me in .To me the game is missing something , it just feels hollow no substance to it, we just Drop, Pew , repeet but to what end wheres the payoff no end game i dont feel like im getting anywhere. Take WOT ( as bad as it is) you work your way up the tank tree of your chosen nation and when you FINNALY get to teir 10 its like your birthday as you look back at all the tanks you had to work through to get to your teir 10 supperheavy Mous or IS-7 etc. and now that you have it you are eligable for Clan wars and can start pounding away with the big boys, you have something tangable to show your progress , here there is only ....what ....sadly nothing.

Edited by Wraithlord77, 11 May 2014 - 04:53 PM.

[Maggiman]

Grimmrog said it: From a company standpoint, they did it right (And still do). There are people who buy the friggin goldmechs! As long as they have that much return(And a short look in the forums shows how many people still drop a lot of money, even when voicing concerns) they wont stop doing it the way they do.
And i firmly believe the project gets rather dropped than reworked (How i come to that conclusion is probably somewhat too off topic)
Bottom line: While i admire the good will the op brings, i dont think it will ever pay off. Enjoy the game as long as it lasts, discard it afterward and wait for the next installment (Which admittedly may take some time )

Edit: Oh and yes, i am too at the point where i play one or two matches every once in a while and then instantly turn it off again. To think i started with forcing everyone i know into the game (Even the people who "Hate everything that has lasers in it"). Fun times =)

Edited by Maggiman, 11 May 2014 - 05:41 PM.

[slide]

I have to agree with Iqfish and Koniving in that this is not the game (yet, maybe?) that I wanted when I first found out about MWO.

I myself signed up on the day the website went live back in November 2011, so it has been an even longer wait for me than for some.

MWO has been and still is my first and only experience with any sort of MMO game, I don't like FPS very much and I have never really had the time for things like EVE but as a long time BT fan I jumped at the opportunity of another MechWarrior game as, like many, I was bitterly disappointed with the cancellation of MW5, after the hope brought about by that demo video back in 2009.

I never intended to join up with a unit when MWO was announced, but not long after, a post was made about creating a Australian based unit and was any one interested. I joined the conversation and eventually helped to create what was to become ARMD. In the time it took them to get to closed beta 7 or 8 of us had become fast friends, we played Megamek, MW4 and a few other games to get ready for MWO's beta. We formed the unit, wrote lore, made the rules, decided how we were going to play, set up our own website and TS server, but just generally had a good time. Some got married, others had kids (we were all between 25-45) some had actually gotten together and become friends in RL.

The most important thing to remember here, is through this whole period there was this unbound sense of excitement and enthusiasm. At the end of closed beta ARMD had over 100 members and most of them were dropping every night of the week.
I think my proudest ever moment in ARMD was seeing 9, 8 man teams dropping on the NGNG TS server. Not long after open beta started we numbered in excess of 500 members.

Fast forward 2 years and it is a completely different story. I am the last of the originals, I lead my unit, not necessarily through ability, but through hard work and attrition. We have about 20 really dedicated individuals left and another 50 or so who are just playing occasionally.

But it is not enthusiasm that remains like it once was, it is a vague but very jaded hope that CW will eventually come and save our beloved franchise and revive ARMD and all the other units that have suffered a similar fate. Some how it feels like we are sailing aboard the Titanic, enjoying ourselves until the end of the voyage, but afraid, like that fateful trip that it will be cut short.

If I had never seen that post to form an Australian based unit and joined up I think I would have given up on MWO long ago. My unit, my friends and the fun we create whilst playing keeps me coming back NOT anything PGI has done outside the basic gameplay which after nearly 7000 drops (and probably another 3000 during CB) is starting to get old.

Like Koniving, I miss the way the game was played during Closed Beta and the direction it seemed to be headed. He more than adequately explains in his post so I won't reiterate it here, but I will say that the general dumbing down of gameplay to more of an FPS style than the Mech Simulator we were promised is not the way to go. I appreciate the need to appeal to a wider audience but better use of the lore to indoctrinate people to the games style would have been a better option than to alienate your dedicated fan base who would have been here for the long haul for no reason other than it was BT and the only game in town.

MWO has the look of Battletech/MechWarrior but it doesn't have the feel. There is wealth of history that could be used to get people to invest themselves in the universe, to make them want to become a part of the legacy, create history as we go. The community could have helped immensely with that. That opportunity has, sadly been missed and I am not sure that PGI will get it again, as many who could have taken up the challenge and helped have moved on. I doubt many will come back.

The secret to Star Citizens success so far, despite not having a functioning game to play, is IMO that they are selling people the idea of being able to invest themselves and role play their way through a living breathing universe (I hope they succeed). I believe they got much of that idea from these very forums and PGI themselves. The success of the founders program must have given them some inspiration to try the crowd funding model and look at where it is going.

MWO had so much potential to do something similar, be so much more. But as I said earlier the boat has sailed and it is getting very cold outside.

[Vermaxx]

MWO will not get better until PGI is financially threatened.

Every -single- mech and package they release sells astoundingly well. People spent five million on a BETA kickstarter equivalent. People bought the hell out of a series of 'Lawsuit' mechs. People are buying GOLD SKINNED WANKBLING for 500 dollars a pack. People buy almost every hero mech to record numbers.

Sure, PGI could be lying about all of their sales, but if they were hurting for money they'd be making the changes we suggest and not the ones they decide.

MWO was an amazing idea. Many of us got the WRONG idea as to where it would go, and due in no small part to PGIs wild claims and outright contradictions.

I said over and over in closed beta, open beta, and early release. MWO is not a finished title, it is a combat demo. It is a very NICE demo, a very polished combat engine, with a very functional mech design system. Sure, things go through arcs - UI 2.0 is terrible imo, weapon balance is a see saw, and flavor builds often result in seemingly senseless nerfs. None of this changes the fact that MWO is not a finished title.

CW was the game we were promised years ago, and it has been YEARS now. There is still absolutely nothing of CW in this title. We have a Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise out there, but it is not a full game.

The saddest thing is, I am willing to bet this is THE MOST FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFULL MW product of all time, and they didn't even HAVE to get it right.

[Hex Pallett]

Vermaxx, on 11 May 2014 - 07:36 PM, said:

MWO will not get better until PGI is financially threatened.

Well, the game raised 8 mil alone on its founder stage, and for a team with less than 50 people (till I last checked) that's probably gonna keep the company afloat for a couple of years.

Not to mention that the whole vehicle combat scene is like a f**king wasteland with four giant towers: World of Tanks, Hawken, War Thunder and MWO. Obsidian is also brewing something with modern tanks but I seriously doubt how far that would go. And when comes to giant-robot shooting sim then there're basically just Hawken and MWO, and while MWO lacks a few spices, Hawken is just one big MEH.

Anyway, I think we all learned a lot regarding videogame development, including but not limited to:

- plan ahead. Like, AHEAD. Do you see how they're going back re-adding dynamic appearance on those old 'mechs, but they're too busy making Clan 'mechs so they couldn't do it in time? LE SIGH

- beware of min-maxers. I get real snarky when seeing AC+PPC alphabuilds ingame, and I see how much effort PGI put in trying to balance them by tug-of-war balancing attempts, which IF THEY LIMITED HARDPOINT BY SIZE LIKE MWT DID THEN THEY WONT HAVE TO IN THE FIRST PLACE

- community communication. Let's be frank, Le Garth wasn't really active at all comparing to MANY other community managers who regularly shows up on Twitter and events and stuff. For example, look at Margaret Krohn's twitter. But Russ and Niko has been quite active lately though.

Anyway, as salty as I am sometimes, I sincerely hope MWO makes PGI enough money to solidify their knowledge and maybe someday bring us a proper singleplayer 'mech game.

[Iqfish]

Davers, on 11 May 2014 - 10:18 AM, said:

Nice post. But you kinda left out WHY you have lost interest. Is it the slow development? What specific things have turned the game gray for you?

It just became more and more uninteresting.

I miss a lot of things that would spice the game up a lot.
Here is hoping to Community Warfare soon.

[Iqfish]

Someone asked me about the essence of this thread.

To conclude everything, this is how I feel myself as a paying and loyal player right now.

[Deathlike]

lqfish, I don't think you're in the minority on this. I would guess a fair portion of players are waiting for something to happen, but at this glacial place, you wonder if the game will be any different within a year (or at the earliest, 1 year after the "launch date").

I've said enough of my share about PGI... more negative than positive and while I choose to keep playing this game... it isn't doing much for me outside of chatting with other players about this game. There's only so much I can honestly take.

I had started playing in Open Beta of late 2012 and I don't know when it was when I soured on them, but it was a matter of time where people start to realize "what the heck am I playing for?" Not everyone will ever feel this way, but people that have been relatively "dedicated" to this game know what I'm talking about. The people who keep playing it are either more hardcore or don't know any better (either recent or rather casual) so it's hard to pinpoint the decline...

I've logged in 1000+ matches after the recent stat reset and 8000+ matches before it. It's probably unimpressive compared to others, but it may or may not be enough to show my "dedication" to the game. I've been grinding various mechs if only to pass the time while PGI does their own thing... but there's only so much non-bug fixing, non-balancing, non-anything positive (like, there's never been double C-Bills weekend) to keep me interested. You can only write so many thoughtful suggestions before you realize very little of what you say or do is going to change things. Maybe it's just that many of us that have played previous MW games have learned to "grow a pair of balls" (or "trial by fire") in suffering through trial mechs that weren't Champions and just "dealt with it" and at the same time realized how much we try to let PGI "take its time" and not get anywhere with what they are promising.

So, you're not alone and I wish you well. Once people become disillusioned with reality, eventually, you are reaching the conclusion many of us have made somewhere along the line... it's up to PGI to deliver or there's no future. If my time is not worth money, then... there's always more fish (games) in the ocean. PGI is screwing up a good thing really, and it's not your fault.

Edited by Deathlike, 13 May 2014 - 11:56 AM.

[AlmightyAeng]

Iqfish, on 13 May 2014 - 11:36 AM, said:

Someone asked me about the essence of this thread.

To conclude everything, this is how I feel myself as a paying and loyal player right now.

Ummm...which one are you?