25 replies to this topic

[MechWarrior4023212]

We know MWO is expensive but how expensive compared to other free to play games?

Marvel Heroes 2016
the cost to buy a new hero varies from $5.00US to $20US, which has about $10US in game money left over.

Are single mech, adding you need to buy a 300MC bay most likely as well, worth it?

What other FTP games are as high as this one?

[Davers]

Ummm...it's free. Can't beat it. Only thing you kinda need are mechbays, but they hand them out like Candy in CW and occasionally in events. Hero mechs are usually not the best variant, and there are always at least 3 versions you can get for Cbills. Seriously, if you actively play the game and have a modicum of patience you never need spend a dime.

[StenKIRA]

How expensive do you want it to be?

[Mawai]

Star Citizen ... can spend $1000.00+ to buy a digital spaceship
Shroud of the Avatar ... can spend $5000.00+ to buy a digital castle
World of Tanks ... can spend $70.00+ to buy a tank

MWO ... can spend $10 to $30 to buy a mech ... less if you wait for a sale or buy a mech mastery pack.

Mastery Packs all include ... a hero mech, a champion mech, a standard variant, 3 mech bays, a cockpit item and 30 days of premium time.
Firestarter - $15.00 - $5.00/mech including mech bays, a hero, and 30 days premium time
Hunchback - $22.00 - $7.00/mech ... as above
Jagermech - $28.00 - $9.00/mech ... as above
Atlas - $41.00 - most expensive mastery bundle - $14.00/mech including mech bays, hero, champ, variant and 30 days premium

So ... although this is probably just a troll thread ... suggestions that MWO is too expensive, over-priced or out of step with the rest of the free to play marketplace are complete BS.

[GreyNovember]

Hearthstone's like; what.

A Dollar to buy a pack of cards, or an Arena run that lets you net potentially more rewards out of a drafted deck; which I do on occasion after I do a Steam run and find out i have a little bit left over.

If you want to get into MWO price ranges, the preorders are like 50-ish for 50 card packs. Still technically 1:1, but increasingly questionable to make that purchase all at once.

Quote

suggestions that MWO is too expensive, over-priced or out of step with the rest of the free to play marketplace are complete BS.

I'd like to think this exact attitude is what gives MWO it's ammo to continue to be so overpriced.

"Ah that's fine. I don't have trouble paying it, or these games are doing it, therefore this is perfectly acceptable."

It doesn't really help the whale perception either.

[Nyte Kitsune]

Aye, compared to many other MMO's MWO is quite cheap.. I don't even want to dwell on how much I put into SWTOR, but lets just say I went a little crazy there for awhile and can say on SWTOR (On just Cartel Coin purchases) I've spent OVER 1000$ over 2-3 years that I could have saved, but I love to collect things like Decorations for my Strongholds, Armors to create unique looks for each character (Including companions), Weapons, vehicles, pets, companions, etc. SWTOR is a huge money sink, really, as much as I liked it, I had to call it quits as SWTOR was costing me too much money, so take my advice, even if you LOVE Star Wars.. really don't play SWTOR unless you make more than minimum wage.

As for MWO..... Yeah I've spent close to 1000$ on this as well.. Both Resistance Packs, Archer, Rifleman, Warhammer, Marauder (Deluxe on the Marauder) packs, Several Master packs (Locust, Firestarter-sold them after 1-2 days, hated them, Spider, Griffin, Shadowhawk, Dragon- Sold them after a year, hitboxes are horrible, dies too easily), The Heavy and Assault Steam packs, the Kodiak (All of them), Phoenix Hawk (Basic only-so far-may upgrade), both for the Pre-Order bonus and some MC Here in there, maybe over 1000$

Mind, none of this makes MWO expensive, as spending this much was entirely my choice, mostly because I wanted them without having to grind out C-Bills, which was an option, but I wanted a larger stable, so sped up the process. Aside from having to buy mech bays occasionally, you can get a lot out of MWO without spending a dime. Many players take this path, I choose to throw my money at PGI as they have made a great game (Yeah yeah, it has issues here and there, but its still great) and it shows PGI my support.

After all, they took some of the ugliest mechs in Battletech and actually made them look good, my #1 examples, the original Ral Partha Centurion model and Thunderbolt (Sorry, no pic) were horrible, but in MWO the Centurion looks great, and the T-Bolt looks less likely to fall over due to a Large Laser as big as the arm its mounted on, trying to topple it.

[Chimera_]

I have recent experience with Armored Warfare, SW: The Old Republic and Star Trek Online. Overall, MWO's cash-shop stuff (including non-ingame stuff like mech packs) is relatively cheap. For comparison, a triple-ship pack in Star Trek Online costs essentially $50, but here a comparable pack (assuming STO ships = MWO mechs) is $20.

Honestly MWO is actually quite fair and relatively cheap, comparatively. Most things you buy with cash you can get with ingame money, which is something many other games make impossible or ridiculously grindy.


EDIT: I only mentioned actual mechs and whatnot since I don't really take cosmetics into account for F2P games, as they have no stats. On cosmetics side, MWO is quite pricey, though it is worth considering how often they give away free colors in events and such.

Edited by Chimera11, 16 April 2016 - 06:55 PM.

[LastKhan]

Mawai, on 16 April 2016 - 06:18 PM, said:

Star Citizen ... can spend $1000.00+ to buy a digital spaceship
Shroud of the Avatar ... can spend $5000.00+ to buy a digital castle
World of Tanks ... can spend $70.00+ to buy a tank

MWO ... can spend $10 to $30 to buy a mech ... less if you wait for a sale or buy a mech mastery pack.

Mastery Packs all include ... a hero mech, a champion mech, a standard variant, 3 mech bays, a cockpit item and 30 days of premium time.
Firestarter - $15.00 - $5.00/mech including mech bays, a hero, and 30 days premium time
Hunchback - $22.00 - $7.00/mech ... as above
Jagermech - $28.00 - $9.00/mech ... as above
Atlas - $41.00 - most expensive mastery bundle - $14.00/mech including mech bays, hero, champ, variant and 30 days premium

So ... although this is probably just a troll thread ... suggestions that MWO is too expensive, over-priced or out of step with the rest of the free to play marketplace are complete BS.

A bit disingenuous, there are packs in SC that are in the 25-30 and + dollar ranges and same with WoTs. Shrouds of the Avatar i dont even know what that is and probably for good reason.

Edited by LastKhan, 16 April 2016 - 06:50 PM.

[Dirty Starfish]

The colors and camos could definitely do with a permanent 50% off, but everything else seems pretty fair considering you can grind for a majority of the mechs in-game.

[Mawai]

GreyNovember, on 16 April 2016 - 06:26 PM, said:

Hearthstone's like; what.

A Dollar to buy a pack of cards, or an Arena run that lets you net potentially more rewards out of a drafted deck; which I do on occasion after I do a Steam run and find out i have a little bit left over.

If you want to get into MWO price ranges, the preorders are like 50-ish for 50 card packs. Still technically 1:1, but increasingly questionable to make that purchase all at once.



I'd like to think this exact attitude is what gives MWO it's ammo to continue to be so overpriced.

"Ah that's fine. I don't have trouble paying it, or these games are doing it, therefore this is perfectly acceptable."

It doesn't really help the whale perception either.

"I'd like to think this exact attitude is what gives MWO it's ammo to continue to be so overpriced"

No. It isn't the attitude. It is the fact that there are many many free to play games out there that are comparable or more expensive than MWO. Are there cheaper ones? Yes of course ... but MWO is middle of the road.

In addition, MWO suffers from a lack of granularity in things that they can sell. If you could sell parts of mechs for MC then folks could mix and match bits and pieces and you could sell them cheaper (it wouldn't be BT/MW then however).

In MWO, the fundamental item is the mech. So it is mech pricing that we look at.

However, the MWO community is of limited size ... some folks will never spend any money, some folks will spend a little at the right price point, some folks spend a lot at the right price points and some will buy anything. Whether these price points are reasonable is decided by each individual purchaser depending on their income and the perceived value to them of what they are considering purchasing.

On this basis, some folks think MWO is over priced and others don't see a problem. Only PGI has the sales numbers that would indicate how responsive the player base is to price elasticity. They have the numbers on how effective temporary price reductions are in terms of driving additional sales. They know what fraction of the player base already spends money and what fraction doesn't. If it made sense for MWO to change its pricing model then they would likely have done so ... the fact that they haven't would tend to indicate that lower prices would not drive significantly higher revenues.

In addition, since MWO pricing is already less expensive or in line with other F2P MMOs already in the market place there are few external factors that might drive changes to their pricing structure.

As a result, the player attitudes to pricing (including both yours and mine ... and there have been complaints about MWO pricing since it was first introduced) are relatively meaningless since it is the actual revenue that matters and PGI has both the data and presumably the wherewithal to make changes if that revenue data suggested that pricing changes would be useful or effective.

[Felbombling]

My buddy barely plays but maintains two different accounts... a Clan account and an Inner Sphere account. The Clan account has three Hellbringers, the Inner Sphere account has three Ravens. He has yet to spend a dime on the game but has made some fine progress. The XP grind is a joke compared to other really grindy games like World of Tanks or War Thunder. The price structure is in line with most games and certainly cheaper than World of Tanks or War Thunder. Best of all, PGI will bury you in free stuff from events, more so than any other game in the FTP field I have tried. Free colours, Mech bays, C-Bills, Mech Credits, cockpit items, etc. If you keep your eyes peeled for sales and maintain your patience, good things will happen for you.

I started out as a free to play player but started throwing PGI a few bucks here and there as a thank you for the free entertainment.

[Tarl Cabot]

Nyte Kitsune, on 16 April 2016 - 06:46 PM, said:

...

...

After all, they took some of the ugliest mechs in Battletech and actually made them look good, my #1 examples, the original Ral Partha Centurion model and Thunderbolt (Sorry, no pic) were horrible, but in MWO the Centurion looks great, and the T-Bolt looks less likely to fall over due to a Large Laser as big as the arm its mounted on, trying to topple it.

https://www.google.c...iw=1225&bih=611



https://www.google.c...l3L-gVn5gMiM%3A

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 16 April 2016 - 08:34 PM.

[Kei Nogareru]

Compared to other FTP games (and some that are pay to play) MWO is very reasonable. It could certainly be better (I'm looking at you colors and patterns <.<), but overall not too bad.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

If you wait for sale discounts... Mwo can be extremelly cheap, it can even be basically free.

I know countless people that have played for free for years.

Personally, I have spent money, but thats because I feel, when I have enjoyed the game enough, I like to support the company when I can.

[Toxinia]

I treat MWO as a subscription game
Buy a mech pack for $15-25 a month, get some new toys to play with and another month of premium time. I can't imagine the grind for people not buying anything at all.

[Appogee]

I've spent a ton of money.

Battletech/Mechwarrior has been the single most important gaming franchise in my life, and I want to keep it alive.

I'd encourage others who like playing the game to also put down just a little money to keep it going.

[MechWarrior4023212]

Davers, on 16 April 2016 - 06:14 PM, said:

Ummm...it's free.

You can buy with in game money in other games including MH 2016, I am comparing the costs to buy using real money.

Mawai, on 16 April 2016 - 06:18 PM, said:

So ... although this is probably just a troll thread ... suggestions that MWO is too expensive, over-priced or out of step with the rest of the free to play marketplace are complete BS.

I am seriously asking how much other FTP games cost to by with real money...I have only ever played WOW and MH 2016 and MWO.

Mawai, on 16 April 2016 - 06:18 PM, said:

Star Citizen ... can spend $1000.00+ to buy a digital spaceship
Shroud of the Avatar ... can spend $5000.00+ to buy a digital castle
World of Tanks ... can spend $70.00+ to buy a tank

MWO ... can spend $10 to $30 to buy a mech ... less if you wait for a sale or buy a mech mastery pack.

Mastery Packs all include ... a hero mech, a champion mech, a standard variant, 3 mech bays, a cockpit item and 30 days of premium time.
Firestarter - $15.00 - $5.00/mech including mech bays, a hero, and 30 days premium time
Hunchback - $22.00 - $7.00/mech ... as above
Jagermech - $28.00 - $9.00/mech ... as above
Atlas - $41.00 - most expensive mastery bundle - $14.00/mech including mech bays, hero, champ, variant and 30 days premium

Thanks for the prices for comparison.

Packs do make more sense when looked at as a grouped purchase.


I have bought several mechs over my time and got the Kodiak including hero version.

Edited by Ember Stormfield, 16 April 2016 - 10:52 PM.

[TheArisen]

Well frankly, you don't need to spend any money & you'll be just fine. It's convenient to have premium time & there are colors available for Cbills. If you're patient you can get tons of good stuff in one of the somewhat frequent sales. Personally, I'd say MWO is on the cheaper side of the FTP game world. Yeah, MC camp & colors a smidgen much but that's not the worst thing ever.

[Moldur]

Slightly more expensive than other games if you're looking to just build a base.

In several free games I've played, it seems like $50 to $60 sort of puts you in the "I don't have to worry about grinding so much as just enjoying the game."

For MWO, A good mech pack, some mech bays, prem time.. Somewhere under $100 would put you in a similar "Now I don't have to grind to keep my head above the water." territory.

With any free to play game, people can dump as much money as they want into it..

[Bluttrunken]

You can get everything you need in MWO for free(except mechbays) and the grind is acceptable. It's not like "you want a free premium mech, go grind several months". I have Premium time running quite often(thx mechpacks) but I can grind 15-20 mil cBills per weekend easily(if I play alot), better players should make even more. I never tracked the amount of cBills I make accurately as I still tend to spend it quite fast but there aren't that big of an issue.

For the countless hours of entertainment(I should be close to or above 1000hrs by now) I don't have any problems to spend money on MWO whatsoever. My mechs are 50% bought 50% grind(roughly).

Edited by Bluttrunken, 17 April 2016 - 12:02 AM.