52 replies to this topic

[Cabusha]

I could see them making it "exclusive" content for the backers for a month, then open it up to everyone else.

The biggest issue is something like that would require they stick to a schedule, release the content in a complete and timely manner etc. And that's something PGI has always failed at. Time management and scheduling is a huge weakness for this company

[Hunka Junk]

OK fine. PGI can continue to sell mech packs.

Now, is it basically true that PGI has no plans to add new content other than "reworks" for the next calendar year?

[Plastic Guru]

As long as I get my Urby Hero Mech it's all good...

I did notice we've gone UP the ton scale and now we've started back down...so...maybe the next one will be a light?

I do admit I really like the Cyclops though....fun mech.

Plastic Guru

[Reality Dysfunction]

DaZur, on 07 September 2016 - 08:14 AM, said:

Blah blah blah...

(no not hat feathers)

+1 for hats and feathers

I want hats and feathers!



/troll

[Revis Volek]

Reality Dysfunction, on 07 September 2016 - 11:30 AM, said:

+1 for hats and feathers

I want hats and feathers!



/troll

I caption this pic "The Death of MWO"

[Alistair Winter]

Missing the point entirely. Only a tiny minority of players are objecting to PGIs decision to make money from mech packs.

The "Wanna buy a mech pack" joke is mostly about three things:

• There isnt a whole lot of new content coming out.
  
• Not only are things progressing slowly, but PGI is telling us nothing about future content. Solaris, PVE, Infotech 2.0, Skill trees 2.0, Role warfare, you name it. We know nothing, because it's all so "top secret".
  
• 90% of the information on the front page is about Mech packs and sales. No vlogs, no dev logs, no community manager competitions, no featured articles, no nothing.
  
  PRE ORDER THIS MECH PACK! 9 DAYS UNTIL EARLY ADOPTERS BONUS IS OVER! 8 DAYS! 6 DAYS! OK, ITS OVER! NOW PRE ORDER THIS MECH PACK! MECH PACK! 24 DAYS LEFT! HEY DAWG, I HERD U LIKE MECH PACKS!

Edited by Alistair Winter, 07 September 2016 - 12:41 PM.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Alistair Winter, on 07 September 2016 - 12:41 PM, said:

Missing the point entirely. Only a tiny minority of players are objecting to PGIs decision to make money from mech packs.

The "Wanna buy a mech pack" joke is mostly about three things:

• There isnt a whole lot of new content coming out.
  
• Not only are things progressing slowly, but PGI is telling us nothing about future content. Solaris, PVE, Infotech 2.0, Skill trees 2.0, Role warfare, you name it. We know nothing, because it's all so "top secret".
  
• 90% of the information on the front page is about Mech packs and sales. No vlogs, no dev logs, no community manager competitions, no featured articles, no nothing.
  
  
  
  PRE ORDER THIS MECH PACK! 9 DAYS UNTIL EARLY ADOPTERS BONUS IS OVER! 8 DAYS! 6 DAYS! OK, ITS OVER! NOW PRE ORDER THIS MECH PACK! MECH PACK! 24 DAYS LEFT! HEY DAWG, I HERD U LIKE MECH PACKS!

Ironically all of this occuring during the qualifiers of the "highest skill" tournament, there have been more updates about the PTS than the tourney. You would think if they were going to put as much money towards it as they did that there would be more visibility and promotion.

Edited by Quicksilver Kalasa, 07 September 2016 - 12:49 PM.

[Mcgral18]

I can buy Jump Jets?
My HoverJets™ are malfuctioning

Non linear formula plz


Also MG CoF removal. I'd pay 5$ for that.

[Lostdragon]

Considering how agonizingly stagnant the game is I believe PGI has focused development resources on a new project and may be pouring funds from mech pack purchases into it. Supposedly sales of many of the mech packs were very good. I can't remember exactly but I think I recall Russ saying or tweeiting that they sold 30k marauder packs, which is probably around a million bucks of revenue. I am sure the Kodiak, Warhammer, and some of the other packs have done that well or better. I could be way off on the Marauder packs sold, I can't find the post, but it feels like the money being made is not beinf put back into the game. I will be very surprised if PGI doesn't release or at least announce a new game they have been deveolping in secret by the end of 2017.

[C E Dwyer]

DaZur, on 07 September 2016 - 06:41 AM, said:

"What is MWOs revenue stream Alex."

I'm gonna sound a bit like a grouchy homer here but can we stop with the mech / mech pack derision?

Right, wrong or indifferent these are MWOs chosen revenue stream. They will continue to pump out mechs because this is what they're selling.... Not weapons, not maps, not game modes. Mechs.

I get it... We want more out of the game from PGI and lord knows we've waited patently enough. But denigrating PGI for continuing to feed their consumers the only real thing they're selling is kinda short sighted...

Yes, please continue to vote with you wallet. This is means to let PGI know how you feel about things. That said stop the forwarded premise that PGI needs to stop the provision of new mechs. It's disegnuous and myopic.

Buy a mech or don't, it's your right to be a conscious objector... That said, like any producer PGI needs to continue to bolster its product line. We all can agree to disagree about the quality of the product or discuss the merit of invigorating it with some parallel revenue stream. But at the end of the day PGI sells mechs and we the consumer buy them.

Or not...

Well I've never said P.G.I should stop turning out mechs as you mention its what keeps the game alive.

Regardless of how I feel about where it's going I understand this quite well enough.

The people that are saying stop making mech packs fall into two categories

Those that don't understand about money and making things and that servers don't pay for themselves.

Those that haven't played the game for months but still visit the forums, actively hoping that this game will close, under the delusion that someone else will pick up the franchise.

You only have to look at these boards to be put off, even if the licence did become available in the future

[OrmsbyGore]

I don't know for certain, but from reading through old forum posts, it seems that people aren't upset that PGI is trying to make money, but that they feel deceived. From content that was promised but never delivered, to deadlines that were not only not met, but the delays were never explained. And from watching an old dev blog (the one where they announced some faves from the design a cockpit item contest) it's really difficult to believe that they have much respect for their customers. Also, it's not great that several years after launch, we still seem to be stuck in an open beta

Having said that, I don't know how many hateful comments I could read on the forums before I started to resent the player base.

[Karl Marlow]

Mech packs are one of the things PGI is doing right. they need to do more of the other stuff not less of the stuff they already do.

[SQW]

DaZur, on 07 September 2016 - 08:14 AM, said:

How and why?... Or is this just more misplaced derision?

Can't sell maps or missions without causing epileptic seizures... Can't sell game modes... Don't want to go the route of gold ammo... Doors is quite frankly still open for cosmetic (no not hat feathers) possibilities I will however admit.

The ways to make money off a F2P game are legions. Cosmetic, avatar, gameplay aids etc etc. The potential of faction war to sink MC is the stuff of an accountants wet dream - just look at EVE. However, you have to have a solid platform and enough people to be invested in your game for those income streams to be viable. Right now, MWO is basically TDM. Apart from mechs, there is zero reason for the vast majority of people to want to spend money because there's nothing more to see beyond what's there in the first 1hr.

So after 4 years, PGI is basically limited to scrapping the barrel in terms of monetization ideas and to make matter worse it's the same one idea again and again. Mech pack sales is already slowing down and player base dropping slowly but steadily. So, what does PGI have for the next 6-12months that will turn things around? I assume a lot of the players are working adults. Tell me, if you work for a company that 'grows' the way PGI does, would you be expecting a bright future?

[Baulven]

DaZur, on 07 September 2016 - 07:53 AM, said:

And this my astute friend is a reasonable stance to take. Granted you're making a fairly wild assumption in regards to how GP is distributed across operational costs. Then again I can't provide this metric either...

That all said, MWO has operational costs and they need to meet and exceed them to generate revenue. Right now for better or worse it's mechs and mech packs.

My beef is the derision is both pointless and counter productive... Without this revenue stream neither their goals nor ours will come to fruition.

Them making money wouldn't be an issue if content was also being released. The problem is they only care about making money and not moving this past the minimally viable stage. If they did we would see chokepoint warrior in a good spot, and it really isn't right now.

[Kargush]

The one thing I love about the internet is that everyone on it are experts on accounting, marketing, programing, and have all the best idea for everything.

The other thing I love about the internet is all the salt. Oh, so much salt. If I ever found a way to extract it, I'd be rich.

[Kyrie]

Kargush, on 07 September 2016 - 07:18 PM, said:

The one thing I love about the internet is that everyone on it are experts on accounting, marketing, programing, and have all the best idea for everything.

The other thing I love about the internet is all the salt. Oh, so much salt. If I ever found a way to extract it, I'd be rich.

The salt has been mined by PGI steadily since the very inception of the game. The complaints and the suggestions occur in a 4-year context of what is felt to be missed opportunities.

[SQW]

Kargush, on 07 September 2016 - 07:18 PM, said:

The one thing I love about the internet is that everyone on it are experts on accounting, marketing, programing, and have all the best idea for everything.

The other thing I love about the internet is all the salt. Oh, so much salt. If I ever found a way to extract it, I'd be rich.

I work in marketing and have a background in programming so what PGI is doing is really doing a third tier job with a very valuable IP. Oh, and i also can tell you you wouldn't ever get 'rich' selling generic salt no matter how much you can extract.

[Kargush]

Kyrie, on 07 September 2016 - 07:26 PM, said:

The salt has been mined by PGI steadily since the very inception of the game. The complaints and the suggestions occur in a 4-year context of what is felt to be missed opportunities.

You mean to tell me that marketing lied, and not everything was delivered as advertised? Sir, I am shocked to find gambling in this casino!

But honestly, when even the huge AAA developers can mess up, and mess up hard, we should temper our expectations of smaller developers.

Besides, the fact that something isn't quite what was hoped doesn't make people experts. And yet they still carry on like they were.

Perhaps the people here might want to apply for jobs in this sort of business? I'm sure some of our local experts would make a killing working for EA's marketing team, or making EA's next hit game.

SQW, on 07 September 2016 - 07:29 PM, said:

I work in marketing and have a background in programming so what PGI is doing is really doing a third tier job with a very valuable IP. Oh, and i also can tell you you wouldn't ever get 'rich' selling generic salt no matter how much you can extract.

Thing is, I can't tell if you actually are. And even if you are, you're a shining beacon in the midst of the baying hordes, many of whom I wouldn't trust to zip their own flies without accident.

Shame about the salt. I was hoping that'd be the one to get me rich. Oh well.

[Kyrie]

Kargush, on 07 September 2016 - 07:34 PM, said:

You mean to tell me that marketing lied, and not everything was delivered as advertised? Sir, I am shocked to find gambling in this casino!

But honestly, when even the huge AAA developers can mess up, and mess up hard, we should temper our expectations of smaller developers.

Besides, the fact that something isn't quite what was hoped doesn't make people experts. And yet they still carry on like they were.

Perhaps the people here might want to apply for jobs in this sort of business? I'm sure some of our local experts would make a killing working for EA's marketing team, or making EA's next hit game.


Thing is, I can't tell if you actually are. And even if you are, you're a shining beacon in the midst of the baying hordes, many of whom I wouldn't trust to zip their own flies without accident.

Shame about the salt. I was hoping that'd be the one to get me rich. Oh well.

The thing is that... we want to give them our money. We really do. We just need them to build the game better... to be what we wanted. Your sarcasm is misplaced to be honest. The amount of work the community has put in offering logical and viable suggestions over a 4-year period is simply staggering. Countless well reasoned threads with actionable ideas. Even complete with math, graphs, etc.

[RestosIII]

SQW, on 07 September 2016 - 07:29 PM, said:

I work in marketing and have a background in programming so what PGI is doing is really doing a third tier job with a very valuable IP. Oh, and i also can tell you you wouldn't ever get 'rich' selling generic salt no matter how much you can extract.

Hell, he'd probably crash what salt market there is if he knew how to extract it from the internet. Salt would become so cheap he'd have to pay people to get rid of it for him.