Sephlock, on 22 June 2014 - 04:57 PM, said:
If I could remember the exact wording, this would be a great time to quote the narrator on Archer from Fate Stay/Night. You know, stuff about blades growing dull over time and all that.
Long story short: people went from bright-eyed optimism to bitter, hate-filled cynicism.
DO YOU HEAR THAT? I HEREBY SUMMON THEE, SANDPIT!
*PUFF OF SMOKE*
*POOF*
I'm sorry, starting two of the most popular and hottest threads for feedback to help improve the game is now going "hulk"? lol
Let's start with a brief history lesson for the benefit of the "newcomers"...
2012: Game is announced, CB is opened up, and many of us buy founders packs both for CB access and to help support the game.
The game is billed as "Thinking man's shooter" with 4 pillars that are touted as being the core of gameplay and design for MWO
1: Community Warfare
2: Information Warfare
3: Role Warfare
4: (can't remember this one offhand)
Ok, not CW is billed as being an exciting battle for the inner sphere that will start pre-clan invasion and continue on past that point in Btech history. Great! Much debate and ideas on the forums follow. The first major split that I can recall began with PGI's decision to move from CB to OB. (now guys we're talking two years of history so this will be lengthy and dates won't be exact but I'll do my best to closely approximate(. There was another "first split" which began with PGI making the decision to double armor. This was just before I got into CB so I can't comment much on that other than conversations I had with people prior to that. This actually made me a bit skeptical but after joining and playing I could understand why they did it in the interest of balance.
Now, the OB/CB "split". Many players felt that moving to OB was a mistake as this game simply was not ready for that phase yet. I personally agreed with that BUT I understood and accepted that a lot of us were getting "beta" fatigue and that PGI had a need to test the game on a larger scale. It was still a beta so no biggy in my opinion. That still created the first "big" divide int he playerbase that I can recall.
Now we're in OB (Q4 of 2012, I joined summer of 2012). Ok, well the next thing is the announcement that CW (the single most important feature to many of the players as we fondly remembered MPBT3025) will be released 90 days after we go into OB. 90 days came and went. This is when the grumbling began on missed deadlines and created the next big divide. Many, myself included, took to the forums and spent HOURS posting about how we understood that delays happen. Again, no biggy.
Then we get told yet again that CW will release in 60 days. 60 days comes and goes....
Then PGI opens the store and starts accepting money for MC and mechs. This REALLY started to rub many the wrong way. The game was in OB, nowhere NEAR ready for "public" consumption. (When I say this I mean it really was bad when it came to certain areas of the game. The combat itself, in my opinion, has always been well done for the most part but we're talking collisions, crashed, performance issues, etc.), Again, many of us, myself included, understood, hey devs need to eat. Again, no biggy. Keep in mind this is also where the community started asking for and suggesting rudimentary and standard multiplayer things like:
Voip, lobbies, easy to use friend list, command blooms, etc. (think about this list and what on that list has actually been implemented from 2012 suggestions)
as well as reporting issues like collisions, mm issues, etc.
Now we're in OB early 2013, with a functioning store to sell stuff and generate revenue but we still have the same maps and mechs we had in CB, not much production in the way of content or bug fixes except to start adding monetized items to the game. Again, many of us defended this, myself included. From here we really start getting flooded with new players and feedback on everything from broken collisions to SRMs. This is also when we start hearing from PGI that the UI is the reason for slow development and it is bottlenecking the entire design process. Then we get told yet another timeframe for CW release. This is where we also start getting placeholders for pilot skills, targetting computers, etc.
We go from that to "launch" in mid 2013. Trust me when I say it was pretty much universally accepted that this game was nowhere near ready to launch. At this point the player base is told that groups and collisions (and i'm sure there were a few other things) were being "temporarily removed" so they could be reworked. We also get a launch date and told that CW will be out before launch. Then 30 days after launch. Then 90 days after launch.
It's also during this time period that the "UI is stopping development" was in full swing. Nothing was getting accomplished except the rolling out of hero mechs and plenty of items to buy. Meanwhile bug fixes, maps, CW, etc. were quietly being ignored. Well after the 90 day deadline for CW we get a post from Russ stating
"Great news! We have secured the license for MWO through 2018! NOW we can start working on CW"
? Wait, what do you mean you can finally start working on CW? What were you doing for the past year? This wasn't the first example though.
When more and more customers started becoming unhappy, PGI stated that they were seeking out a new demographic and those that were unhappy with aspects of the game were on an island.
This began with things like the removal of teh centurion-ah model. Many of us owned it and it was a great mech. Then one day we logged and to find that it had been removed because it was too similar to the Wang hero mech.
???
We got told that the AH was always just meant to be a placeholder for the Wang. So those of us that had bought and mastered it were SOL.
Then we get told that although it was heavily stated numerous times that this would be a sim and there would never be a 3pv implemented, PGI is considering implementing a 3pv.
In the ONLY poll in forum history that I can recall with such a response, THOUSANDS of players logged into the forums and voted "no" to 3pv. The "yes" votes were in the hundreds. So, the community had overwhelmingly voted no against 3pv, PGI does it any way and states "You'll never be forced to play against people who use it and there will be a separate queue" Well this turned into one of the earliest "position at the time" moments I can remember and really started the whole "island" thing. PGI then argued that it couldn't be abused even in the face of hundreds of examples and screenshots of how 3PV provided an advantage in being able to view around corners and such.
Then we get ghost heat. Players poured out to the forums to argue against it and offer hundreds of alternative solutions that would work much better in the eyes of most players. PGI implements ghost heat.
SO now you REALLY have some pissed off customers.
Then we get the Phoenix Pack announcement. All resources, naturally, must be diverted to get phoenix mechs out on time. So CW, role warfare, factions, lobbies, voip, essentially everything except the new UI gets backburnered yet again.
Then we get to mid 2013
Now we have the devs giving us numbers regarding groups. At one time groups (premades) were higher in number than PUGs. PGI states that for unknown reasons and to their "surprise" that placing limits on group sizes had reduced the number of groups and PUGs were now larger in number and that the "temporary" group limits would be permanent.
We still have very little in the way of content other than 3(?) maps and various weapon tweaks (other than mechs of course). At this point many of the former supporters have grown tired of "position at the time" T
We also get told by Russ himself that he guaranteed CW would come out before clans. Then less than 24 hours later PGI announces clans and their delivery date in June while CW would be out sometime that fall or winter...
2014:
We get told that CW, along with UI fixes (because it really was buggy and not user-friendly) were the highest priorities. UI fixes would come every patch with huge improvements every time.
Then we get told that everything else has to wait so they can focus on clan mechs and that CW is delayed yet again.
Just to recap the last 6 months or so?
2 maps
1 game mode
dozens of monetized mechs
that's it for "content"
We STILL don't have:
Role Warfare
Community Warfare
Information Warfare
Lobbies
Voip
Easy friend list
Social Tools
Command Blooms
Faction medallions that actually do something that were purchased in phoenix packs (but those clan items sure worked from day 1 didn't they?)
Collisions
separate queue for 3PV
Strong tutorials
DX11 full support (last I checked there were still performance issues with it I could be wrong on this one though)
Unlimited group sizes
solid MM system
mute options
block lists in game
new game modes
new maps
working targeting computers
working c3 systems
I could keep going with the list but I think it's good enough for example purposes.
Now hopefully that explains to some why many of us have finally "had it" with PGI and "be patient, they gave us a "REAL" release date and timeframe now"
There are plenty of other examples of how and why many players became much more cynical and are no longer willing to "be patient" This didn't happen over the course of a few days, or weeks, or even months, this has been a steady process over 2 years in the making now.
oh and P.S.
things like hitbox adjustments were also called for in CB, we still have mechs that haven't gotten around to being "fixed" yet. Just wanted to throw out another example