Well CW came out and MWO got some attention again so I decided to come back despite the most adamant claims being to the OPness of Clans and how the game remains P2W. Some people said "oh Clans got nerfed it's okay now" well the first thing I see on the website is another pre-order package. Joyous.
However it's only once I start playing games that it becomes unapproachable the concept that clans are still OP. After reading these forums it becomes clear that Clans are OP. Why? Not because people say they're OP, but the degree to which people will go to defend them, something that isn't OP doesn't get defended so strongly and by so many personal attacks unless we all know that they are OP and that people just don't want to lose that.
The problem remains that MWO is still a joke across the internet. The problem is that PGI pretends that now since everyone can "get timberwolves for free" (farm for 60 hours to get 1 of the 3 you need) that the problem is gone. Well first off if something is OP it's OP no matter if it's given out as a christmas gift to everyone for actually free. Second off, no. Clan mechs are most expensive than their IS counterparts by far. The game still remains a massive grind fest taking absurd times to just get a few mechs. Worse yet though is that even if people DID want to buy in to the game they'd hit a massive ******* pay wall of $50 to get a Timber Wolf.
Now lets compare MWO to two games it always likes to compare itself to, LoL and WoT: The first comparison is obvious since PGI themselves compared their pricing scheme to LoL's and said it was fair. The problem with this one is that you do not need to buy a new rune page for every champion in LoL, and champions in LoL tend to be balanced enough against each other. Worse yet is that champions in LoL do not need endo-steel nor DHS and most of the time they don't even need an XL engine. WORST yet is that since making that comment Clantech has come out and the pricing for the strongest mechs has gone up considerably with the best clan mechs themselves not even being available for in game currency for like 6 months. The Timber Wolf is more expensive by far than the most expensive mech in the game as of the time of PGI's comment and the comment itself ignored the fact that mechs need more upgrades and parts after purchase, LoL champions do not.
The second comparison is the good one. WoT tanks are about the same price as MWO mechs, right? Except the more expensive the purchase the higher tier you fight along. A new player can buy a Centurian and go "oh boy time to play me some MWO" promptly get **** slapped by a Dire Wolf or Timber Wolf. What's more is that WoT's pricing structure is there because their XP/money curve matches up. You can level in WoT and never float XP nor money and feel like you're progressing on par. In MWO you quickly start floating XP while struggling to afford even medium mechs in a reasonable time (lord help you if you want a heavy+ clan mech.) This means the player is often left with little choice than to buy in if he wants to keep progressing. The problem then becomes the pricing. Hawken and other similar games with small playerbases place their prices low to encourage new players to buy in. MWO acts like it's an industry juggernaut when the reality is it struggles to get by.
The combination of an absolute grindfest to reach anything worth noting, the power spike in the higher priced mechs (Clans) and pre-orders constantly being released containing more powerful mechs is exactly why MWO is such a joke to the gaming community. It's P2W, Pay2NotGrind, Pay2Play in many cases since going in to CW without a top tier set of Clan mechs means you're going to be dying to many Timber Wolves, and worse yet it's feature light.
Maybe MWO can keep acting like it's an industry juggernaut, keeping it's P2W and it's pricing and everything about itself while at the same time not actually being what it thinks it is. Maybe the dedicated playerbase will keep shoving money at you. But how many more tricks does it have left in store? They won't allow any mech to be better than the Timber Wolf and CW is now "released." That's pretty much it for your strategies. Unless you make some real changes (and it's probably too late as is) you're just going to continue to alienate anyone who tries to play while at the same time discouraging your remaining players from staying.
This is all a lie! I have anecdotal evidence that this one time I used a trebuchet and killed three Timber Wolves clan tech is fine and balanced and I think the game is fair and please don't notice my clan founder insignia!
Edited by hashinshin, 21 December 2014 - 10:33 AM.