oldradagast, on 16 January 2015 - 01:18 PM, said:
Wow... nothing like the internet to make people lose faith in humanity.
A few simple things to consider:
1) Most people play games for fun. They do not play them to be stomped over and over again particularly at 30-minutes+ per stomp and when the stomping often happens for reasons outside their control (matchmaking, or lack of it.)
2) CW does nothing to prevent frequent stomps.
3) CW "mysteriously" is bleeding out players at a high rate, particular casual and new players.
The casual observer might suspect that points 1 and 2 - which are facts - might have something to do with point 3.
But, no. Instead let's use the following "logic" to defend the current setup:
1) Some people like being stomped, so everyone should like it. "Life sucks" excuses it all.
2) Pitting foes of comparable skill against each other - like every other non-professional game out there - is now "handing out wins" for some reason.
3) CW is the land of infinite skill and "real war", but free wins via PUG stomps and ghost drops are a vital part of that "skill"
If PGI wasn't bleeding resources over this mess, the above illogic train would almost be laughable... whatever, guys.. .keep dreaming. Maybe, someday, all the casual players will suddenly *want* to lose over and over again, and they'll come back... or not...
It's not really a mystery that there aren't as many players in CW as there were when it launched. This happens when any new feature is added to any game. Everyone wants to try it.
Then those people who find the new feature isn't for them return to the parts of the game that they prefer, resulting in a decrease in population as those who probably shouldn't have been there in the first place leave until something else new brings them in for another look.
The important thing is, unlike quite a few other games out there, MWO doesn't prevent any player from accessing any part of the game content, even parts not intended for their level of play or preference of play. A brand new, Day One player can jump into a starter mech and run into CW, if they choose to do so. If their skill is up to the task, they can challenge anyone in the game without any serious penalties (I don't think you will find anyone who thinks some of the current Starter mechs aren't very good machines even for vets to use) because it is the player's own abilities and knowledge that primarily drive their capabilities in the game, not some arbitrary level system.
However, just because someone can jump into a part of the game intended for players with experience in the game who are part of a full 12-man team does not mean that they should have an expectation to have equal odds of success when they enter it as a player without the experience and/or as a PUG. They go in with the full knowledge of what they are facing, or they have to accept the consequences of not researching what they are choosing to do.
So, is it a mystery that the numbers of players in the CW portion of the game have dropped from the initial surge when it was released? No. It is the simple result of attrition of those who tried it and found it did not offer them the game conditions that interested them, and those who simply are not ready for CW yet. Neither of these should have been in CW to begin with under the rules most top-end/hard core content operates under in other MMOs, but this game allows the -player- to make that decision, and to make the determination if they can or will play this part of the game. That's a very large amount of freedom granted to the player, and with that freedom comes the responsibility for the outcome of their own actions and choices.
Also, as has been noted, the initial release of CW occurred when a very large number of the playerbase had a number of days that were completely free of time to play as much as they wanted due to a holiday. Now that the holiday has passed, the amount of time many players have to participate in the game at all has been sharply reduced, resulting in yet another reason for the numbers in the CW queues to drop.
Lastly, it is instructive to note this is still the initial version of CW. Many players have overlooked this and already passed judgement on it as though it were a final product. As well, many players simply lack the patience to wait for things, and the moderate wait time of 20 minutes at the outside for a match is simply beyond their capabilities. For both of these players, CW will never be an acceptable mode of play.
Edited by Jakob Knight, 16 January 2015 - 04:16 PM.
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