70 replies to this topic

[Dimento Graven]

Kdogg788, on 19 August 2015 - 11:14 AM, said:

...

To be honest, they would be better served selling nothing but packages and bundles for buying regular mechs. Single buying mechs with MC makes no sense whatsoever.

-k

Meh, I sometimes have purchased heros with MC, so... Y'know... There's that...

[TLBFestus]

Dimento Graven, on 19 August 2015 - 10:29 AM, said:

We'd be where the leeches needed to get off their wallets and start spending, that's where we'd be!

Gotta disagree there.

PGI needs to figure out how to market better. People have been asking for decals, custom geometry and other things that they would gladly pay for. Sure, some of it might be difficult (custom geometry) but others would be pretty simple to implement and market.

If colors were cheap enough, they'd sell more...probably (and i have no facts to back this up, just a gut feeling) a lot more and they'd make up in true micro-transactions for the price reduction. I know i'd buy colors...probably dozens if they were all a buck or less all the time. My wallet could crack open a touch and once that happens there is lots of evidence that those previous un-cracked wallets STAY open.

It's a FREE to Play game, so there is no way you can blame the "leeches" (as you refer to non paying players). Matter of fact they are needed. Think of them as "plankton" for the ""Whales" to feed off. It's PGIs responsibility to find methods to convert as many of the free players into spenders.

It really strikes me as that they (PGI) don't have the creativity to think of ways to fund this game other than mech packs. All they see is big ticket items and they can't seem to fathom selling hundreds of color schemes and patterns as being as profitable as selling one mech pack. I mean, really,......really.....They have to spend cash to develop mechs...did they have to invent red, blue, or orange? Simple answer is "No, they just insert a color code". Tell me which is easier to do.

[Dimento Graven]

TLBFestus, on 19 August 2015 - 01:36 PM, said:

Gotta disagree there.

PGI needs to figure out how to market better. People have been asking for decals, custom geometry and other things that they would gladly pay for. Sure, some of it might be difficult (custom geometry) but others would be pretty simple to implement and market.

If colors were cheap enough, they'd sell more...probably (and i have no facts to back this up, just a gut feeling) a lot more and they'd make up in true micro-transactions for the price reduction. I know i'd buy colors...probably dozens if they were all a buck or less all the time. My wallet could crack open a touch and once that happens there is lots of evidence that those previous un-cracked wallets STAY open.

It's a FREE to Play game, so there is no way you can blame the "leeches" (as you refer to non paying players). Matter of fact they are needed. Think of them as "plankton" for the ""Whales" to feed off. It's PGIs responsibility to find methods to convert as many of the free players into spenders.

It really strikes me as that they (PGI) don't have the creativity to think of ways to fund this game other than mech packs. All they see is big ticket items and they can't seem to fathom selling hundreds of color schemes and patterns as being as profitable as selling one mech pack. I mean, really,......really.....They have to spend cash to develop mechs...did they have to invent red, blue, or orange? Simple answer is "No, they just insert a color code". Tell me which is easier to do.

As someone who invested heavily, and continues to do so, in this game I can tell you that all I heard was excuses why you won't pay any money and expect everyone else to pay for your game play.

I'm not saying you are wrong, I'm saying that's what I 'heard'...

Technically, you're not wrong, HOWEVER, given that many (I'm not saying 'you personally') have yet to spend a dime, or have spent extremely little over the years they have played, yet continuously ***** and complain about various things that require paid resources to fix/change, I find it a... disingenuous perspective, at the least, to maintain.

It gets rather irksome to continuously find posts where people claim that:

They've been playing for years.
They haven't spent a dime, or haven't spent a dime since the founders period.
They won't spend a dime until they get what they want.

It's worse when they do the above and then come off like everyone else who is currently paying for things is some sort of a moron...

Because I believe that eventually we'll have an incredible game, I continue to invest, even in 'mechs I don't play that often. I haven't bought absolutely every hero, but I've bought probably close to half of what's available, and I have purchased EVERY 'mech package (excepting the ones that included GOLD 'mechs, sorry, had I the cache I would have, but I'm not THAT rich).

You don't want to invest at that level, fine, I understand, but dang it, find the LEAST objectionable thing and pay for that. Where PGI sees the dollar signs is where they're going to invest their time and effort.

[TLBFestus]

Dimento Graven, on 19 August 2015 - 01:53 PM, said:

As someone who invested heavily, and continues to do so, in this game I can tell you that all I heard was excuses why you won't pay any money and expect everyone else to pay for your game play.

I'm not saying you are wrong, I'm saying that's what I 'heard'...

Ummmmm......I have spent money. The biggest Founders option (Legendary?) to the tune of $120. I'm capable of spending more, but I just don't see the value at the price point PGI sets.

Nothing wrong with that if you do either. When it comes right down to it price isn't the issue, it's value. I don't value the product as much as some obviously do.

So while I won't buy mechs at the price they want, I could very well buy hundreds of dollars of vanity items if they were at a price point that I valued. It's not that I won't spend money, I will if I feel I'm getting the value. Cheap colors etc., would get me spending.

Whales will still buy at lower prices, they'd just buy more. By lowering prices, you can bring more people into spending money. Wouldn't PGI be better off if they kept their current spenders and added a bunch more? That's all i'm suggesting.

[Nutlink]

Lily from animove, on 19 August 2015 - 06:45 AM, said:

good, you bouht all WOW games + expansion, but hey what about the monthly fee? 3years of WOW 300€ (or even more I think it was 10€ a month if you made the longest subscription)
So yeah... not even talkign the money for the entire subscription if you started WITH WoW together.

And if you look at WoW's mount prices, which are not even fully vehicles, to be used in every situation, instead just when riding around, what do they cost?


GG biased example is biased example.

btw, you don't have to buy anything in MWO, to fully play the game, in WOW you HAD to buy ALL packages and you HAD to buy all subscriptions to play the game to its current state.

Actually I've never played WoW before. I had to look it up. If anything I dislike the Warcraft series before and have loved BT/MW for over 20 years. How am I being biased? I had to look up mounts in WoW as well. $25 for a mount doesn't really seem fair either, but that still wouldn't buy me a single Daishi in MWO, much less the 3 needed to at least Elite it. Not to mention you can buy those with real money instead of converted fake currency. Seriously, the only way to buy a Daishi is spending, at minimum, $49.95 to have enough MC to buy it, and even that that only gives you enough to buy ONE Daishi. That's insane. You know what $50 gets you in WoW now? The base game, most of the expansions, and 3 months of play time. Over time they've lowered prices to access content, something MWO should be doing as well.

Now, if I didn't spend any money on customization at all I could buy the cheapest Daishi for 17,149,906. Lets say I don't spend any money on the game, no premium time, and have been around long enough to have already spent my Cadet Bonus. I average 100k a game. It would take me about 172 games just to buy a Daishi. If I'm lucky and every game only ran me 6 minutes on average I'd have to spend over 17 hours to buy that mech. Want to master it? Over 52 hours of play time required. That's not including the time it takes to find a game, nor does it factor in any CBills you need to customize the mech. I wouldn't actually mind the prices nearly as much if I wasn't forced into buying 2 more variants I don't want just to max out the one that I do. 17 hours of play time to access the most expensive mech isn't so bad. 52 hours to make that mech as efficient as possible is. I don't know about you, but I play more than MWO, and I rarely do more than 15 hours a week. Even if I dedicated 10 of those hours to MWO I would still end up taking about 6 weeks for that mech.

And that's only one chassis. What if it turns out you don't really care for it? 6 weeks and over 51 million CBills down the drain. I value my time more than my money. I've spent over $500 on this game within the first 16 months of it being out. That may not be as much as some, but it's still a significant sum. I'm not about to spend any more money on this game just to try to keep up with everything. It's not worth the money. If I could drop $20-30 a month and get every mech as they come out I'd be on top of that, but no way in hell I'll ever that kind of money on a single variant of a single chassis ever again.

If other people see the value in what is being asked, good for them. It's their decision and I'm not going to vilify or blame them at all. However, I just don't see any value in spending that kind of money on this game anymore.

Edited by Nutlink, 19 August 2015 - 02:52 PM.

[Dimento Graven]

TLBFestus, on 19 August 2015 - 02:09 PM, said:

...

Whales will still buy at lower prices, they'd just buy more. By lowering prices, you can bring more people into spending money. Wouldn't PGI be better off if they kept their current spenders and added a bunch more? That's all i'm suggesting.

Unfortunately that's not always true, hence the death of MCI (the long distance phone company).

They lowered their prices to a GREAT price point and they did gain business, then, they basically went bankrupt.

Somewhere there's a break even point, perhaps we're well above it, but I'm not privy to the economics of PGI...

How much does it actually COST to have someone ADD a color to the game? NOW, how many units can you REASONABLY expect to sell? NOW, how many units at what price do you have to sell in order to, at the very least, break even?

I'm very ignorant to PGI's internal structure, overhead, and the like. I could guess, I've had a long career working for software companies, but, my experience let's me know (I'm back to being 'Captain Obvious' here) that it's different for everyone single company so my guess still wouldn't be worth all that much.

Obviously the prices aren't meant to be exclusionary, however, they're not that bad either.

Yeah the vanity items, camo, and colors are, I ASSUME, to be the vast majority of 'micro transactions' that take place, direct purchase of 'mechs and MC, are a mid tier level above 'micro', but FOR THE MOST PART, aren't priced that dearly either.

Fortunately the 'mech packs as they come out include a lot of the 'micro' and 'mid tier', which is why I consider them such a great deal. They come with all the 'mechs I might want, plus camo, plus colors, plus vanity items, plus MC, plus premium time. Honestly without the 'mech packs including the vanity stuff I'd never have any of it unless it was received during an event give away.

I have no interest in 'glaming up' my cockpit, if you know my history, it's obvious why...

[Narcissistic Martyr]

Troutmonkey, on 18 August 2015 - 04:05 PM, said:

We've known this for ages, but I still don't understand. Why are the prices in this game so screwed up?

I'm going to give you a very fracking simple answer.

Because they have determined that is the optimal price point to make the most money.

[Dimento Graven]

Nutlink, on 19 August 2015 - 02:49 PM, said:

...

You know what $50 gets you in WoW now? The base game, most of the expansions, and 3 months of play time. Over time they've lowered prices to access content, something MWO should be doing as well.

...

I'm a nutter that used to play EQ. I paid for two accounts (mine and my wife's) for damn near 10 years, plus ALL the expansion packs that came with it. Even with purchasing EVERY SINGLE 'mech pack and all the heros, I'm STILL NO WHERE NEAR what I spent for EQ...

The irony is that now EQ is F2P (or more appropriately labeled 'Freemium' with LOTES of P2W spending opportunities) on Steam.

Do I begrudge the literal thousands spent over the years for EQ?

Not hardly, I had years of fun with it.

I hope to have the same in MWO.

[sycocys]

Something something... microtransactions are for panzies and Americans will buy any f'n thing if they think its on 'sale'.

I have purchased more than my fair share, and stopped because PGI hasn't developed anywhere near what I would consider to be somewhere in the same realm of what I invested into them. The prices really aren't terrible, what I find terrible is the total lack of development of a game. Barely any maps (given 3 years), the modes are essentially all the same exact thing (including the 'new' CW mode), and the only thing they've actually made is mechs which quite a few new ones are already completely worthless with the invention of the quirk system.

[Kubernetes]

Meh, I'll wait for it to go on sale for CBills. I've got almost 50 mech bays, 6 heroes, a champion, three TWolves paid for with real cash, so I've put plenty of money in this game. I'll spend more money when I see a mech that I must must have, like a Marauder.