Zibmo, on 03 November 2015 - 06:54 AM, said:
Yes, you're right. They've catered to the "casual masses" so well that many have abandoned this game - witness the low population. My IRL friends, for example. Comments about "casual masses" and "underhive" do not convey any proof that you are superior to them. In fact, largely those term indicate that the person that uttered them either have a very small member and are overcompensating and/or are completely unaware of how the "real world" (don't you hate it when it interferes with your fantasy?) works. Every company is greedy. If they don't start that way, either they end that way because the people who work at companies have this ridiculous expectation of getting paid or they cease to operate. Crazy isn't it?
Or perhaps those who insist that people should have fun any way they want as long as it's the "approved" way. Irony.
Or that you have zero idea what I refer to.
Casual masses, refers to trying to garner the market on the majority of gamers, those who jump about from one new, hot game, to another. Very few games garner massive customer loyalty. A few, massive games, like WoW, CoD appeal to the masses, and thus, get constant influx of casual gamers. Niche games, do not, and tend to survive by focusing on a core of loyal whales, particularly ones based off of long running IPs.
Guess which category Mechwarrior has ALWAYS been in?
Mechwarrior for a while was a very successful Niche Game, back in the late 1990s/early 2000s. But even then, it never moved product like your Tomb Raiders, Everquest, etc.
MWO, when crowdfunding through their Founders Program, painted grandiose dreams of a SimLite, Immersive, Hardmode vision of the IP, which basically had not been seen since MW2: Mercs, or possibly before. A game that was acknowledged it was niche, embraced it.
At some point, dreams of Esports, Steam, etc, dreams of suddenly capturing the casual gaming masses, entered PGIs thought process. And they started adapting the game to try to appeal to that, with hackneyed attempts at 3pV, etc.
And every step they took to achieve it, has driven away more and more loyalists to the actual IP, and reduced play numbers, reduced income. Because MWO is Niche, as MW has always been. And now, it is still niche, but niche that alienated a substantial group of well set in life, older whales. And has scarcely attracted, or retained, new, and casual customers.
Don't mistake lack of success at doing something with the attempt to do it.
So take your Internet PC indignation, and go champion baby seals or some actual cause.