75 replies to this topic

[Haipyng]

So I actually got up early today and went to work a little late so I could finish up the tournament challenge. I actually had zero fun grinding out the last of it today. It got me to thinking...

Looking it up now, it took me 90 games to get my 25 points. Lets say that with the wait between games I was averaging 10 minutes per game. That is 900 minutes or 15 hours of game play.

I didn't get to see it priced, but assuming it is like other champion lights...it should run around 1500MC. If I bought my MC at the 1250MC level that would be 180MC per dollar or about $8.33US for 1500MC

So my 15 hours of game play for the Raven earned me about $.56 per hour to grind that out over some not so fun conditions this type of tournament brings out.

Next time I am skipping the tournament weekend all together and just buying the prize if I really want it.

Edit: My bad math $.56 per hour not $1.80

Edited by Haipyng, 24 February 2015 - 03:26 AM.

[El Bandito]

That's why I didn't play this weekend for the challenge--I played it to master my C-Bill bought Wolverines (still no real money for you, PGI). The 39 points I gathered (which includes the Premuim Time, the Raven-3L and the Raven statue) is merely a by-product of my enjoyment. Hence I did not feel this challenge was a grind.

Edited by El Bandito, 23 February 2015 - 08:14 AM.

[Stoned Prophet]

Things like this are for people with more time than money man. I just ignore the challenges myself these days and prey on the people running (I kid you not saw it last night) King Crabs with 4 lrm 15s and a TAG and NOTHING ELSE. How my enforcer enjoys those tasty treats. Just enjoy killing bads and youll have your fun

[ibex230]

I play because it's fun and relaxing. I always get the challenge done regardless if I want to or not.

[Wintersdark]

I tried- I'd like a Raven, as eventually I'd like a set, but I have little playing time. If the tourney ran a bit lo,get, it'd be fine, but working Friday night and Monday morning, and having lots of stuff to do on the weekend... my 18 points where close but not enough.

Still, I made enough c-bills to buy it anyways, so there's that.

[Lucian Nostra]

Haipyng, on 23 February 2015 - 08:09 AM, said:

So I actually got up early today and went to work a little late so I could finish up the tournament challenge. I actually had zero fun grinding out the last of it today. It got me to thinking...

Looking it up now, it took me 90 games to get my 25 points. Lets say that with the wait between games I was averaging 10 minutes per game. That is 900 minutes or 15 hours of game play.

I didn't get to see it priced, but assuming it is like other champion lights...it should run around 1500MC. If I bought my MC at the 1250MC level that would be 180MC per dollar or about $8.33US for 1500MC

So my 15 hours of game play for the Raven earned me about $1.80 per hour to grind that out over some not so fun conditions this type of tournament brings out.

Next time I am skipping the tournament weekend all together and just buying the prize if I really want it.

Thats the problem your playing just for the prize and not to play the game..

[JC Daxion]

well you can look at it this way...

you typically get some free premium time, which gives you a C-bill boost, and XP boost, to help you level other mechs, and buy modules, upgrades, outfit with weapons ect...

then if the event gets you to play a bunch of matches, you should end up with a lotta XP, and C-bills.. the free mech is gravy at the end..

that said, I really dislike the whole win/need a kill and assist combo.. I much prefer the point system ones, where it doesn't mater if you win or loose, you just need X amount of points. They could just make you need more points, and that would take away the frustration of wining/loosing,, or the I did 800+ damage, and got 10 assists, and 3 Most damage done, but still didn't get a point!

btw, took me 62 matches.. I ended up on the winning team 40 times... I already had a raven SL, but the engine is nice, and the free Bay, and now when i play the mech that i enjoy anyway, i will be getting bonus GXP.. In the end.. The premium time is the best part if ya ask me

I ended up buying an XL-325, and got another 4M to upgrade some mechs i bought on sale during faction sales.. all and all not a bad use of my time.

Edited by JC Daxion, 23 February 2015 - 08:43 AM.

[Vassago Rain]

I think I blew 5 hours total on the raven. I wasn't originally gonna bother, but when I checked the stat page the other day, I had 12 points already, so I figured 'hmm, I'm halfway there, and that was like an hour playing with some new guys. How hard can it be to grind the statue?'

Well, it was pretty hard, and frustrating. I took a 2 or so month break from MWO, and stubbornly grinding the raven reminded me why I took a break in the first place. In the end, I could only be assed to get the robot, not the statue. When I got the last point, and the game confirmed the raven was mine, I gleefully alt+F4'd MWO in favor of doing something productive.

Edited by Vassago Rain, 23 February 2015 - 08:43 AM.

[0bsidion]

That's pretty much how I feel about it. 25 kills in and of itself is challenging. 25 kills that must occur during winning matches is a soul-sucking grind fest that saps anything resembling fun right out of the game. It really isn't worth it to me. I'd rather play a handful of games and try and enjoy myself.

[C E Dwyer]

I didn't get it I didn't try, I played roughly 30 games over the weekend, so wasn't likely to achieve it, I only logged on as much as I did to skill up the panthers and enforcers.

[Hydrocarbon]

ibex230, on 23 February 2015 - 08:17 AM, said:

I play because it's fun and relaxing. I always get the challenge done regardless if I want to or not.

THIS is not fun nor relaxing:




You obviously aren't in ELO Hell, or you're being sarcastic. You aren't grouped with n00bs & expected to carry harder. You're the guy that is my opposite, I turn the torso red & you get the kill. You're the DRG-1N who's arm I put 3x alpha strikes of 56dmg at point blank & not even have your armor stripped. You're the guy who's whole lance eats me up because my team thought they were playing a NASCAR sim & ran around the map single-file.

I have never, ever had fun during these events - all I get are record losses in a row. Matchmaker goes haywire, then on top of it can't give a crap if it loads a team with ECM and gives the other n00bs in stock mechs.

I *am* giving up these absolute **** events. They'd be fun if I got typical matches, but all I get is a plummeting W:L ratio & headaches. I'd have more fun sucking some guy's "thumb" in an alley for cash, buying MC, then getting the crap prize with it.

Edited by Hydrocarbon, 23 February 2015 - 08:59 AM.

[Baron Blitz Fokheimer]

Out of 163 total matches (yes, I binged), I qualified 66 times (40.5%). For statistics/comparison: I have a 1.2 pug win rate and a kdr of about 2.3:1.

[Scyther]

I think that when people get together to play a bit of baseball or maybe a round of chess, they don't sit back afterwards and say "hey guys what did we get paid for this?".

I think of it as "cool, 3 days premium time! I can level up my new Panthers, earn some extra GXP and C-bills, practice my technique in various mechs. There's a challenge on so I get very fast matches in my lights, and there are lots of people playing fast and sloppy so I have some easy targets."

"Oh hey look, while I was doing the above, I got 25 points and a free Raven champion dropped onto me! With Endo, Ferro, DHS and a free XL295 Engine! That's worth millions! And now I can level the Raven too, on that free premium time I got for playing the game I wanted to play anyway!"

Somehow, wondering what my effective pay per hour was never worked its way in there...

[PR1VATEER]

Worst challenge yet. Very unreasonable and wasted my entire weekend, and still was 8 points short to get a stupid Raven! Grrrrr. My girlfriend was not amused at "ignoring " her either for this ludicrous challenge. Make it either 25 kills OR 25 wins, but not both!

[Vassago Rain]

MadBadger, on 23 February 2015 - 08:50 AM, said:

I think that when people get together to play a bit of baseball or maybe a round of chess, they don't sit back afterwards and say "hey guys what did we get paid for this?".

I think of it as "cool, 3 days premium time! I can level up my new Panthers, earn some extra GXP and C-bills, practice my technique in various mechs. There's a challenge on so I get very fast matches in my lights, and there are lots of people playing fast and sloppy so I have some easy targets."

"Oh hey look, while I was doing the above, I got 25 points and a free Raven champion dropped onto me! With Endo, Ferro, DHS and a free XL295 Engine! That's worth millions! And now I can level the Raven too, on that free premium time I got for playing the game I wanted to play anyway!"

Somehow, wondering what my effective pay per hour was never worked its way in there...

This isn't baseball, chess, or anything like that. The christmas and halloween events, while they didn't award nearly as much stuff as the raven grind, were fun.

I had lots of FUN checking what my random draw item was back during the christmas event, even if some of them were single heatsinks. After the raven grind, everybody was happy that they no longer had to play MWO.

[Haipyng]

MadBadger, on 23 February 2015 - 08:50 AM, said:

I think that when people get together to play a bit of baseball or maybe a round of chess, they don't sit back afterwards and say "hey guys what did we get paid for this?".

I think of it as "cool, 3 days premium time! I can level up my new Panthers, earn some extra GXP and C-bills, practice my technique in various mechs. There's a challenge on so I get very fast matches in my lights, and there are lots of people playing fast and sloppy so I have some easy targets."

"Oh hey look, while I was doing the above, I got 25 points and a free Raven champion dropped onto me! With Endo, Ferro, DHS and a free XL295 Engine! That's worth millions! And now I can level the Raven too, on that free premium time I got for playing the game I wanted to play anyway!"

Somehow, wondering what my effective pay per hour was never worked its way in there...

Not quite the same thing. The tournament got me fixated on qualifying for the Raven. Every match I didn't qualify for regardless of how much damage I dealt, whether our team won or not, or how many kills I rang up felt like a loss. This, like the Cataphract Tournament before it, also changes the overall tone of the game.

The overall point of my post was the prize wasn't worth it. I lost sight of the fun.

Edited by Haipyng, 23 February 2015 - 09:10 AM.

[Mystere]

Haipyng, on 23 February 2015 - 08:09 AM, said:

So my 15 hours of game play for the Raven earned me about $1.80 per hour ...

There is a reason I do not compare my real-life hourly rate with my in-game earning rates. Playing is for fun, not a second job.

But, anybody who tried to take away my free time to do work got charged at least double my real-life hourly rate. And it ain't cheap. <maniacal >

Edited by Mystere, 23 February 2015 - 09:06 AM.

[DaZur]

Fair points OP and while I appreciate and agree with them... At the end of the day PGI isn't giving away this stuff, we're earning it.

Like a lot of players the time and sanity investment required does not meet the payout and as such I did not stretch to meet the ask of the tournament.

Personally I earned the premium time and bailed... That's all the effort I could stomach.

[Pjwned]

The thing is that the 25-point prize is not the only value with the tournament, there's also the premium time on top of the standard c-bills & XP that you get, and ideally you should be having at least some amount of fun even if the challenge may highlight other problems with the game; it's also just free stuff that you don't have to pay for, you largely just play the game enough and then win it.

Unfortunately I couldn't really complete the challenge in time, but honestly I'm not bothered that much because I've managed to win a ton of free stuff over a long period, not the least of which is over a dozen free mech bays. I also started rather late even though I could have started earlier in the event, so it's mostly my fault in the end if I couldn't finish it.

Edited by Pjwned, 23 February 2015 - 09:13 AM.

[Ursh]

It's not the worst challenge, there was one a couple of months back that require you to get a kill, a win, and survive, and that was horrible. Anyone who got a kill in the beginning hid for the rest of the match and didn't contribute if there was any danger of them getting shot at.