111 replies to this topic

[PilaDeFora]

I started playing this month ( been busy only played 7/8 hours), mostly playing Quick Play, because i don't understand the Faction or Clan modes yet.

So i can't contribute much except the experience and perspective of a new player, well one thing i can say is that i enjoy the game very much, it's fun to play solo and coordinate with strangers but even better with friends, i also find the customization and the variety of mechs very interesting and i can't wait to dive in that part.

Now to the bad part:
- The queue times (at least for Quick play in Europe, don't know faction play, correct me if i'm wrong) are pretty big, i understand this is a 24 player game, but waiting 5-8 minutes for a queue even with a group of 3 is a bit too much and can make people who just don't have much time or patience drop the game, maybe a smaller player game mode would work??
- The lack of tutorial/explanation to faction play, i really think this should be treated with much more importance, i find the whole process rather confusing and so do my friends, we are very interested in it but became suspicious with all the negative feedback we find when we search about it.

(just a small overview from a new player, hope to see you all in game)

[Eregion]

Arcanoz, on 15 June 2016 - 09:39 AM, said:

http://steamcharts.com/app/342200

PGI guys..please stop selling new mechs..you need to keep the customers satisfied..and this route is going straight into hell.
We need a skilled marketing manager, one good roadmap for the upcoming 12 months..not a commanderwheel...there will be no pilots to command, can t u see that?
check the graph and try to fix this shame.
my 2 cents

I needed to quote the OP because this thread is so bad and inconclusive that by page 3 I forgot the topic.

Now to the OP.
So you read a chart and, only by your flawed understanding of it, you say that the sky is falling?

lol

You don't have a single factual data to back up your conclusion, and you cannot have it 'till PGI gives data on it.
You may be right, but only by chance.

Since you're talking about nothing, right now you ARE wrong.

Could PGI do more? Better?
Sure. I'm with you on it.

Maps? Yeah!
Modes? Go on!

Anything that doesn't split even more the player base is fine.

But the Steam Chart? Really?!
lol

[dervishx5]

Eregion, on 16 June 2016 - 04:24 PM, said:

Hey everyone pay attention to how smart I think I am!

[Eregion]

dervishx5, on 16 June 2016 - 04:29 PM, said:

Ok... sorry!

Me wanna talk, me wanna say "look I am right because charts"!
THE SKY IS FALLING!!!

(Is it ok for you, now?)


You wanna talk about something? Let's talk.
You want to talk just because of a (incomplete) chart? Nope.

That one by itself means nothing.

Do you need that chart to prove that MWO can give more?
Go ahead.

Am I wrong?
Prove it.

[dervishx5]

You wanna
type

in a less
odd way?

Other than an obvious drop off of players, what kind of evidence do you want? The game isn't dead but it's certainly not gaining players. There does to appear to be a significant downward slope.

When this game started and they had a player counter back in the closed beta, it had 9k people playing on average during NA times. Look at FW now. Look at quick play now. You run into the same people over and over. The player base is small and growing smaller.

You can say NOT PRECISE EVIDENCE, ONLY SPECULATION. Well, yeah, but it's statistically significant. If you're pretending that there's no evidence of players leaving the game then you're only purposefully ignoring the obvious,

And if you're going to mock people for drawing conclusions from these trends, well, you're just splitting hairs and being a ****.

Edited by dervishx5, 16 June 2016 - 05:39 PM.

[MischiefSC]

Math is untrustworthy. It's got numbers in it.

That's like bad magic.

[Mystere]

MischiefSC, on 16 June 2016 - 05:39 PM, said:

Math is untrustworthy. It's got numbers in it.

That's like bad magic.

Is that the reason why people here use "feelings" instead when it comes to balancing?

[Hit the Deck]

First, the steam players are dropping in number. Second, Russ has said several times that they are increasing their team size on several areas (programming and map). What can you conclude from this? That the initial launch on steam gave them a lot of monies? That their Mech pack strategy in this year is probably the best financial decision? That PGI and MWO is improving despite the apparent decrease of active steam players?

Discuss!!!!1

[White Bear 84]

Mystere, on 16 June 2016 - 06:14 PM, said:

Is that the reason why people here use "feelings" instead when it comes to balancing?

Cause feelings allow us to make our most rational and logical decisions of course..

Edited by White Bear 84, 16 June 2016 - 07:34 PM.

[Gentleman Reaper]

I started getting burnt out right after the Kodiak launch because of a lack of balancing patches in the last few months and dwindling excitement from PGI. And then last week happened. We got a glimpse of the rescaled Catapult, Russ started firing off tweets about huge upcoming changes like power draw, and now he's even talking about starting up the PTS again. I'm actually starting to see excitement from weary fans and the devs that I haven't seen in months, and you bet your *** that I'll be returning once tuesday's patch comes out. I'm really looking forward to a huge shakeup of the meta we've been stuck with for over a year.

[Minimum Viable Kieransky]

Sleep tight big man.

[PlzDie]

MechaBattler, on 15 June 2016 - 08:05 PM, said:

They need to just step out of their comfort zone. Implement Solaris. That'll bring people back if only to try. Then get crazy with new modes. Some non-pvp modes might also be good. Even if it breaks down into a mini game of sorts. Like hunting down supply convoys.

Minigame is a good idea, give me something to do while I am waiting for a FP drop.

[EvilCow]

Eregion, on 16 June 2016 - 04:24 PM, said:

But the Steam Chart? Really?!
lol

There cannot be evidence but different sources seem to indicate the same thing.

Google for example: https://www.google.c...%20online%2Cmwo

According to search stats the interest generated by the Steam release has already waned, searches are now even below pre-steam. The graph direction during the previous 3 years is also very clear.

I am not PGI but with indicators like that I would be worried about my company.

[dervishx5]

EvilCow, on 16 June 2016 - 11:10 PM, said:

There cannot be evidence but different sources seem to indicate the same thing.

Google for example: https://www.google.c...%20online%2Cmwo

According to search stats the interest generated by the Steam release has already waned, searches are now even below pre-steam. The graph direction during the previous 3 years is also very clear.

I am not PGI but with indicators like that I would be worried about my company.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH. YOU ARE DELUSIONAL. THE SKY IS FINE.

[Eregion]

dervishx5, on 16 June 2016 - 05:29 PM, said:

Other than an obvious drop off of players, what kind of evidence do you want? The game isn't dead but it's certainly not gaining players. There does to appear to be a significant downward slope.


When this game started and they had a player counter back in the closed beta, it had 9k people playing on average during NA times. Look at FW now. Look at quick play now. You run into the same people over and over. The player base is small and growing smaller.


You can say NOT PRECISE EVIDENCE, ONLY SPECULATION. Well, yeah, but it's statistically significant. If you're pretending that there's no evidence of players leaving the game then you're only purposefully ignoring the obvious,


And if you're going to mock people for drawing conclusions from these trends, well, you're just splitting hairs and being a ****.

That's a correct "speculation" (in reality, looking at the charts, you are completely right), but only for the Steam side of the playerbase. I would like to know the global numbers, or at least the weighted share of the Steam population... but Russ said it's not gonna happen shortly, if at all (in a Town Hall some months ago).

Nonetheless we have 28,500 to 37,000 different players that log in each day, just from the Steam crowd. Their daily log time keep rising (from 0.45h of the mean since December to 1.2h of the last week).

Since there's no advertising and no "big news" (we are still waiting to see the "lengthy and big trailer" for the World Championship) I'm amazed at the retention numbers that those charts show. Steam has a lot of players bombarded every day by ads of "great and shiny new" free-to-play games. MWO is clearly not one of them.

We can assume that at least a slice of those are new players. Players that we hadn't in November 2015.

The only trend I see is the stabilization of a share of the Steam population.


Talking globally, you can take into account a number of factors like "the incoming summer", the "WC burnout", the lacking (or excess) of weekly challenges, or whatnot.

But when we talk about the "regular client" numbers, we can only make SPECULATIONS based on "feelings", since there's no hard data.

I don't even know if we are losing players on that side.

I know for sure that 1721 players have enrolled for the World Championship. I know for sure that I play less on the regular client because of it.

PGI is still hiring (read Hit the Deck on it).


Now if you know something we don't, you might be right: THE SKY IS FALLING!

But I don't see the signs... or the trends, if not the tipicals of a now 4 years old F2P game.

EvilCow, on 16 June 2016 - 11:10 PM, said:

There cannot be evidence but different sources seem to indicate the same thing.


Google for example: https://www.google.c...%20online%2Cmwo


According to search stats the interest generated by the Steam release has already waned, searches are now even below pre-steam. The graph direction during the previous 3 years is also very clear.


I am not PGI but with indicators like that I would be worried about my company.

I'm not a PGI advocate, but you are still talking about the Steam pupolation.
The "general interest" in MWO today is exactly the same as of June the 2015 (1 point less, but we are only at the 17th of the month).


Again: the Steam interest is waned. That's the only sure thing.



To make my thoughts clear: MWO needs something fresh to revitalize it, but we are not going to see the servers shut down soon.

At least, I hope...

[X T R E M E]

If this problem exist, PGI do not speaks ... because they do not sell new Mechs

Edited by XtremeAlex, 17 June 2016 - 02:11 AM.

[Chef Kerensky]

Eregion, on 16 June 2016 - 04:24 PM, said:

I needed to quote the OP because this thread is so bad and inconclusive that by page 3 I forgot the topic.

Now to the OP.
So you read a chart and, only by your flawed understanding of it, you say that the sky is falling?

lol

You don't have a single factual data to back up your conclusion, and you cannot have it 'till PGI gives data on it.
You may be right, but only by chance.

Since you're talking about nothing, right now you ARE wrong.

Could PGI do more? Better?
Sure. I'm with you on it.

Maps? Yeah!
Modes? Go on!

Anything that doesn't split even more the player base is fine.

But the Steam Chart? Really?!
lol

Are you delusional

[Lehmund]

Tordin, on 15 June 2016 - 01:28 PM, said:

Interesting read. 700 K owners, 400 K players.. I thought they were faaaaar lower.

This data from Steam:
http://steamcharts.com/app/342200

As some mentioned, there are many factors to consider when looking at playerbase dropoff, including the Tournament event, lack of good new content in the core game, summertime arrival, new consoles/games coming out.

PGI does need a better strategy methinks for player retention beyond the new mechpacks and mini-events.

Typically, I expected Beta 3 of FW to drive usebase up some but looking at the graph it didn't seem to register unfortunately.

I think they need to market the game more tbh, since albeit it has flaws, it is a very deep and complex game, which I love.

It is only natural for games to have dropoff because each game competes with other games coming out for people's wallets and attention.

New blood needs to be brought in, or new content for veterans to sink their teeth into on a scheduled basis.

[dervishx5]

I'm pretty sure it's just the old grognards and steam haters that don't use steam. A lot of us switched to steam. It's highly likely that there are far more steam client users than non-steam users.

[SteamCharts Kerensky]

dervishx5, on 17 June 2016 - 07:07 AM, said:

I'm pretty sure it's just the old grognards and steam haters that don't use steam. A lot of us switched to steam. It's highly likely that there are far more steam client users than non-steam users.

That's right! Over 400,000 people are playing Mechwarrior Online on Steam!