21 replies to this topic

[Suko]

I just saw the email in my inbox advertising PGI's latest MWO sale: "CHOOSE 10 [MECH WEIGHT] 'MECHS FOR $20 - $35"

This is great, but WAY too late. I have mentioned it many times on these forums, but I had a friend who tried out MWO for a week many years ago when MWO was still mostly new. He enjoyed the game, but didn't have the time to play it via "grinding" and wanted to plop down some cash to make things more fun/easier. But when he tried to find something to buy, he quickly realized just how expensive the game was. To get a Cataphract at the time was going to cost him $35! Even though this guy is a loaded Facebook programmer, he realized that perhaps this game was a bit too costly to play.

For years I have been advocating for a 1-time purchasable "Beginner's Pack" that was similar to this current sale. Something that beginners could spend money on to get a sampling of mechs. If they had this deal 5 years ago, perhaps my friend would've gotten hooked on MWO and spent many more dollars on the game. Instead he got frightened off at the ridiculous price points of the mechs and never spent a dime.

I honestly have no idea why PGI didn't offer something like this sooner. IMO it's too little too late.

[MechaBattler]

The Solaris pack is a pretty good starter. You get the whole range of weight classes. The C-bill bonus for each makes skilling them out quicker. Plus 30 days premium time.

[Grus]

One word.. money..

[Spheroid]

Five years ago they were under the yoke of IGP. You act like it was a conscious decision.

[Suko]

Spheroid, on 11 June 2018 - 02:49 PM, said:

Five years ago they were under the yoke of IGP. You act like it was a conscious decision.

It was SOMEONE'S conscious decision.You are right that I called out PGI and that's not fair. I am merely saying that a starter pack with multiple mechs at a reasonable price was something MWO could've used years back when new players were still a regular thing. Now this game is a lot of old vets who don't really need 10 random assault mechs at $35.

Edited by Suko, 11 June 2018 - 03:33 PM.

[Cloves]

The biggest issue with this sale is that they are mostly mechs that will only be good for this tourney or a fixed date stock tournament like it. At 4 or 5 mechs per bracket, and some empty mechbays and cbills, it starts to lose it's charm. I could see paying 35 for the assault pack, selling most and using the cbills to fill out the other bays with the good mechs on sale, but it's still 35$ for 15$ worth of bays+cbills.

[El Bandito]

Suko, on 11 June 2018 - 03:32 PM, said:

Now this game is a lot of old vets who don't really need 10 random assault mechs at $35.

I'm willing to bet that newcomers still vastly outnumber the old vets of 2012-2013.

[Akillius]

"too late"... lmfao!
5 years back was the "rule of 3" and if you were there that meant you needed to master 3 different variants of a mech just to be able to elite that type of mech, hence mech packs of 3 were what sold. And Champion mechs with their XP bonus were popular then but only for the faster mastering of unwanted mechs.

Also compared to playing farmville long term (and similar pay 2 finish building flashgames) this game is cheap.
But hey you want expensive try Entropia Universe also that old game is a true grinder where everything else pales by comparison.
No I do not recommend either game especially not PE/EU.

But irregardless of what game you play, don't spend anything unless you have the money to spend.

You don't want to financially support the game then hey fine no problem, enjoy your 4 mechbays and any free stuff from events.
WoW its not like PGI is holding your stuff hostage with some monthly subscription, And they aren't forcing anyone to buy entire Clan Wave 1 pack before letting them play the game (SC RSI), oh I know you'll say "WoT!" there's no P2W one shot ammo in MWO and no there is not, plus the days of Gold Khan are long over.
Today the drop in prices and a massive change in marketing strategy has only happen after a massive restructure (-modules / +skill tree) and the release of a competing game (HBS BT) soon after, and its an older game. All older games change marketing strategy and often drop prices or bring in reduced pricing events just to bring in some finances to simply keep the servers turned on.

Like I wrote you aren't forced to help support MWO financially and no one here will tell you otherwise because if your a good player (not some stupid stats good) but friendly no constant bitching and whining in chats then everyone will want you in game.
So simply play the free game with everyone else, and just to have fun at the end of a long work day.

[PocketYoda]

10 garbage mechs we need to spend 100mil on to make game ready.. no thanks..

[TheCaptainJZ]

It's nice to know that PGI has adapted their marketing as time goes on. The best thing they did was drop IGP and go solo. You'll notice there have been no more $500 gold mechs either. There's a reason IGP went bankrupt.

Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 12 June 2018 - 04:33 AM.

[Almond Brown]

Grus, on 11 June 2018 - 02:31 PM, said:

One word.. money..

And maybe two more words... Business... Employees... Salaries. (ok 3 words)

[JC Daxion]

heh 5 years ago there were about 10 mechs total.. I think when i started we had a grand total of 12 and that was 6+ months after it left closed beta.

El Bandito, on 11 June 2018 - 05:46 PM, said:

I'm willing to bet that newcomers still vastly outnumber the old vets of 2012-2013.

I'd put money on that, but it is no different than any other online game that i played for 5+ years.. most players don't play for 3-6 months and then move on. Heck it's not even just online games, most people can count on one hand the number of games they play longer than 5 years.. If i go back 25 years i might have 10 total that i still play on occasion or bi-annually.

Samial, on 12 June 2018 - 03:56 AM, said:

10 garbage mechs we need to spend 100mil on to make game ready.. no thanks..

I keep seeing this comment by folks, I still play tons of the mechs listed and with good success. Maybe they don't work in the top comp teams, but average group/QOP or even FW there are many mechs in this sale work and work well.

If you can't jump into QP in a victor, awesome, HBK, commando, crab, warhammer, cataphract, thunderbolt or any number of mechs you can grab in these packages and not come in the top 3 in match score.. Sorry man but its the player, not the mech.

TheCaptainJZ, on 12 June 2018 - 04:32 AM, said:

It's nice to know that PGI has adapted their marketing as time goes on. The best thing they did was drop IGP and go solo. You'll notice there have been no more $500 gold mechs either. There's a reason IGP went bankrupt.

and to be perfectly honest this makes me very sad. (not the part about the IGP split, that was a great move) But no more gold mechs make me sad. For one it was basically just double the cost of the pretty nice Clan 8 pack.. And what better what in a FTP game than to sell something that is basically completely useless, gives no advantage but something some folks with money want. It's like an expensive decal, and that is exactly what i want in FTP games, not P2W things which i think PGI has done a fairly good job at staying away from for the most part.

To me the whole outrage of gold mechs was on par with someone walking into a wine bar and getting angry they have 500 dollar bottles. I'm sure someone will say that the 500 dollar bottle is well worth it, but i'll take my nice 10-15 dollar Cabernet and enjoy just as much.


I'd love to see gold skins come back, along with silver and bronze and them use them as tournament rewards but that is a different topic.

Edited by JC Daxion, 12 June 2018 - 09:06 AM.

[Rando Slim]

I've saod it many times.....pgi never took econ 102......they never understood the concept of elasticity or talked to an economist I guarantee it. Yes, they should have done something like this many moons ago and not relied on veteran addicts. Highly elastic non-luxury goods gain proportionately larger sales increases from given percentage reductions in price. Just because a business TELLS you they are charging what the market will bear doesn't mean it's true.

For that matter the same rule applies to the in game economy. They should have cut the prices of modules in half back in the day and maybe people would have stopped bitching about it and bought more of them instead of labeling us as cheapskates....... maybe if the cost of each skill node was 25k not 45k they'd see people stop bitching about the skill tree and not leave the game over it. Only reason I put up with it is cause I had thousa d's of historic points to skip most of it. Doing it from scratch with no premium time on top of trying to buy engines and equipment is a horrendous grind. People have lives and other games to play. PGI has always acted like that math teacher in college who doesn't get or doesn't care that you've got other classes to take and friends to make and really can't afford 4-5 hours a night just on THEIR class.........then throw it back in your face like it's your fault when you raise a complaint and refuse to consider that maybe, just maybe they are being a bit inflexible..

Edited by Rando Slim, 12 June 2018 - 11:45 AM.

[NaturalBornGriller]

The sale should be a pick/choose..not "10 of one weight class"

[burns]

Mercedes simply can´t put Lada prices because they´d be compared to Lada.

Obviously MW:O thought it was a Mercedes.

TheCaptainJZ, on 12 June 2018 - 04:32 AM, said:

It's nice to know that PGI has adapted their marketing as time goes on. The best thing they did was drop IGP and go solo. You'll notice there have been no more $500 gold mechs either. There's a reason IGP went bankrupt.

You´re making it sound like PGI would´nt love cashing in on 500$ paintjobs.
Nobody in their right (business)minds would pass an opportunity like that.


Back in the closed or open beta days we´ve had discussions going about the cost of a new map, iirc about 60k bucks without post production. All in all, changing a few colors/speculars beats it on a cost/win equasion anytime.

Edited by burns, 12 June 2018 - 02:28 PM.

[PocketYoda]

JC Daxion, on 12 June 2018 - 08:52 AM, said:

heh 5 years ago there were about 10 mechs total.. I think when i started we had a grand total of 12 and that was 6+ months after it left closed beta.





I'd put money on that, but it is no different than any other online game that i played for 5+ years.. most players don't play for 3-6 months and then move on. Heck it's not even just online games, most people can count on one hand the number of games they play longer than 5 years.. If i go back 25 years i might have 10 total that i still play on occasion or bi-annually.






I keep seeing this comment by folks, I still play tons of the mechs listed and with good success. Maybe they don't work in the top comp teams, but average group/QOP or even FW there are many mechs in this sale work and work well.

If you can't jump into QP in a victor, awesome, HBK, commando, crab, warhammer, cataphract, thunderbolt or any number of mechs you can grab in these packages and not come in the top 3 in match score.. Sorry man but its the player, not the mech.






and to be perfectly honest this makes me very sad. (not the part about the IGP split, that was a great move) But no more gold mechs make me sad. For one it was basically just double the cost of the pretty nice Clan 8 pack.. And what better what in a FTP game than to sell something that is basically completely useless, gives no advantage but something some folks with money want. It's like an expensive decal, and that is exactly what i want in FTP games, not P2W things which i think PGI has done a fairly good job at staying away from for the most part.

To me the whole outrage of gold mechs was on par with someone walking into a wine bar and getting angry they have 500 dollar bottles. I'm sure someone will say that the 500 dollar bottle is well worth it, but i'll take my nice 10-15 dollar Cabernet and enjoy just as much.


I'd love to see gold skins come back, along with silver and bronze and them use them as tournament rewards but that is a different topic.

And you also keep seeing Quickplay posts about teams getting stomped and potatoes ruining quickplay.. because they are all running around in mechs like these unmodded and terrible builds because a huge number of customers either have no clue or can't afford changes..

[JC Daxion]

Samial, on 12 June 2018 - 09:09 PM, said:

And you also keep seeing Quickplay posts about teams getting stomped and potatoes ruining quickplay.. because they are all running around in mechs like these unmodded and terrible builds because a huge number of customers either have no clue or can't afford changes..

you say that like those threads just started.. People have been complaining about teams for years that half the players don't know how to play and matches where 6 players are under 100, and even 200 on the wining side.


everyone knows QP is what it is, if you wan't comp, or group play that.. But with a game this small there has to be someplace that people can learn and try things out and that is quickplay.

[Black Ivan]

Also the Mechs aren't the best. Most of them have been forgotten during the quirk passes or are medicore to bad because of hitboxes

[Xetelian]

This could have been a real deal 3-4 years ago when these mechs were relevant and worth owning.

A lot of people blame IGP for the fact that $500 got you one mech with a fancy paint job, and that it took numerous complaints for them to even include all the rest of wave 1 for that price. Proudly (sadly) you had people buying $500 gold mechs and giving $240 Masakari packs to their friends and the pricing model kinda stuck through waves 2 and 3 and resistance well after IGP was gone.

The new mechpack is still over priced, especially when you consider omni mechs you only really need one for QP and battlemechs only a couple of them are any good but you get 3 of them for $20.

Lights: $5
Mediums: $7
Heavies: $10
Assaults: $15

You'd sell a **** load more mechpacks at these prices and not scare off new customers at the same time. You can't imagine how many of my 19 friends on Steam I talked into playing MWO and they took a look at the real cash prices and went "Eh, no thanks".



Not even kidding, that is how many people I have on my Steam list that I either talked into trying it, or tried it on their own.


The Steam packs at 40% off weren't cheap but they were quite a bit better than buying two heroes at full price and colors and camo and MC and cBills. Guess what? You can't even BUY those anymore. They took them off the Steam store.

[Haipyng]

Xetelian, on 13 June 2018 - 01:44 AM, said:

A lot of people blame IGP for the fact that $500 got you one mech with a fancy paint job, and that it took numerous complaints for them to even include all the rest of wave 1 for that price. Proudly (sadly) you had people buying $500 gold mechs and giving $240 Masakari packs to their friends and the pricing model kinda stuck through waves 2 and 3 and resistance well after IGP was gone.

I saw so few of those Gold mechs and on the rare occasion one did make an appearance it was like a giant bullseye saying "gun me down" for the other team. It's been years since I have seen one.

You are absolutely correct though, their pricing scheme has been to charge a premium, even if it doesn't arise to the IGP level of silly, it's enough to make people say no thanks to buying into the game. I am not saying that you can't do the "F2P" thing, but you need alot of free time to make it work. Not all mechs are created equal either and so you can certainly waste money if you don't do a ton of research up front on what you are buying. Mistakes in the Skill Tree, or changing up a loadout that requires changing the Skill Tree are expensive as well.

Combine that with the fact that your mechs are subject to huge changes that affect the way they play and you sour people even more from spending real money on the game. My first purchase, the Highlander-HM turned sour when they nerfed it to death. Not even the long time in coming buffs helped it much and so my $20 sits in the garage gathering dust and rust. Because of that experience I rarely spend money on MWO and when I do it is cautiously and with a lot of thought.