275 replies to this topic

[Shootanoob]

The basic idea of a beta test ist not to get the players testing whether they want to buy or not but to get players checking which changes are needed to make a product successful.

So I can't really see why that two topics need to be mixed up here. If you like the basic idea of the game and are, like many others, appealed by the vids you have seen and trust those guys to make one hell of a game - support them by buying a founders pack and be happy.

Otherwise wait and see how the game is after it's open beta / released and then decide to put money on it or not - also a valid option.

The only thing you wouldn't get later is that fancy founder's tag on your forums-profile - and thats ok I guess, for it's meant to set those apart from the normal players who had already enough faith to support the project pre-release. There will be Mechs to buy, there will be discounts on ingame-premium-currency - in due times. So its just up to you whether to go in now or later. I for my part have decided that any Mech game has not the power to suck that much that I would not at least throw my 100 EUR in - for that would have been the amount I would spent lateron anyway.

[Zygwen]

Compared to how much I used to spend on the Battletech TCG, this is a drop in the hat but the real appeal for me is beta access. Over the years, I've found that beta is often the best time to play a game. It generally is a much tighter knit community with fewer asshats. To me founders is a ticket to access an experience that most MWO players will never get. That in itself is worth the price of admission.

The extra mechs in the Elite and Legendary package I view as purchasing a collectors edition or deluxe collectors edition. Clearly, you have some interest in these items but you are not willing to take the risk involved in aquiring them. That is your perogative. Others including myself clearly disagree and have taken the plunge. Who knows, there might be other similar opportunities in the future that might float your boat.

[NeoThoR]

Koenig, on 20 June 2012 - 09:11 AM, said:

I'm all ready to shell out $120 for the full deal if the game is "fun". Will we have a chance to play a demo or open beta before the Founder pack sale expires?

It's a chance you must take..

[Steven Dixon]

If you don't want to risk buying the founders pack then don't. The founder's pack gets you early access to the open beta, a special deal on ingame currency (which doesn't even matter if your not going to be spending real money), premium accounts for 1-3 months (again not critical) and a mech (or 4) that earns you slightly more money each match (but has no other advantages, not even an xp bonus). From the tone of some of these posts (by non-founders) you'd think that if you don't have a founder's mech you shouldn't bother playing. Don't worry, non-founders will be just as viable and important to the game as founders.

And if you do want to buy the founders pack but really don't want to pay without trying the game, you still have one last chance. While it's pointless to make constant threads about wanting into the current closed beta (they are maxed out, it has to do with hardware and a few other factors, it's not like they're trying to punish you), their will be another stage of closed beta in the middle of next month. It sounds like priority is going to be given to us founders (though its not confirmed), but it's fairly likely that several non-founders will be admitted during this time. 2nd stage closed betas are often far larger than 1st stage ones, so I expect a significant increase in beta testers during this time.

[CCC Dober]

Koenig, on 22 June 2012 - 07:26 AM, said:

...
If that doesn't sound like a "get it before it's too late" gimmick, combine with an unusually strict NDA, I don't know what does. Not saying they are trying to sell us a ****. However, for those of us who have been consumers (and some of us developers) in the software industry over the past several decades know, this has a bad vibe to it.

You are not trying to be objective here, am I right?
Why do you ignore the importance of strict NDA and Closed Beta and attribute it to ill intent?

I have been part of enough non-professional betas to KNOW that I'd sooner sign an NDA than having nobody care at all.
I am attributing the decline in quality games to a blatant lack of care and responsibility from developers, testers and customers.
This is why I remarked not too long ago that the term 'beta' has become irritatingly fuzzy in the last years. Customers become unwilling testers when the original testers don't like what they test and jump ship or can't be bothered to do their job in the first place or there is no budget to run some serious testing. As it stands, the term beta is so damn phony these days and I am very glad that PGI is not throwing beta keys out for nothing and require a solid, signed NDA. If your existence was on the line and your project had such a big potential then you would do no different, so please spare us the sermon and let it be. No offense, but your motives appear rather shady from my point of view.

[Kalenn]

Corrected below.

GHQCommander, on 20 June 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:

[justification justification]
When I have no trial for my software, customers don't want to pay $20 never mind $120. Let me see the game please, thanks.

... but wait, you're a legendary founder...?

Guess you changed your mind?

[Tovran]

The founders pack concept ,as I see it, is a thank you to people willing to shell out the money somewhat early on a game we know limited details about (sort of, you can find quite a bit if you know where to look ). The thanks comes in the form of some goodies, early access and a founders tag.

Don't want to take that risk, well that is perfectly acceptable but you are not a founder then. There will be many opportunities to spend (or not) later after we all start playing the game for free. More then likely there will be some sort of preorders/ packages for the true release after open beta. It won't be a "founder's" package though.

As to how much 80$ worth of ingame currency is, Russ mentions in the founder's pack questions thread that currently it amounts to about 8-10 medium mechs (which may change to more like 6-8), or more lights or less heavies and assaults. Seems pretty reasonable to me compared to a 50-60$ Lowe heh.

Edited by Tovran, 22 June 2012 - 08:29 AM.

[Wolfclaw]

Koenig, on 20 June 2012 - 09:11 AM, said:

I'm all ready to shell out $120 for the full deal if the game is "fun". Will we have a chance to play a demo or open beta before the Founder pack sale expires?

You gotta remember Koenig, this game was made for alot of people who grew up playing mechwarrior, so in that sense, if you give a BT fan a promise of another mechwarrior game, hes going to give you his wallet and sell you his soul. Russ and the others at PG understand how much we care about this game, they would not let us down.

[Kalenn]

It comes down to this:

I love MechWarrior, and have despeately missed it since last playing MW4:BK (and all the rest!) several years ago.
^
|
|
If this | is not you, then don't get it... and shaddap already!

I know that I'm going to love this game and play it till my 10-year-old MSoft Sidewinder breaks... and then go buy another one, and it doesn't matter if the game is shaky at launch, and they don't have the "Community" stuff, and the controls are janky (at first)...

It doesn't matter.

Then, someone tells me I get a unique 'Mech (or 4!), a bit of recognition, and I help make sure that one of my favourite games of all time gets published after being stuck in licensing hell for 10 years? Sign me up (oh and BTW I'd love a belated invite to Closed Beta 1, please Paul?).

[p0llen]

I see the founder packages as a way to distribute money to the company in order to make their project successful.
If nobody buys founder, who is actually "loaning the employes over a longer period of time" (besides the upcoming payment-options)?
Big publishers want their investments to be successfull, if they are not, they will look for a new investment possibility.
Buyer of the Founder Packages imo "finance" the running and developing project, without knowing the actual outcome of the thing, they pay for. If lots of people buy these, they put a clear "GO!" sign to everybody it concerns in any economic way thinkable. The first "cash test", ill gladly take it!
Cause, if not, who pays Pauls Porsche???????

[Bagheera]

This thread is silly.

Buying founders is no different from the last time you pre-ordered a console game, or bought a game in a store, or ordered one from D2D, or whatever. Well, okay, the difference is you have to wait longer to get to play it. People almost ALWAYS buy a game before getting to play it. It's the way games have been sold, um, since forever.

It's pretty simple really. You either support the development with a purchase or you wait and see. Moot discussion is moot.

[Danger86]

I just shelled out the money for the Elite. I think its worth it to help support what promises to be an amazing game! I've waited years for something like this!

[Gettothechoppa]

I am in another closed beta, and I agree with other gent in the forum you should never judge its suitability by the beta. Especially the closed beta process, they are testing out individual features often, the game mechanics and other things are in flux during this process.
That being said I wish i wasn't in this other beta I dont like it at all, I would much rather have been here beta testing this game, because I have a long standing personal interest in everything mechwarrior.

Edited by Gettothechoppa, 22 June 2012 - 09:03 AM.

[Wolfclaw]

Danger86, on 22 June 2012 - 08:52 AM, said:

I just shelled out the money for the Elite. I think its worth it to help support what promises to be an amazing game! I've waited years for something like this!

ADDA BOY! THATS WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR!

[Koenig]

Dogbreed, on 22 June 2012 - 07:46 AM, said:

Hey Keonig,

Do you mean you can't get that mech or that you can't get the one with the boost and maybe custom skin. I can lookup the post but these are the same as the in-game mech's with a life time c-bill boost and custom skin. according to the post they are that prime variant for that mech line and you have to start there for that mech. With the founder pack you start sooner and get a little credit bonus with that variant. What i am not sure of if i want a commando i would have to start with a Jenner in the light line before i could get to buy a Jenner, like in the WOT tech tree?

Thank you for reading my post. To answer your question, basically yes. The 4 extra mechs have for-life-bonus reward attached to them. That makes them increasingly valuble as time goes on. Also, it has been stated that garage space is finite. These 4 mechs will not take up any of the standard garage slots. This a huge advantage. If I could buy just these two things after playing the OB for a few hours, I would still spend cash even if it meant I couldn't be considered a "Founder" or have any of the other perks.

[Wolfclaw]

Koenig, on 22 June 2012 - 09:12 AM, said:

Thank you for reading my post. To answer your question, basically yes. The 4 extra mechs have for-life-bonus reward attached to them. That makes them increasingly valuble as time goes on. Also, it has been stated that garage space is finite. These 4 mechs will not take up any of the standard garage slots. This a huge advantage. If I could buy just these two things after playing the OB for a few hours, I would still spend cash even if it meant I couldn't be considered a "Founder" or have any of the other perks.

Then get the pack?

If you are really so worried about the game being crap, then dont buy the founders pack. This game has been in development for 3+ years, if it was really going to be crappy, we would have known by now.


Edit: If they gave you the option to buy those 2 things at launch then it would defeat the purpose of founders pack. The reward for believing in what PGI is doing is the founders pack, they are giving us (the fans) an opportunity to add to our collection of BT. If the game sucks, oh well, Im still glad I spent $120 just to know that someone tried to bring my favorite game back.

Edited by Wolfclaw, 22 June 2012 - 09:18 AM.

[Koenig]

blindprophet, on 22 June 2012 - 07:51 AM, said:

You don't get the cbill bonus or the skin. However beyond those two exceedingly minor things...there is nothing special about the mechs. They are the same base variants that you will be able to purchase. Same loadouts, same armor, same everything except for the two things I mentioned.

I'll agree the extra skin is a trivial bonus. The extra cbills might not be. Remember, this is a lifetime bonus that will add up to a lot of extra cash over time. Also, you're forgetting about the most important thing with these mechs: 4 free garage slots. It has been stated that garage slots are finite, these 4 mechs will not count toward the normal slots.

So then, why not offer just these couple things to the people who waited too long. Hell, charge us more money if you want.

neothor, on 22 June 2012 - 08:11 AM, said:

It's a chance you must take..

Drink the kool-aid with the rest of us! We'll all be in heaven soon! It's just a chance you must take...

[Koenig]

CCC Dober, on 22 June 2012 - 08:16 AM, said:

You are not trying to be objective here, am I right?
Why do you ignore the importance of strict NDA and Closed Beta and attribute it to ill intent?

It's not the NDA alone that is the problem. It is a combination of a "get it before its too late" gimmick that expires the public will get a chance to experience the game PLUS a gag order (the NDA) for those who are aloud to play. If either of these two were relaxed then there would not be a problem.

[Silent]

If you need to experience gameplay before you consider giving PGI your money then wait till the game is released. It's going to be free to play after all. You will have nothing to lose if you don't like it.

Edited by Silent, 22 June 2012 - 09:22 AM.

[Koenig]

Wolfclaw, on 22 June 2012 - 08:37 AM, said:

You gotta remember Koenig, this game was made for alot of people who grew up playing mechwarrior, so in that sense, if you give a BT fan a promise of another mechwarrior game, hes going to give you his wallet and sell you his soul. Russ and the others at PG understand how much we care about this game, they would not let us down.

I appreciate your sentiment. I have been playing BT/MW and reading the old books for a long time myself. I'm not here looking for a fight or to blast anyone.

Problem is, I know how the industry works and this is a very unusual set of conditions for a game that is expected to be so phenominally successful it will sell itself. Do you remember DNF? People waiting over a decade for this. The screenshots looked amazing, the game play looked great. We saw lots of funny/juvenile crap we expected from Duke Nukem. Look what a pile of crap that turned out to be.

Again, not saying it will happen with MWO.