267 replies to this topic

[bane]

The auto-redemption might be part of the new option (defaulted) of handling rewards in game. You might want to change it back to "classic" to avoid this.

As to how premium time is handled, it is fairly industry standard, not unlike a subscription to WoW, you pay for the month whether you use 30 days or 5 minutes. Premium Time is basically the same way, you purchase it and it ticks whether you play or not. The challenge rewards is just "extra", and while very nice to be given with various challenges, it is a "freebie", so I can't complain too much. It's nice while it lasts, but not worth complaining over the fact that I sleep, eat and leave the computer.

Most of the "hoarders" (myself included) have had the added "pressure" of not wanting to activate their premium time until they felt there was a real reason to do so, i.e. CW. The 30 day chunks does make it a bit easier to digest activating some of it sooner, but frankly I feel that I advance my new mechs up well enough that I'm not horribly missing premium being activated all the time. This is really just a problem of how it was implemented, how we were able to "hoard" it, and how it really gives you very little reason to activate it. Now, if premium time being active gave you a discount on mechs(cbill or mc), or patterns, or some such, it might give people more incentive to activate it.

Honestly, none of my friends have used the private matches since there is no mech progression there, so other then "practice" it is not gaining them a return vs playing in the public queues. So while a nice option that was added, it really seems to be more of use to those wanting to setup and run tournaments but not really much use for a limited number of people.

[Grayson Sortek]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 12 October 2014 - 11:32 PM, said:

Am I crazy for feeling as though we are reaching Incentive-ception? I strongly believe we may be better served on things which benefit all Premium Time users and increases the desire to purchase active Premium Time for MC.

I think what the playerbase is trying to tell you is that being able to activate premium time in smaller chunks is a very strong incentive to purchase more premium time.

Our perspective: I can spend my hard earned real $ on premium time to help my gaming experience, but oh I have to make sure that I play every single day for a month to maximize that investment... Oh oops something came up in RL and now that investment is wasted.

I think if you had the ability to activate premium time in chunks of weekends or weeks then you would see a significant increase in sales. We would be a lot more willing to spend a little $ here and there, or spend more $ for a larger chunk if we know that we can activate it in smaller pieces. I've brought 4 friends with me to MWO after I started playing, at least two of them have purchased hero'mechs, but only one of them purchased premium time once and he isn't going to do it again because something came up and his premium time was wasted.

I am one of those hoarders. I've spent a significant amount of $ on this game to support you guys (you can check my account), but I don't want to burn away that investment while I do things like work, go on dates, go hiking, attend family events, walk my dog, work on my own game project, you know live life.
I'm saving my premium time for faction warfare yes, but I'm also hoping to be able to activate it in smaller chunks... Until then it's just going to sit in my account until either A) You guys change the activation system to be more flexible, or B] I get notice that MWO will be shutting down so I'll play the hell out of it while I still can.

Edited by Grayson Sortek, 13 October 2014 - 10:49 AM.

[Alienized]

getting 0 FREE prem time is better than getting 5 hrs FREE premium time.....
thats my feeling from this thread already.

[AntharPrime]

At 91% try to drop in a light, 15 minutes before deadline, wait 7 minutes to drop, over a minute for round start and the round ends 1 minute after deadline with enough points to give me award but since it's after deadline it's tough luck.

[Deathlike]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 12 October 2014 - 11:32 PM, said:

The only parts I am a bit shy on here is the desire for more incentives. I get that more perks are always welcome...
Premium Time included in Collections is already a value added bonus to the Mech pre-orders.
Those Collections are already set to provide savings over the MC prices in-game.
The Banked system is a further incentive added to address the specific concern of players who had major priorities keeping them from the game for more than a few hours or days.
Premium Time has already recently received a major added perk in recent months with the addition of private match options.

Am I crazy for feeling as though we are reaching Incentive-ception? I strongly believe we may be better served on things which benefit all Premium Time users and increases the desire to purchase active Premium Time for MC.

I'm not sure you understand why people hoard. Premium Time as currently constituted is activated in bulk, and only RECENTLY we can activate in a "smaller" (not small enough) 30-day chunk. For the people that value convenience, this is extraordinarily unattractive due to real life obligations. While PGI may find value, some consumers do not feel the same way. I am relatively uninterested in the value of private matches simply because I get nothing back in rewards for having paid for premium time.

Activating in small chunks IS a priority for the value conscious consumer. Anything outside of that will not get you more sales, or less hoarders.

You have to incentivize the value of activating in bigger chunks, whether it is by fixed C-Bill/GXP gains while inactive or a boost in rewards rates for not being online (like, after 7 days of inactivity and premium time activation, the premium time boost is 100% instead of 50% for a week). If value is not felt, the demand is not there.

Edited by Deathlike, 13 October 2014 - 10:29 AM.

[Alienized]

be happy that you can hoard them here and activate them when you want.
thats definetly not normal. most games just let it run.
if i get some MC and some premium time I make sure that I have time to make use of it.

if i get 30 day free prem time and cant use it for 1 week well... i dont care. if i KNOW that i cant make use of the premtime for 2 weeks or so, i simply dont activate it.

then there are things happening that is not PGI's fault (computer blows up or whatever)
then you gotta live with it that the time runs out.

[Rehl]

I'd like to know why my premium time was auto-activated as well. That's a pretty douche-move. Heaven forbid I choose when to activate it.

[Grayson Sortek]

Aliisa White, on 13 October 2014 - 10:38 AM, said:

be happy that you can hoard them here and activate them when you want.
thats definetly not normal. most games just let it run.
if i get some MC and some premium time I make sure that I have time to make use of it.

if i get 30 day free prem time and cant use it for 1 week well... i dont care. if i KNOW that i cant make use of the premtime for 2 weeks or so, i simply dont activate it.

then there are things happening that is not PGI's fault (computer blows up or whatever)
then you gotta live with it that the time runs out.

So here is what I am getting from you: "Shut up and be happy with what you've got, don't try to have a conversation with the developers and don't try to change anything about the game as it stands now." Sorry, but we just can't do that.

1) We are explaining to PGI why we are not purchasing premium time so that they understand why they don't have more sales. We are doing this in the hopes that PGI will make changes to the game to improve the experience for everyone, and in turn increase their profit margin.

2) It's not 30 days free, we paid for it, we spent real money on it. Given that we paid $ for a bundle, which that premium time is a part of, then we don't want to waste that. $240 here, $120 there, another $30 there, etc is way more than what one would normally spend on a game and a lot more than anything I've ever spent on previous MechWarrior titles.

3) It's not PGI's fault, but the more accommodating they are to their playerbase, and therefore customers, the more likely they are going to continue to make sales. The hardcore gamer mentality doesn't work anymore when your primary customer demographic consists of older more casual gamers.

So to you and those like you that try to silence discussions players have with the devs... No, we will not just shut up and accept it because other games have similar or worse practices. That is no excuse, especially when we can communicate and work together to come up with something even better than what we have now, and better than what those other games offer.

[dr lao]

• NIKOLAI
  
• don't forget theres a ton of us loving the giveaways as for the prime time its funny I just got my 30 day boost so every time I finish a challenge it set me back to 29 +hr. days so its like im not using nothing lol. so keep um coming cant wait to grab the Chinese lanterns hint hint nudge nudge
  
• 
  
• jump jets away!!!
  
• 

[Alienized]

i am neither telling you to shut up nor silencing discussions.
BUT its kinda sad that people get stuff for free and STILL MOAN.
thats whats pissing me off the most. and yes you paid for it so make use of it.
that is your part not dev part. i agree a 7-day option would be good.
what too many people here write seems just to be a problem of their own life plan. and thats not something Devs should bother.
also... does PGi get anything from previous Mechwarrior titles?

[Big Tin Man]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 12 October 2014 - 11:32 PM, said:

Well that was fast. And now you are on the list of people I must kindly ask to stop reading my brainwaves. *puts his tinfoil hat back on*

Well, since I'm in here I'll add onto the 'Let us buy or break up our horded PT into smaller chunks.' What about a 3 pack of 7 day PT for the price of a straight 30 day pass? Two 3 day PT chunks for the price of a week? That kind of stuff would sell like hotcakes, simply because people are trained to abhor waste. Waste = bad value = no sale. Giving more flexibility in using it will generate more sales.

And yes, I'm saving my invasion PT for CW, though I'd be tempted to fire off a little bit of it to get some C-bills for stormcrows and timmies. 30 days is too much because of my work schedule, so there it sits.

Ok Niko, I'm done.

[Grayson Sortek]

Aliisa White, on 13 October 2014 - 11:46 AM, said:

i am neither telling you to shut up nor silencing discussions.
BUT its kinda sad that people get stuff for free and STILL MOAN.
thats whats pissing me off the most. and yes you paid for it so make use of it.
that is your part not dev part. i agree a 7-day option would be good.
what too many people here write seems just to be a problem of their own life plan. and thats not something Devs should bother.
also... does PGi get anything from previous Mechwarrior titles?

If you are not then I apologize.

Agree:
The 24 hrs of free premium time from the challenge does seem like a silly thing to complain about, since it's an incentive to show people what it would be like if they actually purchased premium time. It is a little silly to moan about something that gave you bonuses while trying to get the next days challenge, and I can definitely understand why PGI did that.

Disagree:
Coming from both a consumer and developer perspective I can tell you that yes it is the devs concern to make something as convenient as possible for the consumer/player. The reason being that the dev will most likely get more $ if they make things better for the customer, so long as it does not prove to be a detriment to the developer... Offering 7 block chunks or the ability to activate premium time in those 7 block chunks does not seem like it would be a detriment to the developer (PGI). That is simply apart of economics; the better you treat your customers the more customers and returning customers you will have. It would be PGI's disadvantage to say something along the lines of "Oh well that's life, tough, get over it and buy more of our premium time."

Misc:
No they do not get anything from previous MechWarrior titles, but since they acquired the IP their game will continuously be compared to previous titles by the player base.
So if previous titles that incorporated access to all of the 'mechs were say $50-60 and then maybe $30 for an expansion, then yes people are going to wonder why they should pay $240 for some 'mechs, premium time, and some babbles. I purchased both clan packs and I've purchased hero'mechs because I want to support PGI and I want to see this MW title continue and grow, but that's not going to stop the comparisons.

[Alienized]

the big problem out there is: the more the devs do what the crowd shouts out loud the more problems they might have in future if stuff is not liked by many people but is simply required to keep the game going. important things that people not always can see behind.

i dislike it when the playerbase gets TOO involved in dev's work.
YES you need exchange between devs and playerbase but it should never happen that a block of players can force devs to do stuff they dont want to do or cant do because the players dont have the view behind the scenes.
that is my concern. sometimes you just have to take it as it is. you cant change everything by crying out loud.

[Javin]

I would like to ask for a couple of day notice on what events are happening on the weekends. This was an excellent event. I like helping people try all the game types. I like free premium time and cockpit items. However knowing what is coming helps me plan my weekend. Thank you.

[Big Tin Man]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 13 October 2014 - 12:23 PM, said:

I'll note it is already possible to purchase Premium Time subscriptions in-game whenever desired in 1-day, 3-day, 7-day, 30-day, 180-day and 360-day. We haven't been too keen on adding smaller doses because those would just end up being those kinds of things most veterans would be telling newbies to shy away from if they prefer bang for their buck.

Agreed and understood, but that wasn't quite what I was getting after. If the concern is vets telling noobs how to get good bang for their buck with PT, options to suit their lives would be even BETTER, and noobs/casuals would be less intimidated by how quickly the scale steps up to get 'good value'. My idea would be something like this:

1 Days - 250 MC
3 Days - 650 MC
2x 3 Days (6 days total) - 1250 MC
7 Days - 1250 MC
3x 7 Days (21 days total) - 2500 MC
30 Days - 2500 MC
18x 7 Days (126 days total) - 13500 MC
180 Days - 13500 MC
36x 7 Days (252 days total) - 24000 MC
360 Days - 24000 MC

They'd be able to get good value for buying a large amount of PT, but pay a premium for starting it in smaller chunks. It's a compromise for finding a "buy in bulk and save" vs. "underused purchase" argument. I see the 2x 3 day and 3x 7 day selling a LOT.

edit: and yeah, all this is low priority compared to the rest of your going's on.

Edited by Big Tin Man, 13 October 2014 - 01:08 PM.

[TercieI]

Javin, on 13 October 2014 - 12:57 PM, said:

I would like to ask for a couple of day notice on what events are happening on the weekends. This was an excellent event. I like helping people try all the game types. I like free premium time and cockpit items. However knowing what is coming helps me plan my weekend. Thank you.

Big +1. Free is free, but knowing even Thursday would be really nice.

[Tiger Dad]

Yes, I guess I would agree that free is free. Banking a 24 hr period may be something that is less of a concern when there are bigger things to work on to make the game more exciting that it already is (PUTTING JUMPJETS ON MY DIREWOLF!!!) J/K. But I do appreciate the freebies for the play. Keeps me from grinding just to pay for the next mech I buy. Cockpit items are fun. I was actually looking at the 1 year anniversary cake in my cockpit in my KitFox once and I got shot in the head.OBVIOUSLY, MY BAD.
When I put my kid to bed tonight, I'm going to pew pew, zap zap, boom boom pow, until my wife tells me to wash the dishes and go to sleep to work tomorrow.

[Golden Vulf]

Well, as soon as I finished a challenge, I went to sleep and wasted 7 hours of premium time each day.

Edited by Golden Vulf, 13 October 2014 - 02:02 PM.

[Rehl]

All of the premium time boo-hooing aside (mine included), I will say that I still had a lot of fun completing the challenges.

[A Man In A Can]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 13 October 2014 - 12:23 PM, said:

Let's try not to be abrasive or resentful of one another. It only means we you love the game the more we argue, but it also impedes fresh ideas.

I'll note it is already possible to purchase Premium Time subscriptions in-game whenever desired in 1-day, 3-day, 7-day, 30-day, 180-day and 360-day.

We haven't been too keen on adding smaller doses because those would just end up being those kinds of things most veterans would be telling newbies to shy away from if they prefer bang for their buck. Since we've got such higher stakes objectives ahead of us, it seems like a low priority objective with all that in mind... The priority target value point is intended to start at the monthly and annual subscription. We want you to take advantage and make unlimited use of our servers and game throughout that time.*

*Even to that point where the servers are pushed to their limits...
If you did encounter any "Failed to Find Match" prompts this weekend, that is the most probable cause. Russ has mentioned looking into the matter ASAP.

But...but...but Niko, what if some of us don't care about getting the best bang for our buck, but would rather get the best bang for our time in this instance? Wouldn't giving at least one option smaller than a day open the doors to a whole flood of micro transactions adding up to a lot in the end?

That being said, what are the sales numbers looking like for 1 day's worth of Premium Time on average? Is it high enough to justify adding a smaller level?