544 replies to this topic

[InnerSphereNews]

Greetings, MechWarriors!

I'm very happy to announce that I have been hired by Piranha Games as a Senior Marketing and Community Manager for MechWarrior Online and MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries.

For those of you that know me, perhaps as "Bombadil", you'll know that this is my dream job. I have been a fan of BattleTech and MechWarrior since I first purchased BattleDriods in 1984. For 35 years I have immersed myself in the tabletop games, dozens of novels that I've read multiple times, and every iteration of the computer games, from Crescent Hawk to MechWarrior 5.

In late 2012, as part of No Guts No Galaxy with Phil Langenberg, I was very excited to be hired as a contractor by Piranha Games. For the next seven years I got to work as a content creator, community builder, Influencer manager, event host, and as a facilitator of communications between community members and Piranha Games. My work with the community ranged from various daily individual contacts and requests, to community-driven initiatives, town hall style meetings, and various forms of information gathering and dissemination to and from the players and the developers.

My contract ended in January of 2020, and my family and I have spent the Summer hunkered down in the Pacific Northwest. I have been staying safe, taking some online courses, and enjoying the outdoors with my family as much as possible.

When I was offered this position, a chance to come back as a fulltime Piranha Games employee, my family and I knew it was the right move. My time working with Piranha Games and the MechWarrior community have been some of the best of my life. It was certainly my favorite employment experience since I began working at age 13, when I had just discovered BattleTech and thus a need for income.

So Fall is here, and it's back to ‘mech school for me. Over the coming weeks, I'll be jumping into MechWarrior Online. I’ll be watching, listening to, and reading your opinions on MWO, and developing channels of communication and discussion with you. Together we can take a hard look at how Piranha Games can continue to improve the game, the experience, communication, and if practical, build on the resources available for continued development over the coming years.

“With the recent 5-year license extension for MechWarrior, our goal with bringing Daeron back to the to the team is to leverage his previous seven years of experience working directly with the community and Piranha Games, and to reestablish those lines of communication with the sole purpose of helping determine the future development and content for both MechWarrior Online and MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries. We’re very excited to have him on the team!” -Russ Bullock, President of Piranha Games

I'll be focusing on MechWarrior Online for now, but I'll also be playtesting the new MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries DLC, Heroes of the Inner Sphere, and slowly work that into my schedule as well.

As part of the Live Operations team under Matt Newman, our number one priority is to make the future of both MechWarrior Online and MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries as awesome as they can be. Now that I’m working from the inside, and with your direct input and influence, I'm confident we have some truly great years of single player, coop, and multiplayer MechWarrior ahead of us. As I've always said, it's a great time to be a MechWarrior!

I’m looking forward to serving you!

Your Community Manager,

Daeron "Bombadil" Katz

daeron.katz@piranhagames.com

[Matt Newman]

I remember meeting Daeron for the first time at GDC. We (Russ, Bryan, Chris and myself) were demoing an early version of MechWarrior Online to the media . Everyone immediately hit it off with Daeron and he got to sit through the demo a couple of times. You could tell how excited he was to get his hands on MWO. When I flew back to Vancouver from GDC I got to listen to him recount his experience on one of the earliest NGNGtv podcasts.


Since then I have got to share so many virtual and real-life experiences with Daeron (and Phil) through No Guts No Galaxy. With developer interview podcasts, charity live streams, tournaments and MechCons, and everything in between. Through everything, Daeron's enthusiasm for MechWarrior has never changed.


As you know we have a 5-year contract extension to support MechWarrior Online and MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries. I look forward to making the most of that extension with you, the community, and Daeron. We’re both excited to reignite development for MechWarrior Online and continue supporting MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries with the updates and content that you guys want. You can help us by spreading the word, participating, and sharing your thoughts and desires for both products as we move forward into this exciting new time for MechWarrior.
With that in mind, my next 2 immediate priorities for MWO will be:

• Designing and posting the MWO 2020 Customer Appreciation Program.
  
• Designing and posting the MWO Trick or Treat Events and Sales.

I couldn't be more excited for the future of MechWarrior.

Welcome to the team Daeron!
Matt Newman

[Ravage26]

first! (matt doesn't count!)

[Handley Page]

I expected nothing and somehow I am still mad at how nothing this is.

Amazing, thank you PGI.

[Dangit Karen]

That's nice!

New content = ?

[-P U R E-]

Heatbug?
Code optimalization?
Better textures?
Invisibile walls on maps?
New maps?
C O N T E N T?

[BanditB17]

I couldn't think of a better person to be Community Manager for MWO. Much love, Bombadil!

[Annihilator]

Congratulations Bombadil

[Handley Page]

Matt Newman, on 05 October 2020 - 11:00 AM, said:

Designing and posting the MWO 2020 Customer Appreciation Program.

Whats the point in this when there has been nothing new released for almost two years?

[Handley Page]

Lockheed_, on 05 October 2020 - 11:08 AM, said:

I bough a bunch of stuff this year, so I'm down with that!

Like going into the resturant on the Titantic after it hit the iceberg to order a nice long five course meal.

[Deathshade]

Congrats Bombadil!

Maybe we can start finally focusing the game on FP instead of QP. Piranha put their bets on QP and Solaris. All which would have been popular with a Planetary Warfare system to draw in the players.

Time for someone to revive our Battle of Tukayyid Event!

Give MWO a reason to show all these fancy faction graphics.

Edit: can u spell Tukayyid?

Edited by Deathshade, 05 October 2020 - 11:40 AM.

[Rogard]

Congratulations Daeron! Well deserved return and I am so excited that you get to continue providing your passion to the game and the community. No Gut No Galaxy without Daeron (Bombadil)!

[Brauer]

Any news on new content, updates, or bug fixes? I have to say I was hoping for more than the announcement of a new community manager given we've been in maintenance mode for over a year now.

Congratulations on your new position Daeron!

Edited by Brauer, 05 October 2020 - 11:19 AM.

[jonomy]

Good Luck! If there is anything you need in order to accomplish your tasks/goals please let us know. Many of us are riding with you.

[martian]

InnerSphereNews, on 05 October 2020 - 10:59 AM, said:

I'm very happy to announce that I have been hired by Piranha Games ...
Your Community Manager,
Daeron Katz

Would you be so kind to answer some questions?

► Do you think that the merge of Solo and Group Queues has made MWO players happy?
Especially the casual Solo players who are being fed to seasoned 4-5-man premade groups piloting optimized 'Mechs, sometimes repeatedly in a short time span?

► Do you think that serving helpless T3 Cadets to be harvested by skilled T1 players is good for the game and the retention of new players?
For your information, those Cadets often last about two or three minutes before being killed off.

► Do you think that the fact that one team fields multiple Assault-class 'Mechs while the other team has none is good for the game balance?

► What about adding some new content and no, I am not talking about offering a new 'Mechpack?

► What about the possibility of MWO switching to the subscription model?

► How do you imagine that you will keep MechWarrior Online alive, considering that the number of MWO players is falling down?

Edited by martian, 05 October 2020 - 11:31 AM.

[Matt Newman]

[Magic Pain Glove]

So this is it ? Someone got hired and once again we have a community manager ? We've had Tina for a while but having a community manager means nothing if developer and main lead are not ready to divert resources into to the game. Nothing against Daeron , but in typical PGI fashion they managed to kill the hype once again.

EDIT: Using this edit to say that this interview discussing the future of MWO / possible future titles and asking feedback from the community would have been a much better announcement. I urge people looking at this thread to watch it , its a good interview covering all topics .

Edited by Magic Pain Glove, 07 October 2020 - 02:35 AM.

[Matt Newman]

Handley Page, on 05 October 2020 - 11:08 AM, said:

Whats the point in this when there has been nothing new released for almost two years?

People have still made purchases and it is still apprecaited!

[C337Skymaster]

So Daeron says he's going to play MW5: Mercs. I'd put in the personal request that immediately before that, he should play MW2: Mercs, MW3 (because it was awesome) and MW4: Mercs, then compare and contrast those titles to MW5: Mercs, because that's exactly what the rest of the community is doing, and that's why the game seems to be coming up short. I'm sure it's an amazing game on its own (I'm waiting for the Steam release), but it's bearing the same name as those games that came before it, and from everything I'm hearing, it's failing to live up to its heritage.

As for MWO, that game needs "newness". I know my favorite times, and I'm sure everyone else's, as well, are the first two weeks after a new map or new 'mech is released. After about two to four weeks, it becomes "same-old" again, and needs something else to be "new". I know the pace of a new 'mech every month was grueling to the staff at PGI, and wasn't selling enough to be profitable, but without that, there's been nothing to really look forward to for the last couple of years, because nothing much changes, apart from things suddenly behaving differently than they used to (LRMs...)

Personally, I'd love to see some improvements to maneuverability, and have other things sacrificed in order to provide that (have reticle shake any time the 'mech is airborne, not just when jump jets are firing, then give Assaults their jump capabilities back. Even a Dire Wolf should be able to make it to the top of the platform on Crimson Strait, but shouldn't be able to aim a shot while doing so. It would add a lot of dynamics to gameplay if jump jet 'mechs could actually move around the map, and might break up some of the perpetual NASCAR that we all live with on a daily basis).

One of the things we were (apparently) promised, long before even I started playing, was a proper "campaign", where you would have to manage expenses, repairs, buy ammo, travel, take contracts, etc. As someone who owns 361 'mechs, I think I would actually have a lot more fun with this game if I were only able to afford two or three 'mechs, have to buy my ammo and pay for repairs, but be able to withdraw from a fight if it's not going my way (so I'm not forced to have my ride blown up if I'm also forced to pay the 15 million to have it fixed/replaced). If that's the case, though, then Omnimechs would also need to be a lot more flexible with their loadouts (they were supposed to be able to adapt to the battlefield once it was known, rather than being stuck in a particular configuration like Battlemechs are).

Just some thoughts.

Daeron should also play MWLL and compare and contrast that to MWO. I think there are a lot of things MWO could learn from MWLL.

Edited by C337Skymaster, 05 October 2020 - 11:32 AM.

[John Bronco]

Congrats to Daeron.

As always, content would be nice.