58 replies to this topic

[D000M]

I've been playing a while, and I have noticed that this game just automatically assumes that everyone that gets involved just knows 'the lore'. Well, let me assure you, they DO NOT! The main issue with this game and the reason it does not have more appeal, is directly linked to its inherent desire to alienate new players by giving them absolutely no backstory, and expecting them to search other websites and read outdated books from a decade ago in order to catch up. This is a serious marketing flaw as you are alienating an entire market from ever understanding or appreciating your games. Most games would not allow this sort of hierarchy of decades of age over market. Hey, what do you other players think?

Edited by Dr Octagon, 10 March 2015 - 06:00 AM.

[h0UNd]

Thoroughly entertaining conversation in game over voip about this over the weekend - did we lose - yes - was his point valid - yes - not something i had given much thought to until he mentioned he had played BT back in the day and had never gone on to keep up with the background through reading novels or playing various iterations of the MW franchise.

There is some lore scattered about the site - or at least there used to be - the timeline was great - can we at least have that back PGI?

Edited by h0UNd, 10 March 2015 - 01:03 AM.

[Soy]

They definitely need to explain **** more when Steam comes around, for sure.....

[Saint Scarlett Johan]

Instead of lore, I'd rather they explain the game mechanics.

[Brody319]

Should explain their new alt lore.

[MoonUnitBeta]

I don't fully know the lore.

A lot of the written content (loading screen tips included) need to be re-written. And a lot more added, the correct way.

[h0UNd]

Lord Scarlett Johan, on 10 March 2015 - 01:04 AM, said:

Instead of lore, I'd rather they explain the game mechanics.

There's game mechanics?

I slipped and had a tirade over the weekend to a pilot who lacked the understanding for the need for Target Locking. At least they PM'ed me and asked what I was on about - so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and spent a good 20 mins over a coffee to deliver them a detailed explanation. I expect there will be more of this to come with the Steam unification wars.

[Snoopy]

They should explain both : game mechanism and lore.

[MeiSooHaityu]

That was one thing IGP did do when they were involved, they made lore fluff ComStar news reports on the website.

I'm not going to say that is REAL submersive, but it was a little bit of background info that was posted as the timeline advanced.

If I had the choice though, no IGP is far better than a fluff ComStar news report.

I just kind of wish PGI had the staff to resume them.

[Kotzi]

Every geek was a noob. There are a lot of easy to get informations out there. You want to know more about the battletech universe? Educate yourself. Developement is slow enough as it is no need to implement stuff that already exist in many variations. German? http://www.twobt.de/ English? http://www.battletech.com/ There ya go, knock yourself out.

[h0UNd]

Kotzi, on 10 March 2015 - 02:32 AM, said:

Every geek was a noob. There are a lot of easy to get informations out there. You want to know more about the battletech universe? Educate yourself. Developement is slow enough as it is no need to implement stuff that already exist in many variations. German? http://www.twobt.de/ English? http://www.battletech.com/ There ya go, knock yourself out.

Point taken - acknowledged there is a fair bit of external sources ala Sarna and out of print FASA materiel, and normally I am all for promoting self sufficiency.

From the conversation I had with the OP, I got the impression Dr Octagon was speaking from the perspective of marketing and broadening the accessibility of MWO to a wider audience, or at the very least informing those already playing by guiding them to the richer history of the IP.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Here is some lore...

BattleTech Ep 1:
http://youtu.be/YqzEssjkMeU

Any excuse to link to the Battletech cartoon, I'm there. It's a 90's cheesy cartoon that isn't 100% accurate (takes liberties), but hey its all we are ever going to get when we are talking T.V. or Movies.

The site should link to all the episodes lol.

[Trashhead]

Fully agree.
We have an epic war here - Inner Sphre against the Clans - and the games tells you NOTHING about this.

As i wrote once: this game doe not create BattleTech fans, it consumes them.

Also agree we need a better Tutorial, but PGi is working on this, afaik.

[Alistair Winter]

Some of you probably expected me to shamelessly plug my Lore-thread, but I'm not going to do it.

Anyway, I heard a rumour that Paul Inouye was moving the timeline to 3053 BBY, which is crazy because it's still one thousand years before the Jedi Archives were constructed by the United Federation of Planets. I just hope the Inner Sphere forgeworlds have enough Space Marines to deal with Clan Elementals when they come.

I love Battletech.

Edited by Alistair Winter, 10 March 2015 - 04:57 AM.

[mogs01gt]

Dr Octagon, on 10 March 2015 - 12:40 AM, said:

I've been playing a while, and I have noticed that this game just automatically assumes that everyone that gets involved just knows 'the lore'. Well, let me assure you, they DO NOT! The main issue with this game and the reason it does not have more appeal, is directly linked to its inherent desire to alienate new players by giving them absolutely no backstory, and expecting them to search other websites and read outdated books from a decade ago in order to catch up. This is a serious marketing flaw as you are alienating an entire market from ever understanding or appreciating your games, essentially by being lazy. Most games would not allow this sort of hierarchy of decades of age over market. Whoever does your marketing should be fired. This is a serious flaw that any successful organization would have realized long ago... Hey, what do you other players think?

Why would PGI put effort into something that doesnt make anyone play better?

[Novakaine]

To bad they couldn't partner with Sarna.net.

[Raggedyman]

Dr Octagon, on 10 March 2015 - 12:40 AM, said:

I've been playing a while, and I have noticed that this game just automatically assumes that everyone that gets involved just knows 'the lore'. Well, let me assure you, they DO NOT! The main issue with this game and the reason it does not have more appeal, is directly linked to its inherent desire to alienate new players by giving them absolutely no backstory, and expecting them to search other websites and read outdated books from a decade ago in order to catch up.

You could probably add a 30 second "This is the future... we have walking tanks... we have lots of cool wars... come, blow things up!!" to the client start up sequence with minimal difficulty. Put in a nice and obvious "turn off intro" button and it won't get in the way.

[D000M]

Trashhead, on 10 March 2015 - 04:13 AM, said:

Fully agree.
We have an epic war here - Inner Sphre against the Clans - and the games tells you NOTHING about this.

As i wrote once: this game doe not create BattleTech fans, it consumes them.

Also agree we need a better Tutorial, but PGi is working on this, afaik.

YES! This is exactly what I was getting at. There is a rich story here being completely ignored. The game is essentially being treated as a plot-less FPS with no back-story, just senseless, albeit, awesome robot battle action - but unless you are already familiar with the game from years past, how are you to know this universe of detail even exists? How would you reach a new fan base that is not reading the forums, or perhaps, is not even interested in reading at all, but instead, gaming? That is the core of what I think needs to be addressed here.

[FupDup]

A little in-game encyclopedia of sorts with information like this (and the game mechanics themselves) would be nice.

[Johnny Z]

This is the biggest topic of Mechwarrior Online at the moment, in a round about way.

Alot of the gameplay basics are in. But there is not 1 NPC in game, no story, plot, player character, setting(other than the star map and mechbay and music etc.).

This comes down to adding the "warrior" to Mechwarrior because they have the mech part done really well(or under construction) and the warrior part not at all.

No question they are working on this. This is the most interesting addition to the game really since the game went to closed beta for me. (star map is up there but thats the mech part of mechwarrior)

Great topic. +1 for adding story to the game.

Does it even say in game that Mechwarrior takes place in the 31st century????? The guys making this game really make me shake my head sometimes LOL

Edited by Johnny Z, 10 March 2015 - 07:23 AM.