25 replies to this topic

[crustydog]

I am now in my sixth month of MWO. One of the things I've learned is this: You can choose to look at this game on the dark side or the bright side. There is plenty to criticize, and I do not see that changing any time soon. On the other hand, I know of nowhere else where I can drive my favorite battlemechs.

I have not invested serious money into this game, and I have little intention of doing so unless some kind of ownership is attached to that investment.... then I might reconsider. For now I am content with my situation, and that is enough for me.

The game itself does seem to be coming along, if somewhat slowly. These things take time. I think the major source of disappointment originates in underestimation of just how long it takes for a small company to complete a large project.

I spent ten years building my last company. It seems like a long time. It is, in fact, only 120 months. If you can get a couple of decent developments in a month, then you can have 240 such developments in a decade.

It took years to get things working smoothly, because what often looks simple on paper is in fact very difficult in practice... and the bigger the project gets, the harder it becomes to operate it. The real trick is to grow the project without destroying it, and that requires establishing a state of balance that leans towards growth, while maintaining cash flow, investor, employee, and player happiness, along with everything else that must be done to keep it alive.

For now, despite severe storms and a couple of crippling torpedo hits, the ship of MWO is still afloat and sailing towards it's destination. Overall, the business crisis at PGI (IGP) appears to be stabilized for the moment, the game itself appears to be moving forward again, the forums are busy and the players are playing. CW needs a lot of work, but that is to be expected.

Assuming PGI is intending to continue development of this project as a long term commitment, I would like to see PGI do more to embrace it's player base and start to harvest some of the very resourceful and free labour value contained therein. That is one of the greatest available assets in the internet era. A map making committee, for example, could dramatically increase map production, at little to no cost to the company. Opening up the code a bit, like Mozilla, could greatly enhance code development. There is so much more that can be done, without needing additional sources of investment capital.

We already see some of this in some areas of the MWO community. I believe we could see a great deal more, and if it is carefully managed, we could greatly enhance the game.

[SilentWolff]

Unfortunately, because content is lacking and what content is added isn't added nearly fast enough, your bound to get bored quickly imo.

[Zolaz]

Stoned Prophet, on 12 March 2015 - 10:06 AM, said:

PEOPLE STOP USING THE WORD VIABLE WRONG IT SHOWS YOURE IGNORANT.

Like ... literally *in Valley Girl accent*

[C E Dwyer]

Bottom line is either you come back or you don't.

Sounds to me that you just want someone to blame for 'wasting' your time, if you come back and don't like it, not like it would hurt to drop for a few matches you as a founder have mechs after all

[terrycloth]

It's not a wildly different game than six months ago. It's slightly better -- pulse lasers are useful now, and they just removed AC2 ghost heat which makes them possible to use if you use a ton of them. Although still not awesome.

VOIP is nice. Not always used, but it's a lot easier than typing.

The Quirks make a lot of crappy IS mechs usable. The good IS mechs didn't get (significant) quirks and are still good, except for the firestarters that did get quirks for some reason and now all of them are annoyingly dangerous and not just Embers. So, it shuffled around which mechs were 'best' but I think it brought them better in line with each other than they used to be.

CW would be fun if you could play it in the solo queue. They let PUGs play on the real map, but PUGs nearly always lose. Badly. And it's a respawn mode that takes a half hour, so it hurts more. It sounds like they're working on a 4v4 mode for PUGs (or more realistically, smaller groups) to contribute without always facing 12-mans? But still, if you're not in the top 10% of the population skill-wise, you're probably going to go up against the people that are and hate life.

So, if you quit 6 months ago because you were bored, quirks might hold your interest for a little while. If you have friends that still play, you might get something out of CW. Otherwise it's fundamentally the same game, so whatever reason you had to leave is probably still in effect.

[Insidious Johnson]

Ghost heat? Check!
Some mech's geometry better than others? Check! ( Firestarter tanks more than Atlas these days)
Hit Reg work occasionally? Check!
Spawn points borked so that both teams are punished?Check!
Mech Quirks for Z team mechs that lore should have seen die to do lack of sales? Check!

All in all progress is mostly in the minds of the hopeful. It is better. It is not as sold nor as anticipated as a Founder. Perhaps, one day, it might be. Until then, we still have Paul to make sure that day stays beyond the horizon.