109 replies to this topic

[BAGH33RA]

I don't work for PGI. I'm just a mediocre player who really enjoys this game.

I pre-ordered MWMercs 5.

Since Russ Bullock's announcement that PGI is now releasing MWMERCS 5 on Epic games there's been a lot of vitriol.

My take on this is:

1. PGI and Russ Bullock don't owe me anything but a good game. They can release it through whoever they want because PGI is THEIR company. People whine as if they own shares of PGI. They don't. PGI works hard, pays employees, and probably pays ridiculous taxes. In my opinion, they are already incredibly responsive, gracious and generous to the MWO community. I'm guessing many of the folks who gripe about PGI have never bought a mechpack or anything else with real money to support the company.

2. I want PGI to make good business decisions because I want them to MAKE MONEY. I want them to MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS THEY POSSIBLY CAN. If they make money, they can keep supporting this awesome revival of Mechwarrior. If they DON't MAKE MONEY, we will be back to playing mechwarrior living legends.

3. How can you help?

a. Keep your MWMERCS 5 pre-order if you already paid for it.
b. Order MWMERCS 5 if you haven't already.
c. Buy a mechpack today. I am. I'm gonna spend another $20 on a mechpack to support PGI.

Let's be grateful for a hard-working company and support them.

UPDATE: I just bought the Dervish Standard Pack for $20. A small price for a lot of fun in the mechlab and the battlefield. See you out there!

Edited by BAGH33RA, 16 August 2019 - 09:24 AM.

[Jackal Noble]

I just puked in my mouth a little.

[BAGH33RA]

Jackal Noble, on 16 August 2019 - 09:22 AM, said:

I just puked in my mouth a little.

Fill a Home Depot bucket with puke if you have to Jackal, but keep the support coming to PGI.

[Bud Crue]

BAGH33RA, on 16 August 2019 - 09:54 AM, said:

...but keep the support coming to PGI.

But why?

From my perspective the only motivation I could see for giving a company financial support is if they have a product I am interested in buying or that my support will lead to improvements in that product.

In this case we have MWO and MW5. As to MWO, Russ all but admitted it is done. I “supported” PGI when I thought MWO would be improved/developed, but that’s the past. MWO is in maintenance mode, and will have no further development beyond getting some parts of Paul’s minimal effort FP changes incorporated, occasional balance patches and perhaps one more mech pack. That is all we have to look forward to regardless of our financial support. (See Russ comments from the last developers update)

In the case of MW5, the product does not yet exist, but we all know essentially what it is intended to be and when it will be available. There is zero reason to believe that by giving additional financial support to PGI at this point that the MW5 product will be improved upon from what it presently (and presumably ) is. The whole EPIC deal, and his comments made regarding it make it even more dubious that more money from us (especially at this late hour) would translate to a better MW5 product. In any case, If that product, when it is available, turns out to be desirable, then I will consider its purchase, but not until then.

Does PGI have some other product or service available or promised that would entice one to give them money for it?

I suppose there is the vague promise of some form of MWO2, but hereto Russ has already preempted any desire I might have to throw some cash at PGI with his own words. Previously he has stated that MWO2, if such a thing were even contemplated by PGI, would depend on the license renewal with Microsoft (which he has been silent about) and it depends on the success of MW5. (See his Q&A at last years mechcon). Since both of those things are unknowns, I don’t see much reason to give PGI my support for this either.

What am I missing?

[Jackal Noble]

Bud Crue, on 16 August 2019 - 10:32 AM, said:

But why?

From my perspective the only motivation I could see for giving a company financial support is if they have a product I am interested in buying or that my support will lead to improvements in that product.

In this case we have MWO and MW5. As to MWO, Russ all but admitted it is done. I “supported” PGI when I thought MWO would be improved/developed, but that’s the past. MWO is in maintenance mode, and will have no further development beyond getting some parts of Paul’s minimal effort FP changes incorporated, occasional balance patches and perhaps one more mech pack. That is all we have to look forward to regardless of our financial support. (See Russ comments from the last developers update)

In the case of MW5, the product does not yet exist, but we all know essentially what it is intended to be and when it will be available. There is zero reason to believe that by giving additional financial support to PGI at this point that the MW5 product will be improved upon from what it presently (and presumably ) is. The whole EPIC deal, and his comments made regarding it make it even more dubious that more money from us (especially at this late hour) would translate to a better MW5 product. In any case, If that product, when it is available, turns out to be desirable, then I will consider its purchase, but not until then.

Does PGI have some other product or service available or promised that would entice one to give them money for it?

I suppose there is the vague promise of some form of MWO2, but hereto Russ has already preempted any desire I might have to throw some cash at PGI with his own words. Previously he has stated that MWO2, if such a thing were even contemplated by PGI, would depend on the license renewal with Microsoft (which he has been silent about) and it depends on the success of MW5. (See his Q&A at last years mechcon). Since both of those things are unknowns, I don’t see much reason to give PGI my support for this either.

What am I missing?

Some Grade A sarcasm. It took me a second

[Kodan Black]

BAGH33RA, on 16 August 2019 - 09:12 AM, said:

3. How can you help?

a. Keep your MWMERCS 5 pre-order if you already paid for it.
b. Order MWMERCS 5 if you haven't already.
c. Buy a mechpack today. I am. I'm gonna spend another $20 on a mechpack to support PGI.

I don't wish PGI failure or anything, hopefully things go well and they can continue to bring us games in the BT universe and some updates to MWO.

But as to your helping them:

a. MW5 doesn't interest me. I don't find myself wanting an IS based PVE game
b. see prior point
c. Russ has said the game is effectively in maintenance mode and we don't have much insight into how long it will be around. While I recognize it is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy to not spend money in fear that the lack of money causes the game to shut down that is where we are

If they did some nominal fee to keep playing in exchange for a consistent schedule of updates/new things/etc. I'd be happy to pay a few dollars a month to keep playing. Or if they had some way of convincingly saying the game had 1+ year before they would even consider shutting it down I could see getting a mech pack. But the game's very survival seems to hinge on MW5 which has had a rough time of it lately.

Edited by Kodan Black, 16 August 2019 - 10:52 AM.

[Ryllen Kriel]

PGI doesn't owe me anything but a good game? Not anymore, and I don't own them anything either. I canceled my pre-order for a variety of reasons which I am weary of stating. Why should I blindly support them when I don't agree with their business strategy and broken promises? It's true that some good and talented people work at PGI and if I'm still alive in a year I'll see If a version comes out on Steam or GoG that is patched and works well. If I play MW5 it won't be because I love PGI, it's because I enjoy the franchise. That's the very basis of running a successful business of any sort. The business has to provide a service/item that consumers need/enjoy and will exchange money for. They don't want you to love them and it's you shouldn't love them, it's a business transaction.

Edited by Ryllen Kriel, 16 August 2019 - 11:25 AM.

[PhoenixFire55]

BAGH33RA, on 16 August 2019 - 09:54 AM, said:

Fill a Home Depot bucket with puke if you have to Jackal, but keep the support coming to PGI.

Member since October 2012. First post ever. Supports PGI.

Yeeaaaah ... totally legit.

[Bombast]

I can feel the tumors in my spine growing.

BAGH33RA, on 16 August 2019 - 09:12 AM, said:

1. PGI and Russ Bullock don't owe me anything but a good game. They can release it through whoever they want because PGI is THEIR company. People whine as if they own shares of PGI. They don't.

People are stating their opinions on what they'd like PGI to do. No one is saying that the Epic release is somehow violating some cosmic law, or that PGI is obligated to do whatever their players want them to do.

Quote

PGI works hard, pays employees, and probably pays ridiculous taxes.

Why would you presume PGI pays "ridiculous taxes?" Why should that influence our decisions?

Quote

In my opinion, they are already incredibly responsive, gracious and generous to the MWO community.

Gracious? Generous? How so?

Quote

I'm guessing many of the folks who gripe about PGI have never bought a mechpack or anything else with real money to support the company.

I've spent 120 bucks on this games. How much more do I have to spend to have the right to gripe?

Quote

I want PGI to make good business decisions because I want them to MAKE MONEY. I want them to MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS THEY POSSIBLY CAN. If they make money, they can keep supporting this awesome revival of Mechwarrior. If they DON't MAKE MONEY, we will be back to playing mechwarrior living legends.

This is the same trap hundreds, if not thousands, of mechwarriors have been stuck in since even before MWO was a thing. A decade of throwing money at an IP because "It'll be big again someday, surely!"

Stop it. Pay for things that are good. Don't pay for things that are bad. No one knows which side of that MW5 will fall on, but for god sake, don't just throw money at it because you want to pay for life support.

Quote

a. Keep your MWMERCS 5 pre-order if you already paid for it.
b. Order MWMERCS 5 if you haven't already.
c. Buy a mechpack today. I am. I'm gonna spend another $20 on a mechpack to support PGI.

You're welcome to do as you please, but chucking money at a company because they have an IP you loved as a kid is not great advice to give. This is how we got Batman vs. Superman and Solo, people.

Quote

Let's be grateful for a hard-working company and support them.

No.

Edited by Bombast, 16 August 2019 - 11:42 AM.

[MechaBattler]

The people working at PGI do work hard. The people in charge of PGI...well the less said the better.

But people shouldn't pre-order if they don't agree with the change or in particular with how Epic does business. PGI shouldn't have taken orders if they hadn't worked out how they were going to distribute first. Granted it sounds like they were out of funding with MWO drying up. So maybe that's why they started pre-orders when they did. Certainly the cash infusion from Epic will buy them advertising they wouldnt' otherwise have. But at the end of the day everyone has to make the decision that is best for them. Not necessarily what's best for PGI's bottom line.

[Toothless]

No.

[Willard Phule]

Back to playing MWLL? MWLL is far better than MWO, it's just not as easy.

[JediPanther]

BAGH33RA, on 16 August 2019 - 09:12 AM, said:

I don't work for PGI. I'm just a mediocre player who really enjoys this game.

I pre-ordered MWMercs 5.

Since Russ Bullock's announcement that PGI is now releasing MWMERCS 5 on Epic games there's been a lot of vitriol.

I'm guessing many of the folks who gripe about PGI have never bought a mechpack or anything else with real money to support the company.

2. Money....

1. I have almost every hero light mech as well as TOP TIER FOUNDER and SECOND TIER Phoenix. The very first themed mech pack.

2. Every business's main goal is to make a profit. To do that they must sell some thing to the consumer that the consumer finds value in. for a while it was unique mech heroes and the promise of a great cw.

BUT as a business with russ and paul inparticularly, they've told us thigs,promised others,never meet dead lines with lines like "in 90 days", straight up told their current customers/would-be consumers that "they are not the target demographic." or "you're on an island."

Their method of communicating to their potential customers is horrible plain and simple. Name another company where your feedback is totally ignored,invalidated and forgotten or you have to twitter the ceo to get any information at all. I suggest you read the forum and go back a few pages or youtube things like long tom,un-funning of mwo or the uproar over 3pv.

IF pgi wants me to spend money on their product they must deliver a product of QUALITY and give me sufficient information on why I would want that product.

[Sigmar Sich]

Stockholm syndrome spotted.

[Alexandra Hekmatyar]

Oh boy.

[Felbombling]

I personally got a refund for a few reasons...

1. The pre-orders are about 20% what MWO got. Back in 2012, most people who have enjoyed the franchise would have sold their Grandmother to get access to Mercenaries. That tells me that PGI have so p!ssed off the Founders and MechWarrior fans in general that they cannot rely on their support any longer.

2. I don't like what I've read about Epic as far as security concerns go, so I'm willing to wait a year for another platform.

3. I'm not 100% convinced that PGI can provide a good product as to AI and story, so I had doubts when I made the initial purchase, anyway.

4. The evidence strongly suggests that Russ knew that Epic would be involved while, at the same time, attempting to garner pre-orders on the promise of Steam involvement and mod support. How the [expletive deleted] can you respect a move of that nature?

In the end, if the game does well I'll be happy for the franchise overall, but I don't think the owner of PGI deserves much credit.

[Armored Yokai]

Just as long as you don't love harmony gold or worship Stefan Amris and his teachings.

[Alienized]

Armored Yokai, on 16 August 2019 - 01:52 PM, said:

Just as long as you don't love harmony gold or worship Stefan Amris and his teachings.

may the peace of Blake be with you.

[Bombast]

Alienized, on 16 August 2019 - 02:22 PM, said:

may the peace of Blake be with you.

[PurplePuke]

BAGH33RA, on 16 August 2019 - 09:12 AM, said:

I don't work for PGI. I'm just a mediocre player who really enjoys this game.

<snip>

That's a nice try Bagheera, but the forums are dominated by a sense of entitled whining. You're wasting your breath.

If the game is good, people will buy it and PGI will be successful. Almost nobody cares if it's on Epic or wherever else.

P. Puke