DGTLDaemon, on 06 December 2016 - 11:38 PM, said:
OK, I've been wanting to ask this question for a long time, because after spending almost a year in MWO, there's something I still fail to understand about this game's community. I personally come from an RPG background, and have played a variety of games of this genre over the years - from classic isometric RPGs like Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment, to action/RPGs like Diablo and Dark Souls, and all the way to "hybrids" like Mass Effect and Deus Ex. In all those games, there was some sort of a character development system present, which, in combination with the inventory/equipment system, allowed you to "build" your character in a way that would make it effective under the specific game rules while at the same time suiting your personal preferences. And as far as I can remember, trying to build your character in an optimum way has never been frowned upon in any gaming community I was ever engaged in. Well, if you became overzealous with your optimizations, you could earn yourself a nickname of a "power gamer", but that was not necessarily a bad thing
However, MWO is the first game in my experience where any attempt to look at the available options, analyze the current game rules, and try to build your "character" (or, in this case, your mech) in a meaningful way rather than slap a random selection of weapons and gear all over it is met with an almost universal hatred. The last such thing that actually prompted this post from me was a reply in a thread where we discussed possible MC costs of respeccing under the new skill system:
And this is what I've seen a million times on this forum. Trying to build your mechs in an optimum, meaningful, performance-oriented way that is consistent with the current state of the game rules? Then you need to be punished for that, because... Because what? All I hear is that "meta ******" and "meta chasers" are "ruining the game for everybody else". But why? What is so objectionable about using the customization options that are an integral part of this game to achieve the desired performance? I know that I'm starting a potential flame war here, but this is an honest question. I am truly baffled here. Can someone from the anti-meta crowd at least try to explain why you hate meta builds and meta gamers so much? Or is it some sort of underlying, self-evident concept of MWO that doesn't warrant an explanation?
The current Meta-builds are no fun! Trying to stay far away as possible with PPCs is just not fun. Infact it reminds me nothing of the Battle-tech universe that i love. I jumped on MWO yesterday after a long hiatus and this is what i encountered.
First game, on canyan, i jumped in my Hunchie, and on conquest my entire team was trying to pop tart so hard in a big ball. They slowly inched further and further to the corner of the map while all the control points were taken. Soon we lost because everybody was surrounded on the edge of the map. (I died early because i actually attempted to take theta on my own).
Second game, on mining, i jumped in my ER Small gargoyle. I thought to myself, this will be glorious (because it was skirmish).
Again my team has PPCs, ER Large Lasers, LRMs. I push torward the center with my team. As the battle progresses my teammates slowly get further and further from the fight almost to the point of being back at the starting zone! I stay in the middle hiding in a corner as the enemy team passes by and end my life.
Third game, i grab my shadow cat and load up on ppcs, i had to join the meta!
Polar highlands here i go! What do you know it took till the 9 minute mark for the battle to begin! I was the only one shooting at the enemy, and lucky for me everybody on the other team had LRMs and ER Large Lasers, so it was super easy.
The battle ended at 3 minutes, and we won because i plugged away 800+ damage in my shadow cat.
So anyway the META doesn't feel like battletech to me, just to many people concerned about their stats.