66 replies to this topic

[LegendaryArticuno]

PGI simply doesn't care about STEAM, and views it as competition rather than a resource.

Let's look at the facts:

1) No launch events to entice players when it had front page coverage, the most crucial time to draw in a large playerbase.

2) No product variety - only 4 packages and nothing down the pipeline. STEAM users will see this as a dead game with no new content or updates.

3) Uncompetitive pricing - STEAM users are the most value oriented consumers and when they see 4 overpriced packs, there will be immediate impressions of a pay2win game that you need to open up your wallet to have any progression.

4) No profile backgrounds and no trading cards - one the easiest way to advertise your game throughout STEAM, the lack of these simple features gives users an impression of a lazy developer and lack of commitment.

Due to these concerns the MWO STEAM Launch was a serious fumble, and will continue to gain negligible benefits until these concerns are addressed.

[Monkey Lover]

I can't say I agree with everything but you have some good points there.

[rolly]

You must be new. Welcome to the game. This is the way things are and have been. PGI possible only cares about Steam as its advertising to a ready audience. They wouldn't care if it didn't have a monetary value to gain from it. You are personifying a company. Please cite for me where in PGI's business model do they see Steam as a "competition rather than a resource".

You are also completely ignoring one important aspect. It doesn't matter if MWO doesn't have trading cards or a workshop. Its called niche marketing. How many other mech shooters that feed nostalgia are out there and on Steam? None that compete on MWO's level or extent. The only reasonable competition was Hawken. The last competitor to the Mechwarrior franchise was Heavy Gear.

Oh and by the way - there are a lot more concerns in the game that need to be addressed before nursing Steam users wants.

Edited by rolly, 27 February 2016 - 10:04 AM.

[Robot Kenshiro]

Heavy gear is possibly still a competitor

https://www.heavygear.com/ just for those who didnt know. Its the esports pgi wants mwo to be.

[Burke IV]

3 is a fair point. Steam is a swamp of beta, early access, ftp. Endless angry people complaining in the comments about how terrible the game was. I havent even looked at the steam store for a long time but i expect MWO comments sections is probably the same. Steam is great if you want your games stored online but its pricing is terrible. You look for what yo want on steam and then you google it and get a better price, you dont buy from steam

[Robot Kenshiro]

Still alpha but its been resurrected. I might give it a crack and see how it plays. Comes with pve from what ive been reading...and melee as standard going off the older games. Could be cool

[DjPush]

PGI did poorly on steam because they spent the last 2 years pandering to forum QQ threads about balance, map design and match maker woes. Then they put all their eggs in the "what mechs should be sold next" basket, instead of building a game model and match modes where all that **** worked itself out.

Now they have whales like myself choking to death on mech packs and begging to see something new in this game other than a re-skinned humanoid model and cockpit items to match it's paint scheme.

You won't get many new players out of a generation with the attention span of a puppy. They will spend 20 hours (I'm being generous with that estimate) doind the same thing until they realize there is nowhere to go in this game, and drop it without spending a dime.

I'm ranting. Nevermind the old salty vet. I really loved this game. However, I find myself playing a lot less and showing much more reserve when buying things from PGI these days.

[KaitRaven]

The pricing is a big thing. It has a very big cashgrab/P2W feel to it, even if its not necessarily true. I came very close not to playing the game at all because of how distasteful I found the funding model. I had actually tried MWO in 2013 but gave up very quickly in part due to that impression.

I feel very strongly that there would be a larger player base and more revenue for PGI if they had slashed prices. There are plenty of people who walk in the door, see mechs going for $20+, go "wtf?", and leave. Its a very poor price point for impulse buys on digital content, even for existing customers.

For example, the Unseen bundles could start at $9.99 for the basic bundles. Its half, but the hurdle feels substantially lower for people to make an impulse buy, or for new players to dive in. Hell, you could leave the Hero upgrade at $15 but more people would upgrade once they past the first hurdle of buying in. Other purchases would have to be scaled accordingly, but I think it would make a world of difference

Edited by KaitRaven, 27 February 2016 - 10:39 AM.

[dervishx5]

DjPush, on 27 February 2016 - 10:12 AM, said:

PGI did poorly on steam because they spent the last 2 years pandering to forum QQ threads about balance, map design and match maker woes. Then they put all their eggs in the "what mechs should be sold next" basket, instead of building a game model and match modes where all that **** worked itself out.

Now they have whales like myself choking to death on mech packs and begging to see something new in this game other than a re-skinned humanoid model and cockpit items to match it's paint scheme.

You won't get many new players out of a generation with the attention span of a puppy. They will spend 20 hours (I'm being generous with that estimate) doind the same thing until they realize there is nowhere to go in this game, and drop it without spending a dime.

I'm ranting. Nevermind the old salty vet. I really loved this game. However, I find myself playing a lot less and showing much more reserve when buying things from PGI these days.

Yeah. You have to balance stuff that makes you money (mech packs) with stuff that keeps people interested. The more PGI invests in stuff that gets them immediate returns (mechpacks) instead of thinking long term, the more they'll find those immediate returns shrinking as people get bored with the overall game and stop investing in it.

I've never skipped a mech pack until the Kodiak. But I have 200+ mechs now and there's no way I'll ever use them all on the anemic 2 game modes offered. I have to go to a 3rd party source (MRBC, MSI, NBT, etc) to get any jollies from this game.

[GRiPSViGiL]

DjPush, on 27 February 2016 - 10:12 AM, said:

PGI did poorly on steam because they spent the last 2 years pandering to forum QQ threads about balance, map design and match maker woes. Then they put all their eggs in the "what mechs should be sold next" basket, instead of building a game model and match modes where all that **** worked itself out.

Now they have whales like myself choking to death on mech packs and begging to see something new in this game other than a re-skinned humanoid model and cockpit items to match it's paint scheme.

You won't get many new players out of a generation with the attention span of a puppy. They will spend 20 hours (I'm being generous with that estimate) doind the same thing until they realize there is nowhere to go in this game, and drop it without spending a dime.

I'm ranting. Nevermind the old salty vet. I really loved this game. However, I find myself playing a lot less and showing much more reserve when buying things from PGI these days.

This is truth...not ranting. I forget who but someone brought up a warframe reference who were basically adding warframes as MWO adds mechs but finally realized how that flaw was limiting their growth and refocused development towards gameplay features and end game content. I just don't see PGI having that realization ever based on the past and present direction.

It doesn't take long to realize mechs become redundant really fast. There is definitely a difference in classes concerning variety but the amount of mechs in game now have long been overwriting themselves. How many mechs can you buy and master before you realize that is all this game is? I agree, 20 hours for today's and even last generation players is being very generous. There needs to be more hooks concerning gameplay. There needs to be things to do with XP, GXP, and even CB that can get people engaged in needing to log in and play every day.

Edited by GRiPSViGiL, 29 February 2016 - 07:54 AM.

[Rhent]

Robot Kenshiro, on 27 February 2016 - 10:07 AM, said:

Heavy gear is possibly still a competitor

https://www.heavygear.com/ just for those who didnt know. Its the esports pgi wants mwo to be.

That was some of the laziest mechs designed I've ever seen. Its like a trash with legs. Whoever their artist is needs to be fired.

[Mechteric]

LegendaryArticuno, on 27 February 2016 - 09:38 AM, said:

PGI simply doesn't care about STEAM, and views it as competition rather than a resource.

Let's look at the facts:

1) No launch events to entice players when it had front page coverage, the most crucial time to draw in a large playerbase.

2) No product variety - only 4 packages and nothing down the pipeline. STEAM users will see this as a dead game with no new content or updates.

3) Uncompetitive pricing - STEAM users are the most value oriented consumers and when they see 4 overpriced packs, there will be immediate impressions of a pay2win game that you need to open up your wallet to have any progression.

4) No profile backgrounds and no trading cards - one the easiest way to advertise your game throughout STEAM, the lack of these simple features gives users an impression of a lazy developer and lack of commitment.

Due to these concerns the MWO STEAM Launch was a serious fumble, and will continue to gain negligible benefits until these concerns are addressed.

1) We've certainly had a lot of weekend events since Steam release, so not sure what more you want

2) It's because Steam takes a cut of those purchases. PGI would prefer people buy stuff in their own store since they get 100%. That said, they probably should have more just for variety, not for a real need.

3) Kinda true, obviously we all know it's not pay 2 win, but yes they are too expensive.

4) Trading cards are dumb, but I'm pretty sure I read they will get those in later?

[Rhent]

I don't believe the OP has a basic understanding of selling digital goods let alone selling goods on Steam. Steam is known as a discounter and Valve has released numerous studies about how it increases overall sales of video games by focusing on selling those games ON SALE.

Looking at the offering that PGI has on Steam now are a different option than what is sold on the PGI store. The offering PGI is doing is selling two bundled fully built out mechs at a weight class with one being IS and the other being Clan. The price is at a higher value to get money from early adopters and the price is set to take into account when Steam does it sales so that when players see the Assault pack at 60% off they will buy it. PGI came up with a different offering to sell on Steam than what they sell on their own store. PGI has minimal control on what Steam does with their initial pricing and is setting up a product that can do well on discount sales in the future.

I take it OP you want the discount now and not wait for a sale? Sorry that doesn't work on Steam and if you've been playing and buying on Steam for the last decade, I think you'd know that by now. If you don't like the Steam offering you can always buy from the PGI store as well, which is aimed at players who know what they want and buy a specific mech pack.

[Narcissistic Martyr]

Rhent, on 27 February 2016 - 11:42 AM, said:

That was some of the laziest mechs designed I've ever seen. Its like a trash with legs. Whoever their artist is needs to be fired.

Eh that's what they're supposed to look like.

[Rhent]

Narcissistic Martyr, on 27 February 2016 - 12:15 PM, said:

Eh that's what they're supposed to look like.

Not like a child's toy sold at China town for Chinese New Years.

http://www.aliexpres...308.4.14.k4kQom

[LegendaryArticuno]

A lot of people here just don't get it...

First impressions are everything, you don't get a 2nd STEAM launch.

[Luminis]

LegendaryArticuno, on 27 February 2016 - 12:43 PM, said:

A lot of people here just don't get it...

First impressions are everything, you don't get a 2nd STEAM launch.

A lot of games actually do, you know, with early access and stuff.

The thing people don't get is that MWO is catering to a pretty niche audience. BattleTech and MechWarrior fans I've spoken to seemingly don't like to hear this, but this isn't Star Wars or any of the few other premier scifi franchises that draw in thousands upon thousands of people. As such, most people actually interested in that sort of game will have found out about MWO long before the Steam release anyway.

Yes, the Steam release got MWO some additional exposure but the game has been out for three years, so that exposure isn't going to attract that many additional players that truly get into this kind of game. This leaves me with the impression that the importance of the number of active players on Steam (and other, similar statistics) is vastly overstated most of the time.

[YakkSlapper]

"STEAM" let me point out why op makes no sense making post to begin with, (from my point of view)

*AHEM* its 'steam' who gives a flying fk? did i play hawken through steam or its native CLIENT? or star conflict? or HAWKEN? only one reason i ever had a steam account, BLOODBOWL, and i play other games that are on steam, BUT!!! all with the game client, so,, FK steam and the wannabe console babies that its designed for, steam is for vannalising good games into console trash.

so i reiterate, "its steam" who cares.

MECHWARRIOR is not, and will NEVER BE 'mainstream' it always has, and always will be a 'niche game', one of the biggest and longest lived ever, but still a niche game,

Edited by YakkSlapper, 27 February 2016 - 01:13 PM.

[Davegt27]

Quote

PGI simply doesn't care about STEAM, and views it as competition rather than a resource.

Let's look at the facts:

1) No launch events to entice players when it had front page coverage, the most crucial time to draw in a large playerbase.

2) No product variety - only 4 packages and nothing down the pipeline. STEAM users will see this as a dead game with no new content or updates.

3) Uncompetitive pricing - STEAM users are the most value oriented consumers and when they see 4 overpriced packs, there will be immediate impressions of a pay2win game that you need to open up your wallet to have any progression.

4) No profile backgrounds and no trading cards - one the easiest way to advertise your game throughout STEAM, the lack of these simple features gives users an impression of a lazy developer and lack of commitment.

Due to these concerns the MWO STEAM Launch was a serious fumble, and will continue to gain negligible benefits until these concerns are addressed.

Interesting

I have had steam on my PC for years but have never used it
You see I bought a game at the local Base Exchange but when I got home it said I must have internet and must get a steam account

Well I got the steam account but never played the game
You can say steam is the reason I stopped playing PC games
For the life of me I can’t figure out why I would want to go to a third party to get a game why not go straight to the developer?


I see steam as an evolution to game stop and how they rip off little kids
The kids grew up and now get ripped off by someone else

My opinion I could be wrong

Edited by Davegt27, 27 February 2016 - 02:04 PM.

[sycocys]

I'm starting to think this is Vassago's new account. Brand new and done nothing but B&M since he got here.