Joshua McEvedy, on 23 January 2018 - 03:30 AM, said:
Yeah, let's make Faction Play inaccessible to most of the casual community and reduce the mode's population even further.
Less accessible, not inaccessible. If you have to grind, say...
Hobbles v, on 23 January 2018 - 06:53 AM, said:
Achieve tier 4 or have over 75 qp matches under your belt.
...then you have some sunk 'costs' into achieving access to the mode. Maybe then there's a more tiered approach after that - you now need 25 scouting drops before you can access 12v12 in FP. Perhaps add extra incentive, like a FP Cadet bonus, for those scouting drops, or the first few invasion drops.
My opinion - completely anecdotal - is that new players abandon the mode after a terrible first few drops more than tier 3, own-a-few-mechs players.
Joshua McEvedy, on 23 January 2018 - 03:30 AM, said:
(after sitting in queue last night for over an hour and not getting a single drop before bedtime).
Churned players vs. nurtured leads so to speak, right? If MWO as a whole had a much larger and/or growing playerbase, it wouldn't matter. Events would incent new players to try FP, and there would be a constant flow of new players so it wouldn't matter. A few would stay, but the masses that left would be replaced quickly.
Neither of the above conditions is true though...if the FP playerbase is to grow, and avoid those ghost drops/looking for match, we need to improve the experience of new players.