King Arthur IV, on 28 October 2015 - 12:59 PM, said:
i think the community needs to think more long run.
first make a great competitive environment by reducing the faction number because mwo does not have a huge player base.
As the game become more accessible, fun, balance, and most in important; populated; then you add in other factions bit by bit.
i doubt it will happen cuz too many of you old farts can't move past your nostalgia.
In re below
TLDR: balance is certainly necessary to the long term play-ability of the game but if you make THIS game something other than a MECHWARRIOR game the "old farts" will leave the game in droves...and that may be the end of the game.
Totally agree with the initial sentiment of above email. Totally disagree with conclusory statement/assertion.
I see this here and there in the forums that some how the reliance on lore, distinctive mechs, and/or the imbalance between IS and Clan mechs (lore based) and the insistence by "old farts" that these things be at least respected if not maintained is somehow responsible for many of the negatives in MWO.
Couple things I always think when I see these comments:
1) Mechwarrior is in the tittle of the game. That suggests that the game ought to have something to do with well, Mechwarrior.
If you want a robot game there is Hawkin. If you want a tank game, there are a few as well. There is only 1 Mechwarrior game...it ought to be a game about and within the Mechwarrior universe. Crazy I know.
2) The gameplay issues that this game has are certainly in part do to the developers insistence on setting the game up to include clans vs IS and the associated difficulty in trying to balance these forces*, but again this is not the fault of the player base and our desire to have a game relevant to the Mechwarrior universe. I predict however that if PGI decides to go full "balance" and effectively make IS and clan mechs interchangeable (BV or function-wise) then a lot of us "old farts" will abandon the game. Apropos:
3) This game has a limited player base. Based on these forums and my interactions in game...the "old farts" seem like the majority. Certainly the majority willing to pony up real $ in support of the game. When the "old farts" leave because the game is turned in to Hawkin II or is just poorly rendered walking tanks with no Mechwarrior feel then...the game will soon thereafter cease.
*As an aside: In re IS and Clan imbalance, I say keep it. Let the clans be "OP" or better or whatever. Increase the distinctions even more. The easiest cure for this "imbalance" (obviously the lore aspect of vastly greater IS #s isn't workable from a population perspective or PGI's willingness/ability to do 12 vs 10 drops) would be to make three ques for all game play modes: IS only, Clan only and Mixed. In CW the que type would be determined by the map geography and designation by players house or clan affiliations, with mercenarys able to attack wherever and against whomever with reduced rewards based on distance from a base planet (or something along those lines).