131 replies to this topic

[Genisys]

I started playing this Nov.2015. during the time in t5/t4 I made about 8 friends. Out of those 8 people who apperently started playing this game with me none logs in anymore. guess in that group of newbs Im the only one who stayed... no idea if that means the game is dying. but you all are talking about new players, Im one of them, and thats what I have observed.

[Weeny Machine]

Genisys, on 26 May 2016 - 02:14 PM, said:

I started playing this Nov.2015. during the time in t5/t4 I made about 8 friends. Out of those 8 people who apperently started playing this game with me none logs in anymore. guess in that group of newbs Im the only one who stayed... no idea if that means the game is dying. but you all are talking about new players, Im one of them, and thats what I have observed.

Well, that's what I said: I haven't seen another game putting hardly any efforts in player retention. Take CW: A game mode for the niche audience in a niche game /facepalm

[Mystere]

Bush Hopper, on 26 May 2016 - 02:26 PM, said:

Well, that's what I said: I haven't seen another game putting hardly any efforts in player retention. Take CW: A game mode for the niche audience in a niche game /facepalm

Ahem! CW is supposed to be the raison d'être for MWO.

[AztecD]

I have already dropped over 2k US on this game so far, it better damn be available long after i die and inherit my mechs to my kids

[davoodoo]

Tbh this game is stagnating, theres nothing new and interesting coming, new cw is basically old cw with scouting and tomtom, there are mechs but they dont change anything about gameplay, either they got good ballistics and we go to ac meta or they got good energy builds and we go to laservomit.

Keep stagnation for too long and it will die, just like wot does atm.

Edited by davoodoo, 26 May 2016 - 04:32 PM.

[JayceWolf]

TO ALL OF YOU OUT THERE STANDING BETWEEN............. IS IT DEAD? OR NOT?

LET ME OPEN THE VEIL FOR YOU ALL AND YOU CAN USE YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT TO DECIDE.

This is the MWO active population.

http://steamcharts.com/app/342200

Planetside 2 for comparison.

http://steamcharts.com/app/218230


Compare to other MMO out there. 4000 peak is a very sad number.

and Compare to "big-time-player" like the HALO series.... the chart above is actually a foreshadow of where this game is going.

HALO series had MILLIONS of fanbase and they still moved on to other things like Destiny.

soo.... you decide.... Also, Battletech is notorious for having a curse. The curse = "any production companies that tries to make anything (shows,movies,games) always will be plagued by some of the WORLD's crappiest company leaders... and these leaders will go out of their way to KILL the fanbase.

it just how it is, no one knows how to lift this curse at the moment... so basically MWO has cancer and it is still going through chemo.

Edited by JayceWolf, 29 May 2016 - 07:57 AM.

[Wintersdark]

Niche game is a niche game, and will always be a niche game.

It's not a simple run and gun shooter like Planetside etc (thank God) and will never, no matter what, have those numbers. It's slower paced and worlds more complicated to play, and that more than anything else turns the bulk of players off.

Also, a solid chunk of players don't use steam. Basically, everyone from before the steam launch because why bother reinstalling the game?

[Escef]

JayceWolf, on 29 May 2016 - 07:56 AM, said:

TO ALL OF YOU OUT THERE STANDING BETWEEN............. IS IT DEAD? OR NOT?

LET ME OPEN THE VEIL FOR YOU ALL AND YOU CAN USE YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT TO DECIDE.

This is the MWO active population.

http://steamcharts.com/app/342200

You do realize that many players do not use the steam client, right?

[Mole]

This argument could go on forever since there simply is no accurate way to gauge the gain or loss of players in this game over time since it's split between two clients and one of those clients has no tracking system.

[MechWarrior319348]

I thought the game was dying for a while, then I began exploring a little bit more socially with the mwo community. Inviting players to my unit, looking into other units, adding lots of interesting people to my friends list.

And I gotta tell ya, there are sooooooo many units in this game. Very very diverse crowd we have.

This game kinda reminds me of counter strike, there is no real storyline, but there will always be a good population because it fits into the "short and sweet" kind of mentality. Its just one of those games that will always be there; you might take a little break, then one day you might think, "hey I feel like having a little pvp fun." And so you would return and have some fun until your next break.

[KHETTI]

As long as there's enough people, spending enough money, MWO will be a thing.

[Rebas Kradd]

Some people WANT this game to be dying so they can gain a feeling of power over the devs.

They cite the anecdotal "none of the friends I tried to recruit are still playing", when that's quite natural for any game. A game appeals to whom it appeals, unless it's a monster like Halo or Battlefield, which MWO never even tried to be. (Although there certainly are issues with new player retention).

They cite the declining Steam numbers as evidence, when such a thing is quite natural for a game.

Before that, they tried predicting dismal Steam reviews. That didn't happen.

They cite the steady stream of mech packs as evidence, when that's quite natural for a F2P game.

They cite the slow pace of non-monetizable content as evidence, when that's also a very natural consequence of a F2P model, sadly.

I have my list of things I'd improve about the game (starting with better gamemodes and then an across-the-board balance pass...just get it done, Paul). But the game isn't dying. You'd know if it was.

[EgoSlayer]

KHETTI, on 29 May 2016 - 10:03 AM, said:

As long as there's enough people, spending enough money, MWO will be a thing.

^This.

People can't seem to fathom that idea - it doesn't matter how many players there are as long as those players are making the game profitable. When that stops happening the game has run it's course. Only PGI knows the attach rate of the players and what it needs to be to keep things going, not one of the naysayers have a single insight into those figures.

Now it should be obvious that mech packs can't remain the primary source of income for established players, the more mechs a person has the less incentive there is to buy more unless they offer something unique/different or nostalgia for BT fans. But this method as the primary income isn't sustainable forever.

[DAYLEET]

EgoSlayer, on 29 May 2016 - 12:10 PM, said:

not one of the naysayers have a single insight into those figures.

When 50% of the player base have Spirit Bear on day one the naysayers DO know, they just choose to ignore it.

[Johnny Z]

Get this. The main reason this may be the ultimate MechWarrior game and can eventually compete for top spot for all games is this. With the models in game now, with texture replacement they can be photo realistic even with advances in computers into the future...... This game can keep going for many years to come with much of the work that is being done now.

The textures could be upgraded to 4k some day.

[C E Dwyer]

Define dying.

If you mean will it shut down in a month, two months maybe three, certainly not.

If you mean that numbers slowly bleed away, until P.G.I close down the European and oceanic servers I give it until mid 2018, maybe sooner if Battletech interest, causes the people that spend money here, to stop.

Until P.G.I start closing down servers this game is healthy enough.

[The Basilisk]

JoanTheLiar, on 25 May 2016 - 12:29 PM, said:

do you think this game is dying? i think it is ive befriended so many teir 4 players to see how many would stay later the year and out of so many say like 20 only 1 comes online once in a while because it didnt attract them and so many players that i play with frequently gave up on fw and were only on it because of the recent challenge so fw was a major flop after that in my opinion. im playing with the same players most of the time in solo quick play. from my point of view the groups seems to be getting smaller ever the months. am i wrong? tell me how its been looking for you over the past year

-- You befriended the wrong ppl. Most T5 and T4 are new and therefor only passers through. Befriend T3, 2,1 and see what happens.

-- Where did you get your data from ? Steam or ingame ? If steam, be advised most ppl I know dont start steam to play MWO... just a waste of resscources. So you most likely see only 10% of the actual players displayed on steam.

-- Kodiak, concuring products and the summer summer summer *singz*.
Well still lots of ppl playing the Kodiak in QP and not intrested in FW.
Additionally there is this new Blizzard shooter game Overwatch (nice job PGI ditching the simfans you cant compete with other shooters so your shooter fans are buisy otherwise) and last but not least there is the summer comming up with ppl beeing more outsides and less on their asses gaming.

Edited by The Basilisk, 08 June 2016 - 12:27 AM.

[Rattazustra]

Actually HBC's Battletech will be the end of MWO. It will draw a relevant number of players away from MWO on top of all that happened and once the tipping point is reached MWO will just collapse and crumble. This is very close at hand. PGI has made every mistake it could make, failing to really tie people into this game, failing to make us really care, make us really invested. Money alone won't cut it. Solely being Battletech won't cut it. Sure, for a few it will. Not for enough, though.

The steam numbers show it clearly. PGI's OWN numbers show it clearly. Last event, almost half of the leaderboard didn't even bother to wear a faction tag. That is a serious issue, because it shows clearly that players do not identify with the game and they do not care about the end game content.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Rattazustra, on 08 June 2016 - 01:50 AM, said:

Actually HBC's Battletech will be the end of MWO. It will draw a relevant number of players away from MWO on top of all that happened and once the tipping point is reached MWO will just collapse and crumble. This is very close at hand. PGI has made every mistake it could make, failing to really tie people into this game, failing to make us really care, make us really invested. Money alone won't cut it. Solely being Battletech won't cut it. Sure, for a few it will. Not for enough, though.

The steam numbers show it clearly. PGI's OWN numbers show it clearly. Last event, almost half of the leaderboard didn't even bother to wear a faction tag. That is a serious issue, because it shows clearly that players do not identify with the game and they do not care about the end game content.

I don't believe that myself.

For one, HBS's Battletech is a turn based RPG which is of course a completely different genre than MWO. A lot of people play MWO because it is a FPS style simulator-ish experience. You will have players who will play MWO but not be that interested in Battletech. Heck, there is probably a lot of Mechwarrior fans out there that weren't interested in MechCommander or visa-versa. Possibly even some MechAssault fans who weren't interested in the other titles as well.

On top of that, you will have players like myself that are looking forward to HBS's Battletech and will play it extensively, and yet still play MWO at the same time. As new releases like Doom came out, I still played MWO during my time with Doom. I didn't completely focus on Doom 100%.

When HBS's Battletech comes out, I assume the impact will be like most new games impact on MWO. Maybe the impact to the online presence will be felt initially, but I assume a regular rebound as always. Fallout 4 didn't tank MWO, Doom didn't tank it, Maybe Overwatch has cut into it a bit, but that might not last either.

Lastly, this is the summer months for most of MWO's player base too which also impacts the game as well.

As for the Faction Tag, I just don't carry one because I don't play CW. I believe many players don't identify with CW more than anything. If CW was more engaging and appealed to both group players and solo players, you would see many more Faction Tags. I think PGI and MWO has a bigger issue with CW than with the game as a whole.

Now this game won't last forever, we all know that. I just don't see HBS's Battletech being the nail in the coffin. This game probably has at least couple more years in it IMO. It has hit it's peak, but there is enough fun in the gameplay (and with Pokemon style collect them all mech acquisition) that will keep enough people interested for a while longer.

[Bud Crue]

I've mentioned above that I think MWO is "fine", but that CW is dead or dying. My evidence for this assertion is wait time in QP. Heavy queue last night was running at around 40% or higher. I was running a Warhammer then a Jagger. Played maybe 12 matches. I never waited longer than 10 seconds to get a match running solo or in group. So, if the population is so low because "the game is dying" then how/why am I getting such quick matches? Moreover, while I occasionally see some of the same folks over the course of an evening in group drops, I rarely do when solo dropping. That, and I have had matches with all sorts of different players running a variety of tags. I've seen EMP and MS in QP lately, whereas in the past I almost exclusively ran into those groups in CW.

Whatever one thinks about PGI et al, I believe that they screwed the pooch with P3 and their subsequent response to the communities criticism of it. If anything is dying it is CW, be it due to game mechanics (fees for unit recruitment, long tom, etc.) or wait times, or lack of immersion, or whatever. People just don't seem to be playing it. I don't think there is much debate there. But I have never had such quick matches with such diverse groups of players as I have had in QP of late. Thus, I can only conclude that QP is doing pretty well. Even if there are people who absolutely love CW, I think a lot of us have just decided to play the mode where you wait 10-30 seconds vs the one where you wait 10-30 minutes.

CW is not "the game" (alas). But to me the question is if QP will be enough to keep people playing and more importantly paying? I don't know. But for now it is what is left and the rest is up to PGI to fix. It is their game after all.