Posted 18 March 2018 - 10:33 AM
Well, maybe my input is worth something.
I've played this game for a long time, but as a casual who dropped out for years at a time. I only have a few mechs (14). I score decently in quick play half of the time, die quickly the other half, and made it to tier 3. Steam says I have 178 hours played, but that doesn't count the pre-Steam years.
I hung on to this game by the skin of my teeth for most of the time. Why? I really love mech warfare games. As a kid I really loved Mechwarrior 2 and Mercenaries, and Starsiege. MWO is, as far as I know, the only modern game on the market that features this style of game play. At the same time, it is absolutely brutal to get into.
I recall back when I started playing I only used the trial mechs. Then I wanted to buy my first mech. Something iconic (this really matters to me!). It became the Catapult C1. 2xALRM 20's, 4 medium lasers, AMS and loads and loads of ammo and a engine that barely allows it to move (STD 190). And I still have that mech. That mech is the reason I'm still in the game? Why? Missile boating is something that gives a noob a fighting chance. It's dumb, easy and gives you pleasant scores and a fuzzy feeling. That slow little LRM boat gave me the feeling I can do something in this game except get my face blown off, and that keeps you in the game.
Because I got my face blown off a LOT. I mentioned this game is brutal. It's in fact utterly unforgiving. As a noob, once you start getting hit, more often then not you have no clue what's going on or what's hitting you and you'll be dead or missing an arm before you get yourself to safety. That is, as one might say, not fun if that's your first, and repeated, taste of the game. Having fun in games is why people keep playing the game.
So fast forward a lot of games in my trusty Catapult I started to notice what a grind it is to get to the next mech. How some of you have over 100 mechs baffles me. Either that's a *ridiculous* amount of money to sink in any one game or a similarly *rediculous* amount of hours played. That turned me off. I was a fanatic WoW player, I knew I wasn't going to show that same dedication to MWO because it wasn't nearly as deep and social as WoW. And here comes an important part; social interaction is absent. Completely absent. Especially in the starting days years ago. At least now everyone has voice chat, but even then, you never see the same person twice. Clans/Guilds? Never once seen a mention of them in game. I see the tags but... egh? Why? How do I even begin finding one? Why would one recruit me if I disappear for months on end and am a casual player with a few mediocre mechs and similarly mediocre skills? In WoW, if you wanted to achieve something (in the old days), you needed a competent, social guild working together. MWO? Not really. It's just a grind. Faction Warfare doesn't really offer anything over Quick Play. The big star map? I've seen it. I don't even know what kind of impact it has.
Anyhow, back to my MWO career. Then I got my next mech. Ahh, the big daddy. THE BEST MECH IN THE MWO UNIVERSE. The classic. The poster child. The end-all-be all. I speak, of course, of the Atlas AS7-D-DC. So why did I pick it? I did mention I consider the story and iconic mechs matter to me. I don't recall if the Atlas was considered good at the time. What did matter to me was that it had a metric tonne of armor and that meant that my face was going to be blown off considerably slower. It performed decently and allowed me to experiment with a few builds. I really loved that mech. It's sad that its role has diminished. Annihalators are ugly, you know? Really ugly.
At some point I tried faction warfare. Briefly. It is a place where masochists go. Why would you even *want* to play that? Abysmal queuing times only to be roflstomped instantly. I mean, I know I'm mediocre, but in QP I can at least have some fun. Over there's it's perfectly statted minmaxed mechs only. I swear I got sour looks from my team when my Atlas dropped in their midst. The enemy team loved me though. Rarely have I seen so many blue laser pointers aimed at me.
It is *NOT* fun.
Then I bought a mech, the Timber Wolf TBR-C(S). This is the first mech that actually made me learn the game beyond point and click. It's fast, maneuverable and allows for advanced tactics other then peekaboo. Let me tell you something. New players won't even go this far. They will have been punished so frigging hard by this stage that the game stopped being fun long ago. They will be gone.
So I recall that after the Timber Wolf I took a long hiatus from the game. Easily over a year, maybe 2. Another thing to consider is that I got on board when the game was new, so all the players were similarly new and struggling. Nowadays, 'because all the new players quit', most people you'll meet are veterans, also in quick play. I noticed that difference when I got back. That's not exactly a newbie friendly environment as everyone on your team knows what to do, ditto for the enemy, but not you. That can get very confusing, very fast. I just followed the rest and hoped for the best, basically, and then learned the hard way from which direction the hurting can come.
I tried going back to Faction Warfare it this year. But having to read through hard to find guides on what is a good mech (and try finding a guide that's current), then going through the agony of buying a mech to find that its playstyle doesn't suit you (the Hellbringer in my case), is such a waste.
So quick play for me. I bought the Kodiak pack (good choice, the KDK-3 suits me!) and have been having some fun recently with a Roughneck. But at this stage I consider myself mediocre. I know that newbie me would have stood no chance in hell with the Roughneck. I see people recommend it to new players. Bad idea. I think it's a good mech for a decent player with a few hundred games under their belt. I think it's abhorrently bad for a newbie. Why? It's a complex mech to play. Newbies aren't ready for the multi-faceted attention you need for different weapon types, heat management, movement, map awareness and positioning that a Roughneck requires. Tell them to get a Kodiak-3 with 4xLB10-X. No heat to worry about, a single weapon to point and click and survivability in one sturdy package. That's what I wish I had known when I started the game. In a way I did, the Catapult wasn't really different with its LRM's but left something left to be desired (seeing the enemy you are shooting at, for one).
Hmm, anything else to write? Hmm, nah, I'm done. I think I sum my newb experience up nicely.
TL:DR; My love for the Mechwarrior setting is what kept me in the game. Take that away, you have a game with an absurd learning curve with a ton of newbie pitfalls as well as an intense grind before achieving mediocrity. That's why new players quit.
2
S O L A I S, on 17 March 2018 - 03:40 PM, said:
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