3 replies to this topic

[Lily from animove]

Ok, so sadly MWO doesn't hold it's own ground anymore. Well not surprising given it is a game that has a f2p System without wear and tear. But honestly wear and tear is horrible, you know those stupid Asia grinders where upping an item can destroy it.

But MWO, and it's players are a different and special kind of breed. Fist and most, they love their Mechs, and mostly their favorite ones.

So lets shed some light into how to monetize this better and maybe also how to reduce costs.

Fist and most easy bring back Gold Mechs, maybe even Chrome mechs, or whatever random cool special camo and color. There would be nothing wrong with having like individual 50$ Gold mechs. It directly caters the people to buy the mech they like in a special color. And it is even better than the previous Gold mechs, because you can make EVERY Variant to be gold, instead of only specific ones. And nothing is better than making money with these useless slightly expensive colors. They have no impact on gameplay are targeting at devoted people spending money on the game and mechs they love. And no one of the Freebies has a reason to be angry, as those people keep the game alive with just getting some bling bling as reward. You PGI made some really cool skins, but sadly those are limited to specific mechs. This is kinda sad because some other Mechs would look also amazingly cool in those patters or colors. And it would make people happy who would like that color or pattern on their favorite mech and surely also make them spent money on those without feeling scammed.

Bolt-Ons:
Oh this sweet topic of bitter taste.
Bolt ons were a great idea, but I felt like they were really badly executed. First too many of them look like fun or Pirate items refurbished from scrap. There should be a lot more "normal" ones that slightly alter mechs visuals and don't give too much of that "Mad Max was here" feeling. It would cater those people loving details. Then why is there no sword for the Nova? that's canon, should be. Some really lack the love and detail the Urbie with the lights has gotten.

Second, you failed pretty hard with the customization for Bolt-Ons. Take that Irokese head Bolt on, it is pretty well done, probably the best, It has 3 color areas, one is even just a super tiny ring of one pixel wide that changes, something no one ever notices on the battlefield and is even hard to spot in the Mechlab. An Epitome of properly customizable Bolt-On and how they all should be.
But then there are those Wings, they look AWESOME. but their customization is SHIIIIT Why does it not have 3 areas to fully customize all the colors and all the areas of it? There was just no possible way I could make these wings to fit the color scheme of my Mech. The Only way to make these 2 Fit is to make the mech fit the color scheme of the wings. And that is a good example of how customization should NOT BE. And there are quite a loooot more Bolt-Ons suffering this same issue where not even 3 parts are available for colorization while not every area was able to be colorized. But every Bolt on should have every area be able to change in color. Otherwise you deny proper design fittings with the Mechs they get bolt on. This is just not how you will properly sell these items, because people love their mechs, and exactly that love for this kind of detail is what makes them buy or not buy items. And I did not buy any Wings because they would never ever fit with the color schemes of my Mechs. Even less with the preset patters some special mechs do have. So please change that.


A way to reduce costs is to avoid badly selling Mech packs by simply never designing them.
What if you would invent a "new" way of a crowdfunding like System. Lets name it pre-funding.
Prefunding is setting a price estimations for a feature (cockpit item, Bolt on, specific new mech or just a new variant of an existing mech). People then can donate towards those individual pools of these items and development of these items starts only if the entire or major costs of that Item have been met. This way people can directly in advance vote what to get before it costs PGI money to develop it.

Let's have a look at second Cost reduction possibility. Any online gaming having company run servers is sooner or later doomed to Server costs and their maintenance vs. Money income. But what I still find interesting is the Team Fortress 2 approach. Players can host their own servers, and also make their own maps. Yet the account server belongs to Valve and is managing all the players achievements and Items they do have. Maybe a similar thing would be worth a shot for MWO. Why not release MWO assets and Map editor as well as the ability for players to host their own servers? People could make their own maps with the existing game modes, and rewards could be given like in TF 2. That way, you PGI would not need to to spent resources on making maps or balancing maps. You also not have to pay so much costs for servers anymore. This grants both, you PGI and the players a lot more freedom.

Server Life Support Donation
Not sure if there is legal stuff related to it, but why not let the "I have already everything I need Warrior" simply donate funding towards the servers staying Alive. As a thx, just make some sort of Memorial Hall in the forum and ingame where those people and their values spent are listed (if they want to appear there).

[Buddy BlackJade]

Would advertising in-game be a feasible option to generate revenue? For example, using the billboards in the Solaris City map. They already have fictional advertisement on the billboards, why not use them to generate real money for the company.

[Elizander]

I don't see why they can't bring back gold mechs or something similar. Whales do power F2P games. In-game ads would break immersion too much. This crowd is too fickle.

Edited by Elizander, 08 June 2019 - 06:16 PM.

[Bobo D Lui]

[color=#959595]I don't see why they can't bring back gold mechs or something similar. Whales do power F2P games. In-game ads would break immersion too much. This crowd is too fickle. [/color]

Perhaps, but I don't thing in-game ads would be any more distracting than the fake ads they already have on the in-game billboards.