57 replies to this topic

[Darth Hotz]

Greetings fellow Mechwarriors.

During the last days "Mech the Dane" presented some videos, banners and pictures, concerning Clan IS balance and the operation "Great Dane".

His roleplaying work brings so much needed flavor into MWO FP again and it pays of: People are interested in FP again, they check the forums, they start playing.

All this just because a single dude uses creativity, acting, humour and a viking helmet.

So here is my question:

Why cant PGI do what Mech the Dane does? Why is there no community manager that is able to bring some flavor to this game?

Its no rocket science and does not need big investments. Mech the Dane has showed how it can be done.

Please PGI, use this as a stimulus for some own ideas.

[AnTi90d]

(Wow.. I haven't seen that movie in a few years..)

PGI should hire some kind of person whose job it would be to communicate with the playerbase.. like some kind of a manager type position.. a Community Manager, if you will..

..or just pay Dane in MC to keep doing what he's doing.

[Lupis Volk]

AnTi90d, on 06 January 2017 - 02:51 AM, said:

(Wow.. I haven't seen that movie in a few years..)

PGI should hire some kind of person whose job it would be to communicate with the playerbase.. like some kind of a manager type position.. a Community Manager, if you will..

I foresee said person being run ragged as the "community" vents at them/takes their collective anger on them and not the big wigs.

[Lehmund]

AnTi90d, on 06 January 2017 - 02:51 AM, said:

(Wow.. I haven't seen that movie in a few years..)

PGI should hire some kind of person whose job it would be to communicate with the playerbase.. like some kind of a manager type position.. a Community Manager, if you will..

..or just pay Dane in MC to keep doing what he's doing.

they do have a person who's title is Community Manager. She's called Tina I believe. Haven't seen her around in months.

[Jarl Dane]

CW Event Manager.

[TWIAFU]

Darth Hotz, on 06 January 2017 - 02:24 AM, said:

Why cant PGI do what Mech the Dane does? Why is there no community manager that is able to bring some flavor to this game?

Greetings!

First off, I have a great deal of respect for MtD and anyone that steps up to rally a/the community around something.

Thank you MtD!

Why can't PGI do what MtD, and MANY others do or have done?

Answer is very easy;

The players love the game more then those that make it. Not to be rude to PGI, but this is a job or business to them. For many of us, this is several decades of play and 'investment'.

[Cox Devalis]

Mech The Dane, on 06 January 2017 - 03:44 AM, said:

CW Event Manager.

Desired salary: _________.__

Edited by Cox Devalis, 06 January 2017 - 04:24 AM.

[WANTED]

Was thinking the same. Tina seems less involved now?

[Bud Crue]

Darth Hotz, on 06 January 2017 - 02:24 AM, said:

Why cant PGI do what Mech the Dane does? Why is there no community manager that is able to bring some flavor to this game?

PGI makes a product to sell to us for the sole purpose of making money. Yes folks like Russ claim and maybe even do have nostalgic affection for the underlying IP, but expressions of that affection cost money (e.g. need to hire writers for stories, extra folks to create and manage events, assign folks to create supporting imagery, etc.) and that cuts into their bottom line.

Dane does what he does because he loves the IP and presumably even this game too. If he can get others excited then he has more folks to play with, besides he is obviously having a good time with it, but he isn't selling anything. If he was how cynical would people view his videos?

Even if they wanted to, PGI could never approach the level of honest enthusiasm that MtD presents to the game playing community because PGI's enthusiasm (real or otherwise) will always be viewed from the aspect of them needing and wanting to make a bigger buck off of us.

That being said, PGI would it kill you to try and put a bit of effort in getting players enthused? Think about your push for the tournament and how much effort that took for something that was at best addressed to the top 1% playing the game. But even a hint of that sort of effort toward something that more players might be interested in and maybe just maybe you would get more enthusiasm about your product and thus increase the chances that some of us would throw money at you again...hmm?

[TWIAFU]

Bud Crue, on 06 January 2017 - 04:35 AM, said:

That being said, PGI would it kill you to try and put a bit of effort in getting players enthused? Think about your push for the tournament and how much effort that took for something that was at best addressed to the top 1% playing the game. But even a hint of that sort of effort toward something that more players might be interested in and maybe just maybe you would get more enthusiasm about your product and thus increase the chances that some of us would throw money at you again...hmm?

These player run events are very popular. The amount of players dropping in CW last night was amazing! No bribes required from PGI to get people there and playing.

All that needed to be done was a .gif edit, few lines of text, and a forum post. Look at what that little bit of effort produced!

This shows players want to be involved in CW. To me, it clearly shows players want some "lore" to CW, want more then bribes to play, want to be involved.

MtD event and those many others before him gave players reason to fight and they showed up to fight.

In the 6+ hours I dropped in CW yesterday in support of MtD, one thing became clear to me by listening to other pilots.

Give pilots a reason to fight, give them Lore, give them a backstory, give them a rally cry and they will show up. Bribes are not necessary.

[naterist]

Should make each employee a member of a faction, and reward the group aligned with the most well organized and put together faction that month with extra days off or something. That be cool AF if, like, frr was led by the art department, and liao was led by customer support department or something. Peopled be like, "thats my dev that hooked up that new mech," and other peopled be like "well MY devs hooked up those balance changes last week," and pgi staff could be our faction head NPC, except instead of an npc led by an AI, itd be an npc directed by a staff member. Tina could be mellissa steiner, russ would be khan marthe pryde. Itd be cool AF.

[mesmer]

if you want rolelplay then.. JUST START ROLEPLAYING.

Don't wait around for pgi to do it. It's not hard.

[Bud Crue]

TWIAFU, on 06 January 2017 - 04:58 AM, said:

These player run events are very popular. The amount of players dropping in CW last night was amazing! No bribes required from PGI to get people there and playing.

All that needed to be done was a .gif edit, few lines of text, and a forum post. Look at what that little bit of effort produced!

This shows players want to be involved in CW. To me, it clearly shows players want some "lore" to CW, want more then bribes to play, want to be involved.

MtD event and those many others before him gave players reason to fight and they showed up to fight.

In the 6+ hours I dropped in CW yesterday in support of MtD, one thing became clear to me by listening to other pilots.

Give pilots a reason to fight, give them Lore, give them a backstory, give them a rally cry and they will show up. Bribes are not necessary.

Yup. An occasional text box in the announcement section about a new front opening, or a need to help stem the clanner tide. Whatever. It would not have to be much more than that to get folks a tad bit excited. But they don't bother even trying the vast majority of the time. Remember the comstar intercepts? Those were, I guess, too much work.

Tell ya what PGI, create a room, give us a format...and a list of the planets that might be up for contention on a week by week basis..we need that much...and the community will create single paragraph stories (say 5 lines max) based on those planets that you can then pick (at random if you need a way to make it even less effort...or hell, we can do this part too) as the basis of that weeks planetary conflicts. Put em on the log in screen, and BOOM, the game has lore based fluff and you don't have to put in hardly any effort to get it.

Oh and my offer still stands to write up the remaining planetary descriptions and hell I'll even do mech descriptions too (I still can't believe that this game lacks text descriptions of its primary content. Just port in some sarna descriptions for godsake).

[Darth Hotz]

mesmer7, on 06 January 2017 - 05:18 AM, said:

if you want rolelplay then.. JUST START ROLEPLAYING.

Don't wait around for pgi to do it. It's not hard.

That is true, but these days I would expect more from a professionell gaming company with the license of a full developed sci-story universe with a big and loyal fanbase then to tell the crowd: "Dont count on us in any way". Even this would need them to communicate and there comes the well known fail.

I worked in marketing, media and public relations for a long time. From a professionell point of view it is heartbreaking to see all of this.

There is a community, eager to help and take part in the development of the game. Most disappointment in this community does not come from bad mechs, map or modes. I am sure deep inside, it is the lack of communication from the developers. It is the lack of love.

I mean, look at Star Citizen. There is only one reason why no big legal action from backers was taken so far, because these developers know how to communicate and treat people! They show them love and respect. The community rewards this with accepting failure and delays. Everyone is happy with 135 mio bucks spend and nothing really to play.

PGI just need to realize that their key for a bigger and better, and also financially more rewarding game, is to invole the community and to show them love and respect.

Eventually this goes down to jobs and positions and the internal question should be raised if all the position are filled with the right people. Maybe the 100.000$ for the championship should have better been invested into a content writer/designer/community manager. And this person does not need to be the new Asimov.


That it does not take much to trigger us, has been proven by Mech the Dane.

[TWIAFU]

Bud Crue, on 06 January 2017 - 05:38 AM, said:

Yup. An occasional text box in the announcement section about a new front opening, or a need to help stem the clanner tide. Whatever. It would not have to be much more than that to get folks a tad bit excited. But they don't bother even trying the vast majority of the time. Remember the comstar intercepts? Those were, I guess, too much work.

*snip*

Oh and my offer still stands to write up the remaining planetary descriptions and hell I'll even do mech descriptions too (I still can't believe that this game lacks text descriptions of its primary content. Just port in some sarna descriptions for godsake).

I LOVE the Comstar Intercepts! God I miss them.

And your offer just further proves what I hear and read from players. There is more to MWO/Battletech then stompy robots wif lazorz!

That little bit of Lore, that backstory, that immersion is important in the big picture kind of way. From Comstar Intercepts, to planetary descriptions, to the short story that comes along with a new mech, and player run events - like Walk the Dog. This drives people to read the web site, buy new mechs, and participate.

I would like to know the number of players playing last night because of Walk the Dog vs the last CW Event by PGI.

From personal observation sure did feel like more were out last night...

[Appogee]

Darth Hotz, on 06 January 2017 - 02:24 AM, said:

REPLYING TO WHY CANT PGI DO WHAT MECH THE DANE DOES?

Because it would require more than minimally viable effort.

Edited by Appogee, 06 January 2017 - 06:44 AM.

[Bud Crue]

TWIAFU, on 06 January 2017 - 06:39 AM, said:

I LOVE the Comstar Intercepts! God I miss them.

And your offer just further proves what I hear and read from players. There is more to MWO/Battletech then stompy robots wif lazorz!

That little bit of Lore, that backstory, that immersion is important in the big picture kind of way. From Comstar Intercepts, to planetary descriptions, to the short story that comes along with a new mech, and player run events - like Walk the Dog. This drives people to read the web site, buy new mechs, and participate.

I would like to know the number of players playing last night because of Walk the Dog vs the last CW Event by PGI.

From personal observation sure did feel like more were out last night...

You want a game driven, or at least including, some lore (me too). That lore is the basis of this IP, and that in turn drives much of the nostalgia that old (former) whales had for this game. In Russ's defense (that was hard to write) I think that when he decided to thrown into MWO for the long haul, he decided that nostalgia would not keep the game/product financially viable for that long haul (however long that may be). I think he honestly felt that they needed to push esports as the future of the game in order to attract a younger, more fluid customer base. I think that was an error for a variety of reasons, but regardless that decision is what has kept them from bothering with lore. It was pointless to the direction they were trying to take the game, and thus an utter waste of resources.

I hope that with 4.1 (regardless of how broken or flawed I may consider it) and his assertions that 2017 is going to be about emphasizing faction play, that maybe he has awoken to the reality that a lot of whales are still around, and are just looking for a reason to throw money at him again. I think that reason could easily be by giving us the tiniest of nods in the form of a bit of lore/fluff added to his game, regardless of how "esportsy" he wants it to be otherwise. It would take so little, and I think gain them an awful lot of goodwill and $.

[Karl Marlow]

PGI doing what Mech the Dane does would probably involve Events with rewards. This would have the effect of clogging FW with pilots who might individually be good but have no knowledge or interest in how to play as a group.

I'd just be happy if PGI would give the Community more tools to do stuff like this and let us handle it.

[mesmer]

Karl Marlow, on 06 January 2017 - 07:24 AM, said:

I'd just be happy if PGI would give the Community more tools to do stuff like this and let us handle it.

Work with what you got, gents.

IDEA: take all the time you forum warriors spend on here and invest half of that in doing some actual roleplay.

PGI is a tiny company serving a niche market. It ain't Blizzard and never will be.

Edited by mesmer7, 06 January 2017 - 08:01 AM.

[a s s a i L]

mesmer7, on 06 January 2017 - 07:51 AM, said:

Work with what you got, gents.

IDEA: take all the time you forum warriors spend on here and invest half of that in doing some actual roleplay.

PGI is a company of like 10-12 people. It ain't Blizzard and never will be.

I was told they have around 55 employees. close though.