If MWO wishes to retain many new players quickly:
Here's the rationale for MWO to consider for new payer retention: The lack of an easily accessible 4-mechbays for newcomers is yet unnecessary obstacle to surmount. 4-mechbay stable is minimum for newcomers to get a feel for MWO (4 mechbays, one for each weight class Light/Medium/Heavy/Assault.
In fact, there should be a "newcomer banner" when starting the MWO game, specifically to let newcomers know that they can get up to total of 3 new mechbays by achieving PSR Tiers 3/2/1. Again, once per account. Perhaps through the "Achievements" mechanism as another poster had already suggested.
IMHO, the MWO grinding curve is far too steep for casual new players.
Many if not most casual players would drop out of MWO before they grind/achieve this minimum benchmark of 4-mechbay stable of mechs.
Should newcomers then decide stay around after achieving this minimum benchmark of 4-mechbay stable of mechs, they may well be tempted to buy some MC to buy more mechbays, and grind for even more mechs.
There are other steep obstacles to MWO newcomers besides this 4-mechbay stable issue, which are also being discussed elsewhere in this Daeron #3 thread.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Rhetorical questions:
Q1: How many mechbays does MWO newcomers get when they start off?
And newcomers typically
do not see any way of getting new mechbays without paying for MC.
In short, they see no hope of getting a 4-mechbay stable of mechs without paying.
(I myself only found out about "free" mechbays from Faction Play
after two months of playing MWO, and heavily browsing MWO Forums. Sorry, from my personal "newcomer" experience, most newcomers simply won't know about Faction Play "free" mechbays).
Q2: Can newcomers participate in Faction Play (FP) quickly?
They might mistakenly think they need 4 mechbays of their "own mech to play!
I thought that also not enough mechbays, no FP. A chicken-and-egg dilemma.
Not enough mechbays = cannot grind for "free" FP mechbays.
There was no explanation anywhere that you get a free "Dropdeck" for FP.
(No explanation, get the drift?)
Q3: Would newcomers after achieving a 4-mechbay stable of mechs be more likely to stay around in MWO, and perhaps even pay for more mechbays with MC?
Yes! I would like to think so.
Q4: Would this above proposal help in MWO new player retention?
A: Yes! Hence the rationale for MWO to consider, as above.
Q5: What are you to know about this new player retention business?
A: I'm a new player in MWO, so I'm giving my opinion as an avid MWO newcomer's point of view.
(Only started seriously playing since July 2020, right after the PSR reset.)
Monkey Lover, on 21 November 2020 - 03:39 PM, said:
They tried to do this in faction play. They kept giving more and more stuff away but it never worked. If the game was good , new players would spend a few bucks and buy a dozen mech bays.
Please understand I wouldn't care if they did do this but the "reward to play" system doesnt work in the long run.
w0qj, on 20 November 2020 - 07:41 PM, said:
1. How about for newcomers, they get a free mechbay when they reach:
(Assuming that newcomers start at PSR 4.5 as MWO/Daeron suggested):
~Achieve PSR Tier 3: earn one (1) free mechbay, max once per account
~Achieve PSR Tier 2: earn one (1) free mechbay, max once per account
~Achieve PSR Tier 1: earn one (1) free mechbay, max once per account
They get a big fat carrot dangling in front of them, motivate them to stick around and actually learn how to improve gameplay!
2. OK, before everyone else gets upset: may I suggest that everyone else also get above (1) bonus above!
Edited by w0qj, 22 November 2020 - 04:16 AM.