111 replies to this topic

[DONTOR]

ThisMachineKillsFascists, on 15 September 2014 - 08:20 PM, said:

I would like to see a comment from russ about the promises they made and which they couldnt realize. An offical reason spoken out from russ would end the rumors and would help pgi to gain "trust"back

Russ Bullock, on 15 September 2014 - 08:24 PM, said:

The license is in our hands until up to 2020.

I personally expect to be making MWO at least that long.

Everyone can make their own decision, we appreciate every vote of confidence



Give me a list of questions to answer and I will review it.

Along with a promise that you and every other alt account will focus on moving forward.

Oooooh BURN!
Also till 2020! AWESOME!

[Elizander]

DONTOR, on 01 October 2014 - 02:16 PM, said:

Oooooh BURN!
Also till 2020! AWESOME!

Yeah, someone needs to grow up.

[Wolfways]

Russ Bullock, on 15 September 2014 - 08:24 PM, said:

Give me a list of questions to answer and I will review it.

I've asked many times on the forums but never had an answer to this. Please tell us why ECM wasn't/couldn't be added to MWO with the functions it had in TT and was made pretty much backwards and with abilities from other BT tech..

[EgoSlayer]

Wolfways, on 01 October 2014 - 03:24 PM, said:

I've asked many times on the forums but never had an answer to this. Please tell us why ECM wasn't/couldn't be added to MWO with the functions it had in TT and was made pretty much backwards and with abilities from other BT tech..

The time/place to ask, or have someone ask for you, is in the "Town Hall" meeting - tomorrow:
http://mwomercs.com/...tv-russ-oct-2nd

Edited by EgoSlayer, 01 October 2014 - 04:30 PM.

[Wolfways]

EgoSlayer, on 01 October 2014 - 04:30 PM, said:

The time/place to ask, or have someone ask for you, is in the "Town Hall" meeting - tomorrow:
http://mwomercs.com/...tv-russ-oct-2nd

That's 2AM for me
I might try to make it though if i can get the bairn to stay asleep

[N0MAD]

A meeting where only one party, of a two party partnership, is the only represented party doesnt give me a lot of hope of seeing the real story told.
Many say, hey look communication has vastly improved since IGP left, many others say, hey look PGIs new project has failed totally so they are in full damage control with this IP.
Either way its good to have the communication, but i doubt we will ever get the real truth.

[bobF]

2020? That's fairly optimistic, but I can honestly see it happen if you implement CW correctly.

OP: realize, understand and internalize that all game developers behave the same. It's by matter of necessity, since software engineering is serious business, and takes an eternity (in corporate time) to achieve anything meaningful. Because time is money, and development takes an eternity, the executive body always believes they are losing infinite money. So, development is devoted to wresting dollars back from that hungry black hole.

OP, you're upset because somebody didn't make a deadline. He'll have no real answer, because the truth is that he was chasing dollars. Before you flay ol' Russ for acting like a proper businessman, realize he was likely under the tender mercies of publisher IGP, demanding revenue lest the studio suffer their wrath (remember, losing infinite money). What was the easiest course? Sell more mechs. The irony in this is that the playerbase itself supported this. When you have a small body of youngish to middle-aged wargamers (likely earning professional dollars themselves simply due to demographics) blowing orders of magnitude more dollars than your standard new AAA release for just a few new mechs, then brother, you hit a goldmine. Capitalists gonna capitalize.

I've already leveled withering criticism at this game and the path of it's development, but this time, I feel the benefit of the doubt should be given. Look at it this way. The game will follow a typically myopic path of short term dollar gain, and fizzle out. You have a year or two of amusement left to squeeze out. Or, with the recent departure of Overlord IGP, the recent public humbling over at reddit, and the realization that these forums have a wealth of information from the most dedicated of the playerbase, Russ may come to jesus and deliver something genuinely innovative, entertaining, and long term. At that point, I'd be willing to shovel dollars into that black hole, in perpetuity.

At any rate, i'm currently amused with my DakkaWolf. Let's just see what happens in the coming months. Save those tears for the battlefield, OP.

[Sergeant Random]

The Force is strong in this franchise... er... umm...

If PGI can win new players into such a strong franchise, it is not entirely impossible they can semi retire as the next generation (of MW:O players) finds jobs.

A trading card game I know, Magic the Gathering, is still publishing after 20 years. (Of course it might not be entirely correct to draw parallels with the business models). But their players come and go - and come back. (Even though it's just basically a card game between 2 players). They've grown into something Hasbro supports.

Edited by Sergeant Random, 01 October 2014 - 08:49 PM.

[General Taskeen]

2020 eh, please god no... let F2P go back to the depths of hell from where it came. Work on NON-f2p actual MW5 with such a long license time if you must. I don't want to grind anymore, I want to have all the Mechs at my fingertips, and I just want to play Stock Mode again like in MW4. I want dedicated servers and lobbies. Triple A MW Non-F2P > Minimally Viable F2P MW.

As far the OP's question - look up some other niche f2p's, they don't last long. And "MW" is definitely niche. It won't survive on the backs of whales forever.

[EmperorZombie]

^OP

"That will never happen, son of man."

[Blakkstar]

There is no guarantee, which is one of the pitfalls of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model that online games are based on. You are paying for your enjoyment/utility now, and basically hoping that the company stays in business long enough to be worth your while.

Gaming is a small part of the argument. It's also an issue for companies dealing in hosted virtual servers, data backup (like Carbonite), and web hosting. There may be contractual agreements in place, but if a company goes bust, good luck suing them to get your data or money back, and you will lose access in the meantime regardless.

It's also a function of the Agile software development model, which is based on making constant improvements to flawed/incomplete software (so it can be used and monetized) rather than waiting for a finished product. It's neither inherently good, nor bad. What it gets you is a working product that's available quicker and cheaper.

The cold reality is that with the Battletech IP on life support, the grim state of the vehicle sim genre, and the commercial failure of Mechassault 2, nobody was really willing to pony up the money for the license and development of a AAA Mechwarrior 5 release. MWO is what it is, although I think PGI is starting to move in the right direction. The positive is that it's our choice whether to pony up the cash or not.

Probably the best case for Battletech fans to hope for would be that MWO and Transverse are both wildly successful, and PGI gets bought out by a bigger company that's interested in a stand-alone MW5. If this game flops and dies, it becomes unlikely anybody else will take the risk, but if PGI succeeds on its own, it will never cannibalize this game with a stand-alone title or release the Battletech license.

Long story short: I see MWO lasting another year at minimum, worst case. Spend accordingly.

[-Teiwaz-]

Russ Bullock, on 15 September 2014 - 08:24 PM, said:

The license is in our hands until up to 2020.

I personally expect to be making MWO at least that long.

Everyone can make their own decision, we appreciate every vote of confidence



Give me a list of questions to answer and I will review it.

Along with a promise that you and every other alt account will focus on moving forward.

Go Russ!!

[Almond Brown]

ThisMachineKillsFascists, on 15 September 2014 - 07:35 PM, said:

I wouldnt have promised the community soo much stuff i cant add due to my employee capacity or due to the financial situation. . That wouldve bring me into a much more confortable situation than Pgi currently has.

CW in 60-90 days © for example greets you

You ever start to build a brand new Game? Surely, if you had, you would understand the finer idiosyncrasies, trials and tribulations that come with such an endeavor. But, instead you seem more willing to choke down the ugly BS that others like to vomit out on here.

BTW, those vomiters have never built their own game either. They prefer to tear down, than create. Creating is hard work. Tearing down is not.

Let go of the past already. We are in a new age now. We see "silver in the lining", in what used to be just dark clouds of Whining and QQ.

Embrace and rejoice in those facts...

[jaxjace]

Russ Bullock, on 15 September 2014 - 08:24 PM, said:

The license is in our hands until up to 2020.

I personally expect to be making MWO at least that long.

Everyone can make their own decision, we appreciate every vote of confidence



Give me a list of questions to answer and I will review it.

Along with a promise that you and every other alt account will focus on moving forward.

If the servers truly do close in 2-4, will you at least give me a poster and a t-shirt? (I bought a ******* LOT of pixel mechs from you man)

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Holy grave robbers.

[Steinar Bergstol]

Necromancy! Foul necromancy! Somone cast turn undead!

[LordNothing]

im rather curious what the end game plan is. what will happen when pgi can no longer sustain the game and it must shut down? will there be a release of the server side software and/or possibly source code so that the community could keep the game going on private servers? other games that have done something like that are still played after a decade or more after the original devs pulled out and still have huge healthy communities. for example people still play and mod quake and make improvements to the game engine. i would hope that something like that happens with mwo.

also holy necrogeddon batman!

Edited by LordNothing, 27 January 2016 - 03:36 AM.

[627]

[Raggedyman]

LordNothing, on 27 January 2016 - 03:33 AM, said:

im rather curious what the end game plan is. what will happen when pgi can no longer sustain the game and it must shut down? will there be a release of the server side software and/or possibly source code so that the community could keep the game going on private servers? other games that have done something like that are still played after a decade or more after the original devs pulled out and still have huge healthy communities. for example people still play and mod quake and make

Other games weren't based on an IP which the owner was still jogging along merrily and happy to sell it along to whoever comes along next, so I doubt it'll go the path of abandonware.

As for the end game: I doubt that's even been thought about yet at PGI headquaters,

[GonaDie]

Where did you find THIS?